Chapter 55- Frozen hearts...will they melt by Deepti

CHAPTER 55

With the wedding day fast approaching, the men got busy in wrapping up their work so as to free themselves from their business related tensions during the wedding week. The meetings and tasks which were scheduled for the next two weeks, were  completed in a weeks time and this  kept them away from the home for most of the time.

Just a day before the Mehndi ceremony, Arnav finally managed to wrap up all his major commitments and breathed a sigh of relief as he now can enjoy his sister’s wedding without any deviation. Coming to that part, “What happened to my biggest deviation. Haven’t seen her for the past few days”, he wondered as he stepped inside the home that evening. How can he blame her for not falling in his sight when he himself was not available. The past few days have been pretty hectic for him and he hardly found any breathing time with work and wedding related arrangements.

“When was the last time I went for a jog?”, he questioned himself and realized how much he was missing his fitness regime. Walking towards his room, he was thinking about spending some time in the gym, when he heard laughs and music emerging from Kushi’s room. Looking at the closed-door he shook his head and went to his room to freshen up. After few minutes he changed into his track suit and went directly to the gym which was on the next floor and spent the next hour and  half, toning his muscles.

After shedding enough sweat for the day, he left his jacket in the gym and came downstairs in a sleeveless tank top and trousers and was about to cross Kushi’s room when he met his sister there. And when the siblings conversed standing in front of Kushi’s room, their voices distracted the girls who were practicing dance inside the room and this  made Preeti open the door and take a peek outside. The other three girls soon followed her and when they looked at his torso from behind and the muscles which were a result of the 90 minute workout, they stood still scanning him and neither of the siblings were aware of this as Anjali’s view was blocked by Arnav who stood with his back facing Kushi’s room.

As their conversation came to an end, Anjali exited to her room but just when Arnav was about to turn around, his phone rang, which made him pull his phone out and stare at it, holding the railing with one hand. Taking the call he placed the phone to his ear and the girls just stared at the impressive triceps which were showing up. And when he turned slightly to the right,giving them a view of his side profile, the girls were more than happy to get a glimpse of him. They would have continued gawking him had it not been for Kushi, who realized that she was not the only one who was thoroughly impressed with the sight in front of her.

Looking at her friends whose eyes were on the man whose body was all toned, she switched her gaze back and forth to his body and the girls and became mad all of a sudden. “Get in!! We have practice to do”, she literally barked at them and when the girls requested her to wait for a minute, she pulled each one of them inside and shut the door.

“What’s your problem, Kushi?”, asked Preeti who was disappointed as she missed the show because of her friend.

“My problem is ,you”, Kushi replied, though she thought,  “Only God knows how I didn’t let you girls visit me for the past week,  during his workout time”.

“Now what did I do?”, questioned Preeti, all surprised.

“We have pretty less time to practice and look at you. Wasting time without worrying about our performance”, replied Kushi though she was mad at the girl for other reasons.

“We have been practicing for the past ten days, Kushi. We will do it just fine. But the question here is, why did you pull us inside.After ten days we finally got a glimpse of him and you didn’t even  let us  see him thoroughly”, Nisha uttered as if she was complaining.

“Yeah! As if he is some public property kept for display “, muttered Kushi. “So is he your property?”, the question popped in her head which she preferred to ignore.

“When he has no issue with displaying his muscles, what problem do you have, Kushi”, asked Pragya,

“Don’t you have shame to gawk at him like that?”, she asked her friends for which Preeti replied, ” When he has no shame to show off his body like that, what shame should we have to see him?”.

Preeti’s words made her furious.How can she talk about him like that. Except for her, no one can talk about him like that. Period!  “Excuse me!! He didn’t rip his shirt and show off his body to you. He wasn’t even aware of your presence there. And even if he was, I can assure that he wouldn’t give a damn for it”, retorted Kushi.

“That part is true. If he doesn’t give a damn for you what will he give to us”, said Pragya which made Kushi’s temper take a hike.

What wrong did Pragya say. Does he even care about her?NO!! She spent the past ten days hoping that their paths would cross and HE? Hopeless!! After taking her sherwani with him, did he even show his face to her? NO!!She went to the extent of refraining her friends from visiting her during his work out time and he? Never even showed up in those ten days. And now, here he is making her friends fall for his muscles!!

While thoughts were piling up in her head, ” Pragya is right. He is just hopeless. Let’s get back to work”,said Preeti

Kushi was mad. Mad at her friends for eyeing him and talking about him in a way which didn’t please her. Mad at him for vanishing.  Mad at the man for not giving her a damn and for not treating her the way she would like to be treated. ( Now how does she want to be treated? No idea. She can figure that part later). Finally, she was mad at everything and she needed to let it out if she wants to stay sane.

While the girls took positions to start the dance practice again, ” You girls carry on. I’ll be right back”, said Kushi marching towards the door. Leaving the confused souls behind, she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

She took two long strides and stood in front of him placing her right hand on her waist and looked at him waiting for him to end his call.

His eyebrows arched noticing the girl who was fuming with anger but had no clue about the cause of that anger.

“Mr.Mehta, I will get back to you in few minutes”, he said ending his call as he was more curious to know about the visit of the hurricane.

“Don’t you have a specific workout time?”, she asked without giving him an opportunity to greet.

“Excuse me??”, said a confused Arnav.

“You work out in the morning , you work out in the evening and sometimes you vanish into the thin air just like that and don’t show up for days. What do you think of yourself?”, she complained confusing him thoroughly.

Here he was looking forward to meet her and what is she doing? Did she come to have a fight? If so, for what? He hasn’t even seen her after the sherwani incident. Is she still mad about that? But she isn’t even talking about it. “Then what is all this about?“, he asked himself.

“Why can’t you have a fixed routine?”, she asked him, for which he said, ” In what way is that your concern?”.

“Of course it’s my concern. You can’t exercise whenever you want to and roam around like this”, she declared, pointing her hand towards his torso.

“Excuse me!! Roam around? Have you forgotten that this is my house and I live here?’, he asked confused wondering if she hit her head somewhere and damaged few nerves there.

“I know!! But that doesn’t mean that you can show off your muscles like this”, she said pointing her hands towards his arms.

While Arnav stared back at his arms all confused, Kushi’s bedroom door opened and when he looked in that direction, ” Hi”, said the girls, waving their hands with slight hesitation.

“Hi”, he reciprocated and when Kushi noticed how the girls’ gaze was shifting from his face to his arms, she went and stood in front of him, blocking their view by shielding him.

Though he was amused seeing this he didn’t move a muscle while Kushi said, ” Now if you are done with your pleasantries… Go inside and practice”, addressing her friends, warning them with her eyes.

“Oookay!”, the girls responded reading the threat in Kushi’s looks and waved their hands saying ,’Bye’, to Arnav.

“Bye”, he said lifting his hand and when the door was shut and Kushi turned around, he still had his hand up in the air.

She gave one look to his hand and he brought it down and scratched his brow.

“Now if you too are done with your good byes and showing off your muscles to my friends, go inside and put on some clothes”, she suggested and turned around to walk away from there.

She took a step forward but as he grabbed the ends of her dupatta just in time and pulled her back, she came crashing onto his chest.

“Now where are you going? We are not done talking”, he whispered from behind as she balanced her weight on her feet.

“What is that which is bothering you more? My workout routine…or your friends’ attention on me …or me not showing up for days?”, he asked pretty straight forwardly which made Kushi realize the blunder she made.

“What’s wrong with me!! Why did I even come out and question him. And why did I have to say all those things to him. Let him show his muscles or something else. Why should I care and even if I care what’s the need to make it so obvious”, Kushi shut her eyes and  scolded herself for over reacting.

“Tell me…what is bothering you more?”, he whispered again, which made her realize how close she was to him. She opened her eyes and stepping forward she turned around to face him.

“Nothing is bothering me”, she replied pulling her dupatta from his hands without looking him in the eye.

“Really! But it didn’t sound like that few minutes ago”, he said crossing his hands against his chest.

“I don’t know what you are talking about”, she replied and turned around when she heard him sniffing.

“Can’t you smell it?”, he asked which made her look at him.

She sniffed and when she didn’t smell anything, she looked at him confused and shook her head.

“There is this smell you know. It emits from people when they are extremely jealous. Don’t you smell it?”, he asked which made her realize what he was referring to.

“I’m not jealous, Okay!”, she uttered.

“Yeah! I can see that”, he said and smiled which infuriated her.

“Seriously”, she stressed as if it’s important to make him believe that she was not jealous.

“Yeah, I get it”, he said as he smirked which made her stomp her foot and get back into her room, leaving a smiling Arnav behind.

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With the next day being the mehndi function and their home being the venue for all the wedding related ceremonies, the decorating activities were initiated and by the evening of the mehndi day,the house was decorated like never before. It was illuminated with grand lights and was filled with  flower arrangements and drapes making it resemble some palace. And after their job was done indoors, the decorators and wedding planner moved outdoors to set up the stage for the wedding in the lawn. A circular mandap was being set up in the center of the lawn where the wedding is going to commence after two days and while Arnav and Rishi were monitoring the work and seating arrangements in the lawn, Aakash and Shashi went to personally  invite few of their close friends, leaving the house completely to the ladies to have their mehndi ceremony.

The living room was filled with women of all ages including those from Sakhi and laughter and music prevailed there, portraying the festive mood. Six mehndi designers were arranged to take care of the crowd while their lead designer was exclusive for the bride. She was working on Anjali’s hands when Kushi and her friends sat as a group little away from them and started selecting the mehndi designs.

Looking at the lady who looked marvelous dressed in a red lehanga choli and a light green dupatta, the designer couldn’t help but stare at her. And as she observed Kushi, she noticed how neatly she pleated the dupatta and pinned it on her right shoulder and wore a  thin silver waistband to keep the dupatta in place.Though the right half of her midriff and her naval were completely covered the other half was exposed showing the milky white skin there. Coming to her hairstyle, the hair was parted in the middle and a tiny portion of hair from either side of her head was clipped behind, leaving the rest of the hair flow free. She was wearing large ruby and emerald studded danglers on her ears and a matching necklace was hugging her neck. Looking at the hands which were bare, the designer understood why they were left like that.

“Is she your sister? She is very pretty”, she asked Anjali, admiring Kushi.

“Yes,she is”, replied Anjali looking fondly at Kushi.

“Is she also getting married soon?”, came the next question from the girl.

“What made you think so?”, Anjali asked, surprised.

“Look at her skin. It’s just glowing. I see this kind of glow on the  bride’s face. Like the one you have on your face now”, said the girl giving her reason.

Anjali laughed and said, ” Okay! I’m flattered. But coming to Kushi, there is nothing like that. She is still studying. She is blessed with good skin and just like her name she is always happy. That’s the only secret behind that glowing skin”.

“But the one who marries her is going to be really lucky. He will have a very pretty wife. Not that your bridegroom won’t. “, added the girl, which made Anjali laugh aloud.

“Kushi, you have one admirer here. Get your hands done with her. It will make her happy”, Anjali shouted out making the designer flush and though it made no sense to Kushi she just nodded in response.

While the girl shut her mouth and resumed her job, Anjali stared at Kushi, thinking ” My brother would be really lucky if he marries you, who is beautiful inside and out. I wonder when he will realize this”. 

“I want this design”, said Kushi pointing her hand at a design in the book hearing which Sakshi asked her to pass on the design book.

” This one??? No way. First you will get your hands completely filled with mehndi and later you will torture me to scratch you. Pick some other design where you will have no trouble in scratching yourself”, said Sakshi hearing which “Maaa”, said Kushi sulkily.

“Scratch her?”, asked Preeti looking at the mother and daughter.

“Oh!Hasn’t her childhood habit gone?” inquired Madhu and when Sakshi shook her head the girls got curious to know about it.

“Maa, you won’t breathe a word to them”, Kushi warned her mother which encouraged Sakshi to reveal the full story.

“I’m not like your friends to get scared of you. Listen girls”, Sakshi paused as Kushi placed her palm on her mother’s mouth to prevent her from spilling out her little secret.

While Sakshi pulled that hand away, Preeti and Nisha pulled Kushi away from her mother to let Sakshi speak without any hindrance.

“We will take care of her. You please carry on, aunty”, said Preeti looking at her friend who was struggling to rescue herself from her friends’ grip.

“It’s not a big secret but look at your friend who is making a mountain of a molehill. It’s just that since she was a little girl, she was always very fond of this mehndi and used to get her hands and legs filled with it on all special occasions and festivals. But the torture part is, the moment her hands get filled, she used to ask me to scratch here and there, troubling me to no extent. She has grown but that habit never left her. I can assure you, even today once her hands get filled she will look for me to scratch her”, said Sakshi laughing in the end and the ladies around her joined her in the laughter.

“Maa, this isn’t fair. You are making fun of me. I’m not going to talk to you”, complained Kushi making a face which made Sakshi come to her.

“I just told your friends what they don’t know about you. Don’t they have the right to know some little secrets about their darling friend”, she said pulling Kushi’s cheeks.

“Now if your tantrums are done, go and get your mehndi done. I will be ready to scratch”, she added which made Kushi narrow her gaze at her mother.

“I was just joking!”, said  Sakshi patting on Kushi’s cheek and she asked, ” Between, why did you pick that design which would cover your hands till the elbow. Let me remind you, you are not the bride here”, on a teasing note.

“If I were the bride, I would have gotten the entire length of my hands filled. Since it’s Di’s wedding, I gave some concession and settled with elbow length”, said Kushi pulling her hands from her friends’ grip as she showed her tongue to her mother in a funny way.

“Okay. get it done however you want to. But ask that designer to leave some space on the  fingers so that you don’t have to seek my help to scratch “, replied Sakshi poking her tongue out while she scratched Kushi on her hand and walked away from there to attend her friends, ignoring her daughter who was screaming from behind.

A death stare from Kushi suppressed  the giggles around her and as she picked up the design book, she was asked by Anjali to get her mendhi done as the designer who was working with her was done applying mendhi on both her hands and legs.

Kushi went and sat in front of the designer and after showing her the design which she picked, she sat still for the next twenty minutes without making a sound surrendering her hands to that girl . But right when her left hand was done and the girl started applying mehndi on her right hand, the itch on her back didn’t let her sit still. And as she looked for her mother and Aarthi, she was disappointed to find none of them there. To her rescue, soon her friends who got their hands done surrounded her and appreciated the design on her hand. But as Kushi made a face in response, ” What happened? Don’t you like it?”, inquired Pragya.

Though she knew that her friends would make fun of her, as the itch became intolerable,   ” Can you scratch on my back?”, asked Kushi, which made all the three girls burst out in laughter while the designer girl held her lips tightly to suppress her laugh.

“It’s not funny”, complained Kushi while Pragya stared scratching on her back, trying her best to get to the spot to which Kushi was guiding her to.

“Not there… to the right… little upwards… ya right right.. there…you got it… scratch”, for the next fifteen the orders didn’t change though the spots did and by the time both the hands were done, the girls were done having fun, at the expense of Kushi.

“Now I get it why aunty said it’s a torture”, said Pragya scratching Kushi on her shoulder and the other two girls laughed again.

“Just wait until this gets dried and I take it off. I will show you what it would cost you all for making  fun of me”, threatened Kushi, getting up from her spot.

“Do you want me to apply it on your legs too, Mam?”, asked the mehndi designer for which Kushi said, ” Ya, but not right now. Can we do it in the end?”, as her tummy grumbled.

While the other girls had their dinner post the mehndi application, Kushi and Anjali didn’t, which turned them hungry now. And when Kushi told her mother about it, Sakshi brought a plate filled with food and fed both Kushi and Anjali, taking turns.

As Anjali became bit emotional realizing that soon she would miss all this, Kushi and Sakshi comforted her saying that she is going to be in the same town and can come home whenever she wants to. After the ladies of that house shared an emotional moment, the volume of the music was increased which pulled everyone onto the dance floor.

Kushi was dancing with her friends when her eyes fell on her phone which she left on a table. And seeing it flashing when she went and checked it she saw that she was getting a call from her father. She looked for help and seeing Devyani near by, she asked her to pick the call and place the phone near her ear and when Devyani did the same, squishing  the phone between her cheek and shoulder Kushi answered the call. The music and the sound around her made it impossible to hear her father and hence she gestured Devyani that she is going outside and  came out of the house to attend the call.

Her father informed her that one of his friend’s wife is travelling to London on the 14th of that month and asked her if she would like to travel with that lady. He wanted to book the ticket based on Kushi’s interest, and when Kushi gave her consent since she would get some company, Shashi ended the call asking his daughter to enjoy the mehndi function.

She was about to turn around and go inside when she sensed something on her waist and as this made her stop in her tracks, she stood still and shifted her focus to the spot where the itch was building up. She lifted her head to see if any of her dear ones were nearby but when she found them all far away, immersed in the music and dancing to the tunes, she sighed and moved her left elbow to touch the spot were the urge to scratch was just increasing.  She rubbed that spot with her elbow and  when doing so, a little bit of the wet mehndi from her hand got smeared onto her waist.

“Oh oh!”, she remarked as she moved her head to get a better look at the smear and when she did that, the phone which she had been supporting with her cheek, slipped from it’s place. But before it could hit the ground and break into pieces, was caught by a hand which came from nowhere.

As Kushi’s eyes traveled along the length of that hand to get a look of its owner, she found those chocolate brown eyes looking back at her.

He had noticed her the moment she stepped out of the house and was looking at her all the while when she was on the phone. But it was only when she started moving uncomfortably, he became curious and started walking towards the porch to get a better sight of what’s happening there. He was just in time and saved the phone but couldn’t save himself from drowning in her eyes. As he raised to his full length and looked at her, she too stared back at him, holding her hands up in the air. His gaze shifted to her hands and then it traveled along her body, as he observed her outfit pretty keenly from top to bottom. It was only when his gaze was travelling back from the border of her lehenga, that he noticed the smear which was on the left side of her waist. As he knotted his brows and looked there intently, Kushi followed his gaze and looked at her waist, bending it slightly to get a better view of it.

As she was looking at it, she saw his hand approaching that spot, and before she realized, he picked up the mehndhi with his right index finger and used the thumb to wipe that area clean. And when she sucked in her breath as a result of his touch in that sensitive area and  went numb all over except for the spot where he was rubbing his thumb, ” PERFECT! Flawless”, she heard him say.

The dark  green stain on her milky white skin did bother him and it was only when he saw it clean back again, he was content.

As he took back his hand and  looked at the canvas which he just cleaned up, Kushi lifted her head and stared back at him, as if her eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets.

“Arnav!!”, Rishi’s voice made him turn around and when Rishi gestured him to come back Arnav went to him, with Kushi’s phone in his hand, leaving an astonished Kushi behind.

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-Deepti ©

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