Chapter 23 -Frozen hearts...will they melt by Deepti
Chapter 23
“Yes, you heard me right, Kushi. I would like to wait until you fulfill your dreams. Will make your dreams mine and wait for them to turn into reality…what do you say Kushi”, said Abhay.
Kushi didn’t see this coming and her head started spinning not able to believe what she just heard. Her mind froze for few seconds not understanding how to react.
As Abhay turned his back towards her and looked at the pool giving her some time to think, she quickly sent a message to her friends which read, ‘HE IS READY TO WAIT’.
‘OH MY GOD! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY NOW’, came the reply from them.
‘DON’T KNOW…I’M TOTALLY BLANK…NEED YOUR HELP GIRLS’, Kushi sent the next text and waited for their reply.
‘TELL HIM THAT YOU DON’T WANT HIM TO WAIT FOR YOU’, came their reply.
“I’m waiting for your answer Kushi. I’m ready to wait for you…no matter how long it takes”, said Abhay, as he turned towards Kushi and stared at her.
“I don’t want you to wait for me”, replied Kushi avoiding his gaze.
“But why??”, asked Abhay.
“Because…because…..I’m not sure how long all these things are going to take…and I don’t like the idea of making someone wait for me for that unpredictable span of time”, said Kushi, moving uncomfortably in her chair.
” You don’t have to feel guilty about anything Kushi. When I am the one who is willing to wait, you shouldn’t have any issues with it. It’s solely my decision”, said Abhay.
“NO.. I somehow don’t like all this. Like I said, I don’t want to think about anything related to a wedding”, said Kushi as she pressed her forehead with her fingers, while the quiver in her voice depicted the stress she was undergoing.
“Kushi, just relax. That’s what even I’m trying to say. There won’t be any wedding in the near future. In fact there won’t be an engagement too. You can do what you want to do…focus on your studies, career ….whatever you like. I won’t come in your way. But what I will do is… just wait for you”, said Abhay trying his level best to convince Kushi.
“NO!!”, Kushi instantly screamed, looking sternly at Abhay, as she lost the last ounce of her patience.
“But why?”, asked Abhay not understanding what made her react in that manner. Not getting any response from her,”Okay, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t wait for you and lets put an end to this topic right here”, said Abhay crossing his hands.
As Kushi looked at him, “Take your time…. but I want one genuine reason”, he added and then turned his back towards her.
Kushi who wasn’t prepared for all this didn’t know what to say. Completely deprived of ideas, she instantly sent a message to her friends asking them to give her that one good reason, which would pull her out of all this mess. As she sat there waiting for their reply with her fingers crossed, time started ticking.
On the other hand, the three girls who read Kushi’s text were in a serious thought. They kept thinking about all the possible reasons they could give, but couldn’t come up with the most perfect one. While Pragya and Nisha kept scratching their heads, something struck Preethi and she sent a text to Kushi.
“Can you give me that one good reason, Kushi”, asked Abhay breaking the silence which prevailed in that porch.
As Kushi started searching for words, her phone blinked and she read the text from Preeti, which said, ‘TELL HIM YOU HAVE A BOY FRIEND LOVER’.
“Kushi, I’m waiting…”, Abhay’s voice made her jerk and without any second thought, she looked at her phone screen and blurted, “I have a boyfriend lover”, reading out the text aloud.
“WHAT???”, came the instantaneous response from Abhay.
“You have a boy friend lover??What does that mean? Do you have a boy friend or a lover or both?”, asked Abhay who was totally confused hearing Kushi’s statement.
As his last words made her give a serious stare to him, Abhay realized his mistake and said, “I didn’t mean to say that… but actually I didn’t understand when you said boy friend lover..so… just wondering if it’s a single person or two”.
Realizing the blunder she made, Kushi cursed Preeti for sending that message.
“Actually….at first he was my boyfriend….but currently he is my lover”, said Kushi sheepishly, as she tried to avoid meeting Abhay’s gaze.
“Oh!! I see…So are you planning to marry this guy”, asked Abhay raising his eyebrows, though somewhere he knew that Kushi was lying to him.
“Yes”, came her reply.
“Hmmmn… so it’s going to be the same guy, right..your boy friend, lover”, he asked looking suspiciously at her, trying to read her mind.
“Yes…he was my boy friend in the past, lover in the present and he will be my husband in the future. Does that make things clear to you??”. asked Kushi, who was thoroughly frustrated with his inquiry.
As Abhay looked at her unblinkingly, his instincts told him that she was lying. And to get to the bottom of it, he said, ” If that is the case, I would like to meet that lucky chap, Kushi.
“WHAT???”, reacted Kushi as his words came like a blow to her.
“Yes Kushi…you heard me right. I would like to meet him in person”, said Abhay giving a smile to her.
Coming out of the initial shock which he gave, “But why do you want to meet him?”,asked Kushi looking suspiciously at Abhay.
“I don’t know. May be, I highly doubt the fact that you have a lover and may be meeting him once would clear all my doubts. And once I’m certain that you have someone else in your life,It would be easy for me to get out of your way and leave you guys alone”, said Abhay looking at the sky.
Though his last words sounded like a soothing music to her ears, Kushi didn’t understand from where she would bring her non existing lover into existence.
“I’m not sure if he would like to meet you”, said Kushi trying to give her best excuse.
” Then… YOU MAKE SURE THAT HE DOES, KUSHI. If not, no one can stop me from waiting for you….not even YOU”, threatened Abhay.
Kushi sensed the warning in his tone and was lost in a thought when she heard a knock on the door. On seeing Shyamlal at the door, she went and opened the door and came to know that the elders were expecting them downstairs. As she looked back at Abhay, he gestured her to take the lead and their meeting finally came to an end.
“Dhadhiji asked me to call Arnav Bhayya too. You both go ahead. I will go and call him”, said Shyamlal, halting near Arnav’s room, while Kushi and Abhay silently went down the stairs.
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After seeing Kushi closing the porch door Arnav’s temper knew no bounds. He locked himself in his room and started pacing up and down the room restlessly.Though the core reason for his anger was unknown to him, he fumed with anger and threw the files on the table onto the floor which made the papers from those files to scatter everywhere on the floor.
“Looks like she is happy with him….why should I even care??”, he asked himself. He wanted her to get married as soon as possible. Didn’t he? Then why is he so unhappy about everything happening around him? He was clueless. And why did he try to intrude when she was having a conversation with that guy? That’s not the typical him. Then why? He kept staring at the papers as all his thoughts got jumbled. Raking his fingers through his hair, Arnav took a deep breath. He found only one solution for all the confusion and as he took a decision to escape from all the confusion, he felt bit relieved. The knock on his door made him open the door and when Shyamlal informed him that the others were waiting for him in the living room, asking Shyamlal to clean the mess he made, Arnav went to the living room. He tried to ignore the girl who seemed like a threat to his sanity and joined the others who were in that room.
“Here is the good news…the dates have been finalized…the engagement of Karan and Anjali will be exactly in 10 days and the wedding will take place on June 8th..almost two months from now”, said Devyani sharing the news to the younger generation.
Anjali blushed hearing the news and expected Kushi to pull her leg. But nothing of that sought happened as Kushi was lost in her own world not paying any attention to the conversation taking place around her. Anjali looked at Kushi’s pale face and whispered in her worrying tone, “Kushi.. are you okay? Why is your face so pale”?
“Nothing Di…have a slight headache”, replied Kushi, coming out of her thoughts.
Though he wanted to ignore her, his sister’s whisper made him to look at Kushi. Staring at her face which lost its color, “She was alright when I last saw her in the porch, what happened to her now? “, wondered Arnav.
“Now that Karan and Anjali’s wedding dates got fixed, lets….”, said Arjun Kapoor, who took a pause, looking at his son, who shook his head. Understanding that it was not the time to discuss about Abhay and Kushi, he changed the topic and said, “lets take a leave. We hardly have time and there are a lot of arrangements to take care of”. As the others agreed with him, the guests got ready to leave.
As everyone got busy bidding farewell, Abhay moved closer to Kushi and said, “Don’t worry.I’ll keep your secret….but don’t forget about our meeting. Looking forward to it”. As he smiled and moved away from her, Kushi’s face became more paler. She looked around and was relieved to find everyone busy. But she wasn’t aware of the man who witnessed what just happened. Though he couldn’t hear the whole conversation, Arnav heard the last words which Abhay said and looked seriously at Kushi. “So they planned for their next meeting”, he muttered as he gritted his teeth.
He waited till the guests took a leave and as soon as the family came back to the living room, “Papa, I have something important to discuss”, said Arnav, addressing his father.
“Before that, we have a surprise for you”, said Aakash exchanging a smile with Shashi.
Kushi, who was about to escape from there on the pretext of a head ache, stopped right in her tracks hearing the word, ‘surprise’ and the rest of the family also became alert to know what that surprise was.
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