Chapter 3

KHUSHI woke up to a bright and sunny morning, and after her usual routine of pilates, she showered before hurrying down to the kitchen to make breakfast. The fact that Arnav had left for Delhi had put her heart at ease. But at the same time she dreaded the house search that she would have restart all over again.

"Good morning Khushi akka!" Ratna walked in smiling brightly. "What are you making today?"

"Good morning Ratna," Khushi answered back affably, "I am planning to make upma. I will need your help on that."

It was time to get back to work on hand, Khushi thought as she decided not to think about anything else for today – after all she had two weeks in her hand.

"Upma is extremely tasty today Khushi," Mrs Rai said after eating one spoon of her breakfast, "I see that you have added vegetables."

Khushi had looked up the recipe on the internet and made an extra effort to make the upma better. Khushi knew that she had done this because of comment from a man, she would probably not be seeing in the future, but nevertheless she had done it. She didn’t know why that comment had bothered her so much. Generally she was good at ignoring frivolous things that people said. What had gotten into her? She had better stick to her plan and move on in life.

But there was a saying that the best-laid plans usually go awry.

"Khushi, are you planning to leave after Arnav comes back from Delhi?" Mrs. Rai asked out of the blue, "Why dear? Don't you like it here?"

Oh God! Why did he have to tell her? "It's not like that aunty!" Khushi said quickly, "I love it here."

"Then what is it my dear?" Mrs. Rai enquired, "I thought you settled well here in the last two months. Everything was going so well."

Khushi squirmed as she saw the look of utter dismay on the kind woman's face. How could she explain to her that she did not need any sort of complication at this point of time in her life. Was it too much to ask for some peace of mind?

"I just thought you might want to spend some time with your son – without me in the way." Khushi didn’t know what else to say.

"You can see how well he is spending his time with me," she smiled, "I was just kidding of course. He went because he knew you were here to take care of me – especially in this condition. And moreover, he went because he cannot ever refuse a call from his father."

Khushi looked up at Mrs. Rai, confusion written clearly on her face. Of course she had a lot of questions since the day he had arrived. She had wondered how he had landed on their doorstep the very next day. She had also wondered why their surnames were different though it was possible for a child to have a different surname from the mother as many women didn’t opt to change their names after marriage. But then Arnav had addressed Mrs. Rai as 'Ma'.

"Arnav calls me Ma because he thinks of me as his mother – especially after he lost his own mother when he was just eleven," she said wistfully, "I am Arnav's aunt – his mother's older sister. My poor sister died of cancer." Her eyes teared up.

"Oh I am so sorry to hear that aunty," Khushi said. She quickly rushed by her side and gently placed her hand on hers. "Really sorry."

Mrs. Rai remained silent for several minutes. "His father and – his step-mother live in Delhi," she said looking up at Khushi, "Arnav and his father -- " she paused when Ratna came in to clean the room.

She changed the topic. "Khushi –I have a request. As you know the doctors have told me not to walk too much for the next eight weeks, except to go to the restroom. If you could just stay on at least until then, I will be really grateful to you. I love your cooking but it is not just that. You have a way about you which gives me lot of mental peace. I would like you to stay here until I heal from this.

"But ultimately it is your choice. I don’t want to force you to do anything you are not comfortable with."

***

A week later, Khushi walked in the familiar path to college wearing an ankle length cream cotton trouser and a knee length, tomato red kurta with sleeves that folded at the elbows. She stepped into the small counsellor's office assigned to her at the college. It had been a long struggle to get this room allotted, as the staff members shared one large common staff room. She had explained to the Principal about how important it was to maintain privacy for the students who came in for counselling. Finally this morning, Somesh had announced to her that her room was ready and had led her to it. Khushi smiled to herself, proud of her small victory.

"Khushi madam, the principal wants to meet you," Somesh said, "she told me to inform you as soon as you came into work. But I wanted to show you this room first." He grinned.

In the past two months, she had come to know Somesh quite well as she had been interacting with him at work, and off work, at Mrs Rai household.

"I better leave right away then," At the door, she turned around. "Thank you Somu! I love this room."

She knocked on the door and opened it. "May I come in ma'am?" She enquire politely.

"Come in Khushi." Mrs. Shenoy looked elegant in a printed silk saree.

She walked up to the Principal's table. "Good morning ma'am. Did you want to see me?"

"Good morning -- I would like you to meet Mr Raizada," she waved her hand toward the far end of the room.

Khushi turned around to see Arnav leaning against a book shelf holding a book in his hand. He wore a navy blue cotton jacket over a bottle green t-shirt, but for a change, his faded jeans weren’t torn. With brown leather shoes to complete the ensemble, he looked like a model for a famous clothing brand.

He looked at her, put the book back on the shelf and walked up to her. "Hello Ms. Khushi."

Her heart began to pound in her chest. What was he doing here?

"Khushi, please show Mr. Raizada around our college --" Mrs. Shenoy said, "do show him our labs, recreation room and the cafeteria as well."

Though taken aback at the request, Khushi maintained a poker face. "Sure ma'am."

"Khushi has been maintaining all college related information for us as she is adept at administration work as well." Mrs. Shenoy explained to Arnav. "So if you have any questions, she will be one to help you."

A little later, Khushi and Arnav sat at the tiny cafeteria of the college, sipping coffee from the small steel glasses. He sat looking at the college building deep in thought.

She had taken Arnav around all the class rooms and he had asked her some details regarding the attrition rate of the staff, the number of students in each course and she had answered to the best of her knowledge. But one thing was still nagging her mind.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Raizada?"

"Call me Arnav." He said in his easy drawl. "It feels like you are calling my dad."

"Ok." Khushi said tersely.

"I am here because this college belongs to my father." He said simply. This was news to Khushi. "This college has been running at a loss recently. He wants me to fix it or dump it."

"Sorry?" Khushi's eyebrows twisted in confusion.

Arnav looked at her, his eyes going from casual to angry in seconds. "He wants me to close it if doesn’t become profitable before the next year!" he stood up.

"But my students come here from neighboring villages as this is the only college they have in the vicinity."

"Yeah I did notice some of your students are overly attached to you," he quipped and then stood up, "Thanks for showing me around. "

"One minute!" Khushi stopped him, "what do you plan to do?"

He looked at his watch, "This is not my only agenda here Ms Khushi," he said as he wore his aviator sun glasses, "I have to look into a construction project that is going to start in Udupi. Tell Mrs. Shenoy that I left."  

As he rode away on his motor cycle and vanished from her sight, Khushi breathed a sigh of relief. Showing him around the college had been nerve wracking for her as he walked behind her in his quite, brooding demeanor. He had seemed edgy. And what did he mean by "overly attached"? Was he referring to the fact that some of the boys had come up to her and invited her to go to the movies with them? She knew that the boys flirted with her, but it was all in good natured fun. He was one talk when all the girls in the college had been peeping through the windows to catch one glimpse of him. She couldn’t blame them. It was the beard that gave him the 'killer' look.

That night, Khushi woke up with a start as she heard knocking on the door. She leaned across to look at the time on her mobile phone kept on the night stand. It was 1 AM. She slid out of bed and hurried down the stairs. She saw Mrs. Rai at the door to her bedroom, holding her walker in her hand.

"It is Arnav," she said with a concerned look on her face, " open the door and let him in."

Khushi opened the door to see Somesh at the door step next to Arnav.

"Go home Somesh!" Arnav's voice was louder than usual.

Arnav stepped inside and looked at his aunt. 'Ma I was absolutely fine. I don’t know why Somesh came there to pick me up."

"Go and get some sleep Arnav," Mrs. Rai, said firmly.

Arnav looked at Khushi, his eyes a little dazed as he looked at her. He then walked up the stairs.

"He has had a little too much to drink," Mrs. Rai explained apologetically, "the bartender called Somesh and asked him to pick him up as it wasn’t safe for Arnav to drive his bike. Sorry about that."

"Oh don’t worry about it aunty," Khushi said quickly. She was used to members of her family and friends who loved to go overboard with their drink. "I am fine." She helped the old woman walk back to her bed, then switched off the lights and went upstairs to her room. She looked at the far end of the hallway where Arnav's bedroom was, then stepped into her room and crawled into bed.

Half an hour later, Khushi sat up in bed scratching herself as the mosquitoes attacked her viciously. She hadn’t been using the net as it blocked most of the breeze coming from the ceiling fan. Now that the power was out, there was no breeze from the fan nor any coming from the window as the temperature outside was quite high. In the last two months, she had realized that power went out a lot more in this small town than it did in the city and she had experienced a few sleepless nights.

She walked out of her room and stepped into the open living area. She sat on the wooden plank of the swing that was strung from the ceiling by ornate brass chains. Here, it was only slightly better than her bedroom. She looked longingly at the door that led to the terrace, wondering how it would feel to sleep in the outdoor that had beautiful flowering plants. But she was afraid that the mosquitoes would eat her alive if she stepped outside.

When she heard a noise behind her, she turned around startled to see Arnav standing there with his mobile torch on.

"Do you know where the ladder is?" he asked her, "I will have to take a look at the UPS."

"It should be in the store room downstairs."

"Thanks." Arnav said and turned away.

Khushi went into her room, grabbed a torch from her nightstand drawer and walked down the stairs and entered the dark store room. When they couldn’t find the ladder in the usual place, Khushi said, "Oh I remember Ratna took it with her a few days ago."

"Call her." He said tersely.

"At this hour?"

He immediately dialed her number and spoke to her. "F@#$!" he swore as he cut the phone. "She lent it to a friend." 

"Is there a UPS in this house?" Khushi asked, "I didn’t know that."

"Yeah no one will ever know that – because the great electrician who worked on it put in a special hiding place on the loft in this very storeroom." He looked up at the loft covered by square shaped wooden doors.

"I guess you could reach it if you stood on a table." Khushi said looking up at the loft.

"That's a great idea!" Arnav exclaimed, "But I don't think the dining table will fit in through the doorway."

"There is a smaller table right in this store room," Khushi said pointing her torch to the far end of the room.

"Fantastic!" He said emphatically.

Ten minutes later, Khushi stood on the table, next to Arnav holding the torch for him while he tried to figure out what the problem was. As she looked at him working with concentration, her thoughts began to wander. Did he drink a lot because he was upset? Was it something to do with his father? Even Mrs. Rai had hesitated talking about it the other day. It was not easy to lose a mother at that tender age. In any case, it was none of her business. She had enough problems of her own to resolve before poking her nose in other people's lives.

"Are you sure you are up to doing this?" She enquired after five more minutes. "You must be – tired."

"You were going to say drunk." He said continuing to fiddle with the equipment.

"No, I -- what I was trying to say was --- do you really have to do this now? We can wait until morning when we have more light – and we could use a ladder instead of this shaky table." She tried to stifle a yawn.

"You may be able to sleep with mosquitoes biting you all over but I can't," he said, "God knows I need to sleep this off. My head is exploding right now."

"You should have thought about that before drinking so much –" She stopped. She wished she hadn’t said that.

"Do you always say what you think?" He sounded amused.

"Not always!" she said before she could stop herself, "only when I am being bitten terribly by mosquitoes. She tried to lean down so she could scratch her calf that was exposed by her short knee length pajamas.

Suddenly the table creaked and Khushi could hear a small clinking sound of something falling to the ground.

"Looks like a screw came off." She said looking down at the table.

"F@#$!" Arnav exclaimed, "this must be the ready-made table I got from Bangalore few years ago. The legs have nuts and bolts that need to be tightened from time to time."

Khushi looked up at him in dismay. "Is this table going to break?"

As she tried to move a step, the table leaned a little, sending the torch flying out of her hand and she was about to fall, she grabbed hold of Arnav. Heart pounding in her chest, she steadied herself for several moments.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yes," Khushi whispered. As she calmed herself, she became aware of the position she was in. One hand was at his shoulder while the other was around him at his back, her face was right against his chest, just below his throat.

"Looks like we will be fine if we don’t move much," he said, "can you get my cell phone from my pocket?"

"What??" Khushi couldn’t hide her irritation, "are you still planning to carry on with this repair?"

"I might as well, don’t you think?" he said, "if we try to get off this table we are going to fall and land on – God knows what sort of sharp objects that are lying on the floor in this room. I am almost done here and after that I will figure out a way out.

"But before that --" he paused.

"What?" Khushi said, her eyes going wide in the dark.

"Can you loosen your fingers a little?" he asked her, "you nails are digging into my skin."

"Sorry!" she said as she instinctively tried to take a step back.

"Don't move Khushi!" he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into himself. "We will both fall."

His hand had touched her bare skin just below the hem of her crop top and that contact sent a sharp jolt to the pit of her stomach. Her heart was beating erratically in her chest and as his masculine scent filled her nostrils, a warmth began to envelope her body.

"My phone is in the pocket of my pants." His voice brought her back to her senses.

In the pitch darkness of the room, Khushi removed her right hand from his back and tried to find the pocket. With hands that shook, she tried to slide her hand inside, she heard Arnav's whisper.

"Not there -- that's my waistband."

Khushi wished she could push him off the table as she could hear the mockery in his voice. Where the hell was that wretched pocket? Finally she could feel the phone against the cloth and she slid her hand inside and removed the phone. After typing in the passcode he gave her, she switched on the torch and tried her best to hold it in position.

As he let go of her and continued to work, Khushi watched his face, his hair as a lock fell on his forehead, drops of sweat trickling down from his temple.

"Khushi?" he whispered.

Khushi moved her hand up and using the back of her fingers, she wiped the sweat from his temple.

His eyes turned from brown to dark as he continued to look into her own hazel ones. He took hold of her wrist with one hand and raised his other hand to touch her just above her jaw.

"You have a mosquito bite here."

Bite? His husky voice make it sound as though he was --- Wait! How the hell had he seen that? Then it suddenly occurred to her that she had noticed the color of his eyes. That meant that the lights were back on!

Arnav's cell phone rang loudly like a siren.

He took it from Khushi's hand and spoke into it "Yes ma, I am in the store room -- I just fixed the UPS," he replied back, "you go back to sleep."

In one swift movement he wrapped his arm around her, lifting her off her feet to lower her down on the floor even as the table gave way. Before she could even comprehend what had happened, he had landed on his feet, as light as a cat.

"It really late!" she said, suddenly, "just remember that you have to take aunty to the hospital tomorrow morning to get her surgery staples removed." She hurried out of the store room, ran up the stairs and shut the door to her room.

A little later, Khushi sat on her bed trying to calm down from the ordeal of what had just happened to her in the store room. In all honesty, she would have to admit to herself that he had done nothing to invoke it. Then what was that she had felt? She wished she could put it down to a simple reflex reaction to a member of the opposite sex but she knew it was not true. She wasn’t prone to such things and she had interacted with  enough men to know that.

A rational part of her brain told her that she knew all the reasons for keeping her distance from him, but the less rational part had softened toward him after she had learned that he had lost his mother at a very young age, and had seen that vulnerability in his eyes. Though she had buried it in the deep recesses of her mind, the memories of her teenage crush for him had also come back to her slowly. He would always remain in her memory as the man who had taught her to dance. She closed her eyes. Oh God what was she going to do?