He Loves Me Not - Part 6

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Chapter 6

I am leaning against my car, unable to think clearly about what just happened with me. The least person I had expected to show up during my Engagement to Sheetal was Khushi Gupta. Her re-entry in my life is definitely not a coincidence. I am very sure the woman who blindfolded me at the Golconda Hotel was her. Today once again she has managed to mark her little presence in my life which I never took seriously so far considering its her childishness. It’s high time I start rectifying it before she manages to change my decision. I have left her a voice message to call me as soon as she gets it. That was 15 minutes ago and she is yet to do that. She spoiled the Dinner date with my Fiancée, not that I was looking forward to it, but whatever happens hereon I am not going to let Khushi Gupta make those decisions for me.




My phone rings finally. It is Khushi Gupta. I answer it and speak to her in a rough voice.

“Hello, you called me Arnav? Who gave you my number?” she speaks as if nothing is wrong.
“Where are you?” I bark.
“I … I am.. Why? Why do you want to know where I am?” she snaps.
“Reply whatever I asked you, don’t question”
She exhales.
“I am at the Happy Sea Food Hotel, dinning with my friends”
“Stay there. I am coming to see you”
“See me?”

I disconnect the call without caring to explain her and get in my car. This place is only 20-minute drive from Golconda hotel. I am very sure she managed to escape there while I was busy thinking all this while where she can go? I don’t care what she might think about it and if she will confess to me that she was the one who misbehaved a while ago by spoiling my dinner. I only want to warn her. She has to stay out of this…Forever.

**********************

Happy Sea Food Hotel 

Arnav barges in the dinning area where he expects Khushi would be. He sees a group of 4 girls sitting at the corner table, eating and giggling about something. Khushi Gupta is one of them. He notices her dress first. She is not wearing any Satin frock but Jeans and a Tank Top. She must have changed it before he came here. Without analyzing the situation alone, he decides to talk to her face to face, once for all. He strides to their table. Khushi notices him when he is few feet away and gets up.

“Hi Arnav” she smiles.

Her friends stare him with equal appreciation.

“Girls, he is Arnav Singh Raizada, my father works in his Company” Khushi introduces.
“Hello” the girls wave at him. Arnav is in no mood of introduction.
“We need to talk” he reminds.
“Yes.. Uhh… Excuse us girls. I will be back in few minutes”
“Okay”

Khushi follows Arnav out, where they can speak privately.

“What is this all about?” she shoots her question the moment they are secluded from others.
He glares at her.
“You asking me that? As if you don’t know anything”
She nods dismissively.
“What should I know?”

Arnav clenches his jaw.
“Don’t act so innocent. What the hell were you doing in Golconda?”
“Me? In Golconda? Why would I come there? I am here to Dine with my friends”
“Stop this nonsense” he yells.

Khushi jerks. So much of anger? She doesn’t recall he being so violent before. He was always passive and handled things calmly. This is new!!

“Why did you do this? You spoiled my Dinner date on purpose, didn’t you?” he growls again.
“Arnav…” she looks around once to see if they are being heard. “We are in public. You cannot shout at me like this”
“Oh really? You can do whatever you like and I cannot even ask you why you did this?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. And if this is how you want to behave then its better, I leave” she turns around but in a fraction of second, he grips her wrist and twirls her back to him. Their bodies are inches apart. She feels rage emanating from his body which holds the power to melt her down. She is worried if he can read the turmoil on her face and gets proofs that he is right. She messed his dinner plans. Sweat beads form on her forehead. She had not expected him to react this way.  She didn’t even think he will ask her to meet him that too tonight. It didn’t give her much time to prepare for all the lies she has to tell him in order to get away from this situation. At times she feels she has to bring this war in the open .. let him know her real intentions. But then she fears if he will he take harsh step to prove nothing can stop him this time.

“I am going to ask you this just once. What were you doing there at Golconda Hotel?” his voice is edgy. She is not sure what he would do if she accepts or denies.

She shrugs his arms and moves back.
“How can you be so confident that I was there?” she crosses her arms
Arnav’s brow furrows. Why is she stretching this?
“Did you see me there? Did you hear my voice? Did anyone call out my name? How can you be so sure? I want to know” Khushi continues defending.

Arnav swallows hard.

“No” he mumbles. “I was blindfolded”
She lets out a chuckle.
“You didn’t see me? Then maybe you heard my voice?”
Arnav grits his teeth. No, he didn’t hear her either.
“I know it was you.” He says grudgingly.
“How?” she snaps. She wants to know this. She wants to know how he can be so sure it was her when he didn’t see her, hear her voice. What is that feeling which makes him so confident?
“I sensed it was you”

Khushi’s eyeballs grow darker.
“Sensed?” her voice grows fond with desire.
Arnav swallows. She is confusing him.
“What are you trying to prove?” he scowls.
“That you cannot sense people randomly. There has to be something special when this happens to you. Who am I to you? Just your Employee’s daughter. Then how can you practically feel me at a place where I didn’t belong?”

Arnav looks uncomfortable to answer any of her questions. Though her reasoning is valid, he cannot demonstrate any of this. He blanches suddenly.
“I know it was you. However hard you try to lie and get out of it, I won’t let you do that. You want Proofs, I will give it to you Khushi Gupta and that day you will be the last we would be communicating again”

He strides back to his car. Khushi keeps staring at him until he drives out. He sensed her presence, he knows how she feels in his arms, doesn’t he? What surprised her is that he hasn’t forgot it yet. He was so sure that woman was her. Had he been a little more persuading, she might have disclosed the truth he wanted to hear from her desperately. She was so close of being caught. Though Khushi was prepared of escaping from Golconda on time, before he could even realize what happened, she hadn’t planned the Dinner with her friends. She was supposed to go straight home but when she got his voicemail, she realized that he isn’t going to give up. And that’s when she had to change her plans. The girls she was sitting inside with when Arnav came are not her friends, they are some random people whom she doesn’t even know. She changed her outfit in this hotel and then requested the girls to allow her join their table faking some story to them. Fortunately, they didn’t mind and played the game along. But she has to be careful now. He is going to find the proofs and if that happens, he has even warned her never to communicate further. She has to amend things before everything messes up badly.

***********************

Shantivan

“How was your dinner?” Ayush Singh Raizada asks Arnav as he steps in the house. Arnav loosens his tie. He is not in a mood to discuss the dinner anymore but he has no choice. His parents knew he was going out with Sheetal and they will need details. He really wonders what Sheetal might tell them later about it.

Arnav sits next to his father on the couch.

“Good”
“Just good? You look exhausted, why is that?”
Arnav fakes a smile.
“Just thinking about work”

Ayush doesn’t realize he lied.
“Oh Boy. Things will work out with that Software matter. Don’t take so much of stress. And I heard from Aman that you have assigned this work to Shashi’s daughter?”

It strikes Arnav now that he hurried in making this decision. Khushi needs a chance to be around him and he just gave her that.

“I think she wont be able to do it. She is inexperienced and I should have considered all that before. I will talk to her tomorrow and take back the offer”
“Why?” Ayush is surprised by his changing mind. “Lets give the girl a chance. Who knows she might really give us something we need”
“I don’t think Dad”
“Don’t think until she is done, Son. It’s no loss for us if she tries.”

Arnav sighs.
“Okay” he gets up. “I will get some rest. Is Mom back?”
“Yes and already asleep”
“Ohh”
“Good night Son”
“Good night”

Arnav hugs his father and makes his way back to the room. He doesn’t want Khushi anymore to do this Software for them but taking off that contract from her will still complicate things. Aman, Shashi Gupta and his father is aware of this informal deal now. He simply has to wait for Khushi Gupta to fail on this so that he can fetch someone else to work on the Product.

**********************

Mathur House 

Sheetal throws the pillows at her brother Aman angrily who tried to tease her how she came early from Dinner.

“Don’t talk about your friend. He simply doesn’t know to look after a woman”

Aman is startled. His sister looks really pissed. Definitely she tried to lure Arnav and he being man of morals might have put a distance between them until marriage.

“Will you tell me exactly what happened?” he demands to know.
“I don’t want to talk anything about him. Just get out Aman. Now”
Aman purposely lays down on her bed, showing her, he is not going to leave until she tells him.
“Give me something to address upon this problem Sister. Come on” he insists.
“Why? Are you going to fix this?”
“I will try”
“No.. You cannot Aman” Sheetal sits next to him, her frustration is still at its peak.  “You are Arnav’s tail and he is yours. You both will never go against each other.”
“That’s true. But I really wish to know what happened which has annoyed you so much”
Sheetal frowns. Aman is in no hurry to leave so she decides to share her frustration. She tells him everything. Aman is confused. Why did Arnav behave so coldly with Sheetal? Before ASR was leaving for the Dinner date, Aman was with him and find no signs which could hint he was disinterested totally. Then what happened to him after he reached Golconda hotel? He has to find out.

*********************

Shantivan 

Arnav Singh Raizada is restlessly tossing on the bed. Whatever happened at Golconda and later his conversation with Khushi Gupta who denied accepting it, is continuously running in the back of his mind. He has always ignored her advances but this time she is playing with fire. One single mistake and she can hurt herself, him and his entire family. Can’t she see that? Why is she so adamant in accepting her defeat? Or is she reading something within his heart which he has failed to decipher?

He gets up from the bed and walks to the closet where he has kept the scarf which she used to blindfold him. It is still springing that perfume which she was wearing in Golconda. His eyes sparkle. She could change her outfit, but the perfume? She couldn’t alter that. When they met again tonight outside the Sea Food restaurant, she still had the same fragrance on her. This proves it but Khushi Gupta will never accept this proof. She will keep making excuses until he finds something compact against her. He has to think beyond that and prove her guilty without which he cannot push her away solidly from his life.

******************

AR office

“Aman?” Arnav is startled seeing his buddy again at their office today. “You here?”
“Hmm” Aman walks in his cabin. “How was your date?”

Arnav stiffens.
“Come on Aman, you didn’t come all the way here to ask me about the date. Tell me what are you here for?”

Aman pulls a chair and sits opposite to Arnav’s desk. The door knocks. This time it’s Khushi Gupta. Both Aman and Arnav are shocked to see her here.

“May I come in?” she happily asks, showing no signs of remorse or hestitation on her face as if nothing happened yesterday.
“Hey… You were supposed to work on the Software from home? Right? Or did I misunderstand?” Aman asks.

Khushi gets inside. Arnav is too raged to speak anything to her.

“Actually, that was my idea too. But then I thought how will I know if I am going right with my work? I need so much of information to build it and obviously I will need inputs from the existing team which is working on it here. So, I came here. I have taken Ayush Sir’s permission” she shows the tag again she is wearing in her neck which is duly signed by Ayush Singh Raizada.

Arnav clenches his jaw. She is too brave and intelligent than he knew.

“How was your Date?” she shoots the next question at Arnav who gives her a grim look. She ruined it and she still have the audacity to ask him that?
“Exactly my question” Aman replies turning his gaze back to Arnav.
“That’s none of your business” Arnav retorts to Khushi without breaking his gaze from her.
“Sorry, but unless the Boss is happy and contended, how would his employees get the fizz to work actively? I hope your date went well and you enjoyed each and every bit of it”
Arnav fists his fingers, thankfully none of the two opposite to him could see that.
But Aman is too smart to notice the uncomfort on Arnav’s face. Arnav’s intercom rings which he answers almost immediately.
“Did Khushi reach your cabin” his father asks from the other end.
“Yes Dad”
“Good. I only sent her to you. Can you please get someone assist her with all the information she needs for the software?” Ayush speaks.
“I will”

Arnav disconnects the call and then dials another extension from the same phone.

“Come in my cabin” he says and hangs up again. In half a minute Pam, Arnav’s secretary enters the room.
“Guide Miss Gupta to Chaturvedi and ask him to give all information she needs”

Pam nods to Arnav’s orders and Khushi follows her out. When Arnav finally looks back at Aman, he can read the man is suspicious of his behavior.

“Phew” Aman exhales. “So..is she”
“Not now Aman” Arnav warns.
“Okay, 5 questions and I am done” Aman continues persuading him.
“Aman… We have better things to worry about”
“And we will worry about them later. For now, I am not giving you a choice. Okay, so question number 1. Since when do you know her? he asks.

Arnav knows Aman is not going to stop until he is fully satisfied. It’s no point pretending now. He has to answer to Aman’s silly questions.

To be Continued


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