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.”