Quick note: Watching the scene added above is recommended but not necessary. Happy reading❤
About this scene: Khushi and Arnav are at loggerheads and somehow, she manages to land in his car's boot when he is on his way to Nainital. A series of sequences later, their car breaks down and they try to find their way through the jungle. Khushi uses a public restroom to check her dress when a runaway bride runs away with Khushi's dress and khushi has to wear the wedding attire. Seeing her makes Arnav feel the first bout of wishful dreams. (S3 episode 21 on Hulu/Hotstar, Epi 95 otherwise)
--~--
Wishes are strange. Arnav never believed in them. He believed in actions. He was a go getter as they said.
But something had changed. Recently. Ever since, he went to Lucknow to reclaim what was his. Sheesh Mahal. Something had changed since that trip to Lucknow. And he knew what had. He had suddenly felt an urge...like never before...to wish.
--~--
Wishes always work. Khushi passionately believed that. That is why she always made wishes to her Devi Maiyya. And they were most often fulfilled.
But something had changed recently. Ever since she stepped into that old, mysterious palace called Sheesh Mahal. Something had happened to her since that night. And she knew what had. Her wishes stopped getting fulfilled like never before...
--~--
"You will see Arnav, one day there will be a girl in your life who will make you fall in love with her, and even the thought of separating from her will threaten your sanity." Anjali Singh Raizada-Jha had once told this to Arnav and his only reply to her was,
"It won't happen with me, Di."
When she had asked him to make a wish to a shooting star, he had scoffed at her childishness but pretended to make a wish as she closed his eyes with her palm. However, Arnav Singh Raizada didn't become an atheist for nothing, and this is exactly what his 'wish' sounded like- of course in his mind so his Di didn't hear it.
"I do not believe in this bullshit. But if there is indeed some place where these words are reaching, I challenge you to send this so-called girl in my life who will make me fall in love."
Oh, how he feared someone had indeed taken that challenge, someone indeed sent someone in his life and right now, standing in the middle of a God forsaken jungle, in front of a damned sulabh shauchalay (toilet), Arnav Singh Raizada's mind revisited his own words from the past. And the reason was that one person who was messing with his mind. One girl. Khushi. A girl he had at times underestimated for her skills to work in his office and at other times overestimated for her patience when she engaged him in a battle of words. In whichever case, he was constantly proven wrong, and ASR hated to be proven wrong.
Like today when he was on his way to Nainital, she had somehow become a part of that journey! The worst thing happened when his car broke down and they had to walk through a dense forest to find their way to civilization and seek help. But this girl could not give up messing with him even during that time. First she annoyed him with her constant useless blabber, then she fell into a pit- yup a pit!, and then started jumping as some insect had gotten into her dress.
And now 10 minutes since she went to that toilet to get rid of that bug, she was still not out. What was she doing in there? And importantly, what was HE doing there? Never has he ever waited for someone like that in his entire life!
And then he saw her- or at least a girl dressed in her clothes- come out of the toilet. Finally. He decided to ignore her antics for the rest of the journey and keep walking.
But before his thoughts turned into action, she walked past him, sat on a bike behind a complete stranger and left from there! A totally perplexed Arnav kept calling her name with shock and anger, but the motorcycle zoomed away fast from there. He could not believe this. What the actual f*ck? Who does she think she is?
That is it! He will fire her the first thing after he reached Delhi. First thing!
Seething in anger, clenching his fists, Arnav barely turned around to face the shauchalay again, when THAT happened. The door of a toilet booth opened, and Khushi stepped out!
Arnav Singh Raizada froze.
Time stopped still.
And his breath got hitched.
Because Khushi was walking towards him, dressed in a wedding lehenga! Holding the silky material with her delicate hands, her petite waist bare to his besotted eyes invoking illicit thoughts in his mind, her heaving chest due to the short run she was making and her glowing face in filtered sunrays in that forest were a treat to his dazed eyes...
Was he dreaming? Was his tired and angry mind conjuring up this image? His suppressed wish in his subconscious mind or whatever term the psychologists use?
If he indeed was dreaming, he wanted to pat his back for such a picture-perfect dream. The fashion house owner in him had already acknowledged Khushi was every designer's dream model come to life. But even that wouldn't give justice to the image in front of him right now.
This was beautiful and perfect.
And then she came near him and said something. Breaking his reverie. How could an imaginary Khushi speak?
Unless he wasn't imagining, and she was indeed there.
Soon, he realized the girl who had left on that stranger's bike was not Khushi. She was probably a runaway bride who had changed her clothes to not get caught and in process stole Khushi's clothes. So, Khushi was left with no choice but to wear a wedding dress left behind by that runway bride.
While Khushi was still shouting after that clothe thief, Arnav's mind wondered despite of himself.
He wondered if he were like an average, normal man his age without a past baggage, then he could have believed in love and marriages.
If he believed in love, he would have fallen for someone he needn't judge for her financial background or her middle-class status.
If he could indeed be with a girl he wished, he would have married her.
And if he had to marry the girl he wished to, he could have chosen Khushi.
Even as he confessed it to his own heart, he felt an adrenaline rush like never before. How would it feel to have her as his? How would it feel to hold her hand with an intention to bring her close and let her hear what effect she had on his heart, how would it feel to make her quiet without using a raised voice but instead kiss her senseless? How would it feel to tuck that lose ringlet of hair that troubled her behind her soft ear? How would it feel to then kiss the same ear and whisper his desires to her?
Most importantly how would she react to his ministrations, blushing profusely or-
And that burst the bubble! She will never let him do any of that. She was not like Lavanya. She was an irrationally stubborn and annoyingly dumb middle-class girl who preached about values and sanskar rubbish!
With that, he was back to being "The" Arnav Sign Raizada and she was a measly low-class worker in his company.
Back to the good old real world!
"This can happen only to you." Arnav taunted her, but Khushi didn't quite catch the sarcasm there, still angry over the 'motorcycle' thief!
See, this is exactly why he was better off keeping away from her, Arnav mused. She was a weird character who was most of the times oblivious to what happened to her! Surely not someone he would want to be with...
Glad at that conclusion, Arnav was about to start walking when suddenly a gust of wind flew taking away her dupatta with it...and he was back to the place he began from, wishing things he should not have.
Somewhere his innermost voice reminded him a shayari(Urdu poem) his di had once told him,
||Ye ishq nahi aasan, bass itna samajh lijiye ek aag ka dariya hai aur duub ke jana hai||*
--~--
A/N - Welcome to the book! Just like CSD, this book will be episodic meaning each chapter as a stand-alone story. It will have all the moments that ultimately led to them ending up together but that time they had felt it was an impossible dream, in a way a precursor to CSD. Pls let me know if you like the format and the theme.
I had written a similar book with exactly same title for rosschel few years ago in collab with another writer and wanted to write Arnav-khushi version of it. It will not be a very long book, but I plan to include all those major moments that they saw each other with someone else and felt it should have been them.
* - Famous sher by Jigar Moradabadi.
p.s. Epilogue/CSD snippet for this chapter would be arnav-khushi remarriage episodes in the actual show (Season 9 -episode 33 on Hulu/Hotstar)