Dark Paradise Chapter Forty Five

Khushi was sat downstairs with Anjali going through photos that Anjali was putting into an album, she had so much free time recently and Anjali had always meant to put these photos into an album but she always got distracted. Khushi was smiling as she began to get an insight into the Raizada parivaar pre-Khushi. There were many of Mamiji posing and a few Anjali had snapped on the sly of Mamiji when she is most herself, when she is eating. Khushi laughed as she looked at all the goofy pictures of Akash, she turned to Payal.
"Jiji its a good thing you met Jiju now and not ten years ago, sach mein, he grew into his looks didn't he?" Khushi asked whilst laughing at Akash who was gangly, had braces and big black spectacles. Payal gave Khushi a reproachful look, Khushi attempted to sober her mood but it was too funny, she'd have to talk to Akash about this photo. Khushi handed the photo to Anjali who placed it in the album.
"Hah hum sab tumhari taara lucky nahi hosakte, I mean not all of us get such a dashing man like my brother." Anjali said as she joked and Khushi turned confused. Anjali smiled and passed Khushi a stack of photos of Arnav. Khushi smiled broadly as she saw one of him with Akash posing in a very James Bond manner, both brothers attempting to look suave, another of Arnav looking angry his hand out in front ready to probably grab the camera, another of Arnav casually reading, his graduation photo stuck out to Khushi. Instead of smiling like most people would Arnav had an air of arrogance to him, his chin stuck up and his eyes pierced through the photo as if to send a warning to anyone that saw it, "I am ASR." it screamed to Khushi, she didn't like it and pushed it back. Then she came across one that confused her.
"Di, yeh...yeh meri photo kaha se agaaye?" Khushi asked as she looked and recalled the one photoshoot she'd done for AR. Arnav never used the photos so why were they in a stack of photos of him?
"Dikhao mujhe." Anjali said, Khushi passed it over and Anjali grinned at it. "Oh toh yeh thi raaz." Anjali said and Khushi still looked perplexed. "Arnav a few months back demanded he wanted to keep all his photos himself, he was acting very odd that day, I was sure he was hiding something but I couldn't figure out what. Today when I went to get his photos from his cupboard this was under all them. Chup chup ke dekhta apni biwi ki photos." Anjali said as she giggled at how secretive and elaborate her brother is. Most people kept a photo of their significant other on a bedside table, in a wallet or on their office desk. Arnav hid his wife's photo under a pile of other photos to maintain his image. Khushi scrunched her nose as Di passed the photo back to her, of course, her Bholuji could never show the love he felt in his heart for everyone to see. That would be too much, na? Khushi shook her head and decided she would talk to him about this tonight, she'd made him promise he'd come home early today.

Arnav had just gotten in and made it to his room when he set his eyes on a strange sight.
"What the-?" He said aloud as he looked around at numerous photos now dotted around the room, he'd adjusted to the photo of the two of them at the haldi being in their room but now on all the walls there were photos. There was a photo of Arnav and Akash posing in Bond style Arnav recalled they'd done that after they'd watched the latest Bond film at the time, another of him when he was trying to shove the camera out of his face, one of him reading, it creeped him out. He knew what he looked like and he didn't need a reminder, that's what mirrors are for.
"KHUSHI!" He shouted and Khushi came slowly waddling out of the bathroom, she had just changed into her pyjamas. Usually he'd smile at Khushi's penguin-esque gait but today he was not amused.
"Kya hua?" She asked.
"Yeh saab kya hai?" He asked pointing his photos to the walls.
"Oh yeh, kuch nahi. Di and I were going through some photos today, we put most of them in an album but we put up a few. You should be grateful I didn't put any bad ones up, I convinced Jiji to put this one of Akash in their room-" Khushi didn't get a chance to finish her story.
"Wait these photos, where did you get them from?" He asked as realisation flashed on his face, Khushi bit her lip to stop herself from smiling.
"Di got them from our cupboard, why?" She asked and Arnav's eyes widened as he went to the cupboard, he opened it to find the photos gone. He turned to see Khushi twirling her hair and smiling at him.
"Mujhe nahi patta tah ki tum mujhe chup chup ke dekha karte teh. Honestly Arnav that's kind of creepy." She said mockingly and Arnav groaned and rolled his eyes as he saw Khushi had the AR photos in her hand.
"Khushi aisa kuch nahi hai, you are too filmy for life. I kept those photos for business purposes, if we ever needed to use them at least they were safe. Stop making me seem like a creep, just because you like to think I pine for you 24/7 doesn't mean I do. I'm not this filmy hero like your Salman Khan. Got it?" He said and he went to go grab the photos but Khushi pulled them away. "Khushi I am not in the mood for this, give them back to me." He said and Khushi smiled as she pulled them away further.
"If its all for the business then you wont have any issue with me giving them to Aman to store away." She said and Arnav groaned. "Unless, you kept these photos because...oh I don't know, you think I'm beautfiul, when you look at these photos you remember how you felt then." Khushi said and she leaned in towards Arnav, although Khushi now had a bump Arnav was used to holding her with this addition. She smiled and looped her arms around his neck. "You remember how you stopped in the midst of your anger because you were so swept away by me. You remember how your heart was beating so fast and you couldn't understand why. You remember how you left quickly because you didn't like the confusion but then you felt restless afterwards." Khushi said and Arnav was in awe, how did she know all this?
"Yeah...right, dream on Gupta." He said and he was about to pull away when Khushi gently kissed him, he responded and as the kiss began to deepen and feelings awaken Khushi pulled away.
"I'm not dreaming, I know because no one kisses like that unless they feel deeply and lets face it, aggar meri life picture hothi toh tum uska hero hote. Tik hai?" Khushi said and Arnav exhaled deeply.
"Yeah whatever." He said and turned away. Khushi smiled, he could deny it as much as he wanted but at the heart Arnav Singh Raizada was a romantic.


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