Chapter 24 Frozen hearts...will they melt by Deepti
Chapter 24
As everyone waited curiously, Shashi brought a file from the office room and passing it to Arnav, he said,” Have a look at it”.
Arnav opened the file clueless of the content inside it and as his eyes raced along the lines of the printed document, the expression on his face kept changing.
As no one except Aakash and Shashi knew what that file was about, everyone stared at Arnav waiting for him to disclose the matter.
“Papa, Babuji… I can’t believe this!!I’m the new Managing Director of AR Group!!!”, said Arnav as he almost screamed in excitement.
“Yes Arnav!!How do you like our little surprise??”, asked Shashi.
“It’s great…I mean.. it’s unbelievable”, said Arnav who was overwhelmed with emotions.”But don’t you think you are bestowing on me a huge responsibility”, he asked looking at his father and Shashi.
“Why, are you scared to take it?”, asked Aakash challenging his son.
“I’m not scared of anything Papa,and you know that very well”, replied Arnav while his confidence reflected in his tone.
“That’s my son!! Shashi and I have complete faith on your capabilities, Arnav. We have been waiting to do this since the day you graduated,but your London trip delayed our plans. We can’t wait to see you at work. Your cabin is all set for you and can join us from tomorrow “, said Aakash looking proudly at his son.
As Arnav hugged his dad and Shashi after taking their blessings, the women around him became extremely glad to witness that sight. Only one poor soul couldn’t take part in that joyous celebration.
“What a timing!!!Here I’m getting drowned in problems and there Mr.G is being bestowed with boons. Is all this really required at this point of time?? Can’t it happen on some other day??”, thought Kushi, looking at Arnav who was taking blessings from the elder women.
Not able to stand that sight anymore she was all set to disperse from there when Aakash’s question caught her attention.
“You wanted to talk discuss about something. What’s that Arnav”, asked Aakash.
Earlier in his room,when he saw the scattered papers on the floor, Arnav felt that he was taking too much interest in the happenings of Kushi’s life as he himself had nothing to do with his life.He believed that an empty mind is a devil’s workshop and decided to keep his mind and himself occupied with work, so that he won’t have any time to think about anything else. He took a decision that he should join their office as soon as possible to get away from the unwanted disturbances and wanted to discuss about it with his father. But now when his father asked him about the same, Arnav smiled and said, “Actually Papa… it’s been ten days since I returned from London and I was getting bored sitting idle at home. So thought of joining our company. But without asking for anything, you people gave me something beyond my imagination”.
“You deserve it Arnav”, said Shashi, patting on Arnav’s shoulder.
“And we hope you won’t let us down”, added Aakash.
“Never Papa”, replied Arnav confidently.
“Actually we were waiting for your cabin to get ready. So we had to keep you away from the office for these 10 days…didn’t want to spoil the surprise”, said Shashi giving the additional info.
“God!! Look at his fate and mine. He didn’t even ask for it and all his wishes are being granted….here I have been begging you to sought out my problems…but looks like you are not even interested in listening to me. I guess you didn’t like the prashad which I offered you last week. Did he get something for you too from London”, said Kushi, talking to the idol in their pooja mandir.
She went straight to her room and fell flat on her bed not in a mood to talk to anyone. She didn’t answer the calls from her friends and sent them a text asking them to come to her home on the very next day.
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On the next day, Kushi skipped college and spent most of the time in her bedroom thinking about her current situation.“How can I make that Abhay meet my non existing lover?”, she kept thinking, biting her nails but couldn’t come up with a solution.
It was only in the evening that her friends came to Shantiwan directly from their college. They were trying to reach her from morning but Kushi didn’t respond to any of their messages.Now as the three girls entered her room, Kushi looked at Preeti as if she was all set to kill that girl.
“Take her away from me…Don’t know what I’m going to do if I see her standing in front me”, shouted Kushi looking at Preethi.
“Now what did I do? Why are you so mad at me?”, asked Preethi not understanding the reason for Kushi’s anger.
“WHAT DID YOU DO??Don’t you know??”, said Kushi, coming like a wild tigress towards Preethi.
“What did she do, Kushi?”, asked Pragya intervening between the two.
“Ask Madam what she did…ask her what great idea she gave me to escape from that Abhay Kapoor”, said Kushi turning towards Pragya.
As both Pragya and Nisha looked suspiciously at Preethi, expecting her to unveil the mystery, “Now you both don’t stare at me like that… I didn’t give her any stupid idea…I just told her to say that she has a boy friend or lover”, replied Preethi very coolly.
“WHAT???”, reacted both the girls.
“Exactly… and looks like madam didn’t attend any grammar classes at school… there was no OR between boy friend and lover”.
“Common Kushi, that was a typo.Stop being so specific”, said Preethi trying to talk.
“Don’t even dare to open your mouth….you and your typo. Like a dumb idiot I read out your message and that Abhay asked me if I had a boyfriend, lover or both. Didn’t know where to hide my face after hearing that question. Felt like jumping into the pool”, said Kushi as she recollected her conversation with Abhay.
“You should have thought about it before reading it aloud “, said Preethi
As Kushi gave a death stare to her, Preeti shut her mouth with both her hands.
“Better”, said Kushi.
“What happened next… what did he say??”, asked Nisha, encouraging Kushi to continue the topic.
“What else…he said he wants to meet my so called lover”, said Kushi moving her hands in the air.
“WHAT??????”, came the response from all the three girls.
Seeing Preethi without hands on her mouth, Kushi picked up a pillow and started hitting her saying, “And all this is because of this idiot and her idiotic idea”. Though Pragya and Nisha initially tried to intervene, soon they too joined the pillow fight and all the girls started hitting each other with the pillows.
After 5 minutes of their pillow fight they all fell flat on the bed and kept staring at the ceiling while Kushi explained them the whole conversation which took place between Abhay and her.
“Now what will you do?”, asked Pragya.
“Don’t know…my brain stopped working from yesterday”, replied Kushi, playing with her hair.
“Do you have one?”, asked Preethi who immediately bit her tongue, on receiving a slap on her hand from Kushi.
“Say whatever you want to say… but you have to accept that my idea was brilliant… these two here couldn’t even suggest anything…at least I tried”, said Preethi taunting the other two girls.
“Okay MADAM!!!We all accept that you have a brilliant brain…Now can you please sharpen that brilliant brain of yours and tell us what to do next”,said Pragya.
“Simple… we have to find Kushi’s lover and take him to meet Abhay Kapoor….. as simple as that”, replied Preeti coolly.
“WHAT”, screamed the other three girls in unison.
“Have you gone mad. Where will we find my lover when I don’t have one”, asked an annoyed Kushi.
“Ya…from where will we bring him”, asked Pragya who was totally confused.
“That’s the reason I call you all dumb… find her lover means… we will select some random guy and make him act like Kushi’s lover in front of that Abhay… did you all get it”, said Preethi enlightening her friends.
As the girls nodded their heads in approval, “Not a bad idea…but where will we find that guy”, said Kushi raising her doubt.
“Come on girl… you have so many fans… we can ask anyone of them to act as your lover. I bet they will be overwhelmed to receive this offer.’An evening with Kushi- as her LOVER’, just look how irresistible it sounds”, said Preeti dramatically.
“I think you have plans to get killed today”, said Kushi looking threateningly at Preeti for making fun of her situation.
“Okay Okay..no more fun… let’s make a list of the guys whom we can approach and ask for this favor”, said Preethi pulling out a book and pen from her bag.
As all the girls got ready to come up with the names of Kushi’s followers, “How about Sanjay”? said Preethi, writing the first name on the top of the list.
“No… he is not tall enough to stand beside me as my lover”, said Kushi.
“Hmm..what about Abhishek from our college”, added Pragya.
“Nope.. he resembles an electric pole”, said Kushi not letting Preeti add that name to the list.
An hour passed with the girls suggesting various names while Kushi kept rejecting each and every one of them, giving lame excuses.At last the three girls got fed up with her and said, “Kushi… it’s not going to work like this. If you keep on rejecting every guy, where will we bring your fake lover from? You rejected one guy saying that he is short, and the other one saying that he is fat…….if one is dark, someone’s nose is not proper, and if his nose is good, you don’t like his eyes. Wake up Kushi. We are not looking for a guy for you to marry. We just need someone to act as your lover….not be your lover. What difference is it going to make if that guy is good-looking or not?”, asked Pragya
“Of course it’s going to make a huge difference…haven’t you all seen that Abhay Kapoor??On the other day, this Preethi was literally gawking at that guy. Do you think he is going to believe me if I take some random fellow to him and introduce him as my lover. He won’t. He already suspects that I’m lying. So I can’t take any chances. You don’t know him. If I take anyone who is not on par with him, he will look at me like a fool and will also try to convince me to ditch that guy and marry him”, said Kushi trying to explain.
“Hmmmn…that’s quite possible”, said Pragya thinking deeply.
“Not quite possible. That is what is going to happen if I pick any of the guys whom you all suggested. You should have seen the way that Abhay was trying to convince me yesterday…MY GOD”, said Kushi placing her hand on her forehead.
“So now we need someone who is as handsome as that Abhay, looking at whom Abhay would shut his mouth and drop his idea of marrying you”, said Nisha understanding Kushi’s point of view.
“But where will we find such a guy…who is extremely handsome and who is capable of making that Abhay vanish from Kushi’s life”, said Pragya raising her doubt.
“I FOUND HIM”, came the answer from Preethi.
“WHERE?” asked Nisha looking surprisingly at her friend.
“THERE….”, replied Preethi as she pointed her hand in the direction of the bedroom door,which was wide open.
As the other three girls followed Preethi’s gaze, they spotted the six feet tall Greek God, who was standing right in front of Kushi’s room, dressed in a charcoal three-piece suit while he was talking busily on his phone.
“WHO??? HEEEE??? NOOOO WAY!!!”,Kushi almost screamed, looking at her three friends who were gawking at Arnav.
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