Arshi: Off The Stage (On-hold)

22

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Arnav Singh Raizada was a man who kept his word. She knew that. But, to this extent? Well, she had not anticipated that. When he had told her that he would solve the issue of her sister wanting to accompany Khushi for an outdoor shoot, she had let that comment pass by. But Arnav never stopped working on making that happen.

Well, now there was Payal, excitedly explaining to her parents and Khushi how ASR had decided Payal and Akash should go to Australia to finalize the deal with a boutique there. Arnav was supposed to go, but he had some other things to attend to and the boutique wanted to deal with a designer, hence ruling out any chances of Shyam or Anjali taking ASR's place.

"I am so happy he chose me to send there." Payal exclaimed.

"Us Payal. Us. He chose us." Akash interrupted jokingly.

"Oh please, we both know I am the talented one. He just did not want me to go alone and you to feel bad." She said. There were no hurt feelings as her tone was playful and everyone there knew the two of them loved to tease each other.

"Congratulations jiji. I am so happy for you." Khushi said and Akash cleared his throat.

"And you too jiju. I am proud of you."

The conversation flowed from there. There wasn't much time left before they had to leave and Payal was busy thinking out loud on what she should pack, how she will engage with the potential partners etc., among other things. Shashi and Garima humored her and kept listening.

After dinner, Akash left to go home and the Guptas resigned for the night. Khushi looked at the time on her watch and she was pretty confident that Arnav would be with his family, having dinner. She decided to leave him a text instead of calling him.

*****

Arnav was gathering some rice on to his spoon when his phone pinged. She saw Khushi's name flash on the screen. He did his best to stop the smile that was forming on his lips.

"Chottey, check if it is something important." Arvind said pointing to Arnav's phone.

"Oh ho, aap bhi na. Let him eat in peace. I think we need to implement a no phones allowed rule during meal times. I don't think it is important. Knowing him Chottey would have already replied to it by now.

"No no. It is important." Arnav clarified. Of course, it was important. It was Khushi. It was really important. Just that he didn't want to be caught by his family, making goofy faces at his phone.

"I will get to it as soon as I am done with dinner." Arnav said picking up the pace with his food.

Shyam suppressed a smile as he figured out who the text would've been from.

*****

Khushi went up her room, freshened up and changed to her night clothes. She played some music as she prepped her skin before she went to sleep. About fifteen minutes later, the music paused as her phone rang indicating a call from Arnav Singh Raizada.

"You are sneaky, you know that?" Khushi said into the phone as soon as she answered.

"Well, hello to you too." Arnav said.

Truth be told, he was expecting this reaction from her. The past week, every time they talked on the phone or even met in person, he would consciously avoid the topic of her first assignment with AR. He wanted it to be special and he wanted to be there with her for that. It was getting tedious after a while, hiding it from her.