Dark Night Dawning Chapter 20

Arnav woke up from the bed as bleary eyed as he was yesterday. Though the mosquito situation had been taken care of by using the net, the heat had made him toss and turn in spite of the fan. As he crossed Khushi’s room he saw her sitting in front of the mirror. Khushi had freshly showered and had dressed in a orange anarkali suit. Her hair was wet from the shower with little droplets dripping onto her collar bone, exposed by the wide neck of her suit;the tight bodice emphasized the shape of her round breasts exposing the slightest hint of a cleavage as she bent forward to apply sindoor in her partition. As he stood mesmerised by the sight of her, her eyes met with his in the mirror. She gasped as he took a step forward ……. Suddenly the doorbell rang!

‘I’ll get that.’ Arnav muttered as turned away from Khushi’s room.

When Khushi stepped out, she saw the Raizadas’ driver Mohan bringing in two large suitcases and a lap top bag into the courtyard. He handed the car keys to Arnav and took his leave.

‘Isn’t it a little too much luggage?’ asked Khushi curiously, ‘And why is he giving you the car keys?’

‘Well my 3 piece suits do occupy a lot of space.’

‘Why do you need those over here?’

‘I can’t go to a client meeting dressed in jeans, can I? I have an office in Sheesh Mahalwhich I plan to use in case of client meetings. That’s the reason I need my car. So ---- the keys.’ He was talking to her like she was a child.Just then there was another knock on the door. What now? She wondered who else had come to serve the Laad Governor.

It was Suraj at the door. ‘Surajji…….please come in.’ She realized why he was here and her nervousness increased.

‘Khushiji, why haven’t you called the office yet? They called me number of time asking me if you were really interested.’

‘I…..I misplaced my phone Surajji….I will call them as soon as I find it!’ she finished lamely.

‘Khushiji, this can’t wait any longer,’ he said earnestly, ‘why didn’t you use your husband’s phone? Here, please take mine and call them right away.’

‘That won’t be necessary Suraj,’ said Arnav coming back after he had put away his luggage. ‘Khushi couldn’t borrow my phone because I am on it 24x7. But now that it has come to my notice I will make sure she calls the office and gets everything going. Thank you so much for your help.’

Suraj nodded with a tight smile and was about to leave when Arnav stopped him. ‘Hey Suraj, I need another help from you. Can you tell me how I can get an internet connection around here?’

‘Sure,’ said Suraj in his polite tone, ‘I know the guys who helped me set it up in my house. I use it for my business. And you might also want to set up an UPS or inverter. We have a lot of power outages here. I will send them over as well.’

‘Thanks again Suraj,’ Arnav extended his hands toward Suraj,’ You have been a life saver!’

Khushi watched the exchange mutely. She turned around and slowly went back to the kitchen. He was really settling in, wasn’t he?

Half an hour later, she was more agitated than ever. She was pacing around her courtyard like a caged tiger. Then she suddenly found Arnav standing in her way, handing her his phone. He had showered and dressed in blue jeans and a white shirt. His hair was still damp from the shower and fell across his forehead, emphasizing the mesmerizing quality of his chocolaty brown eyes. She felt like she was drowning in them until she heard him say something.

‘Khushi? Hello? Call the office and confirm your appointment to them.’ He had raised his voice as Khushi seemed to be lost somewhere.

‘I….I can’t,’ she stuttered in a low voice, ‘it’s not as simple as that.’

‘I know…….’ Arnav paused before continuing,’that is why I want you to take this back.’

It was the envelope that she had left for him just before she had left Delhi. ‘I don’t want that!’ she exclaimed, ‘I..I will manage something.’

‘So ……..you can pay me money for your stay in my house -------- and I can’t?’ he asked her pointing his finger at her, his eyes smouldering.

‘That was different!’ she said sharply shooting daggers with her eyes.

Arnav realized he would have to simmer down a notch.‘Think of this as payment from your PG.’

‘But _____’ she protested feebly.

‘No buts!’ he said firmly. ‘This is your money after all.’

Khushi took the money from him and mentally heaved a sigh of relief. There was enough in the envelope for her to buy her provisions. Later she would manage with the advance. As she saw Arnav’s retreating back, he stopped and turned around.

‘Just remember that this is a temporary set up. Otherwise, no wife of mine is going to pay me single pie for taking care of her!’

Just when she thought he was being sweet about the money, he was back to the Laad Governor mode. He was incorrigible!

Khushi called the office using Arnav’s phone. She cleaned the house, made lunch andwas ready to go to the store to make her purchases for the next day’s dabba service. When she finished shopping and reached home she saw the house was full of workers.There were some men working on something in her bedroom. She rushed in to see they were fixing an AC! She marched into the guest room to see Arnav furiously typing on his laptop.

‘Who gave you permission to install ACs in this house?’ she asked him indignant.

He gave her his phone. ‘I spoke to your mom. She told me your dad has no problem with this. In fact ------your Buaji blessed me.’

She wished she could wipe that smirk off his face.

‘Don’t make such a fuss Khushi, don’t use it if you don’t want it.’ he called after her as she marched back to her room fuming.

She dialled her mom’s number. A few minutes later she put the phone down realizing Arnav was right when he said they were all praises for him. How could they not? He had cancelled their railway tickets and booked flight tickets for their trip to Coimbatore!

By evening Arnav was totally settled in. In fact the word settled was an understatement. The internet connection and the inverter were up and running along with the ACs. Why did he have to make everything his own?

Khushi decided to give him the silent treatment. Anyway she had a lot of work to do. All the orders were in and all the purchases made. Tomorrow she would have to finish the cooking and make sure everything got delivered on time. She would have to somehow get a new phone. The night dinner was no different than the previous day with Arnav sharing part of the clean up afterward. Khushi had a queer feeling inside her as she retired for the night.

**

The next morning as Khushi was busy in the kitchen, she heard the doorbell. When she went up to the door to open it, she found Arnav in the courtyard exercising. He was in his track pants and a vest and was doing push ups. She stood mesmerised as she watched the play of muscles on his back and biceps. There was sweat trickling down his neck down his biceps. Then, suddenly he stopped and stood up. The hair on his chest stuck to his skin due to sweat and she stood in her place frozen. He came up to her wiping the sweat off his forehead.

‘Khushi!’ he waved his hands in front of her, ‘The door! Aren’t you going to open it?’

‘Yes…..yes I am going,’ she said as she quickly opened the door to find a woman who looked like a maid.

The woman barged right in and asked her where she kept the broom and mop. In the next few minutes Khushi found out that Arnav had hired the maid to clean the house.

‘I am too busy to clean up my room. So I hired her. She might as well clean the whole house as you will be busy cooking, right?’

Khushi was about to protest when she realized she had kept something on the stove and went running back to it. An hour later there was another surprize for her. A phone had arrived for her by courier.

‘This is a replacement for the one I broke’ he told her reminding her of the long ago incident in the office storeroom.She nodded mutely and got back to work.

**

After a week, life seemed to be following a pattern. Khushi was busy with her dabba business, Arnav was busy with his business and the maid had begun to help Khushi with cutting vegetables along with the house work.Arnav sometimes stepped out to go to Sheesh Mahal to attend meetings.

One night, just as Khushi was getting ready for bed, the power went out pitching the room into complete darkness. Khushi’s fear of the dark made her slowly get up and sit on the bed. She began to hyperventilate.

‘Khushi, are you ok?’ Arnav knocked on the door and opened it as he found it unlocked. He had a small pen torch in his hand.

‘Hmm….’ Khushi whimpered from inside the mosquito net.

‘It’s alright, we will find a candle’ he said softly, ‘do you know where I can find them?’

He looked at all the places she had told him, but couldn’t find a single candle. He came back to her.

‘I think we will have to manage with this pen torch. You keep it here.’

‘Ok.’ She squeaked.

‘On second thoughts, I will sit here until the power comes back,’ he said entering inside the net,’You go to sleep.’

After a few minutes of tossing and turning she sat up and said ‘It’s too hot to sleep.’

‘What? I thought you were used to this weather.’ He said in mocking tone.

‘Not without a fan!’ she exclaimed.

‘Hold on, I will be right back.’ Arnav left the room and came back in less than a minute. He had a file in his hand. He sat next her and began to fan her.

‘Hey Devi Maiyya! No one will believe me if I told them what Laad Governor is doing right now!’ she muttered under her breath.

‘What?’

‘Nothing Arnavji.Have I told you about Varmaji in this new office? He is not at all like Shuklaji,’ she began to blabber. ‘There is too much confusion. He doesn’t tell me about the orders correctly. And then puts all the blame on me. The employees are also very fussy. Everyone wants different things. It is becoming so difficult to manage.’

A few minutes later Khushi realized that Arnav had dozed off. She touched his shoulder only to find him sliding down and making himself comfortable on the pillow next to her. A small smile stole into her lips as she saw the familiar pout of his lips as he slept.

In the morning, when Khushi woke up she found herself in Arnav’s arms. They looked at each other for countless seconds reminded of the times they had slept like this after he was injured. As she began to move out of his arms Arnav felt bereft and almost pulled her back into it. But he knew he had to control his urges if he wanted to win her back.

As Khushi stood there making tea, Arnav came up to her looking pensive. ‘Khushi, the inverter should have kicked in when the power went off right? But it didn’t. That means that it is a problem with the fuse. Can you tell me where the fuse box is?’

‘I know how to fix a fuse. I will take care of it.’

This independent streak of her was driving him crazy. He decided to humour her. ‘Oh I know. You can do anything. Let me come with you so I can learn a thing or two from you.’

As Khushi unplugged the fuse, she accidently touched the live wire which gave her a shock. She yelped in pain.

‘I told you I would do it but you never listen! What is the need to jump at everything? Do you have any sense in that head of yours?’ he let out a barrage of angry words.

Arnav shook Khushi in anger, while she clutched her finger, tears flowing from her eyes. They were unaware of a pair of eyes watching this whole exchange in shock. Suraj turned around and left as quietly as he had entered.

**

A week later, as Arnav was exercising in the courtyard he saw Khushi running out of the house with a bucket. He stepped out to see that a water truck had arrived and the people of the colony had lined up to fill their buckets. As Arnav watched, he realized that Khushi was the only woman there and the other men were having a gala time ogling at her. He marched up to her.

‘Why are getting water from here Khushi?’ he asked her.

‘We won’t be getting water for two days, so we need to store some.’

He could easily arrange for water with just one phone call but decided against it. ‘Alright I will bring it in. You go inside.’

‘There will be no need for that, I should get used to this.’

‘Khushi, don’t argue just go inside’

‘No! I said I can do this!’shesaid stubbornly.

‘Go inside now, dammit!’

Khushi realized that everyone was staring at them; she was indignant at the tone of his voice and it showed in the way she walked back into the house. She was taking it out on her pots and pans when he came up to her.

‘Khushi, the man behind you was drooling,’ he raged, ‘in a few seconds you might have felt it on your back!’

‘So what?’ she challenged him.

‘So the choice was between shouting at you or my fist in his stupid face!’ he exclaimed striding back to his room.

That evening as Khushi walked up to give Arnav his tea in the living room, he told her to sit as he had something to show her.

‘What is it?’ she snapped still irritated with him for yelling at her in the morning.

‘This is something that is going to help you with your business,’ he told her, ‘It is your very own website.’

Just as she was about to reply, the doorbell rang. It was Suraj. She asked him to come in and join them for some tea.

‘Namaste Arnavji, how is everything going?’ he enquired.

‘It’s going great Suraj. Thanks for all your help in helping me get set up. I was just showing Khushi the new website for her business.’

‘I have no idea what that means,’ Khushi said as she handed over tea to Suraj.

‘This will make it easy for you to run your business, Khushi,’ explained Arnav as he showed them the features of the application. Didn’t you tell me last week that you were having trouble dealing with the orders? With the help of this website you can make your business on line. You know how e-mails work right? Well similarly, this application will help you take orders, help in billing etc. This will also help in increasing your client base.’

‘I don’t think this will work for me,’ she said doubtfully, ‘each employee orders something different. It will become very confusing.’

‘That is exactly why you will have to fix your menu. You can give them a choice between a light meal and a heavy one and then charge them accordingly. People will sign up online and you can send them their bill via e-mail. Simple.’

‘I started this so I could provide everyone personalized service, I don’t want to fix the menu or anything.’

‘Khushi you have to learn to be practical in business, otherwise you will have a tough time.’ He said exasperated.He turned toward Suraj, who was watching this exchange quietly, ‘You are businessman Suraj. Don’t you think I am right?’

‘Arnavji, I may run a business but I do things from the heart rather than the mind. For me relationships are more important. I think Khushiji is right. She is making food from the heart and even if it reaches one person who appreciates it, her work is complete.’

What crap! As Arnav looked at Suraj in total bewilderment, he realized these words sounded strangely familiar. Where had he heard them before? Suddenly, it flashed to him. Of course! He had heard it from the same person who was listening to this crap with rapt attention – Khushi! Then something else flashed into his head at the exact moment, as he looked from Khushi to Suraj and back. Suraj was a male version of Khushi.

Suraj was the quintessential golden boy. He dressed traditionally, was well-mannered and soft natured to the point of irritation, helpful to everyone around him, respected his elders and spoke in pure Hindi – everything he was not.

Damn it to hell…… was this the kind of man Khushi would have chosen had he not forced her to marry him that night?