Arranged marriage was an age-old story that Khushi, the youngest of the infamous Gupta family, who revolutionized and dominated the trading market for generations, knew well.
For it was the only thing she heard growing up.
But that neither prepared...
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Arnav was having a busy morning.
Thanks to his impromptu accident, all his grand plans for his shopping mall project had to be rearranged. Instead of personally meeting with architects, Arnav was found listening in on discussions via telephone and monitoring their progress through video chats. All things considered, however, the new set-up wasn't too bad.
Perhaps because he had too much experience with hospitals, for growing up Arnav had more injuries than both his sisters combined.
Of course, back in those days, each hospital visit earned him a good scolding from a hysterical Satya and a perfect excuse not to attend school. However, as a grown up, neither of those things happened. His mother merely sighed when she came to visit him, wasting no time in recounting all the times he had injured himself to anyone who would listen and instead of chilling in front of a TV at home, he was kept under constant supervision from a truckload of nurses.
Not that he was complaining, of course. No, there were many perks to staying at Abhaya Hospital.
As if on the cue, Khushi walked into the room along with a rather grouchy looking Ved for his morning check-up. Having been admitted for three days now, Arnav knew their –or rather her– routine by heart.
"Morning doctors," Arnav greeted, all stress of his pending project forgotten.
Khushi smiled brightly. She did that quite a lot with him, Arnav noted. After her –surprising– frenzy on the first day, Khushi had grown very quickly accustomed to having him in the hospital. He was the first patient she checked on before going on her morning rounds, stopped by for lunch and even an occasional coffee, before finally wrapping up her work and curling up on the sofa in his room at night.
Arnav had requested her multiple times to go home at least for sleeping –for seeing her on the sofa brought back those horrendous early days of their marriage– but she was adamant. And it didn't take him long to figure out why. She felt quite guilty for not spending the full day with him like how sisters usually did –mostly to keep him from being bored– but she was being silly.
He didn't need Khushi to physically be present in front of his eyes to know that she cared (and if he had any doubts before, her behavior on the day of his admittance spoke volumes). He had spent enough time with Myra to know what concern looked like and Khushi had somehow managed to surpass even his doting mother in that department.
"Good morning Mr. Raizada," Ved said grimly, pulling out his stethoscope. "How are you feeling today?"
Arnav suppressed a smile, having no trouble understanding the reason behind Ved's mood.
It really didn't take a genius to figure just much Ved admired Khushi, he may as well have stamped his forehead with it. And although Arnav was caught off guard to witness it on his very first day at the hospital, he couldn't help but laugh when mere seconds later Khushi made it clear that she didn't return even a gram of his feelings. The cherry on top, of course, had been her fussing over Arnav like a five-year-old.
