Chapter 15

The early morning rays of the sun filtered through the curtains to wash her beautiful face in repose. The sound of the waves in the distance were calmer than it was the previous night indicating the storm was long over.

He kissed her neck, light at first and then the kisses became more insistent as he heard her moan and his lips moved down to her collar bone, moving down to the center of her chest between her breasts. He continued kissing her down her flat abdomen until he dipped his tongue into her navel.

She woke as her body arched involuntarily, grasped a handful of his hair and pulled him up. She kissed his forehead, his eyes, his nose, before claiming his lips. Her fingernails dug into the hard muscles of his back and she slipped her tongue into his mouth to explore warm recesses.

His hand slipped down to her molten core, stroking her into readiness after which he quickly entered her in one smooth motion. She lifted her hips and matched his rhythm.

I love you!

Arnav woke up in a sweat as he realized he had been dreaming about the morning at the beach house when he had woken Khushi with kisses. Had she professed her love in the throes of passion or was it his dream?

He opened his eyes to see that he was in the Raizada house. He hadn’t stayed here in very long while. The memories in this house was something he didn’t wish to relive. Why he had agreed to stay in this house could probably attributed to the fact that his brain wasn’t functioning well in the past couple of months. He showered and went down to breakfast and his heart skipped a beat when he saw a girl sitting at the dining table, her long hair falling down her back like a dark curtain. Khushi? As he went closer, she turned around to look at him. It was someone else.

"Come and sit down Arnav," His father called out to him.

Arnav saw his father seated in his usual spot at the head of the table, to his right sat Anjali and next to her was her husband Shyam.

The girl on his father's left had to be Lavanya Kashyap. As he took his seat next to her, his father confirmed it.

"Lavanya," Mr. Raizada said, "this is my son Arnav."

Lavanya was elegantly dressed in a semi-formal trouser and shirt. She was an attractive woman, well-groomed with not a hair out of place.

"Hi." Arnav said tersely.

"Hi – we have been talking about you," Lavanya said affably.

"Really?" Arnav didn’t know why he had become the topic of the conversation, "there is nothing special about me."

"Not true!" Anjali exclaimed, "You know when he was a child, his school wanted to promote him to one class higher because he was brilliant."

"Di please!" Arnav was embarrassed by his sister's bluntness.

"But he didn’t take that opportunity." Shyam pointed out.

"What was he going to do finishing education so fast?" his father asked, "it is not good for a child's mental health to push him beyond a certain level." He explained to Lavanya.

He was probably the only father in the world who would say something like that. The truth was that his step mom didn't want him to be promoted when her beloved son Akash was being asked to repeat a year in the 9^th grade. That would have made them classmates even though there was a three-year age gap between them. His step mom had pulled them both out of the prestigious school and sent them to a school that was ordinary in comparison.

"Are you his older sister?" Lavanya asked jovially, "you look so young."

"I am older by three whole years," Anjali smiled, "you are not eating anything Lavanya."

"What is this?" Lavanya asked as Hariprakash served her Neer dosa and chicken curry.

"It's a Mangalorean cuisine that Arnav loves a lot," Anjali explained, "I learnt it from a friend but I haven’t mastered it yet."

Arnav looked at his sister, his eyes conveying his annoyance.

"Mangalorean?" Lavanya enquired looking at Arnav, "How did that happen?"

"My mother was from that area."

Lavanya looked surprised. "I thought your mom was from Delhi."

"That's my step mother," Arnav told Lavanya even as his father feigned a cough, "my biological mother was from Mangalore. She died when I was eleven."

"I am sorry," Lavanya touched his hand in sympathy.

"I believe you run your own interior design company?" Shyam asked trying to dissipate the awkwardness in the room.

"Yes, I do," Lavanya said, "I am here to for a project at The Merlin hotel."

When your father was a construction business magnate, starting an interior design company would be a piece of cake, Arnav thought. He quelled his cynical thoughts; he shouldn’t be too quick to judge her.

"Arnav will drop you," Mr. Raizada said.

"Sure." Telling her that it was out of his way would be rude, "Can you be ready in half an hour?" Arnav asked her.

"It will be only for today," Lavanya said firmly, "a chauffeur-driven car will be at my service from the company from tomorrow."

"Since you are staying here, what are we going to do about our holi party next week? " Shyam asked his wife.

"You could keep it here," Mr. Raizada suggested, "It will be nice for Lavanya to meet a few people."

"I will take care of all the arrangements." Anjali said.

"Di, let me know if you need any help," Arnav offered.

"Don't worry about it Arnav," Shyam drawled, "she is used to this. She has hosted tons of parties at our house."

"I will manage Arnav," she smiled at him in her usually bubbly way.

In the next few days, Arnav had not seen much of Lavanya as they both were busy with work. Eventually his father had pushed him to take her out to dinner at one of the high- end restaurants in Delhi and he could tell that Lavanya was impressed.

Lavanya was a typical elitist – privileged, well-educated, confident and practical. Contrary to what he thought at first, she was quite good in her profession, and was very driven. He wasn’t quite sure if she completely understood the business side of things even though she made it seem like she did. Luckily for her, she had a father who could take care of that for her. If he ended up with her just as his father had suggested, he would never have to worry about her for she was an independent, career oriented woman. They could live their lives without bothering each other. She was not the type of person who would walk away in to the darkness in a fit of anger, or get lost looking for bathrooms in the middle of the jungle.

He raked a hand through his hair. F@#$! He was happy being single, but if his father was hell bent on getting him hitched, then what he needed was a practical woman, not a woman who was impulsive and irrational. Why the hell did Khushi keep popping up in his mind?

"Is everything alright Arnav?" Lavanya asked him as she returned from the ladies' room.

"Yes!" He smiled at her as she seated herself across him.

"How do you like Delhi so far?" He asked her after a few minutes.

"Terrible traffic and pollution!" she explained, "but I love your house, the office and the restaurants. The food is amazing in India."

"That's true." He agreed.

"I will be honest that I am not a big fan of Indian food," Lavanya confessed, "I prefer continental cuisine."

He guessed she wouldn’t be preparing chicken gassi for him anytime in the future.

"I hate cooking," she confirmed his doubt.

While they were on the topic, he wanted to clarify something. "That's my father's house," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"You said "your house" earlier, "that's not my house. It's my father's."

"I see." Lavanya looked at him and smiled, "you are idealistic ha?"

"Unfortunately." He shrugged his shoulders.

"That's a good quality," she said, "I believe you run your own company as well. That's quite impressive."

He explained to her about his company. "I always wanted to make it on my own," he told her honestly.

"That's good but anyway, whatever is your father's will be yours one day."

He disagreed with her but her but for some reason, he didn’t want to explain it to her at this point of time.

As she spoke at length about her lifestyle, Arnav looked at Lavanya and thought how right his assessment about her was. Practical with a big P, not emotional, like a certain doe-eyed girl.

It was the morning of holi and Arnav was on the phone. When he finished the call, and looked out of the window on the lawns below, he saw the party in full swing as people looked completely unrecognizable with red, pink, purple and even silver paint on their faces as they teetered being drunk on the potent drink that was bhaang.

After a month of sleepless nights in Delhi, he had hired a private investigator to keep a tab on Khushi. He had been relieved to know that she was very much in Chennai taking care of her mother. After that she had gone to Bangalore, apparently to look for a job. He had found out she was having problems with the tenant of the house who was refusing to leave the house even after the contract was over. He would have to do something about that. This morning, the PI had apologetically told him that she had left Bangalore and that he wasn’t sure where she had gone. He had promised to find out soon. After giving him an earful, he had cut the phone call. He raked a hand through his hair. Why was he doing this? Why couldn’t just let her go?

When he heard a knock on the door, he went up to open it and saw Lavanya standing there were two glasses in her hand. "Arnav!" she yelled at the top of her voice, "you have to drink this bhaang. It is aaaawesome!!" she slurred obviously high as she almost fell on him.

She was dressed in what was probably a white tank top that was plastered to her slim body, and denim shorts.

An image of Khushi looking all wet from the dip in the well, flashed before his eyes. He took the drink from her and downed one glass quickly. He needed to stop conjuring her image so often.

Lavanya handed him the other glass and clapped in glee as he downed that as well. She grabbed his hand and dragged him downstairs.

As they reached the crowd, Anjali came up to him. She smiled gently and dabbed color on his cheeks in her usual gentle manner. "Happy holi, dear brother." She fed him a laddoo.

Arnav did the same to her. "Happy holi, Di!" He hugged her.

"Are you already drunk?" she asked him in surprise. "You better cool off."

Anjali took them and introduced some friends of the family to Lavanya. Suddenly in the distance, Arnav noticed a girl in a white anarkali suit. Khushi? The bhaang was surely making him see things. Suddenly someone blocked his vision.

"Arnav!" It was their neighbor Pammi aunty's daughter, Sonal, "we hardly see you these days. Where have you been?"

"I was in Udupi for a few months," he looked back, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. He was hallucinating a lot in the past couple of months.

"Can you excuse us for a minute?" Shyam dragged him to meet some of his party members. After some food and more drinks, they were talking business and in no time, they were trying extract some funds from him.

Suddenly there was an activity from a group of people, and he saw colors flying in all directions as girls screamed running for cover. Amid the haze of colors, he saw the girl again and this time he didn’t want to lose her. As he barged into the rambunctious crowd, Lavanya, Sonal and a few others threw colours, someone threw water, the music blaring loudly in his ears. The girl had vanished again. As he searched for her, he noticed someone whiz past into the gazebo at the far end of the garden. He walked toward it.

As he entered the gazebo decorated with sheer fabric and silver beads, he saw her.

Khushi.

He must be hallucinating but he didn’t want it to stop. He wanted it to continue. His heart began to beat erratically as he walked toward her like in a trance. She wore a bindi on her forehead, her almond shaped eyes lined with kohl. Her ears were adorned with large silver jhumkas and there was nose pin on her slender nose. She was in white, not even a little colour on her dress or face. She looked like an angel.

"Aren't you playing?" he asked her.

She shook her head.

"We can't allow that now, can we?" He stepped closer as she took a few steps back until her back touched a pillar.

Her hair framed her face even as a strand of hair fell across one of her eyes. He raised his hand and brushed the strand to tuck it behind her ear. Her hazel eyes looked up at him all wide eyed and her skin glistened with perspiration. He placed one hand on the pillar and leaned slowly until his cheek touched hers. She closed her eyes. He lifted his head and touched his cheek to her other side. Next, he touched his nose to hers.

"Your face is all colored now." He whispered in her ear. "Now –"

He touched her neck, her collar bone and then traced his fingers between her breasts and wrapping a hand around her waist, he pulled her to himself and took her in his arms. This dream was only getting better, he thought as she stood quivering his arms.

As he leaned down to capture her lips, he felt her trying to resist pushing at his shoulder but he grabbed both her wrists and twisted it behind her back. Her lips felt so soft – if only she would open them he thought pushing into her softness. As his body hardened instantly, Arnav froze.

This was not a dream!

He stepped back, his hand on his head as he looked at her in shock, "Khushi?" He watched her as she vanished from his vision.

A few hours later, when Arnav woke up from his bed, it was already dark in his room. His head was pounding and his stomach was rumbling with hunger. He remembered showering and then crashing down on his bed.

When he went down he heard noises in the dining area. Then he saw his sister introducing Khushi to his father. It looked like everyone had showered and changed into fresh clothes.

"Arnav – I was telling uncle how I met Khushi in Udupi --" So his sister was in on this, he thought in frustration. "Khushi was here in Delhi for a job but it fell through because her reference didn’t pan out. Looks like the principal of your college refused to give her a letter because Khushi resigned abruptly."

"What's going on Arnav?" her father asked him, "why did the principal not give her a letter?"

"She was a temp – she had hardly worked there for a few months," Arnav explained, curbing the temptation to yell at his sister.

"How can you say that when she went through so much trauma when her student almost attacked her on the college premises?" Anjali asked him.

"A student attacked her?" Shyam asked.

"Aren't there rules to protect employees here?" Lavanya enquired.

"I was his counsellor," Khushi rushed in to clarify, "He was going through a personal issue. It has been resolved."

"I will take care of the reference letter," Arnav muttered, "she will not have problems finding another job."

"She will be staying with me until she finds another job," Anjali said smugly, and then she turned toward Mr. Raizada, "Mamaji, she has experience with Instructional design – its related to documentation. If you have a job for her in the company, let me know."

Mr. Raizada turned toward Arnav. "Don’t we need someone to document our files at the office because of the upcoming audit?" He asked him.

Was he the only one who thought this whole thing was absurd?

"I think they may already have found someone for the job." Arnav said tentatively.

"I could find a job for Khushiji," Shyam offered.

God must have created her in leisure Shyam Manohar Jha thought to himself. There were a lot of pretty girls in the room but Khushi was by far the most beautiful girl he had seen in a very long time.

A little later, Arnav dragged his sister into the study.

"What is she doing here?" he asked her directly without beating around the bush.

"I didn’t pick up her calls for almost two months," she said, "then I felt really bad and I spoke to her. She told me what happened."

Arnav wondered what she had told his sister," What do you mean?"

"She told me that you both had fought and that she wanted a chance to explain her side of the story."

"Did she tell the reason for our so-called fight?"

"She told me about her sister Payal – the girl whose death led to your arrest."

"You know and you are still doing this?"

"All that happened was in the past Arnav," she said, "when are you going to move on from that?"

"I have moved on but I don't like being deceived."

"This is not called moving on," she retorted, "you have been miserable these past couple of months. You are angry with Khushi and that's not a good reason to get into a marriage –"

"I am not doing it out of anger!"

"Alright, you are probably doing it because you want to make your father happy," she pointed out, "don’t you want to be happy?"

"I haven’t really agreed on a marriage here!" he grated in frustration.

"Believe me, if you don't nip it in the bud, you will be stuck."

"Are you stuck?" He countered.

"We are talking about you for Godsake!"

"I am not going to argue with you anymore," he told her, "I will just tell her to leave."

"You can't -- I have invited her to stay with me," Anjali challenged him.

Arnav sat down on the chair with his head in his hands, "Di, this is not going to work out."

"It doesn’t have to," Anjali said, "but listen to what she has to say."

"You know what?" he stood up, "maybe is a good thing. I was hasty when I walked away without saying anything. Now I will make it very clear!" He walked out of the room his body seething with rage.