To Love or Not To Love

Chapter 26

Khushi was sitting in her cubicle at AR absently chewing the end of her yellow colour pencil. A beautiful sketch of a lady dressed in a bright yellow dress with a pink hat lay in front of her. Although Khushi had used a variety of bright yellow shades ranging from lemon yellow to chrome, the dress still seemed pale to her. And inspiration seemed to evade. She had tried a number of additions from brown leafy motifs to pink floral patterns. She had discarded each one of them. Something seemed amiss. She just couldn't seem to put her finger on it.

****

It had been two weeks since Khushi had signed her new contract with AR as a trainee designer and shut the door on Arnav Singh Raizada's face the second time in a row.

It had also been two weeks since she had met or directly spoken with him. Her cubicle overlooked the main entrance of AR and occasionally she managed to catch glimpses of him walking in and out of the building, but he had never personally come to bother her since.

Not that she had much time to think about him. The project was moving ahead at breakneck speed and there were many days when she spent wee hours of the following morning in her AR cubicle - wrapped in her pashmina, sipping tea and working on the designs. A kindly colleague, also pulling crazy work hours, would then offer to drop her home.

That colleague was never Arnav Raizada. Khushi had still not moved out of Arnav's penthouse apartment and neither had he ordered her to vacate it.

***

It was one such Wednesday night that Arnav, on his way back home from work at 1.00 am found her dozing on a milestone, her green dupatta wrapped around her body, head supported by her shoulder, her arms tightly wrapped around her knees.

Turning his ignition off, Arnav got off his car, strode towards her and crouching beside her petite form, gently tucked a stray strand of hair that was softly blowing across her face in the wind. With a ghost of a smile gracing his lips, he proceeded to gently shake her, let her know he was around and preceded to lift her in his arms and put her down in the back seat of his car, where she promptly curled up and fell into deep sleep.

Donning his place in the driver's seat, he turned around, and looked at the way she had curled up like a child, shook his head and continued driving home. Once at Rising Star, he carried her to his apartment, laid her on his bed and grabbing a blanket himself, made his way to the living room.

He had a lot of work to do. AR would formally become an international brand in less than eight weeks. Sleep was a luxury he could not afford – not that he got much anyway.

He couldn't remember the last time he had slept peacefully. Every time he tried to sleep, he would wake up with a cold sweat, remembering things he wished he had the capability to forget. A glass of cold water, some futile attempts to go back to sleep and invariable he would soon find himself in front of his laptop working.

Sometimes he thought about Anjali and envied her. With Shyam, she had finally found someone she could move ahead with life – Shyam positively doted on her, loved her for all the right reasons and would stay with her through thick and thin. His sister's health had improved drastically since her wedding and she had begun sporting a healthy glow on her face, which had always otherwise shown puffy eyes and dark circles.

Stretching his legs on his sofa, with his laptop placed on his knees, Arnav wondered, when would he find someone who would accept him with his weaknesses and not want him for his money.