UE part 22

"she said. She.is .waiting"


Siddharth turned his head while Khushi breathed a sigh of relief at the new entrant to the scene. So he had not slept inside the car after all!!


"ASR!!" Siddharth exclaimed in surprise


"Siddharth" Arnav muttered..


"Oh gosh buddy! How are you? Been days right? !"


Arnav remained silent..


"you with her?" Siddharth pointed at a very confused Khushi


"yes"


"oh great! Can I join you guys for a few minutes? I happen to be waiting for someone myself...unless of course you'd rather have some privacy"


"oh no..it's fine" Khushi immediately spoke..


Arnav widened his eyes golf ball size at her..she simply shrugged her shoulders in a 'what?' gesture..


"thanks" Siddharth said as he took a seat right adjacent to khushi..


Arnav took the seat opposite to both of them..


"you know each other?" Khushi asked confused..


"yes..Harvard buddies..right ASR?"


Arnav smirked.. buddies his foot! He loathed the man from a distance of 5.5 metres...the precise distance , a memory of the incident when Siddharth had thrown a water balloon on Arnav's face..his idea of Halloween..although Arnav had made it Halloween for HIM for the entire week that followed..


"oh great!" Khushi grinned..


"and what about you?"


"oh I am a journalist.. I did my MBA and switched to the line after a diploma.."


"enchanting..may I know your good name?"


Arnav flinched..


"Khushi..Khushi Kumari Gupta"


"Siddharth..Siddharth Malhotra..pleasure to meet you Ms. Gupta..or wait..hold on..you're a 'miss' right?" he raised his eyebrows..


"yes..yes of course"


"cool"


Arnav's nostrils flared in rage.. what was so 'cool' about it??


The waiter placed the menu before them..


All Arnav could read was ' Mashed Siddharth delight, Siddharth souffle, Siddharth ki chutni, Siddharth ka bharta, and so on..


"what are you ordering?" Khushi asked him..


"roasted Siddharth" he instantly replied..


Siddharth coughed on his juice while Khushi widened her eyes at Arnav who realized his blooper..


"i mean...roasted..forget it! Veg curry and rice"


"..same here" Khushi muttered..


Siddharth wiped the spilt juice from his coat..
























Arnav sat fuming in his seat as Khushi and Siddharth went on like long lost friends...


"why aren't you into business then?" Siddharth asked her..


"oh no I am-"


"not interested" Arnav interrupted "she works for Indian Times"


"yes" Khushi spoke "but wrong about the interested part. I would love to work in some media related department of-"


"yeah right" Arnav almost cut her mid way, before turning to Siddharth


"you were waiting for someone?"


"oh yes..and there she is!" Siddharth exclaimed as someone made an entry from the main glass door..


Arnav felt a wave of relief over 'she'..so he was here for a 'she' .Good..


puchu- cleared, siddharth- cleared
good.


"that was SO rude!" Khushi whispered to Arnav


"really? I am sorry to have disturbed your future prospects with some wannabe-"


"WHAT has happened?" Khushi's question made him stop mid-way..."oh gosh..they are breaking up"


























It was 15 minutes and the couple was still furiously wrangling..


Smita and Siddharth stood by their own table and the atmosphere had suddenly become very tense..Khushi hesitantly stood up and walked to them..


"Sid..it's really over"


"Smita! WHAT happened?"


"i said IT'S OVER!"


Khushi turned to Smita..


"just how much time have you spent in this relationship"


Smita sniffed.. "two years"


"two years and you are breaking up??? making all of it a TOTAL waste?? breaking up is not such a small thing..like, oh wow, let's break up! And you look distraught already! Just give it a try...breaking up is the most absurd solution possible..it's..it's IDIOTIC!"


"THAT is what I am trying to explain!!" Siddharth intervened "just give me a chance to explain Smita..i don't want this to end!! it's so foolish to breakup like this"


Arnav, a palm resting over his left cheek was a silent witness to the drama and to the mediator role Khushi was happily playing...this girl was unbelievable..getting totally immersed in their problem like it was her own..like she had made the match and the blame would fall upon her if they broke up..


"Arnavji!" Khushi turned to Arnav..


Arnav sat with the plastic expression intact...he raised an eyebrow at her..


"don't you think they shouldn't breakup? I mean they look TOTALLY made for each other..right? Don't you think so?"


"i think" Arnav looked at her "that it's there personal matter and it should be left that way"


Khushi coloured...


"actually" Siddharth interrupted.. "she is not wrong, she is just trying to help..Smita..please.."


Smita nodded her head and they moved to a corner..





Khushi sat back on the seat and clapped her hands in delight.. "oh they are SO going to patch up!!"


Arnav looked incredulously at her..


"is she your sister?"


"um..no.."


"is he your brother?"


"no.."


"are you a match maker?"


Khushi got the point.. "no"


"then what's there to be so jubilous about it?"


"THEY are patching up..oh my God!! OMG OMG!! She is smiling..oh god..now he is smiling too"


"Khushi will you STOP looking there? It's their private moment"


"WOOHOO!! They hugged!!"


Arnav gasped in disbelief..she was beyond human...



















They ate the dinner but Khushi's attention was TOTALLY on what was happening at the opposite end..and Arnav's attention was TOTALLY on her...


He had met crazy people in his life, several of them, but this girl somehow topped the list, strangely in a way which made him amused..how could anybody be so concerned over two totally strange people...and she effected him..no doubt, twice he had found his own head craning to see what was going on , at which he had totally condemned himself the next second..this girl..was not healthy for him...


but she was pretty, smart, cute, and things felt strangely happy and interesting with her around..ok! Back to square one..this girl was not healthy for him...


"Listen! If they ask our opinion, you will NOT say it's their personal matter" Khushi instructed him..


Arnav arched an eyebrow.. "excuse me?"


"Look! They need some sound advice"


"and you happen to be an expert" he spoke in a voice laced with sarcasm..


"sh..sh..they are coming"


in this whole break up fiasco the two seemed to have totally forgotten the reason for their own presence over there..Khushi was too immersed in the sorting out a third problem to remember the major one and Arnav was too busy in watching her sort it out and writing mental essays on her craziness and its effects to notice much else himself..
























Soon they had been joined at the table by a recently patched up couple who profusely apologized for the disturbance they had caused and were thankful for Khushi's kind intervention..


Arnav was just putting the fork in his mouth when there was a tap on his knee from under the table,..


he peeped in to see Khushi's hands in a 'give me a high five position' ..he looked up to her and she gave him a 1000 watt smile..


unbelievable...
















Siddharth and Smita proved to be not so bad company after all and they even accompanied Arnav and Khushi to the door of their car before parting ways..


"made for each other aren't they?" Smita tugged at Siddharth's arm as Arnav's SUV departed..


"yeah..they sure are" he agreed..


so did about half a dozen reporters who were basking over the glory of having captured Khushi's 1000watt smile to Arnav at the dinner table...




















"sweet aren't they?" Khushi said after a few silent moments in the car..


Arnav remained mum..


"i mean how were they even thinking of a b-"


silence..


"OH MY GOD!!!"


"What?"


"STOP! STOP THE CAR!! STOP THE CAR!"


Khushi clapped her hands on her thighs and the car halted with a screech..


"WHAT?"Arnav turned to her..


"WE FORGOT TO BREAKUP!"


silence...

"let's go back!!" she panicked

"brilliant" he retorted.. "go back , sit on an empty table and break up. do you even have an ounce of b-"

"OK FINE! I got it!!"

silence..


"damn" Arnav hit the steering wheel with his hands and there was a loud horn..


Khushi giggled.. "you hit the horn you know, how can you hit the horn? I mean who hits the horn when they want to hit the steering wh-"


she stopped as Arnav eyed her with one of his 'not one word more' looks..


"ohkay ohkay" she muttered..


silence..


"JUST . BECAUSE. OF . YOUR .STUPIDITY" he roared..


"EXCUSE ME?"


"Break up is idiotic, break up is stupid, give it another chance, playing the STUPID DAMN CUPID!! WHO told you to interfere in their personal matter and forget the bloody purpose-"


"What were YOU doing all the time? This was supposed to be a bi sided breakup! I was BUSY! YOU could have reminded ME! But NO! You just sat there watching..you could have broken up!"


"I could have broken up??? yeah right, while you were giving the DAMN SERMON on relationships perhaps that's where I should have interrupted and broken up"


"FINE!!! BUT you could have stopped me and reminded that we were supposed TO BREAKUP!"


"OH YEAH RIGHT!! I come to pick you up, you narrate your long stupid breakup plan to me, run inside, wait for me and then I am supposed TO REMIND YOU THAT IT'S A DAMN BREAKUP!!"


"As if you REMEMBERED!!! You are so impossible..if we were committed I would have broken up with you THIS INSTANT!!"


"As if I would be dying to patch up with YOU!"


"Oh that wouldn't happen if you fell on your knees"


"ON MY KNEES? I wouldn't fall on my knees if you were the last woman on earth"


"MY PLEASURE! I AM SO OVER WITH YOU!"


"WE NEVER STARTED FOR YOUR KIND INFORMATION!!"


"WILL YOU STOP SHOUTING??"


"JUST SHUT UP!!!"


"same to you"


"I SAID JUST SHUT UP!!!!" he roared...


silence...


"same to you" she whispered..


Arna could kill at the moment...

























"so where does this leave us?" Khushi asked him as the car came to a halt in front of her house...


"no husband wife rubbish. Just say we are seeing each other. No fiance"


"WHAT?"


He turned to her.. "do you have a better option?"


she kept staring emptily for a while before saying "no.."


"right. So that's it then before the final break up is sorted out"


"ya..i will think of somethi-"


"spare yourself" he interrupted "i'll do the thinking this time. Enough of your ridiculous ideas"


"Excuse me? MY ridiculous ideas?"


"i said ENOUGH!! I will tell you when I think of something!"


"fine!" she said, hopping out of the car.. "happy thinking!!"


going a little way she halted and just as he was about to restart the car she tapped on the window..


"but the evening was not that bad you know..breakup would have been exciting but saving a breakup was too!! WE DID IT!!"


"WE did it??"


"okay, not you..but you did help by not stopping me right?"


"as if that is even possible" he murmured..
















"so you guys broke up?" Paayal asked her as she stormed into the room..


"yeah of course!! we beautifully broke our breakup"














and no matter how hard each tried..the two of them certainly did not have 'breakup' thoughts as the last thing on their mind when they finally shut their eyes..




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------