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.
