Tangled || ArShi FF

Chapter 17 - A Lovesick Fool

(Monday, July 24)

Payal had left for Lucknow the following Monday evening. Khushi was in office when she received her cousin's text that she was on board the flight.

Keeping her cellphone aside, Khushi studied the table in front of her. It was bereft of files, or papers or any work. This past week, to keep her mind occupied, Khushi had dived into work and labored like never before. Now, she had tackled almost everything that she had to and was left with no urgent pending task.

Maybe it was time she took that vacation she had been putting off for years, she mused.

She sighed and pushed the sleeve of her shirt back to view the wristwatch- 8:30pm. It was too soon to sleep and she didn't want to spend any free minute in her house. The void that she still felt, despite of doing everything, would drive her crazy. Her mind would recall her past memories of him and she feared, once she went down that path, she wouldn't recover.

The past week Khushi had tried to avoid him as much as she could. She changed the timing of her office hours just to avoid meeting him in the elevator or lobby. She stopped hanging out at the office café.

The only times she couldn't avoid him were the meetings that they had. But he had made the task easier. He behaved as if she were invisible.

Khushi laughed bitterly at the turn of events. Weeks back, in these similar meetings, he would be staring at her, grabbing her hand when he thought no one was noticing and now, he didn't even so much as give her a side glance.

Going against her better judgement, she leant back in her chair, allowing past memories to consume her. A knock on the door woke her up. It couldn't be Lavanya since she had already packed up and left for the day.

Khushi rubbed her eyes and muttered wearily, "Come in," before turning her gaze to meet the person. "What is-."

The words were left hanging in the air when she saw who the person was. Sheetal.

She was the last person Khushi wanted to interact with at this time. Nonetheless, she knew she had to.

"Please have a seat," she gestured at the chair. Sheetal, who had her trademark sneer on her face, obliged.

3 visits in 3 months. Khushi pondered as Sheetal sat on the chair across from her.

For the first 5 months after Sunil Sir had passed away, Sheetal didn't even spare Magnolia a look.  But in these past few months, Sheetal had begun to involve herself with Magnolia's affair- like getting a new company MD- Arnav, when the company was doing quite fine without him. She was so cautious of Arnav the first few weeks but then they started bonding, unknowingly over texts and later, in person. She thought of the text-chatting, of their dates, of-

The snap of Sheetal's fingers brought Khushi to the present and she realized her train of thoughts had ventured to Arnav. Again. She had to get a grip on herself.

"What can I do for you?" Khushi asked, clearing her throat.

Sheetal scoffed, "I don't need anything. On the contrary, I am here to tell you something."

Khushi's interest was piqued. "What?"

Before Sheetal could answer, Khushi's laptop pinged indicating the arrival of an email. Khushi glanced at the screen and narrowed her eyes, confused. "I've an email from you."

"My PA must have emailed it now," Sheetal commented. "Don't bother reading it. Let me personally brief you what it's about." The smirk on her face had gotten wider, like she would enjoy what was coming next.