Chapter 39 Frozen hearts...will they melt by Deepti

Chapter 39

As the alarm on her phone went off sharp at 1 a.m, Kushi jerked and sat upright on her bed. Rubbing her eyes she grabbed her phone and turned off the alarm. Though the two hours cat nap didn’t completely recharge her system, she kicked her blanket away and cursing the person who was the soul reason for all this misery, she got up and went to the wash room.

“Did I ever dream that I will wake up at 1 in the night? But what to do… to ruin his evening I have to sacrifice my one night’s sleep. If I don’t complete my designs by morning and submit them in the morning session there is no way that I can make it to the party. So time to gear up and get back to work”, thought Kushi as she brushed her teeth.

“I wonder what else I have to undergo to irritate Mr.Grumpy”, muttered Kushi as she spread her designs on the bed. She spent the next seven hours with her total focus on her work and by the end of it, she was content with whatever she just created.
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“I still don’t get it why you pleaded her and convinced her to make it to the party when we said that we will be there by you. “, said Arnav addressing his sister who was in the rear seat, while he switched the gears in the car.

“Ya, Di! You give too much importance to her.Can’t we just skip picking her up from the college? “, asked Rishi, who was sitting next to Arnav.

“Rishi!!!”, said Anjali narrowing her gaze at him. ” Just for your information, I did nothing to change Kushi’s decision.  She came to my room all by herself this morning and announced that she is coming to the party. And I was very glad to hear that. But she got caught up at the college. So she gave a call at 5 and asked me to pick her up, on our way to the party. So you both stop making a fuzz over it. We have almost reached her college”, said Anjali as she looked out of the window.

“Yesterday night she didn’t show any interest in the party. Now what made her change her mind overnight???”, asked Rishi.

“No idea”, replied Anjali, who started dialing Kushi’s number.

“I know what changed her mind”,  thought Arnav as he brought the car to a halt .

“Kushi, where are you? We are in the parking area”, said Anjali as soon as Kushi answered her call.

“Di, two  minutes …I’m coming”, replied Kushi as she stepped out of the changing room.

“How  long will she take, Di?? We are getting late”, complained Arnav, looking at his watch.

“Come on, Arnav! We just came! She will be here in two minutes”, said Anjali and on spotting Kushi coming towards the parking area, ” There she is!”, she exclaimed.

As his ego didn’t let him to listen to his heart and look at her, he turned his head  in the opposite direction. But when the group of guys who were in a serious discussion brought their discussion to an abrupt end and  looked in the direction in which Kushi was coming, Arnav involuntarily followed their gaze. And as his eyes landed on her, he forgot to breathe for few seconds.

There she was…..dressed in a royal blue evening gown, looking ravishing in her outfit. The scoop neck lined dress which was hugging her body like a second skin was best defining the curves at her waist  She tied up her hair in a french knot and wore a pair of diamond studs on her ears. Her diamond heart shaped  pendant adorned her neck while a beautiful diamond studded bracelet highlighted her left wrist. With a  silver color clutch in her right hand, she approached the car and greeted everyone saying, ” Hi!”

“Did you come to the college dressed up like this?”, questioned Rishi as Kushi got into the car.

“Will anyone come to the college like this, you silly! I changed”, replied Kushi as she sat in the seat next to Anjali.

“Where did you keep your clothes and other stuff?”, inquired Anjali finding nothing else in Kushi’s hand apart from the clutch.

“Don’t worry about those, Di. I asked Preeti to take care of them. Will collect them from her tomorrow”, said Kushi as she finally settled in her seat.

As she glanced at the rear view mirror, she found Arnav staring right at her.

“Now what are we waiting for dude. Let’s go”, said Rishi whose words made Arnav break the eye contact.

As Arnav moved his hand on the gear rod and raced the car out of the college campus,         ” You are looking very pretty in this outfit, Kushi. And isn’t it the same necklace which Dhadhi gave you?”, asked Anjali, looking at the pendant in Kushi’s neck.

“Ya, Di! It’s the same. To be honest, I kind of fell in love with this. Don’t feel like wearing anything else. Moreover it goes well with any outfit”, replied Kushi as she placed her left hand on the pendant.

As Anjali responded with a smile, Kushi smiled back and turned her head,  only to find Arnav looking at her in the rear view mirror.

The eyes which were spitting fire at her on the previous day now had some unknown feeling wrapped in those chocolate orbs. And as she looked more keenly at them, she was thoroughly confused.

Though he was concentrating on his driving, he threw a glance at her every now and then thus making her quite conscious.  “Now what should I make out from this looks? Yesterday he looked at me as if he was all set to murder me. And now…”, wondered Kushi as her fingers found their way into her mouth. But before she could bite off all her nails, the car came to a sudden halt and thus her thoughts.

As they reached the venue they were received by Abhay and Karan, right near the entrance, who later  escorted them into the party hall which was already flooding with guests.

Once he got the attention from everyone, Abhay made an announcement saying, “Guys, here are the two wonderful people, on the occasion of whose engagement, we are having this party, Anjali Singh Raizada and my favorite cousin, Karan Oberoi. Wishing the couple a very happy married life, let’s rock the  party!”

While the crowd in the hall cheered hearing the announcement,  a lady in a red gown was startled hearing Anjali’s last name.

She raised from the chair in which she was sitting and  looked in the direction from where the announcement was made. And on spotting the tall, lean man in the blue blazer she instantly recognized him.

“ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA!!!! At last….”, she said as a wide grin adorned her face.

As Abhay continued introducing the guests to Anjali and Karan the trio moved away from where Arnav, Kushi and Rishi were standing. And when Kushi looked to her right to escape the glances which were being directed towards her from the left side, she found her brother missing. As she looked for him, she found him taking a glass of drink from a waiter. Without waiting for a second, she approached them and inquired  about the drink. And on learning that it had alcohol in it, she started having an argument with her brother.

“Now I get it why you were all excited to come to this party”, said Kushi as she literally tried to pull away the glass from Rishi’s hand.

“Oh come on, Kushi! I’m not a small kid. Moreover it’s just a cock-tail. Let me just try”, said Rishi, trying to hide the glass from Kushi.

“Fine! I will give a call to Maa and you tell her what you just told me”, said Kushi taking her phone out of the clutch.

“Okay!! Fine”, said Rishi as he placed the glass back on the tray which the waiter was holding.

“That’s my boy! You can have a mock-tail if you want”, suggested Kushi to lighten his mood.

Throwing a serious glance at her, Rishi walked away from there. And understanding that she ruined his mood, Kushi followed him to change his mood.

Arnav  was standing all alone in a corner, watching the siblings when he suddenly felt the presence of someone  right next to him. “Caught you, Mr.Arnav Singh Raizada”, said the lady in the red gown, startling him.

“Excuse me!”, said Arnav with a confused look on his face, looking at the face which seemed quite familiar to him.

“Looks like you didn’t recognize me. No wonder!It’s been 5  long years since we last met and in these 5 years I changed to a great extent”, she said, raising her eyebrows.

“And in these five years even YOU changed a lot”, she added scanning him from head to toe.

As her looks bothered him, ” SHRIYA!!”, he blurted out ,recollecting the first time he got to  experience such inconvenience.

“Not bad! Glad that you didn’t forget me”, remarked Shriya.

“YOU and HERE???”, he asked ignoring her comment as the head ache which left him after his second year at MIT, stood  right in front of him.

“Surprised??? Did you ever think that you will see me again in your life???? But I did. In fact I was waiting for this moment”, said Shriya as she crossed her arms.

“What for??”, asked Arnav, turning away from her.

“Don’t act as if you don’t know. Arnav”, said Shriya, following him.

“Come on…it’s been 5 years!!!! Grow up girl!”, said Arnav, throwing his hands in the air.

“Of course I did. Can’t you notice?”, she asked throwing a wink at him.

Arnav shut his eyes to control his raising temper and after a second he opened them and said, “See,  I have told you THEN and I’m telling you NOW, I’m not interested in you”.

“But I WAS….THEN and NOW…and if you ask me… I will be FOREVER.What reason do you have to reject me now??? 5 years back you rejected my proposal giving a long lecture that I was too young to take any sought of decisions or talk about love and relationships. But now, I…”,  paused Shriya as Abhay joined them.

“Hey! You two? Do you know each other??”, asked Abhay, looking at Arnav and Shriya.

While Arnav had no interest in answering any question which related him to her, “Yup! He was my senior at MIT”, answered Shriya, staring at Arnav.

“What? But I thought that you did your graduation in Australia”, said Abhay giving a confused look to her.

“I was at MIT for a year. Had to shift to Australia as my family shifted their base. And I completed my graduation there”, replied Shriya.

“Hmmm…good that you met someone you know. Arnav, she is my best friend’s cousin. She is here for a vacation and I insisted her to join the party”, said Abhay addressing Arnav.

“And I’m glad that you insisted”, said Shriya looking at Arnav.

While Arnav ignored her look, “You guys carry on. I will catch you in a while”, said Abhay, leaving Arnav with Shriya.

In an attempt to escape from her, Arnav took a step in the  opposite direction but as she blocked his path keeping her hand in his way, he stood rooted to his spot.

“I’m not done talking to you”, said Shriya taking her hand away.

“What do you want to talk?”, asked Arnav controlling his frustration.

“About US”, she replied.

“There is no US, Shriya.There was no US in the past…and there won’t be any US in the future”,said Arnav folding his hands, as he stressed each and every word which he uttered.

” I was just a 17-year-old girl then….but now I’m a 22-year-old women. So I think now I have the age and maturity to talk about love and relationship”.

Getting no response from him she continued saying, “You were my first love Arnav. I might be far away from you for the past 5 years…but  I never forgot you. I knew that I will meet you someday. And look! Here I am, standing right in front of you. I’m well-educated, beautiful and rich. What else do you need? What reason can you give me to reject me now”, she asked.

“Shriya! Try to understand. YOU and ME, it’s never gonna work. I never had any feelings for you and I’m sure that I will ever have. So, just leave me alone”, said Arnav in a very convincing tone.

“You know me very well Arnav.I’m not from the ones who give up that easily.Did you forget those days?I’m not going to take a ‘NO’ from you and I’m not going to leave you until you say ‘YES’,” she said threatening him.

How could he forget those days ,when he was tortured by her never-ending proposals. He rejected her first proposal  pretty smoothly ,saying that he was at MIT for studying and was not interested in love, etc. But she didn’t give up her idea. She approached him each and everyday and said the same lines again and again to him. Fed up with her torture, he once gave a serious warning to her asking her to leave him alone. But that didn’t stop her.  Instead, she went one more step ahead and  sent him  love letters and greeting cards.  He  used to tear them up without even opening them as he knew that it was just an attraction from her side. He also got to witness her stubborn attitude that drove her crazy.She kept torturing him with her proposals and Arnav was thoroughly disturbed with her mental torture. But luckily, after her first year, Shriya left MIT thus leaving him at peace. He was glad that he got relieved from her torture and wished to never see her in his life. But unfortunately, since his wish was not granted, here she is, back in his life, all set to torture him, once again.

As he noticed the threatening look on her face, he was sure that she is not going to let him go that easily this time.

“I am here just for a vacation. But now, I’m not going to leave Delhi.Not until I make you MINE”, announced Shriya, bringing him out of his thoughts.

“It’s never gonna happen”, said Arnav in his serious tone.

“And who is going to stop me from making YOU, MINE??? YOU???”, she questioned, mocking him.

Had it been a man, his reaction for that mocking would have been something else. But since it was  a women, Arnav preferred  not to answer her question.

“You were not able to stop me in the past Arnav.What will you do now?  I might be little childish at that time. But now… I’m not. You give me one convincing reason why you can’t be mine and I will leave you alone”, said Shriya, who was pretty confident that he can’t give any  such reason.

He could do anything to get rid of this head ache and if one convincing reason could do that magic, he needed to find that reason.  As he kept thinking to nail down the reason,       ” Arnav, have you seen Kushi?”, asked Anjali interrupting his thoughts.

As Arnav shrugged his shoulders in response to his sister’s question, ” Ah! there she is!”, said Anjali who herself spotted Kushi. As Anjali walked past him and approached Kushi who was standing on the other side of the room, Arnav’s eyes rested on the girl who could solve all his problems.

“You didn’t answer me, Arnav. Do you have a reason?”, asked Shriya repeating her question.

“Kushi”, he said, giving the one good reason which Shriya wanted.

“What????Kushi??? , asked Shriya.

“Yup! It’s Kushi”, replied Arnav turning back to Shriya.

“I don’t get it. What do you mean by Kushi?”, asked Shriya who got confused with Arnav’s words.

“Oh! You still don’t get it? Then let me explain. I’M ALREADY IN A RELATIONSHIP. So, I can’t have any with you”, he  replied very coolly.

“Are you kidding me? I don’t believe you”,  said Shriya as she couldn’t believe what she just heard.

“No I’m not.  You see the lady there? The one in the blue gown. She is Kushi. My…. I hope you got it”, said Arnav showing Kushi to Shriya.

Shriya looked at the girl Arnav showed her. No doubt she was a beauty. Someone who could be an excellent match to Arnav. Not that she herself wasn’t. But what if he was really in a relationship with the girl in the blue gown?And what he was just bluffing? Shriya had her own doubts.

“What do you think of me? You will show some girl in this party and say that you are in a relationship with her, and I will believe you?? No way!!”, declared Shriya.

“Believe it or not….it’s totally your problem.  But that’s what  the truth is”, replied  Arnav, carelessly.

“Really! Then let me go and find out how truthful you are”, said Shriya, taking a step towards Kushi.

Though he didn’t expect Shriya to go and converse with Kushi, “Why not???Let’s go”, said Arnav thinking that he could handle the situation.

“No…not you…I can handle this on my own”, said Shriya, who was quite smart.

“As you wish”, replied Arnav, taking a back step ,while his mind started racing.

While Shriya turned around and continued walking towards Kushi, Arnav pulled  out his phone from his pocket and sent a text to Kushi.

As her phone buzzed, Kushi looked at the screen which showed,  “1 MESSAGE FROM MR.GRUMPY”.

“Now why is he texting me??“, Kushi wondered before she unlocked her phone and read the  message, “WE HAD A DEAL AND YOU HAVE TO DO THIS”

“What?? What does he mean by, YOU HAVE TO DO THIS”, muttered Kushi not understanding what he meant by sending her that text. She lifted her head to look for him in the crowd and was surprised to find a women, right in front of her.

“Hi”, said Shriya scrutinizing Kushi from head to toe.  A closer look at the her  proved that the girl was more than a beauty and Shriya instantly envied her.

“Hi”, said Kushi, though she was clueless who Shriya was.

“I’m Shriya. And are you Kushi???”, inquired Shriya, hoping that she would say no.

“Yes”, replied Kushi  though she wondered how Shriya knows her name.

“Do you know that guy in the blue blazer”, asked Shriya jumping to the next question, pointing her hand in the direction of Arnav.

As Kushi eyes looked in the direction in which Shriya was pointing, she found Arnav staring at them. Though he was not very close to where they were, Kushi could still see the strain around his eyes. “ Now, why does he look so tensed?”, she wondered as she kept looking at him.

” Do you know him?”, asked Shriya, repeating her question.

“Yes!!What about him??”, asked Kushi while her eyes were still on  Arnav.

“Hope she understands the situation and speaks accordingly! Didn’t have to the luxury of time to give a detailed text to her”, thought Arnav, looking at the two ladies who were conversing.

“He just told me that you both are in a relationship”, said Shriya looking at Arnav and then shifting her gaze  to Kushi.

“Did he???”, asked Kushi giving Shriya a perplexed look.

Seeing the look on Kushi’s face, Shriya’s hope took a hike. ” I knew it. You aren’t. Am I right?”, asked Shriya. There was a spark in her eyes when she posed that question and this didn’t go unnoticed by Kushi.

As Kushi looked back at Arnav before answering that question, she found the missing piece of that puzzle. The strain around his eyes, said it all and she now understood what he meant by sending that text.

“Yes or no???’, asked Shriya restlessly.

Though she could give a simply answer and end the matter then and there, Kushi didn’t feel like taking that path. Why miss the fun when given an opportunity?

“Actually…why don’t you call him here. I can  answer your question, right in front of him”, said Kushi, without taking her eyes off from Arnav.

“Now what are these two talking? And why is she staring at me?“, wondered Arnav, looking at Kushi.

Shriya’s instincts told her that Arnav will be proved wrong by the girl in front of her. Seeing no harm in calling Arnav, Shriya waved her hand,  and asked him to come to them.

“Once she says that there is nothing between you both…your lie will be caught red-handed Mr. Arnav. And then,  no one can save you from me”, thought Shriya looking at Arnav , who was coming towards them.

“God! Now what did this Kushi say? Hope she didn’t mess up the  things for me“, thought Arnav, as he walked  towards the girls.

And the main player, in whose court the ball was waiting , was super excited in that tension filled moment.“Now the real fun starts, Mr.Arnav Singh Raizada….Will show you what I’m capable of”, thought Kushi as she chuckled.

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