RISHTAA: An Arranged Love (IPKKND AU) **ON HIATUS**

Chapter 15: Khushi

They asked the rickshaw-bhaiyya to drop them around the corner from the house, out of sight. Khushi skipped ahead as Jiji paid the fare.

He wanted to meet me. He thinks we're compatible. He likes me.

Okay, he didn't say the last one.

But he didn't need to. It was there in the way he'd caught her and in his patience as he'd answered her questions without complaint. It was there in the way he took her name.

The other women ...

Khushi shook her head, trying to dismiss her worries. Whoever they'd been, they were no longer a part of his life. He'd agreed to consider women for Nani-ji and had picked her himself.

Surely he wouldn't have agreed if he still wanted any of them.

She paused on the verandah, allowing Jiji to walk past her and into the house. Arnav-ji had all but admitted that his complicated relationship with faith stemmed from his mother.

I don't understand. I turned to Devi Maiyya when Amma and Babu-ji ... Devi Maiyya would have granted him solace, given him peace, and helped him move on.

He doesn't force his views on others, her mind argued.

There was a permanent temple inside the home he'd built. The rest of his family practiced there, and even invited their friends for functions.

He won't stand beside me, but he won't stop me either.

Khushi agonized as she stepped into the house, trying her best to reconcile the future she'd envisioned all her life with this new reality.

Khushi! You should've asked him about this when you had the chance.

"What happened to your sleeve?" Jiji asked, now busy chopping potatoes in the kitchen.

"Huh?"

"Your sleeve. The pom-pom is missing on that side."

Gasping, Khushi turned in a circle on the spot, searching for the errant pink ball on the ground.

Jiji laughed, "It probably fell off in the market, Pagal."

Khushi released a heavy sigh as she readied the water for daal.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, Jiji. It feels like everything is ..." she waved her hand, trying to find a word that described the tumult inside her, "... uncertain."

"What did Arnav-ji say?" Jiji's tone sharpened.

"Nothing! He answered my questions, that's all."

"And ..."

"And ... I don't know. What do you think, Jiji?"

"Religion is a big part of your life. Do you think you can marry someone who doesn't share that?"

"But he does share it, sort of," Khushi argued, "He came to the aarti, and he doesn't stop his family from praying. He hasn't even objected to my fasting on Teej. But ... but he did say he doesn't believe in it."

"Is that enough? Will he sit beside you for havans? Will he take aarti with you? Will he be there for you for your parent's death anniversary?"

"I didn't ask," she admitted in a small voice.

"Ask him. Don't have expectations of him, Khushi, you'll only be disappointed."

Khushi nodded glumly. She felt her sister take her hand.

"I've seen what's in your eyes. He makes you happy. The last thing you do every night is message him, and the first thing you do every morning is reach for your phone. You count down the hours until you can see him again. You rush to the phone every time it rings, hoping it's him or his family, saying yes."