A Promise Broken! (Completed)

A Naïve Khushi

This chapter and the following two or three will be in the form of flashbacks. The incidents are spread over a month, preceding the face-off between Anjali and Khushi. In the present timeline, the events are being narrated by Arnav. This tirade will give a glimpse, to the people present in Shantivan (and the readers), into the reason behind Arnav breaking his promise. The scenes take place on different days and are presented in the manner they occurred. Each incident is separated by "--------".

Flashbacks start
Arnav returned from his morning jog expecting his wife to be in the drawing-room, surrounded by family, munching on Buaji's special halwa-poori. Khushi had asked her aunt to prepare this delicacy last night, when they mentioned their plan to visit Shantivan and her mouth had been salivating since then. Seeing Payal feasting on something (which didn't appear too appetizing) and no Khushi buzzing around, Arnav quickly greeted Garima and Buaji and went to his room. Imagine his surprise on finding a downcast Khushi talking to Laxmi by the poolside, with a half-eaten toast lying on a plate nearby. He knew directly questioning her would yield no results, so he decided to use his ASR ways. Her habit, of blurting out facts without thinking, when she was emotional, would take care of the rest.

Arnav (in a teasing tone): Sweetheart, I didn't know you too are turning into one of my crazy fangirls, who try to imitate everything about me, including my food habits. Instead of following my healthy diet, why don't you copy my charming style of talking to people? Maybe start practicing by conversing with human beings and not animals?

Khushi (with her hands on her hips and a visibly red nose): I was chatting with Laxmiji because, right now, she is the only one available to patiently listen to my woes. Jiji was getting a headache with my voice so Amma asked me to stay away from the breakfast table. You removed my Salman Khanji's poster - so I couldn't have an imaginary dialogue with him like how I often did at Laxmi Nagar. My options were either these plants or Laxmiji and I have no love towards your precious plants. By the way, what did you say? Learn conversation skills from you? What a joke. You don't talk to people; you just yell at them.

Arnav wanted to remind her that he is always at her service. He has saved his mobile number, office direct line and even Aman's number on her phone so she can get in touch with him whenever she feels like. He had also assured her countless times that his business meant nothing if it came in between them. So she should never hesitate to call, even if it's simply to talk when she is bored. However, what caught his attention at this moment was her being alone in the room (he obviously discarded the goat) when her family was downstairs. Arnav got an inclination of what had happened but was still fuzzy about the details, so he continued his "interrogation".

Arnav: Whatever. Everything I do, I do with panache and soon you too will emulate me. Earlier you would mock my toast-and-butter breakfast and today you've tossed your halwa-poori aside for it.

Khushi: No way. I would never pick your tasteless bread over my delicious halwa. But apparently nowadays Jiji gets nauseated with the smell of desi ghee so Buaji cancelled the plan in the morning and made upma instead. She made enough for the full family but I was not in the mood to eat that so I thought of giving your dish a try.

Arnav joined the dots and completed the picture. Among the few (and he meant scarcely any) Indian dishes that his foodie wife didn't like, upma topped the list. And her pregnancy hormones augmented her distaste towards it - so there was no way she would eat that. If even he was aware of her intense aversion to upma, he was sure that her allegedly loving family couldn't be ignorant about the same. Why they still picked "upma" over "halwa-poori" was no mystery.