Beautiful Girl

Part Ten

He keeps smiling for no reason while he approves and signs projects. It has been three weeks since Payal married Aakash and he has spent every day of those weeks with Khushi.
She comes straight to his office after her school lets out and then she proceeds to fold herself on the couch in his office with her notebooks and laptop. Having your own huge ass office with floor to ceiling windows and door that locks with a receptionist who guards the said door is a blessing.
Sometimes he rings for coffee, at others he brings her cupcakes and pastries, small offerings he thinks she will like.
It's often well after six when he finishes his work for the day and migrates to her side, cajoling her to just shut down the system and take a break.
They talk about all manner of things. The books she plans on reading. The shows she has to catch up on. The concepts of Physics that tire her out, the chemistry numericals that she abhors, but the CBSE Board loves.
Sometimes, she will extend her arm like a needy child and that is his cue to move from his couch to hers and then she will lean against him and close her eyes, complaining why he couldn't have done his Intermediate with PCB, so that he could solve her sums for her.
He laughs at that.
Sometimes, she will make him watch Shinchan with her, and he is genuinely boggled when she does it.
He doesn't get Shinchan. The first time he told her that, she looked at him as if he had grown horns.
He makes her watch Star Trek.
She likes it, but still maintains she's always gonna be Team Star Wars.
It has everything to do with that dude who plays angsty Heathcliffe reborn, Kylo Ren, no matter how hard she denies.
They both love Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi and when he sometimes plays Kishore Kumar in the evenings, she pulls him by hand to dance like there's no tomorrow.
They click.
At every level that matters.
He's still lost in her memories when the knock sounds on his door and he pulls himself together to play the hardass that he's.
Mridul is already shitting himself, he notes with derision when the man comes to stand in front of his desk.
He hates incompetence. And he hates it even more if it comes from somebody he didn't expect it from.
"Sir?"
"Are you out of your fucking mind, Mridul?" He roars and the man flinches.
"Due diligence, Mridul, Damn it! That's what you were supposed to do. Had I not rechecked the proposal before approving, it would have cost us pretty penny, not to mention the leverage the opposite party would have over us."
It's twenty minutes of dressing down an employee he didn't think he would have to summon for this.
After he is done, Mridul slinks back out and Khushi enters on the heels of his departure.
"Ah, the legendary damn it! How my ears were missing it," She jokes as she deposits her bag by the side of the sofa and flits over to her favorite perch, the corner of his desk.
"Hello to you to, jailbait. Had a nice day?" He enquires mildly while closing the tabs open on his browser.
"I had a fantastic day," She informs him and then launches into stories of all that happened while she was at school.
He listens even as he pulls another file to work on. He has started to resent the extra work that creeps on to his table and digs out of his time with Khushi.
"Arnav?"
"Hmm?"
"Should I let you work?"
"I am listening," He protests, even as his eyes read over the paragraphs.
She jumps down and rounds the corner. He puts down his pen and raises his head, pushing his chair away from his desk to turn in her direction when he spies her shoes in his periphery.
She braces her hands on the armrests of his chair and leans into his space.
"All I wanna do right now," She husks, "is to run my fingers through your hair and mess it up, but you need to work Mr. Raizada and I need to study."
How the fuck are they so compatible?
"Are you going to make me watch something weird today?" He reaches out to push tendrils of hair behind her ear, something that is totally becoming a thing between them and she cants into his touch.
"Nope. Can't do. I have to go back early today, or Payal's mom is gonna go Rocky on my ass. She has been bemoaning her lack of help from past week," She says as she straightens and turns to march back to her spot.
He knows Payal's mother does more than moan. She dresses down Khushi regularly. He knows Payal's bua pays her a host of snide remarks that make her plug her earphones tightly in her ears and pretend that she's listening to music and that she can't hear them talk about her.
He knows she digs her heels and refuses to do household chores that the women of that house think she needs to learn to become a good wife and Bahu.
As if Arnav needs a housekeeper. As if he ain't rich enough to hire household staff for all his and her needs.
Whoa! He almost jerks out of his chair.
What the fuck? He just wasn't thinking that.
Fuck.
He has no claim on Khushi. She spends time with him because she wants to, and fuck that doesn't mean he gets to have some kind of territorial claim over her.
He isn't supposed to think about her love, let alone marriage.
He looks over, quietly having a meltdown inside his head and Khushi is focused on her lecture.
She's gonna fly off to MIT, and he's gonna be left behind here. She will find someone she loves and he's still gonna be here.
She's gonna promise her life-
"Back to the files, Arnav. You are supposed to stare at the legal mumbo jumbo, not me," She drawls, not taking her eyes away from the screen and fuck.
How did she know?
Chastised, he pulls himself to his desk and picks up the proposal again.
He's supposed to be the mature one between them, but often, she's the one who does adulting while he quietly freaks out in his head.

~~

They're watching a French film today. She has curled against his chest and he rests his head atop her head even as they thread their fingers together, eyes rapt on screen.
"I would like to learn French someday. It sounds sexy," She remarks softly. "I am always surprised when I hear it. I don't know why."
"Tu es beau," He whispers in her ears and her skin breaks out in gooseflesh. (You're beautiful.)
"J'aimerais pouvoir te raconter... "
(I wish I could tell you...)
"Are you cursing me out in French?"
"Je t'adore, Khushi." (I love you, Khushi)
It hangs between them, the words in the moment, edged on the precipice, and then she lets out a breath and he does too.
"Fuck, that was hot. You were hot," She breathes and turns pink when she realises she spoke the words out loud.
He laughs and the tension that was moments before is gone.
He feels lighter.
"Am I hot now, jailbait? Just when I am speaking French? Only when I am speaking it?" He teases and she flips him off.
He tightens his arms around her, the movie forgotten entirely.
"Is Payal's family being extra nasty these days?"
"Nothing I can't handle, Arnav. And what are you going to do even if they are?"
"Want me to be extra mean to Payal?" He's only somewhat joking now.
She punches his arm and shushes him as the hero chases after the heroine. It is one of those quintessential tales of love.
"Are you going to stay with them after you turn eighteen?"
"Nope. Walking out of that house with my bags the morning of my birthday."
"And go where?"
"Home," She says simply as if it's the easiest thing in the world.
"And live alone in that big house?"
"Why? You wanna come live with me?" She smiles as she asks and stops smiling at once when he doesn't laugh with her.
"Seriously? You wanna come live with me?"
"Why? I can't?" He is annoyed.
"Ah, stop pouting, Arnav. What is the world gonna say about two unmarried people living together under the same roof?" She points out gently, like she's explaining things to a child.
"World can go fuck itself in the ass, and I don't pout," He grumbles.
"Well, amen to that. And you were definitely pouting. I wasn't protesting because I suddenly care what the world thinks about me. Your office is literally in the opposite direction of Jor Bagh."
"I will take public transportation," He announces and she breaks out in giggles.
"Arnav Singh Raizada, have you recently tried taking public transportation?"
"No, but it can't be that hard."
She cups his face and looks fondly at him. "Sweetheart, you won't last a minute."
There's wealth of affection in that one sentence and Arnav basks in it and feels like he can take on bloody armies with her by his side.
He's about to make a quip when his phone rings, and any thought of ignoring the call is abandoned when she gives him that pointed look.
It's his Di.
"You need to go to Paris to finalize the L'Predateur deal."
"But weren't you supposed to go, Di?"
"I need to hold the fort for the upcoming merger of one of our subsidiaries with Mahiyavanshi Retails."
His Di hangs up and the bubble he has been in from past three weeks finally bursts.
"You need to go," She states and he looks down at her.
She's resting against his chest and her arms around him are sure of their hold.
They understand each other perfectly.
"Do you want something from Paris?"
"Chocolates?" She hedges and an impromptu smile breaks on his lips.
"Anything else?"
"I don't know. I am out of practice when it comes to demanding things."
"Well, you can start working on cultivating the habit again. I am required to travel out of the country on business frequently. I wanna bring things back."
"Well, you can choose something. I will give you a list next time around," She proposes.
"Deal?"
"Deal. And Arnav, I adore you too.."
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Thank you for the love you've spared for my story.
Keep reading, voting and commenting, guys.
♥️