To Love or Not To Love

Chapter 25

A black Mercedes stopped at the traffic lights just outside gates of AR. The bustle of activity that surrounded this incident was not unnoticed by its inhabitant. Waiting patiently at the curb for the lights to turn red, a crowd of people seamlessly waded through the scores of cars waiting for the lights to turn green. Some were selling wares, others begging, still others merely crossing over to the other side of the road.

A woman with a malnourished child in her hand tapped the window of the Mercedes, asking for alms, "Sahib please give me something, the child has not eaten anything for three days."

Taking his aviators off, he was just about to take a closer look at the woman, when a faraway sight caught his attention. He looked again. He was not mistaken. Khushi Kumari Gupta was sitting in the coffee shop around the corner from AR with a man and laughing her head off. An emotion flared. He couldn't place it. But it left him unsettled.

"Sahib, please. God will bless you. All your wishes will be fulfilled", the woman chirped, apprehension evident on her face that the lights would turn green anytime soon. "Please Sahib, for the sake of the baby".

The lights turned green, cars behind began honking vehemently. Just as the woman turned around to cross over to the curb, Arnav called out to her and handed a crisp 500-rupee note.

He then put his aviators back on, drew his windows up and made his way into AR Corp.

******

Khushi did not remember when she had last laughed so much. Indeed, when she set out on her impromptu coffee date with a stranger, she had no idea what she had signed up for. But the guy had been more than a gentleman. He not only knew all his manners – he had pulled the chair out for Khushi, had asked her what she would like to order first and had paid for the entire thing – but also had a very remarkable sense of humour.

Aman Bansal. That's what he said his name was. And he worked in AR – as part of the core Management Team. She liked the name, moreover, she liked the person. She could see herself being his friend. It would be fun working with him. Correction, she would not be working with him because Arnav never intended for her to go to the office.

That did dampen her spirit a fair bit, but Khushi was never the one to sulk in a corner. And so she decided to make the most of whatever was left of this amazing day she had had in a long while. She decided to take a shower, cook herself a fabulous meal and then watch her favorite romantic Bollywood movie for the umpteenth time – Maine Pyar Kiya. A day that had unexpectedly gone so well deserved to end with a dose of Salman Khan!

***

It was 9.00pm. Arnav Singh Raizada had refreshed his email page constantly for the last 10 minutes. He was due to an email from D'Silva any minute and he was more than eager to know what the file on Khushi Kumari Gupta held.

At 9.05pm his blackberry buzzed indicating a new email in his inbox. At 9.50pm, Arnav Singh Raizada was buzzing the door of Khushi Gupta's apartment.

****

Sitting in a dark room, with just the lights from the television set illuminating the living area, Khushi Gupta had just finished emptying an entire box of tissues and was reaching out for another, when the sound of the buzzer disturbed her movie. Cursing loudly, Khushi picked up the remote to pause the movie, turned the lights on and made her way to the door – with every intention of telling off this unwanted visitor at this ungodly hour.

She opened the door to find Arnav Singh Raizada, clad in a black t-shirt and track pants, leaning on the doorframe, holding a fairly large brown envelope in his hand.

"May I come in?", he asked.

"Of course. Please treat this as your own house."

"I should, isn't it? The last time I remembered, this was my house." And he proceeded to make himself comfortable in the part of the sofa that was not strewn with tissue papers.

"I can see cleanliness is not one of your virtues, Ms. Gupta."

"What can I say, Mr. Raizada, it does seem that there is a lot you don't know about me."

"As of today, I know everything that I need to about you – Ms. Gupta.", said Arnav, the tone of his voice almost menacing.

"And so I have a revised offer for you. You will join AR as a trainee designer as already indicated in your contract, and you will be working with the European expansion team. I am aware that your current contract doesn't have a decent pay and benefits package. That will get added to it and you will get enough time to go through it to raise any concerns you might have.

"But if you choose to accept this offer, you should do it now – because tomorrow morning this offer expires."

Khushi stared at Arnav as if he had grown wings, sporting a halo around his head and now looked something similar to an angel rather than a devil. Shaking herself out of the rather fanciful mental picture, she was painting, Khushi walked up to her copy of the contract, that lay near the television set, initialed all the pages, signed the last and gave it back to Arnav.

"Good", chuckled Arnav. "We start work at sharp 9. Make sure you're in the office at 8.30", making his way out.

Glancing back from the door, he added: "And Ms. Gupta, this doesn't change anything with regards to our original arrangement."

"Oh but it does Mr. Raizada. Because now I am a legitimate full-time employee of AR Designs, Ms. Jha won't allow you to carry on your clandestine contract with me. So if you still want me, you will have to just find another way.

"Good Night. Sweet dreams." And just like that, she closed the door on his face, the second time in a row.