Making Her Mine- An IPKKND story.

Chapter 76 - Arshi

"Are you really going to do this, Arnavji?" Khushi asked, twitching like a nervous rabbit.

They were waiting at a restaurant for Kamini Mehta.

"You know it's fair, Khushi. If you want to risk our future peace just to be friends with this woman, the least she can do in return is agree to never write about us."

She wasn't fighting back as hard as she normally would. Maybe because she saw that he was right. Or more likely, because she was walking on eggshells after what he had told her. He caught her giving him searching glances on the sly. It was annoying and amusing at the same time. He half hoped distracting her with this Kamini thing would put an end to it, maybe she would start fighting back again, but she was still being so careful around him.

Kamini Mehta was about Khushi's age. He could see why they would get along. She wore cheap shiny clothes and carried the same type of bag as Khushi, and arrived at their table with her curly hair bouncing, a huge grin on her face.

"I can't believe I'm getting to meet the ASR!" She exclaimed, plopping herself on the empty chair at their table. "Thank you for meeting me!"

Arnav chewed the inside of his cheeks. Khushi had gotten up and welcomed her new, likely duplicitous friend, with equal enthusiasm.

"I read your article," Arnav started to say, but she cut him off.

"You did! I didn't know you'd read trash like that!"

He flared his nose. "Khushi says you apologized for not telling her you had written about us, and told her you'll never write about us again."

She wasn't smiling excitably anymore. Good. "Oh. Er. Yeah, I—"

"Great! Here's a Non Disclosure Agreement. I've told Khushi, if you just want to be her friend — because that's what my wife thinks you want — you'll have no problem signing this. You'll only refuse if you mean to write something after all. We like our privacy, I'd hate it if my wife's new friend used her access to our lives as fodder for more trashy articles."

Kamini blinked. Khushi looked repentant. Arnav rolled his eyes.

"Oh. Er—"

"If you refuse, Khushi won't be spending any more time with you. In fact, I've convinced her if you mean to write about us again, we'll have to get out a restraining order against you to stay away from us."

He could see her jaw working. "Khushiji—" she began, a glimmer of anger on her face.

"Please don't have the audacity to get angry," Arnav interrupted. No way she was going to manipulate Khushi. "It's a fair ask. Khushi doesn't owe you anything."

Kamini held out her hand, presumably for the papers. He handed them to her, keeping his face expressionless.

She flipped though them, and looked up at him and Khushi.

"I need time to read it –" she began. Arnav shook his head. "It's very straightforward. You don't get to talk about me or my family." He tapped the papers. "Personal matters. You can still write about AR Designs, or any of my businesses. I have nothing to hide. Take it or leave it."

"Fine."

She signed with extra flourish than necessary. Arnav beckoned to Mr. Roy and his team, who were sitting at a nearby table.

One of the assistants filled up witness names and passed the paper around to be signed by them.

Mr. Roy collected the papers, and nodded at Arnav before leading his team out the door.

"Excellent!" Arnav said, feeling quite satisfied. "Now that you've signed, let me share a personal fact that you cannot disclose." He smirked. "I am very vindictive. If you try to get around this NDA, I'll use all my money and power to make sure you spend the rest of your life in debt."

Kamini looked like she had swallowed a lemon.

"Kamini ji —" Khushi began apologetically.

"No need to feel bad, Khushi," Arnav interrupted. "This is not going to affect her life in any way. Maybe she can even start writing better things. Things that help people, instead of gossip. Shall we order some food? This place has really good Lebanese food. You'll like it, Khushi. Lots of chili."

"Oh, er— you want to stay?" Khushi asked. Arnav shrugged. "Yeah, I cancelled some meetings for this. You want me to go?"

She looked torn. "No, you can stay," she mumbled, looking between him and Kamini, who still looked a bit red in the face.

He sat back, aware that he was dampening Khushi's usual exuberance. And most likely, Kamini's. He would have left, given Khushi some relief, but he still didn't trust this woman. He wanted to know what they talked about.

Kamini was rapidly gaining back her self assurance. "It's too bad, that's all," she said, not realizing she was contradicting what she had told Khushi about not writing about them again. "People would have liked to read some more about Arshi, it was a hit."

"Urshi? What on earth is — what's Urshi?"

"Ar-shi. Arnav-Khushi? You know, like Saifeena, Brangelina...?"

"What?" Arnav furrowed his brows. He wasn't hearing her right, was he? "What the fu—"

"That's what people call famous couples," Khushi told him bracingly, before turning to her new nutcase friend. "It's okay, Arnavji doesn't like that sort of thing."

Arnav rolled his eyes. "No, I don't like Ar-shi, or whatever it is. We are good without anything about us in the papers. Thanks for the interest."

"Is he always like this?" Kamini asked Khushi, as though he wasn't there at the table at all.

"Oh, no, Arnavji is actually very sweet..."

Arnav rolled his eyes again. Geez. Why was he here again?

"Why are you interested in me and Khushi? Surely there are better things to write about," he said, interrupting whatever discussion they were having, which he had momentarily tuned out.

"Oh!" Kamini said brightly. "It was that video of you two, you know? It was so romantic! I saw it randomly, I was at my friends wedding in Lucknow, and they were playing it quite a bit one time. They said nasty things, the Lucknow reporters. But I knew it was something special! Just the way you two looked at each other! I remember I was eating halwa, and I almost choked on it! It was horrible, there was halwa everywhere! And then I came across this Reddit post about you, and someone had put a picture of Khushiji – it's your employment ID – sorry Khushiji, it's such a bad picture, you are so much prettier than that! But I knew it was you, and I was so thrilled when I found out you two had married! I knew that there was something going on between you in that video!"

She said this in one breathless monologue. Khushi looked delighted. Arnav sighed, exasperated. Because what the actual fuck?

"You should introduce her to NK, Khushi," he said. "I didn't know it was possible, but there's someone even more like him than you. They'll get along."

"Really?" Khushi said, looking thrilled. "You should come to the wedding, Kamini ji!"

He gave up. Kamini had just signed an iron-clad NDA. And Khushi was Khushi. He had done his best.

"Right, I changed my mind, I'm going to go," he said, getting up. "Order the Baba Ghanoush, it's good."