Making Her Mine- An IPKKND story.

Chapter 53 - Date Night

Arnav found Khushi sitting among a pile of papers, brows furrowed. She shushed him when he asked her what she was up to.

"Do you want help, Khushi?" He asked. "I'm good at math."

"Arnav ji, I am very good at maths," she replied irritably. "Now let me focus."

She was still at it when he had changed and slumped on the recliner. He watched her for a while, until she looked up in annoyance.

"Stop watching me. Don't you have something else to do?"

"Excuse me?"

"I need to finish this."

"It's taking very long. Let me help, I want to talk to you."

She slapped a piece of paper on the floor, and sighed noisily. "What do you want to talk about?"

"What are you doing, Khushi?"

"I'm tallying our orders and expenses."

"Well, you could use a computer. And maybe hire someone to do this for you."

She let out another exasperated sigh. "I don't have money to hire someone."

"You can take a loan? You need more people if you want to make more money. You can't be doing everything yourself. That's how you grow a business."

"How will I make more money if I have to pay someone to do something I can do myself?"

"You'll have more time to do other things. Like find more clients. You have to be the one planning how to expand. Then, the bigger your business grows the less of these other things you do. You oversee other people's work, tell them what to do, how to do it."

"Did you learn how to do that in your business college?" She was looking at him with greater interest now.

"Sort of."

"Fine. But I need to do this now."

"Let me help, it'll be faster. And then I can tell you what Dubey told me today. And then maybe we can go out, if there's time left."

She looked torn. "Tell me what Dubeyji said."

"I'll tell you over dinner."

She pouted, and handed him a sheaf of papers. "Those are old orders. That's how much I spent, and bills. And these are earnings. And those are tomorrow's orders..."

Arnav asked Aman to make reservations for a restaurant while he helped Khushi. She was a menace of a boss, not letting him joke around or even make small talk as they worked.

When they finished, she complained about having to go out to eat, because she was hungry already.

"Why can't we eat here? There's food here."

"Because it's a date, Khushi. We get to spend — never mind."

"But when will you tell me about Dubeyji's visit?"

"You know what? There's a takeaway place that sells biryani. It's very good. Let's go there, it's not too far, and they'll serve quickly. And it'll be like you're checking out the competition. I'll tell you what Dubey said on the ride there."

"Biryani!" She squealed, eyes lighting up.

Arnav grinned, called Aman to cancel the restaurant reservation, and followed a bounding Khushi downstairs.

Khushi refused to take the biryani and drive some more to a secluded spot Arnav had in mind, so they ended up sitting on a bench on the lawn outside the restaurant with their takeaway containers.

"Remind me to get you some emergency snacks the next time we plan a date," he said.

"Bring channas," she replied as she stuffed her face with biryani. "But Arnavji, does that mean that it's over now? We don't have to worry about Shyamji anymore?"

"That's what I'm hoping," he said. "By the way, I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have doubted your idea, it worked." With a good helping of pure luck, like all of her cuckoo schemes, but still. Khushi's plans involved a lot of faith that things would all magically work out. Maybe it wasn't such a bad approach.

Khushi looked adorably pleased at this admission. "You better remember that next time," she said, and then, with a smile, "but you went along with it anyway, Arnav ji. So you don't need to apologise."

He couldn't help smiling back. "You know, Di's dealing with this whole thing far better than I could have ever hoped for. I can't believe it, but things look okay for the first time in... oh, I don't know. I can't remember the last time I felt like things were okay."

"But Jiji and Jijaji are fighting."

Arnav nodded. "I don't know if they are fighting fighting. But yeah."

"They don't fight like us," Khushi said. "But I think their one fight is worse than all our fights because their's seems impossible to solve."

"You say that like you want to fight with me for the rest of our lives."

"It's okay, if you make up for it soon after."

"Really?" Arnav grinned. "And what if it's not my fault?"

"It's always going to be your fault, Arnav ji."

"O-Kay."

—

Arnav was telling Khushi about Di's plans to work for the orphanage as they made their way up the steps to Shantivan. Payal answered the door, and looked through Arnav as she let them in. He hastened to their room, leaving Khushi to talk to her sister.

When Khushi came in, she was tearful.

"What happened?" Arnav asked, going to her and holding her. But he knew already: Payal.

"Jiji..." Khushi said.

"Did she say something to you?"

"No, Arnav ji. She goes all quiet when she's angry. She's still angry at me. And at you – she can't even look at you. And, Jijaji and her haven't fixed things between them. It's all because of me."

"It's not because of you. Go to sleep," he said, stroking her hair, hating that he couldn't do anything to make this better.