Dhruv kissed her back.
He was only a man, a mere mortal, and even if he was a god, he knew, he could never resist her. He deepend the kiss, holding her waist. She tugged his collar downwards and he drowned in her. He was getting breathless but he was afraid of coming up for air, scared that it would end.
If he could die in this moment he would, his eternal memory in her arms seemed tempting. But then again he was mortal and he gasped breaking off for air. Their foreheads pressed together and breaths lashed in the space between, he didn't open his eyes, incase hers were pools of regret.
But he could feel her lips again and he was a lost cause yet again. His legs pushed forward until her waist hit the counter and he gripped her waist and picked her up, settling her on the counter.
Her hands wound around his shoulders and her legs around him as he pushed closer towards her. It was too harsh, the visceral need to destroy whatever distance was between them was too strong to resist.
Dhruv got bolder, he moved his hands under her t-shirt desperate to feel her skin, he was curious to know whether she burned like him and as he traced her ribs closer to the band of her bra, he was pushed away.
***
"No!"
Khushi herself was shocked that she had shoved him away but subconsciously maybe she had. She felt humiliation wash over her as she realised that she had give into her basic impulses. But then, it had been months since she had felt any.
She finally looked at him who looked as shocked as her. "I'm sorry." She muttered.
He looked at her with an absent look in his eyes. "I don't need your apology."
He said it in the softest tone but it felt as if she had been slapped. Her eyes had started to burn with tears as she got down from the counter.
"I know you don't need it. But I started it and it was unfair to you." She tried again. But he only looked at her with sharp eyes. He was angry, that she knew. The boyish charm, his eyes held was gone and instead, it was replaced with cool steel. Still, she persisted, "I'm sorry."
"Khushi, let's not talk now." He took steps back with his hands, half raised.
"Dhruv..." She said, with nothing to say further. She had hurt him, she knew that.
He only snapped his eyes to hers and this time she knew, that his anger was unrestrained.
"I don't need an apology. I'm not mad that you started it or stopped it. I cannot understand the knee jerk reactions. I need an explanation. There are far too many instances that don't make sense. Is there even an explanation for this one?" His voice was mellow but it shook in anger.
"There is."
"But you won't tell me what it is. Right." He stated and she said nothing except stare at him.
"Khushi..." His voice was laced in frustration. "God...Khushi...tell me why can't I have an explanation then? Tell me that much. Do you not trust me to understand? Is that it?"
That was exactly why she didn't want to tell him. Ultimately he would blame himself, he would be compassionate and divinely empathetic and forgive. But that was the issue, she was the problem, not him. She was the one who was broken. Not him. And she had realised, that no matter how many times she put herself together she'd still remain broken, while he deserved better.
"That's not it."
"So that's all you'll say then?" His voice was defeated and his eyes now flashed a darkness which reflected her own darkness within.
When she said nothing to that, he cursed and walked away, out of the room.
***
"And that's what she said, ladies. Word to word." Dhruv ended his rant.
"Why isn't Janvi here?" Aghanya asked.
"I did invite her but she brushed me off. I guess she is mad at Khushi and she doesn't want to get involved."
"She is mad at her. Janvi thinks she shouldn't have cheated on you. They also got in a fight, a week back, when she came to ask us if we got the wedding invite." Sakshi said.
"Why did no one tell me about this hot gossip?" Aghanya said.
"You never pick up the phone nor reply in the group chat."
Dhruv intervened, "Ladies, ladies please can we talk about my issue."
"As far as I know Paro, she's actually very sensitive to things. Things have always been hard for her, you know?"
"I know. I just don't get why she cheated. I cannot think of a single reason. She told me, I was ready to put it behind us but she wanted to break off. And yet, she's still single. She still wants me -"
"Wait wait wait, how do you know she still wants you?" Sakshi asked him.
"Honey, everyone wants me. But, to answer your question, we kissed."
"You kissed?!" Aghanya said.
"I'll be right back." Sakshi said as her screen went blank.
"Yes. A short while back."
"Oh my god. Stop."
Dhruv stopped as Sakshi's voice rang through with sounds of what he guessed as kissing.
Aghanya only gasped and laughed. "I'm sorry but your mic is on." Dhruv said and a short scream came from the screen.
"AGAIN?!"
That was when Sakshi logged out.
"Well, that was something. Anyways. Yes we kissed. I'm sure she wanted me until she shoved me."
"Shoved you?"
"She pushed me away!" He motioned with his hands.
"And she started it?"
"Yes. And this isn't the first time, you know? She keeps pushing me away. She cringes at my touch."
Aghanya's face dropped to a serious expression, "Dhruv, could it be...you know, maybe she was sexually assaulted?"
"Wouldn't she tell you? Tell me? I would never judge her, she knows that."
"I don't know, Dhruv. She is a bit shy. And like I said, life has been harsh on her. Also, the thing with her mom. It takes toll on a person."
"I understand Aghanya. I understand and I have been there for her through all of this. I don't understand her anymore."
"I know, it's hard. I'm sorry. I wish I had something to say but I don't. Only she knows why."
****
Khushi decided to work on her paper, atleast to take her mind off the current scenario. She was in the middle of it when the door opened and Dhruv strolled inside. She closed her laptop waiting for him to take note of her.
He did after grabbing a glass of water, he leaned his elbows on the counter and smiled at her, all of her sins forgiven. So she smiled back.
"Were you working?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Oh. I was hoping you'd be free."
"Oh why?"
He shrugged. "Nothing. We could play cards."
Khushi thought for a moment on why he wanted to play cards all of a sudden and she realised that there must be a catch. Even though Dhruv acted aloof, she knew, that he was much more intelligent than he let on.
She agreed anyway, aware that he might have ulterior motives. They sat on the balcony as his skilled fingers parted the deck and he distributed the cards. Before she could lift her cards he stopped her.
"I thought, we could play for favours?"
There it was, she knew that there would be a catch.
"Okay. What favours?"
"Easy. A question for a win."
She could feel as if she was in a viper's clutches and it had closed in. She was trapped. "And if I don't want to answer?"
He shrugged. "Then don't, it's not like I can force you to."
She was curious too. About what she had said last night when she was drunk. She was sure she had said it done something. It was a game of chance so she nodded in affirmation and lifted her cards.
***
Dhruv looked at the three pebbles on his side and the two on hers. They had played 5 rounds in total. He had won three times. He didn't know if Khushi knew but playing cards was a highly psychological affair.
He often played with his patients. Cards gave away a lot of what a person actually was. He had almost not noticed her mannerisms because his eyes kept getting caught on her lips which she worried when she had a bad hand. It was such an obvious tell.
Her looked at the stones on his side and she was stiff. She was scared that much he could infer. But, that wasn't the point of this. Dhruv only wanted to know her tell, when she bluffed. He could catch her lies easily but he was worried about the half truths, those were harder to notice. And besides he needed her to trust him again and the basic rule was that trust is earned.
"Are you writing a paper again?" He slid one of the stones across towards her. She frowned at it suspiciously as if it was a trap.
"Yes. I am. I was researching before. It's on the effect of covid on menstrual cycles." She said.
"That's interesting. I'll look forward to reading it." He said and she looked at him with half anger half suspicion.
"Should I ask another one?" He smiled at her. She pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded.
"So I know you cleared your NEET PG. But what I don't get is you not not pursuing your master's yet. So why?" He slid another pebble towards her.
A panicked look reached her eyes, before she curtained with a blank stare.
"Just needed time to look at other options."
That was a bluff. Dhruv knew it now. It wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth.
"Why the sudden hair cut?" He asked and tilted his chin towards her bob. This time she had a hard time controlling her panic flare but she eventually composed herself.
She smiled and brushed her fingers through her hair. "I just needed a change of hairstyle."
He nodded and slid another pebble towards her and she looked at him surprised.
***
Khushi looked at the pebble shocked and heat bubbled inside her. He had wasted his questions on these frivolous questions. She knew that he was curious about the cheating and what happened a while back and yet, he hadn't asked.
She slid a pebble towards him with force, "Are you serious? Why would you waste it on these silly questions?"
"Was it? It was incredibly important to me." She looked at his lips curve in a genuine smile absent from malice.
"Why didn't you ask about the other things? You're curious, I know that."
"Would you have told me if I had asked?"
She pressed her lips in a thin line and he knew she couldn't answer that.
"I didn't mean to offend you, Khushi. But I did ask. I have asked you multiple times. And I asked you when you were drunk out of your mind and you wouldn't answer even then so it just felt futile, to ask again and again when I know that I won't recieve an answer."
"That's fair." She said. She was relieved that she hadn't relieved anything to him.
He phone vibrated in her pocket and she took it out to see Dee was calling her. She picked up the phone quickly and stood up from the table, "Dee. How are you?" She motioned to Dhruv about taking a call and walked to the bedroom.
"I'm good. How are you?"
"I'm good. I'm glad you called me. I missed you." It was true. She had missed her sister.
"I had to. Not only is Veer rallying fit you, Dhruv also messaged me today about it."
"So you called because they told you to?"
"I mean -"
Khushi cut off the the call. She wa annoyed that her sister has called only after jiju and Dhruv and told her to. It stung. And it spread all over, her body rippled in pain.
"Did you tell Dee to talk to me?"
She realised she had yelled.
"I did drop message."
"Why? Why would you do that?"
"You were hurting. Weren't you? It was apparent that her behaviour was hurting you."
His niceness was too much. Guilt wrecked her, at all that she couldn't be and all that he deserved.
"If I hurt, it is me who is hurt. What's it to you?! We're nothing to each other! Why do you interfere in my life?!"
She realised that she had gone too far. But she couldn't stop spilling, "Why don't you hate me? There's not a man in this world who would act like this towards a woman who has betrayed him." She said dejected.
"Your sins are your burden, Khushi. I am no one to punish you. Besides, maybe, I am nothing to you but the same is not true for me. I hope that answers your questions."
***
He didn't want to lose his temper so he walked out of the room to look for Rian. He remembered the words that she said that not a man would act like this.
Dhruv tried. He did try to lose it and shout. He was angry. But he could never lose it on her. If his niceness cut her, it cut him too. It took his everything to be nice and to think that she didn't want it, burned him. Flames of anger licked his insides.
He was about to enter his aunt's room when he heard voiced and he couldn't help but eavesdrop.
"You should confess to him soon, you know?"
"I'm scared. I'm afraid that he doesn't like me that much." That was Shri.
"Nonsense. Dhruv would love you if he knew."
Dhruv only stepped back. What was that? He needed to clear his mind. And he could only think of smoking and he desperately needed it today. It had been months since he had smoked.
He grabbed a cigarette from the hotel shop and moved to the smoking area. It has been long since he had smoked. He tried to balance his shaky breaths and reign in his anger. He didn't know who he was mad at, her or himself? He closed his eyes and let sensations of their kiss wash all over him.
When he had finally gathered his wits , he walked to Nats room and checked on Rian ego had fallen fast asleep. When he walked back to his room, that's when he heard voiced.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!" That was Khushi's screams. He ran towards his room. He tried opening the door but it was locked from inside.
"Why don't you chill? I'm only here to talk about that night." His hands froze over the handle as a cool fire burned all over him.
"What night? I don't know what night!"
"Now now, sweetheart! Don't act. I know it was you. Imagine my surprise when I saw you here with your puny husband. I get why you came to the hotel."
"Nothing happened! What is wrong with you?! Nothing happened so don't drag my husband into this!"
"That's why I'm here. Don't you think it's too cruel that you left me hanging? I'm here to remedy that!"
He could hear her scream and the pitter patter of her legs and the door opened and she ran straight into him. He caught her in her arms as she shook all over.
He saw the asshole right behind her with a smirk on his face. And he pushed her behind me and grabbed his collar and shoved him to the wall. He punched him and slapped him as red haze covered his eyes.
He only sobered when he was physically pulled away. Still then, the asshole smirked at him and he wished to wipe it off.
His sister was right in front of him as he lunged and he froze panting wildly.
"Dishu! Get out of the way!"
"Bhai calm down. Please. You're making a scene."
"You're not marrying this guy's brother! Do you understand?!" He pointed a finger at her and yelled at her, probably the first time in his life.
"Bhai please...calm down!"
"What calm down?! This asshole forced himself on my wife! You want me to calm down?!"
"I have to marry...Bhai please!"
"She called me to her room. Go get mad at your whore wife!" The guy said he went blind in anger as he pushed his sister away and lunged for him.
He only stopped when Dhristhi cried out holding her stomach. Khushi was by her side in a minute while his sister wailed in pain.
"Bhabhi please... Please save my baby....please.." His sister whimpered with tears staining her cheeks but by the blood pooling on the carpet, he knew it was bad news.
***
A/N: vote and comment