Part 3:
After the embarrassment from that evening he had a fitful sleep. The the impishness of her behaviour and had left him confused, sad, angry. He wasn't sure what he was feeling. He felt this lump in his throat that he just couldn't swallow. He had tossed and turned and when he looked at the clock for the umpteenth time it was just 4:30 in the morning. He put on his sweats 2 hours earlier than usual. He stepped into the chilly air of New Delhi. He could barely make 5kms of his usual 10 km run. His body felt weak and his legs of lead. He walked most of his way back home. The rest of the morning routine was a drag. He wished he didn't have to go into the office and face her. His potential business partners were flying in from Chile and he was really wanted to break into the Latin American Market.
He showered and decided he was going to dress his best, thought that would atleast make him look better that he felt. He put on his crisp white Thomas Pink Shirt, an aqua Hermes tie, black wool 2 button Armani suit no waistcoat and lace Gucci shoes. He splashed on some Givenchy and walked down to join the others at breakfast. But breakfast wasn't ready and the others were just rising from their deep slumbers. How he envied their simple lives and sleepy eyes. It was like an audience sitting around the living room just making morning small talk and then they all took a double take at him. He looked incredibly sharp. All came to normalcy when Arnav glared and growled "WHAT are you looking at?" He told them he was off to work. 7 am - Nobody said anything otherwise, then all knew to stay clear of him when he was like 'this'.
He reached the office and got right to work. He buried himself in reports and presentations. It was about 8:45 when the staff started to trickle in. The Chileans were expected at 10 am and it was a full day with presentations, working lunches, meetings and site visits.At 9:30 Khushi dropped by to say that, all the arrangements were ready for the visitors and one of the Chilean was only going to be joining them from lunch on. She was extra chirpy today. He could not bring to look at her and just said a low "Okay". So she took her time checking him out. His jaw line, his flared nostril, those eyes..it was nice to just look at him and not having him look back at her. He looked simply dashing. She thoguht "It was like when God made Arnav and dressed him like this.. God was showing off one of his finest creations." He looked extra handsome today...and his vulnerability and her new found empowerment made her blush.
The meetings were on the way and thing were going great. Khushi was mingling being her sweet self was fluttering around making all the visitors comfortable. At at 1:00 pm a stunning brunette, Sylvia Franco with cobalt blue eyes, voluptuous figure and bronze tone walked in. The receptionist led her to the board room where lunch was being served. She walked in and was greeted warmly by her colleagues. She was lovely and charming and funny. Arnav introduced himself and Sylvia made a sly and flirtatious remark. As lunch progressed, Sylvia stayed by Arnav and was flapping his arm and joking with him. Arnav was laughing back and was being polite. He unconsciously searched the room for Khushi, and there were those dark eyes glaring back at him. He looked away and then a thought flew threw his head "Why does she look so mad...I should be mad"..another silly tug on his tie by Sylvia, another look, another thought "Is this jealousy I see in her eyes?...hmmm I have to test this hypothesis". He quite smoothly taps Sylvia on the arm and laughs a little animatedly. He gets another look "I am going to kill you look". She was seething. This was working...she was jealous that her Arnav was responding to this this arrrggghhh. She was screaming in her head "How dare you and right it front of me...no shame". He was smiling...it wasn't any smile, it was a 'Two can play this game baby' smile.
His day was turning out way better than he had imagined.
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