Chapter 47- Frozen hearts..will they melt by Deepti

Chapter 47

The next morning, Kushi started her day by checking her email and was not so pleased when she didn’t find the mail she was hoping to see in her inbox. She completed her morning routine checking her inbox every now and then  and when her disappointment reached its peaks, she decided  not to touch her email account for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile in the dining room, “Mamma, there is just a month left for the wedding and we haven’t even started our shopping”, said Anjali, drawing the curtain to execute her plan.

” Ya Anjali…even I’m worried about that. Our hands were tied up as the past few days weren’t so auspicious to start anything that is related to your wedding. Jewelry, clothes, gifts, oh my God! There is a lot to do and I’m not understanding when and where to start”, said Aarthi in a worried tone.

“I have checked the calendar Aarthi. Gone are the inauspicious days. So there is no problem in going ahead with our wedding related plans.”, responded Devyani,  providing a solution to half of Aarthi’s worries.

“That’s awesome”, said Aarthi, whose face gained some color after hearing Devyani’s words.

“Then why the delay? Let’s start our shopping today itself and I think it’s better to start with the clothes. If not, it would be tough to get the blouses tailored on time”, suggested Sakshi.

“True, once we are done with the clothes we can move onto jewelry. Let’s have an early lunch and start”, responded Aarthi. While the duo were busy in making plans, Devyani signaled Anjali, who picked up her grandmother’s signal instantly and said,” Why don’t you join us, Arnav”, addressing her brother who was sitting right across her.

“ME?? What will I do at your shopping ,Di?”, asked Arnav who almost choked on his food hearing his sister’s words.

“It’s not any ordinary shopping ,Arnav. It’s my wedding shopping! In many cases the whole family does it together.More the members, best would be the selection.  Can’t you help your sister in picking up the best stuff?”, asked Anjali sulkily.

“That’s nonsense, Di!More the members,more the confusion. It’s highly possible that each one of us might give you a varied opinion about the same thing. Anyways, why do you need all of us to accompany you for the shopping when you have that one person who keeps boasting  that hers is the best selection in this house”, taunted Arnav.

Though she understood whom he was referring to, ” Who???’, asked Anjali, innocently.

“There she comes”, replied Arnav looking at Kushi who was descending down the stairs.

“What’s going on people!”, asked Kushi joining the rest, after inquiring her mother about the breakfast menu.

“We were discussing about the wedding shopping Kushi. Planning to go for clothes today”, said Aarthi.

“Actually, I’m getting few outfits ready for everyone. They should be ready in a weeks time. Thought of surprising you all with the finished products but since things got delayed, it didn’t work”, said Kushi, munching on her bread toast.

“Wow! That’s one awesome news”, squeaked an excited Anjali.

“But Kushi, all the past days weren’t auspicious.When did you start all this”, inquired a worried Sakshi.

“Don’t worry about that Maa.I got the work started right after Di’s engagement and I made sure that it was on an  auspicious day”, said Kushi relieving her mother’s tension.

“And Di, I need you to come to the workshop today. It will give you an opportunity to check out all the attires and if you want any changes, we can look at those too”, added Kushi.

“What about us?”, asked the other women who didn’t understand why Kushi wasn’t including them.

“You ladies can continue with your shopping plans”, replied Kushi with a shrug.

“But you said that you are working on our clothes too. So what’s the point in shopping again?”, asked a confused Aarthi.

” Mamma,I’m working on the outfits which our family would be wearing on the wedding day only. Not for all other  occasions. So you all are free to buy whatever you want to wear for mehndi, sangeet, etcetera . Coming to Di, I’m taking care of all of her outfits. So we don’t have to shop anything for her”, said Kushi clarifying everyone’s doubt.

“Oh! For Anjali, all the dresses and for us only one? You don’t love me as much as you love your Di”, teased Devyani.

“Dhadhi, if it was your wedding, I would have designed all your clothes too”,said Kushi with a wink for which she got a slap on her back from her mother.

“Watch your words when you’re talking to elders. You shouldn’t make fun like that”, said Sakshi addressing her daughter.

“It’s okay Maa. Dhadhi won’t mind. She is one super cool Dhadhi. Isn’t it Dhadhi?”, asked Kushi for which Devyani nodded her head in agreement and smiled.

As Kushi’s declaration saved him from the head ache of taking part in the shopping, Arnav excused himself and got ready to leave for work. But before leaving he didn’t forget to steal a glance at the girl who was munching her bread toast and this didn’t go unnoticed by the duo who had their eyes on him.

With a smile on his face as Arnav exited the house, ” Our first attempt to bring them close and an utter failure”, whispered Anjali in Devyani’s ear.

“So what if one is down? There are ton to come.Between, did you see the smile on his face”, whispered back Devyani, for which Anjali responded with a nod and controlled her urge to giggle.

After lunch, the girls went to Kushi’s workshop where Anjali got to see all her outfits. She was thoroughly impressed with Kushi’s work and couldn’t control herself from beaming with happiness as Kushi unfolded each outfit. “You never stop surprising me.How did you manage to do all these and how did you know what exactly I wanted? You covered all my favorite colors and each pattern is so unique in its own way. All the dresses are just perfect for the occasions, Kushi. I can’t wish for anything better”, said Anjali running her hand on the fabric.

“I knew that you would like them,Di. But if you want any changes to be done, please feel free to let me know. We still have time to get them done”, suggested Kushi.

“No, they are good the way they are. You know better than me about all these things and this is your area of expertise. So I will just go by your choice”, said Anjali hearing which Kushi was elated.

The girls spent rest of the afternoon at the workshop as Anjali tried all the outfits and Kushi made a note of all the necessary changes that need to be done. They were almost done with their work there when they received a call from Sakshi who asked them to come to the showroom where they were shopping, as they weren’t able to decide on anything.

Kushi and Anjali had some quick bites on their way and went to the showroom, where their mothers accompanied by Devyani were  waiting for them. “What took you both so long. Here we were getting confused not understanding what to pick. Every sari is so beautiful”, said Sakshi who was sitting with a pile of saris in front of her.

“Maa, we were starving. So had to stop for some snacks. So where are we?”, asked Kushi taking a seat next to her mother. From the moment she entered, she took charge of the shopping and  didn’t let the salesman rest until he showed the entire collection to her. She picked the saris she liked the most and made the women try each one of them. After spending some got amount of time at that store, Kushi was successful in helping the women buy the best stuff from there and then the group moved to a  different store which was quite famous for its designer wear.

Once she was done picking stuff for her mother and Sakshi, Kushi selected few dresses for herself and holding each one of them against her body, she showed them all to Devyani and Anjali. She mentioned the one which likes the most and went to the trail room to try them on.

“They all look good on her. But I think the one which she liked the most will look fab on her”, said Anjali giving her opinion to her Dhadhi.

“Hmm. It’s beautiful. I wish Arnav was here. If he sees her in it, I bet he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off her”, said Devyani who started imagining Kushi in that dress.

“Then why don’t we make your wish come true? It’s 7 p.m. Things might work in our favor!”, said Anjali with a naughty glint in her eyes.

“Why didn’t I get that idea. Come here, I have a plan”, said Devyani who soon whispered her plan in Anjali’s ear.

“Awesome Dhadhi. You are a genius. I’ll execute it right away”,said Anjali after giving a handshake to the elder lady.

In the next five minutes while Aarthi, Sakshi and Kushi were busy in the trial room, Anjali successfully hid her mother’s purse and swapped Sakshi’s credit card with an old credit card of hers.

As soon as Aarthi and Sakshi came out of the trial rooms,Anjali asked them to get their stuff billed.

“What’s the rush? I don’t think Kushi has finalized her dresses.All the day she was helping us with our stuff  and just now she started for herself. Let her take her time. We can wait and get everything done together”, said Aarthi.

“Mamma, look at the heap of saris you and Maa decided to buy. It will take forever to get them folded and packed. It’s already 7.15.  Let’s start with these. Kushi’s  can be added later”, suggested Anjali.

As Devyani seconded Anjali’s words, the other two women got convinced. After instructing the sales women to take their picks to the billing counter, Aarthi starting looking for her purse which she placed in a shopping bag.

As she couldn’t find it anywhere she got worried and informed about the same to the others. All the ladies started searching for the purse in all the shopping bags and after few minutes of unfruitful search, Anjali concluded that it might have been stolen or her mother must have dropped it somewhere.

“There isn’t much cash in it. But I’m worried about my cards. I have both my debit and credit cards in it”, said a worried Aarthi.

“Don’t worry Mamma. We can get them blocked. I will ask Arnav to take care of it”, suggested Anjali, trying to calm down her mother.

“We can make the payment with my card. Let’s go”, said Sakshi moving towards the billing counter. While Anjali followed her, Devyani sat with her daughter in law consoling her on the loss of her purse.

Once the person at the counter scanned all the purchases and passed them to a second person to fold and pack them, Sakshi handed her credit card to him. He ran the card and  when it didn’t go through, he checked it and informed Sakshi that the card has expired.

While an astonished Sakshi asked him to hand it back to her to check the card, Anjali literally snatched it from his hand and looked at it.

“Yes Maa. He is right. This card has expired.Do you have any other card?”, she asked, knowing that Sakshi doesn’t maintain a lot of accounts.

As Sakshi shook her head with a worried expression on her face, ” Okay okay. You don’t worry. I will handle this”, said Anjali opening her wallet. She sent Sakshi away  asking her to help Kushi while she settles the payment stuff.

Sakshi went back to the trail room area, thinking that Anjali would be making the payment. But least did she know that, Anjali had other plans.

The moment Sakshi went out of her sight, Anjali gave a call to her brother and told him about the situation where they don’t have any enough money to pay the bills. After asking him to come to the showroom to make the payments, Anjali left a deep sigh of relief as she was successful in executing her  Dhadhi’s plan. She soon joined the group and gave a thumps up to her Dhadhi without anyone else’s notice. As it would take at least fifteen minutes for her brother to be there, she kept her fingers crossed and encouraged Kushi to try more dresses.

In twenty minutes Kushi was done trying all the outfits except for her favorite one. Informing the rest that she has one last one to try on, she went back into the trail room after showcasing the last but one outfit she tried on, to the women.

Few minutes rolled by which were one of  the most tension filled minutes in the lives of Anjali and Devyani, after which Kushi came out of the trail room asking, ” Ta-da!! How is this one?”, with her eyes fixed on her dress.

She raised her head to look at her spectators reactions thinking that they would be stunned to see her in that beautiful attire. But instead, she was the one to be stunned to see Arnav there, with his gaze fixed on her.

As his eyes took in her sight, Arnav forgot to breathe. With her hair open and  no other jewelry on her except for the tiny gold tear drop danglers, she looked marvelous in that gold and leaf green lehanga and gold choli. The green and lemon yellow combination dupatta was pleated and draped on her right shoulder, with its ends tucked nowhere and hence it exposed most of her midriff which was shining in a radiant milky white color. As his gaze traveled along her sensuous curves, it landed on her navel which was the center of attraction between the gold choli and lehenga. Set against the milky white skin, her oval shaped innie belly button could feel his piercing gaze on it and as soon as it submitted its petition to the brain, orders were sent to her left hand to take care of the issue.

Kushi didn’t mind to leave the dupatta freely, as she was expecting only the ladies of her family to be there.  And it didn’t even strike her that her midriff was exposed, when she found him there. Though she was still in a state of shock, as soon as her hand received the orders from her brain, she hurriedly spread the pleats and covered her midriff completely.

His concentration was distracted as she drew a curtain and hid something which became a great point of interest to him. And as he wasn’t pleased with her action he knotted his eyebrows and looked at the culprit as if she committed a huge crime by  hiding something which belongs to him.

As their eyes met, Kushi’s hands trembled and the next moment she ran back into the trail room leaving her surprised spectators behind. The four women who were in a deep discussion about Kushi’s dress had no clue what was happening behind their backs. But the moment Kushi escaped from there like a deer, Anjali turned back as her instincts directed. Spotting her brother who was  looking in the direction where Kushi stood, few seconds ago, a smiled beamed on Anjali’s lips.

“Arnav!”, she said drawing everyone’s attention towards the man, who seemed to be altogether in a different world.

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-All credits goes to original writer -Deepti©

Guys I need atleast 6 comment on this chapter for uploading next one.Typing is a lenthy & tough job..Mostly when u didn't get enough motivation. (As I already mentioned I can't  just copy paste due to some technical error).

Happy Reading :) take care.