Being The Missus

Chapter 3 - The Learning Curve

"Khushi, look… don’t create a scene." Khushi turned to find her six-foot-tall husband pace into the kitchen. His eyebrows furrowed, lips pressed in annoyance. There used to be a time when his anger coupled with intimidation would make her heart race a home run.

"I'm sorry if my appetite died after I got to know I was cooking for your ex-girlfriend who everyone seems to know about apart from me."

"Khushi-" Arnav leaned against the counter, shaking his head. "Shanaya and I were friends way before we dated. It wasn't anything serious. The breakup was mutual. And apart from being a person I know, Shanaya is the hot thing in fashion, and she wishes to launch her clothing line under AR labeled Aura. You do know how important it is for us, right?"

Three. Two. One.

Khushi let out a deep breath, calming her nerves. Yes, she was jealous, but she wasn't the person to exactly admit that. "Are you ashamed of me? Of us?" Arnav choked on his glass of water, his eyebrows raising in shock

"Where did you get that thought from? Of course not." Her husband seemed to be very generous with words today. "Wait, Khushi... are you jealous?"

"Of course not! What's there to be jealous about?" Khushi lied through her teeth, smiling brightly when her husband ruffled her head, muttering ‘crazy’ under his breath as he walked away.

----

It was a lie. A big, f*****g lie.

Not jealous, f**k that.

She was burning.

Pure, hot, rage.

Om and Jai Prakash looked on worriedly as Khushi was about to put two full scoops of chilli powder in the curry. "Didi careful!"

"Oh... sorry." Khushi clicked her tongue in annoyance. As if her business was not sinking enough!

"What's up?" Khushi jumped in shock when her sister, Payal, poked her. It was a strange coincidence that Khushi and her sister ended up marrying Arnav and his cousin. While Arnav and Khushi’s love story was a clash of opposites, Payal and Akash’s story was akin to a 90’s cheesy romantic comedy. The love-at-first-sight, class difference, unbearable mother-in-law and a false suicide!

Ah, the good old days.

"Oh, nothing much..." Khushi gritted, pacing around the kitchen. Little did she know, her sister knew Khushi far better than anyone else. Thus, to distract Khushi from her sour mood, Payal dramatically fake-gasped when Khushi shoved a pile of her favourite sweets into the dustbin.

"Khushi..."

"I just hated them."

"Now that's what I call news!" Anjali, Arnav's twin, dropped by the kitchen. Ever since Anjali's brooding brother began to smile around Khushi, Anjali had taken affection to the young lady. Though if her sensibilities were put to test, Khushi had been too young to get married in the first place. Leaning against the counter, Anjali decided to cheer her favourite girl.

"Khushi, I wasn't this shocked when I heard my husband, Shyam, was cheating me!"

"Anjali!" Khushi protested, half smiling as Anjali laughed at her own cost. Anjali Sen Roy had been hopelessly attracted to her professor, never heeding to the warning signals Arnav sent her way when he suspected Shyam Senghal’s marriage proposal. After all, Anjali did have a significant stake in Arnav’s business company for she was once his PR manager.

Despite a miscarriage and visual disability, Anjali laughed off her bad days. Khushi had known she was risking her own relationship with Arnav when she told Anjali about the fraud that Shyam was. A professional con man and a middle man in Delhi’s horrendous human trafficking system.

Anjali did not think twice before divorcing and jailing him. After all, no one had better connections than the blind and incredibly sharp Anjali Sen Roy.

Khushi smiled at her sister-in-law, proud at how far she had come. Anjali’s decision to join AR back as Arnav’s PR chief was the best thing ever, for reasons apart from working though.

“Anjali, how’s work?”

“Pretty good! Arnav is his idiotic self, fussing way too much about me - sometimes I think he has forgotten that only my eyes don’t work, not my brain-” The trio laughed.. Khushi smiled, typical Arnav! Possessive, brooding, over protective and passionate.

“-and Aman has hired an assistant to specifically get everything in braille for me.” Khushi snapped out of her Arnav-land when Anjali gushed about Aman. Another reason why Khushi had not hesitated to break the news about Shyam to Anjali was because there was another man who had loved Anjali just as much but Anjali never saw him. Literally.

Perhaps this was their lucky chance? Payal smiled, knowing exactly where her sister’s mind trailed off. That reminded her, she needed to speak to her husband, Akash, if there was any way he could lock up Aman and Anjali in a storeroom. The ever romantic!

“Anjali-”

“-Enough about me. Khushi, you sound upset, what’s wrong? And-” Anjali sniffed and stiffened, her jaw hung open.

“DID YOU JUST THROW AWAY STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE?”

Suddenly, Anjali and Payal exchanged a very knowing look.

"Payal, have you noticed a very hormonal, jittery Khushi nowadays?"

Payal mocked deep thought and added "Of course Anjali, and then she even throws away her favorite cake." Khushi rolled her eyes as her sister and sister in law wiggled their eyebrows.

"Is there a news of a little Arnav?" Anjali winked, eliciting a gasp from Khushi. Taking a rolling pin in her hand, Khushi ran to hit them when she spotted Shanaya and Arnav return from the gym.

"You're out of shape ASR!"

"Shut up Shanaya!"

"I'm not kidding. A few minutes after basketball would leave you panting for breath."

"In your dreams."

"I have better things to dream about." Shanaya winked as Arnav chuckled.

Clutching her rolling pin tightly, Khushi felt a something claw her heart. The only time she tried flirting with Arnav ended up as a forgettable date. And he'd thought she lost her mind. Little did she notice Payal and Anjali noting the conversation, their smiles all forgotten.

"Let me challenge you, a basketball match this evening."

Arnav raised his eyebrow at Shanaya, then smirked,

"Game on."

-----

"Basketball. Is it a girls versus boys thing?" Khushi probed, watching her husband change into a vest and track pants. "Nope, cause if that would happen no one would be in Shanaya’s side."

"Why not! Am I not a girl?" Khushi winked, pulling her hair to one end. Arnav raised an eyebrow, laughing at Khushi's 'seduction' and rolled his eyes. "You're not exactly an innocent little girl are you?" Arnav drawled, enjoying Khushi's sudden fluster.

"I... I... meant that I'm a female."

"Yes, I'm all too aware of that. But Khushi Kumari Gupta Sen Roy, basketball isn't your alley game. In this salwar and all, you'll make any team lose!" Careless about the sting of his words, Arnav headed out, leaving a teary Khushi.

Turning to catch a reflection of herself in the mirror, Khushi questioned herself, was she just an old fashioned weird woman?

------

Nobody told her basketball could be this physical. Sitting at the stand of their outdoor basketball court, Khushi pulled out a bottle of iced water for herself. Her eyes were barely on Arnav's ripped form stretching across his vest. It was on Shanaya’s thigh high shorts and a tank top.

Anjali walked to and fro across the court, anger boiling in her as she could not hear the laughter from the ever chatty Khushi. Arnav, her twin, was a classified i***t. Payal, taking a break from staring at Akash, realised her sister was quieter than usual. Despite her liberal upbringing, something was wrong with Shanaya’s intimacy with Arnav.

“Now that’s something mate!” A guy whistled. Anjali, much against her annoyance, chuckled. There was only one guy in the planet who would have an insufferable Australian accent yet attempt to speak in his mother tongue.

“NK!” Payal snapped out of gazing longingly at her husband and shrieked on looking at her eldest brother in law. NK, Arnav and Akash’s youngest cousin, smirked and hugged his family. With dark hair, fair skin and hazel eyes, he truly was a splitting image of his Australian father.

“Payal, please stop pampering NK. A man who’s touching twenty five needs no spoon feeding.” Anjali groaned, although allowing NK to give her a hug.

“Anjali di, you were in my shoes… some ten years ago?” NK shrieked as Anjali threw a soda his way. “And please, I am Payal and Khushi’s confidante-” He continued, remembering the day Khushi and Payal openly extended their friendship, uncaring of their language and cultural barrier.

“Confidante my foot. The only good idea you had was to chase Khushi to make Arnav jealous, otherwise that i***t would have never ever proposed Khushi-” Anjali scoffed.

“Di, proposal is a question. And I think Nannav had issues in learning English because his ‘will you marry me Khushi’ sounded more like ‘you will marry me Khushi,” NK chortled, twisting Arnav’s name to Nannav and smacking a high five to Payal.

“Whatever, Arnav still had hope,” Anjal sighed, fond of her insufferable twin.

“Agreed. Unlike someone, he was not sending rose scented letters which actually decayed due to rotten flowers-”

“EXCUSE ME! Akash was preserving our love,” Payal argued.

“If only he knew how to preserve flowers,” Anjali shuddered, remembering the pest control they had brought in later.

“Now now ladies, don’t disturb a jet lagged man with nostalgia. Who’s that swanky lady and wait, is Nannav actually playing basketball?” NK gasped, removing his sunglasses. To his surprise, none of the girls laughed at his joke. In fact, Anjali looked positively fuming and Payal, for once, was not mooning over her husband.

Above all, the chatterbox Khushi was unusually silent, attempting to hide her embarrassment of not knowing basketball and playing that sport in a traditional salwar kameez. She stiffened when Shanaya and Arnav played on the same team, hugging when they scored.

Suddenly NK yelped and fell down. .

-------

“Nandkisore bitwa, here take some Ibuprofen.” NK winced as Nani called him with his full name.

“Nani it’s NK.”

“Mr. Nandkisore King don’t forget you’re my grandson! Everyone in Australia may call you NK or Mr. King but here you’re my golden eyed prince!” Nani fondly admonished NK, running a hand through his hair.

"We don’t have to stop the game-." Shanaya interrupted, looking at Khushi place an ice pack on NK's ankle.

"Shanaya, Nanhe just arrived and his ankle is swollen. I think that has more importance."

"Chill Khushi." Arnav cut in, thumping NK's back "You okay?" NK nodded at Arnav but smiled at Khushi.

"Nannav, why don't you give me fifteen minutes? In fact I want to join you guys! And please don't disband today's match... you don't know how awesome it feels to be playing together after years! Right Akash!" NK yelled at Akash, who waved in agreement.

------

"So what's the matter?" NK looked up, finding Khushi almost tearing the ice pack into pieces.

"Nothing. I don't get the enthusiasm for this stupid game. You're injured, and Arnav has important business meetings to handle..."

"Khushi? Since when has Nannav's work mean more to you than his happiness?" Khushi looked up, guilt roaring in. Arnav was happy, didn't she want that? Or Arnav was happy because of Shanaya that she couldn't digest.

"Nothing..." Khushi stopped as NK raised his hand, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

“Khushi, you weren’t this sad when Arnav was dating Lav… whatever that snarky-”

“Hey, check it!” Khushi warned NK. NK sighed, truly, Khushi could bring the best in even the worst people. Lavanya Khan, a slick, marketing shark, had turned to a softer, carefree spirit upon meeting Khushi. No one would say that Lavanya had nearly fired Khushi from the Roy enterprises at least twenty times.

NK studied Khushi carefully with a wistful smile. Silly Arnav! He never knew to value things. Taking his cell he called Arnav "Nannav, you all warm-up, I'll take twenty more minutes..."

Flexing his shoulders, NK got up and stared deep into Khushi's eyes. "You know why friendship triumphs love Khushi?" NK didn't wait for Khushi's answer "Because there's no veil in a friends eyes and he can end up seeing everything. Every single thing. And not just see things but also feel and fix them. So you either spit out your insecurities or have me interrogate you... for after this - none will have an idea what hit them."

-------

"NK you okay?" Arnav asked, eyebrows tensed with worry as NK dramatically limped and fell into Arnav's arms.

"No bro, I think I can't walk anymore..."

"Mohan! Get the car! We're heading to hosp..."

NK panicked and stood up straight, faking another ‘ow’ and cleared his throat "NO... I mean no Nannav. I can't walk anymore for today."

"Oh..." Arnav said.

"But game's not over, not that I played, but I’m thinking... I mean there's always a substitute. Khushi can come and..."

"NK, I appreciate your help, but Khushi can't exactly play basketball and..." Shanaya interrupted only to find Arnav gawk at a distance.

Clad in a scandalous pair of tight shorts and a loose sleeveless old jersey, Khushi rest her elbow against Arnav's shoulders "Now now, it's never too late to learn a new sport, is it?"

------

Translations:

Di/Didi - older sister (also a way to call a sisterly woman with respect)

Bitwa - son