Chapter 15: Preparations

Arnav groaned feeling the sunlight hit him, disturbing his sleep. He shifted and removed the comforter from himself, and slowly sat up. Glancing over at the clock he read that it was 9, he had already slept through his morning jog, so he decided to get up and go down for breakfast. After half an hour he was walking down the stairs to join the family as they were already seated in the dining room.

“Good morning,” he said to them and they replied the same also. Arnav took the seat next to Akash and started eating his toast. The family started with their normal conversations talking about what they were going to be doing throughout the day.

“Chotte don’t forget you have to meet the wedding planners at 4 today,” Anjali told him, “At the Taj Hotel."

"Why do we need to see wedding planners?" he asked taking a sip from his glass of orange juice.

"Since you're busy with work and none of us are professional wedding planners then you need to go see them," she retorted, "And also take Khushi with you, she doesn't know but call her and let her know," she added.

"And your only getting married once, so better make it the best and have professional plan it," Akash said laughing but his laughter subsided after earning a glare from him. Arnav was about to say something back but his phone rang before he could, it was Aman.

"Excuse me," he said getting up and left for his room.

"Haan Aman," he answered into the phone.

"Arnav I've sent you all the background of him via email," Aman said from the other side.

"Thanks, I'll check it now," he told him walking into his room. He turned off the phone and opened up the laptop to check his email.

His thoughts went to last night when he had seen Shyam again. At first he had though nothing of it but once he had found out that Khushi was supposed to marry him then it interested him more. Then later at the party he had seen the interaction between them as she was carrying her food back to the table and Shyam had come to help her, and that made wonder if something was off. After that Khushi had sat down he joined her acting as if he hadn't seen her and Shyam talking. But he hadn't asked her anything then, it would be better if they sat down at a different time other than their engagement and have this conversation. Before Aman had left last night, he had asked him to look into Shyam Manohar Jha and get all the information he could about it.

Opening up the the email, he read through it. Just the basic stuff, name, parents, siblings, family. He had attended the same university as Khushi, Arnav read through. Maybe that's how they met he thought. After college he had joined his fathers business to help him out, there weren't any criminal records or anything that stood out. This man was all clear and nothing bad was found from what he read, he'd have to talk with Khushi about it sometime.

Remembering Khushi he decided to call her. Picking up his phone he dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.

"Hello," he heard her voice from the other side.

"Hi Khushi it's Arnav," he said.

"I know that, I read your name on the caller ID," she replied trying not to laugh a bit.

Arnav ran his hand through his head and closed his eyes, why was he making a fool of himself.

"Um yes you probably did...," he said awkwardly.

"So....?" she asked after he hadn't spoken for sometime.

"Are you free today?" he asked.

"I am," she said but then asked, "Why?"

"Woh we have to meet some wedding planners today, Di has set up an appointment with them for us," he told her.

"What time?" she questioned.

"At 4, I'll pick you up at quarter till just be ready," Arnav said.

"That's fine, I'll see you then," she said, "Bye."

Arnav hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed and decided to get some work done until then, while on the other side Khushi ended the call and went back to cleaning up.

"Who was it?" her mother asked.

"Arnav, he said we have to go meet the wedding planners at 4 so he'd come by and pick me up," she answered.

"Are you going to talk him about it?" she asked.

"I don't know Mom," she said unsure of what to do. At the engagement last night her parents had seen Shyam and had asked her about when they got home. She had told them that Arnav knew about it and the past relationship, but he had acted very quiet the rest of the night. Her father had offered that she talk to him about her past properly, so that there wasn't anything hidden between them. But Khushi was still unsure of how to do that and how to approach him about it.

"Khushi it's best if you talk about it because there is a chance that it's troubling him also and he wants to talk to you. It will be better than giving him the thought of doubt," Garima said placing a hand on her shoulder reassuring her to which she nodded.

*********

At twenty till Arnav parked his car outside her house, he was here a few minutes early and thought to wait in the car for a bit. But to his surprise he saw the door open and Khushi step out, she closed the door behind her and headed towards his car. She must've seen him through the window, he thought. As she approached the car he unlocked it so she could enter, she was wearing a knee length white dress, with a belt around the waist. Her hair was left open and the curls bounced as she walked.

"Hey," he said while she sat in.

"Hi, how was your day?" she asked settling down and turned towards him.

"Great, just did some work," he replied starting the car and getting on the road.

"You work on Sundays also?" she questioned.

"Yeah, is there anything wrong in that?" he asked sounding offended.

"No I ... I was just..." she started off nervous thinking that she had made him mad but before she could even manage to complete her sentence she heard him laughing. This was the first time she was seeing him laugh, his eyes crinkled at the corners and and his smile spread across his face, "I was just messing with you," he said looking back at her, "I'm just trying to wrap things up so I can be free the final two or three weeks of the wedding.

"But how was your day?" he asked.

"Oh well I woke up and went to the park with Lavanya this morning, then I came home and had breakfast. Them I helped clean up the house, and then I started this new painting, but I'm still very iffy about it. After that Payal and I had ....," he heard her rattle off and give him a synopsis of her day from start to now, he could get used to this he thought. Throughout the drive she continued to talk and he would just nod or add a comment here and there, talking seemed like something she could do non stop. If they hadn't reached the restaurant he was pretty sure she would've continued her chattering. Arnav smiled getting out of the car and went over to her side to open the door for her.

Since it was Sunday there were a lot of people out and about doing there stuff, Arnav held her hand to not keep her behind and led them inside. Once inside, Arnav went to the receptionist and told her his name and that he was here to meet someone, she in response told him that there was someone inside who was waiting for them in the cafe at table 8. He thanked her and went towards the cafe with Khushi. As they went to the table the person sitting there stood up, "You must be Arnav Singh Raizada,” she said extending her hand to shake, “I”m Sonia Rai,” and then she turned towards Khushi, “And you must be Mrs. Raizada to be.”

Khushi nodded and extended her hand, “Please call me Khushi.” Sonia smiled and asked them to take a seat. She started by talking a bit about her company and all that they do, then went on asking them about what kind of wedding they wanted. Since it was the first meeting, she handed them a booklet containing the themes, color choices, ideas and designs that they could choose from for the wedding and reception and the other events before that. Sonia went through and briefed about them to her, she said she’d leave it behind for them and they could decide for a few days and look through then give her a call when they were ready. After an hour she left leaving behind her number for them and they were left alone.

Arnav watched her flip through the book, she moved her eyebrows up in disgust when she saw something that she didn’t like and her eyes glisten when she liked something. He wasn’t big on this whole design thing, so she could decide however she wanted mostly and he’d be happy with it.

“Arnav?” she asked flipping through it.

“Kya? (What?)” he replied and she looked up from the book, “Woh… I don’t want this to be too big and have a lot of people, just family and friends.”

“That’s fine with me,” he said and infact that was what he wanted also, he didn’t want for the media to be involved in any of this and keep it a private event, if that was even possible.

“Don’t you want to look through it?” she asked moving it towards him and he shook his head, “I’ll look through it later.” Khushi closed the book and turned towards him thinking this was a good time to talk with him, “I … I ..wanted to talk to yo...u about .. something,” she said.

“About?” he asked.

“About Shyam,” she replied.

Chapter 14: Engagement

Khushi looked around the room as she mentally cursed herself. Why did she have to say that now? She could've told Arnav later about Shyam, but she had to open her stupid mouth. After what she had said, Khushi had seen Arnav's face drop and he had quickly excused himself saying that he needed to go talk to someone. Not wanting to be left alone with Shyam, Khushi had excused her also with the excuse of needing to go to the restroom.

And now she had taken the place near the window as a way to seclude herself and not wanting to get involved in any conversation. She watched as Naniji conversed in a conversation with her mother while surrounded by some other women also; Mami was socializing with some of her friends, dressed in full on bright colors. Khushi chuckled to herself, what a character she was. Payal was being introduced to some family friends by Akash, and Di and Aditya were talking to some of the servants, but where was he? She hadn't been able to spot him and was wondering where he had disappeared off to.

She was about to head upstairs and see if he was there, but before she could even take a few steps forward a weight from behind was thrown on her and she heard a loud, "Khushi!!!"

Turning around from the unexpected hug, she saw Lavanya standing there with a bright smile, and NK right behind.

"Looking good," Lavanya said looking at her outfit.

"Thanks," she replied, "When did you get here?"

"About half an hour ago, but we couldn't find you," NK replied.

"Well I'm glad you both could make it," Khushi said.

"Of course we came, did you really think that we would miss it?" Lavanya added, "And now you have to introduce me to that fiancé of yours."

"I'm not sure where we he went," she said looking around.

"What do you mean you don't know where he went? It's your engagement and your supposed to be with him," she told her.

"I'll tell you what happened later," Khushi said.

"Hmm well th--," Lavanya was about to say but another voice joined the conversation, "Could you excuse us for a moment," he said.

******

Arnav was broken out of his thoughts when Anjali called him, "Chotte where's Khushiji? We should start the engagement ceremony."

"Uh yeah, I'll go get her," he said and turned back around to find her. After excusing himself earlier, he tried to get it out of his thoughts but couldn't. It was her past so it shouldn't matter to him, she had never questioned him about his past yet, even though she probably has heard rumors about it. It wasn't something that they had talked about or held a conversation over, but they would probably need to clear the air soon. But he shouldn't be quick to judge her based off of it and her relationship with Shyam. Although the fact that he was the one who left her on the day of the wedding did anger him. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, they would need to talk about this, the sooner the better.

But now he'd have to find her first before Di asked again, he scanned the room but couldn't find her. Arnav went up to Payal and Akash asking them if they knew but they claimed that hadn't seen her.

"Hariprakash!" he called out as the servant walked by holding a plate of some food that needed to be served.

"Ji Sir," he replied.

"Have you seen Khushi?" he asked.

"A few minutes ago I saw her by the window that's near the back," he answered. After saying a quick thanks he left to go her her. And just like Hariprakash had said, she was standing near it, talking with a someone about the same age as her. He took steps closer to them and recognized the man as the one he had met at the art gallery last week. So that must be the other friend of hers that she had mentioned a few times.

"Could you excuse us for a moment," he interrupted their conversation after having spent a few minutes not knowing how to join it so he thought this was the best way. Arnav was now standing next to Khushi, after he had made his presence heard, she had turned to look up towards him.

"Di says that we should start the ceremony," he told her. Khushi didn't say anything and just nodded but she noticed that he hadn't made any movement to move and instead was eyeing her friends. Oh yes, an introduction between them was needed.

"Arnav this is Lavanya, my friend, and then NK who you met last week," Khushi said motioning to them, "And Lavanya this is Arnav."

"Nice to finally meet you," Lavanya said extending her hand and shook it with this, "I've heard a lot about you," she added while looking at Khushi with a grin. Khushi on the other hand just widened her eyes not knowing what her friend was going to say. Of course count on Lavanya to do something like this, and her stare was replied by a wink from Lavanya. However this exchange didn't go unified by Arnav who was watching them keenly, "Well I hope it was good things that you've heard about me," he added.

"Depends on who the source it was that I got it from," she replied jokingly, but Arnav's expression didn't show that he took it that way, instead Khushi saw his jaws tighten a bit.

"Shall we?" he asked Khushi after a few seconds of not knowing how to reply.

"I'll see you both around later," Khushi said as they both left from there. Arnav wrapped one hand around her waist as he moved them through the crowd and towards the stage that was setup.

"Don't take what she says seriously, Lavanya jokes around a lot," Khushi told him as they walked.

“It’s fine,” he said, “But Khushi I need to ta-”

“Oh there you both are!” a voice interrupted him and gazed up to see his sister walking towards them, “Nani has been waiting for you both,” she said and motioned towards where the small stage was set up, Nani was standing there, along with Akash and Payal to one side of her. Arnav nodded at his sister and went towards the front, with Khushi still by his side. He stepped up on the stage, then offered a hand to Khushi to help her up also.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here on this….” Nani started but Arnav had toned out of it all and had other things running through his mind. He felt Khushi’s hand wrap around his arm as she moved closer to him while listening to Nani. Nani brought forward a tray, taking the rings out she gave one to Arnav and one two Khushi. As he was the elder grandson, it was his turn first.

Arnav extended his hand forward, and a somewhat shaky Khushi slid the ring on his finger and looked up at him with a slight smile smile on her face. He took her hand and held it with his right, then with the other slid on the on the ring onto her ring finger, to which Khushi's smile broadened and and the crowd erupted with applause. Then Akash and Payal exchanged rings, and Devyani closed off to the guests telling them to enjoy the rest if the evening.

Arnav helped her down and moved them through the crowd, introducing her to the folks as they congratulated the couple.

"Did you have anything to eat?" he asked leaning over her to which she shook her head, "Let's go."

They went over the the serving table and got their food, "You go sit down, and I'll bring the drinks. What do you want?"

"Just water," she replied and he went to get it. Khushi went over to the tables but was interrupted in her walking as someone came up to her.

"Khushi, nice to run into you, " Shyam said with a sweet smiled looked down at her, "Do you need any help?" he asked, "I'll carry your food for you," and offered.

"No, I got it," she said curtly and tried to move around him but he didn't allow her to.

"I'm just offering," he said stepping closer.

"I said I don't need your help," she said a little louder now attracting the attention of some around them, "And if you'll excuse me I would like to eat."

"Well then why don't you join me," he said.

"Thanks for the offer but my fiancé should be coming here any moment, and we were going to eat with some of our friends," Khushi said.

"As you wish," Shyam told her and moved aside to let her go. However this exchange hadn't gone unnoticed by a figure who was standing a few feet away.

Chapter 13: Make a Move

I just landed a few minutes ago, I’ll call you later.

Khushi read the message on her phone.

“Who is it?” Lavanya asked seeing her look at her phone. She came with the bowl of popcorn and took the seat that was next to her on the sofa.

“Arnav, he said he just landed and will call later,” she replied.

“Hmm,” Lavanya said stuffing her mouth with the popcorn, then offered some to Khushi who grabbed a handful also, “So you never told me how this all happened though.”

“What happened?” Khushi asked. Lavanya grabbed the remote and started scanning through the channels, “Oh for God’s sake Khushi, don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Your wedding obviously!”

“My wedding hasn’t happened yet,” Khushi said.

“Yeah, but it will in some weeks.” she said and fixed the tv to a channel that had a movie going on, “Ohh and let’s watch this film, I haven’t seen it in a long time,” she then turned back to Khushi, “So tell me how it all happened. I can’t believe it, my best friend getting married to one of the biggest bachelors in the country. Who would’ve ever thought?”

Khushi narrated to her the story of how Arnav and his family had come over and all the misunderstandings that had originally happened.

“So he’s pretty serious about this then,” Lavanya added.

“La it’s marriage, so obviously he will be serious about this,” Khushi added.

“That’s true, marriage is a big commitment,” she said, “So do you love him?”

“Love?! La you know what happened last time. I thought I was falling in love with him, but maybe that was just because of the situations we were in at that time. And now I don’t want for that to happen again. We’ve only known each other from some time, and yes I do like Arnav, and he’s trying hard to make this work. But I don’t think love has made its way into the relationship this early, well for me at least it hasn’t.”

“I didn’t mean to bring the past up,” she replied.

“I know you didn’t,” Khushi said turning back to the movie.

After some time of silence Lavanya asked her, “So have you both kissed yet?”

“La you’ll never change!” Khushi answered back chucking one of the side pillows at her as Lavanya went to get more popcorn.

“So is that a yes or no?” Lavanya teased her with a full grin on her face while putting on her slippers.

“No!” she replied and curtly turned away from Lavanya pretending to be watching the movie.

“Khushi you’re getting married to such a handsome business, atl east make a move!” Lavanya yelled from the kitchen and Khushi’s thoughts went back to some hours ago.

********

Khushi didn’t have any time to respond verbally as he lifted her up and ran through the rain to where the car was parked, so she held onto his shoulders by instinct. There weren’t many people out so that was good, but the ones that were nearby just smiled. Once reaching the car, he put her down.

“What was that?!” she asked.

“What?” he asked.

“You can’t just pick me up like that,” she replied.

“And why can’t I?” he asked again.

“Because you can’t! We could’ve waited, or you could’ve just gone,” she answered back.

“I can if I want to and no one will stop me. And I wasn’t just going to leave you there in this kind of weather,” he replied opening the car door and motioned her to get in it. Arnav went to the other side and got in also then pulled out of the parking lot. A few minutes later she hadn’t spoken anything and he looked over at her to see her looking out the window.

“...Are you mad?” he asked.

“Does it matter?” she answered still not looking towards him. Arnav contemplated her reply, it shouldn’t matter at all, but at the same time it did matter to him. He didn’t expect for the date to end like this and on top of that he didn’t want to leave her in a foul mood and come back for the engagement in a few days then act like as if nothing happened. But he wasn’t the kind that would apologize for his behavior, he never had done in the past and he wasn’t going to change that now.

**********

-- Three days later—

Arnav walked into his room and threw his bag in the corner. He was supposed to arrive yesterday, but do to some error of the plan his stay had got extended and it took longer. Di and Nani had bombarded him with calls over this spam of time, telling him that he better be there in time for the engagement. And now when he had come home, he saw that all the preparations had been done, and Di had told him to quickly go get ready and come down as he was already late

After taking a shower and changing, Arnav headed down. While walking down the stairs Arnav was clasping on his watch and didn’t notice when he bumped into another figure, who happened to be going up. On instinct his hands went forward and he caught the figure from the waist, dropping his watch in the process, which landed with a shatter as it made its way down the flight of stairs.

Khushi was going up the stairs as Di had asked her to call down Arnav, but being too engrossed into looking at the ground she had bumped into someone; and closed her eyes in anticipation of falling back but it never came. Instead she had felt another pair of arms engulf her and she slowly opened her eyes to see who it was. Her eyes were met with a pair of brown ones that were looking down at her.

Realizing the position they were in, Khushi moved out of his hold created some distance between them.

“Tum teek ho?” he asked and she nodded, not giving a verbal response.

“Di said to call you to come down,” she added adjusting her dupatta.

“Let’s go then,” he replied and led her down also. Once reaching the bottom she saw some small pieces of shattered glass and she gasped bringing her hands to her mouth, “I broke your watch,” she exclaimed.

“It’s fine Khushi,” he told her.

“It must’ve been so expensive,” she added.

“I have many more, just don’t step on the glass. I’ll get one of the servants to come clean it up before someone hers hurt,” Arnav said moving her around and away from the glass.

The engagement was supposed to be a small affair, with only close friends and family invited, and some business partners of the Raizada’s. Arnav had asked for Aman to keep the media strictly away, he didn’t want any specific details to go out or it become a problem later. Especially keep Khushi and her family’s name out of it all, he didn’t want for the media to get involved in their business and trouble them. A public statement was going to be made by him about his engagement tomorrow, but he didn’t want any pictures or anything printed that would allow for Khushi to also become a target to the media.

As the party progressed, Arnav introduced her to many of his business people. Khushi wasn’t used to going to these kinds of parties in the past, so she didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t know anyone other than her family and his, also everyone we engrossed in conversations with one another, and she didn’t know how add as they were talking about business.

“Khushi this is Aman,” Arnav told her as they were approached by a couple, “And this is his wife Piya.” Both of them looked like they were in their mid or late 20s. The man was wearing a suit, his hair a bit curly and a pair of glasses framed his eyes. The woman had on a lime green anarkali, and her hair was curled, ending just a few inches past her shoulders.

As they talked, Khushi realized that she loved their nature. They both seemed very sweet, and by the way that Arnav and Aman conversed, it seemed that they have known each other for quite some time. While she was still talking to Piya, someone called Arnav’s name and he turned around. Khushi felt as if she knew that voice and turned around also, excusing herself from Piya. But her view of the person was covered by Arnav.

“Nice to see that you could make it on such a late notice,” she heard Arnav’s voice as he talked to the guest.

“It’s a pleasure to have come,” the other voice replied.

As Arnav turned towards her she was able to see who it was, “This is Khushi,” he said  introducing them, “Khushi this is Shyam Manohar Jha, we’ve just recently started working with them a few weeks back,” looking at her but saw the the smile she had been wearing on her face from the beginning of the party and disappeared.

“We’ve met before,” he heard Shyam add. Arnav remembered the Shyam had told him about where he had attended college, and it was the same one Khushi had gone to, but before he could ask them about this he heard Khushi’s voice as she added, “We were supposed to get married.”

Chapter 12: A Shower of Rain

Khushi walked into the house after the servant had let her in. The house was filled with complete silence, she assumed that most of the family was probably out. The servant told her that Arnav was in his room, so she made her way towards the stairs. Khushi noticed that it now had railings, she smiled to herself as she went upstairs, she would have to thank him for this. And also for a lot of other things he had done for her.

She knocked in his door and heard a 'come in' from the other side and turned the knob to enter.

She walked in and saw that his back was turned towards her, he was removing something from his wardrobe. There was a suitcase layer open on his bed, and he turned around to put something in it.

"Hey," he said in a husky voice once he saw her, and she broke out of her reverie of staring at him.

"Hi," Khushi replied.

Arnav had been running late because the meeting in the morning had took longer than expected. And of course he had forgotten to pack for the trip and told Khushi that he would be late, but she said she'd come straight here and then they could leave from here.

He zipped up the suitcase and checked around the room for last minute things, picking up his keys from the nightstand he walked towards her. And he noticed what she was wearing for the first time since she entered.

"You're not wearing a dress today," he said looking at her.

"You don't like it?" Khushi asked looking at what she was wearing today. She had decided to wear a pair of black skinny jeans with a red top.

"No," he said walking towards her and she diverted her eyes away from him,, "Red is my favorite color," he stopped and stood right in front of her. She looked up at him and noticed he had a slight smirk playing on his lips.

"Aur tumhari naak bhi laal ho gaye hai," Arnav added flicking her nose. Khushi's eyes widened a bit at his actions and she saw him leaning towards her.

She turned her head to the side and he smiled. He grabbed around her to the door that had closed, "Chalein? (Shall we go?)" he whispered into her ear.

********

Arnav sipped his black coffee and blacked the mug in front of him as he watched her continue to talk. They had come to this coffee shop an hour ago and she had started talking right away. In the past, he had never done this with other women that he'd dated. Well if you would count it dating, because a lot of them were just relationships for benefits of their business or just physical.

Not had he ever sat down like this and held such a long conversation with someone. He had always found it difficult to hold up and continue a conversation. Formal conversations about business didn't bother him, but at times like this one he always ran out of stuff to say. But with Khushi, he didn't have to worry about that. Ever since they had ordered, she had started talking, and hasn't stopped since then. Occasionally she would ask him something and he would just smile and nod, then she'd continue. But he didn't mind this at all, and was rather enjoying it.

“Do you come here often?” she asked looking around the coffee shop.

“Not really, but occasionally Aman schedules a meetup with some business partners here,” Arnav said picking up his cup to take another sip of his coffee.

“Aman?” she enquired.

“He’s been my PA ever since I started the business, and he’ll be coming to New York also,” he replied and he got a confused expression from her, “There was a change of plans and stuff, now Akash will be handling the AR branch here, and then Aman, along with his wife will be accompanying us to New York.”

“He’s coming to the engagement on Saturday, I’ll introduce you to him,” he added finishing his coffee.

"Do you want anything more?" he asked looking at her empty cup also.

"No, I'm done," she said, "what time is your flight?"

"It leaves in 3 hours, but I have to be there two hours early," he replied.

"Hmm," she said and nodded, "we should get going then."

As they stepped out of the shop, she continued her chattering and asked more about him. While walking on the sidewalk, Khushi felt some wetness against her skin. She ignored it thinking it was nothing, but a few seconds it fell harder. Looking up they saw that it had started sprinkling and in just a few moments turned into rain.

“We won’t be able to make it to the car if it stays like this,” Arnav told her; he quickly took her hand and led them to a canopy on one of the stores before either of them got wet.

People were rushing through the streets trying to get out of the rain, some now had umbrellas to keep themselves dry. The rain didn’t seem like it was going to stop in a few minutes, so they’d have to wait some time for it. The breeze had picked up and it was getting windy.

Arnav looked at the time on his watch, hoping that the rain would decrease quickly so he would have enough time to drop of Khushi and get to the airport on time.

He looked at her and saw that she had taken a seat on one of the outside chairs and was looking around while biting her lip, which he had seen over the past week she did without knowing she was doing it. And it wasn’t helping in his urge to want to just grab her and kiss her senseless, but he didn’t want to rush her into anything. She needed her space to get used to it, to them, and he wanted to give that space to her. Then is if on cue she turned to look towards him, she moved her eyes up asking him what he was thinking about.

Khushi got up and approached him, “The rain doesn’t seem like it will stop, and it’s just pouring down more and more. It’ll be hard for me to get to the car with this kind of weather, and you need to catch your flight on time, so maybe you should just leave and when it clears up I’ll take a rickshaw home.”

“Khushi I already told you that you aren’t taking the rickshaw again, ever,” Arnav gritted through his teeth. Why was she so hell bent on risking her life?

Khushi then remembered to how when they were in the car ride to the coffee shop earlier he had asked how she got to his house since there wasn’t anyone else that came. Khushi had replied that she had taken the rickshaw, and in that moment she had seen anger rise within him. He had completely called her out for it and told her it wasn’t safe for her to be taking the rickshaw, well any public transportation for that case. He didn’t want her to get hurt, and knowing that people here weren’t the nicest, always being pushy and fighting for a rickshaw. Arnav had requested to her that she never use the rickshaw again, and just call him and he’d send over one of the drivers. As much as she tried to refuse it, saying that she had been using the public transportation all her life and didn’t have problems with it, he wasn’t someone who would budge and change his decision.

“I’ll call Payal of Lavanya and ask one of them to pick me up,” she replied back.

But she only got a “are-you-kidding-me?” look from him. Like hell he was going to leave her all alone here in this kind of weather, and that too after their date.

“You’re coming with me,” he replied sternly.

“But the rain isn’t stopping and you’re going to miss your flight if we stay here longer,” she told him.

“So lets go to the car,” he said.

“But it’s going to take me such a long time to walk to the car, and we’ll both get completely drenched in this rain,” she replied.

“Who said anything about you walking,” he said to her, and what he did next swept her off her feet – literally.

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