A/N
Happy Halloween everyone!! 👻
Also, thank you for following me..
Upto 50 followers now..this calls for a party.
Hi all, this chapter was supposed to be a part of chapter 4 but I felt that this chapter needed a lot of pictures to explain things and Wattpad only allows 20 pictures per chapter. And hence, have made it a separate chapter.
Also, thanks to each and every one for reading and your kind comments.
We have crossed 1.76K reads and 171 votes.
And story has been ranked #4 collection (out of 16.6k stories) 🥳
I'm guessing that we will be crossing 2K reads very soon. Fingers crossed.
And this wouldn't be possible with you all, my dearest readers. ♥️
Happy reading!!
Date published - 31 Oct 2023
(NOW BACK TO THE STORY)
(Next day)
Arnav found himself in front of Khushi's flat, as he was supposed to pick Tara and take her home.
As he waited for someone to open the door to him, he found a lot of giggling and screaming from the house and the sound of Khushi trying to keep calm.
Khushi greeted him, dressed in her comfy tracksuit pants and hair tied up in a messy bun on top of head.
As Khushi welcomed him home, he spotted Aarav and Tara sitting on the dining table, decorating their pizza. He went upto them and stared at their masterpieces.
Or should he say, the mess of the pizza?
Khushi seemed to have given each a heart-shaped dough for them to decorate and both Aarav and Tara had different definitions of the term 'decorate' and different definitions of pizza.
To Aarav, his idea of pizza was pizza dough covered with chocolate and topped with more chocolate chips, bananas, and nuts. And frankly, the idea of that was revolting to Arnav since chocolate and pizza don't go well in his mind, but he knew that he shouldn't judge since Aarav has always been a dessert person, much to Khushi's worry regarding his cavity.
And for Tara, it was the pizza he knew and loved. Pizza sauce covered with vegetables and lots and lots of cheese.
Or maybe he's just partial to his princess...
Turns out the movie that the kids so eagerly wanted to watch only had slots in the evening and the plan for the day has slightly shifted. It was supposed to movie followed by pizza and cookies. Now, it's pizza and cookies followed by movies.
While Khushi set the pizza to bake, Arnav helped to clean up the messy table. The next mission was baking cookies. It was war deciding which cookie to make.
Aarav as usual wanted a chocolate chip cookie, given his love for the same, while Tara wanted to make anything other than chocolate since she was not the biggest fan of chocolate and that was honestly the only thing where Aarav and Tara didn't see each other eye to eye.
Khushi decided to settle the two as she agreed to make two different doughs to suit their taste.
The kids alongside Arnav watched as Khushi threw in ingredients, like she had been baking all her life, and formed together the magic dough for the cookie.Arnav just stood here, causally leaning against the counter on his phone stealing some chocolate chips from the bowl whenever Khushi turned her back to him.
Khushi gave Tara the idea to make a strawberry heart jam cookie and provided her with the needed ingredients.
And as for Aarav, he knew the recipe and had it at his fingertips and sat on the dining table, getting the ingredients himself from the kitchen shelves.
Arnav got a little bit of both the dough. Being a cardiologist and following his niece's suggestion, he was going for heart-shaped cookies and the result was everything but hearts. And the kids teased him as Arnav's cookies came looking out the worst, amongst the bunch.
She tried to lift his spirit, patting him on his shoulder - "How about I do the cooking and you do the dishes?"
And within seconds, his cookies were that of perfect hearts, just like how he had intended.
Arnav complained - "You always make it look so easy!"
Khushi laughed - "And you always make it look like a disaster zone."
Later that afternoon, the four of them settled at the dining table with their pizza and devoured it in minutes.
After lunch, the kids were playing around the house, leaving Arnav and Khushi to wash up the zillion dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. As Arnav washed the dishes, Khushi helped to wipe them dry and store them at their respective places. It was teamwork at its finest.
Khushi peeked in the living room to check in on the kids and found Tara chasing down Pluto to rest her head on him and hold him tight.
Khushi -"I can't reach the top shelf.. Can you help?"
Khushi asked Arnav- "Can you keep this bowl on the top shelf?"
When Arnav held her waist very very very briefly as he passed by her and placed the bowls on the top shelf, it sent chills down their spine.
(Later at the movie theatre)
After settling the kids with popcorn and drink of their own, Khushi and Arnav sighed in relief as they made their way to their seats.
While kids were aww-ing and ohh-ing to the movie, Khushi closed her eyes to rest. She needed to preserve whatever energy she had left.
Arnav fell asleep on Khushi's shoulders mainly because he had a very tiring week and was exhausted, and playing with the kids only tired him further and the fact that Khushi was next to him and would handle Tara in his absence, was just an added bonus.
As the movie progressed, Arnav ended up leaning his head onto Khushi's shoulder, which made Khushi to freeze up and stay in that position, not wanting to wake him up.
Khushi bopped his nose when the movie was over and stretched since her shoulder was hurting.
Khushi -"Wake up, sleepy head."
Arnav got up from the seat and stretched himself as it was a good nap.
(Later that night, back at Arnav's home)
Tara handed the cookies that she and Aarav had made and Arnav stared at his uneven set of cookies, feeling slightly silly and embarrassed to show his creation.
Of course, Tara did show them photos of his epic disasters, earning a fit of laughs from his parents and Anjali & Shyam.
(A month later)
There was a garden flower exhibition on a park and Arnav and Tara obviously went there since as per Tara's words -'Flowers are too pretty to miss'
Tara was running around the stalls excitedly, seeing and smelling some flowers and aww-ing at all most every one.
Tara - "Mamu, look at them.."
Tara - "These are daises, right?"
Arnav had no idea, luckily the person on the counter asked - "no, that's a lily..", handing her single flower to her, making her smile wide and she thanked her.
Tara - "Don't they smell wonderful?" Showing the flower to Arnav
Arnav tried to smell the flower and honestly there was not any distinct smell that he was expecting- "I'm not smelling anything, princess.."
Tara sighed - "Mamu, you are hopeless"
Khushi - "Yep, super hopeless! and soft on the head (meaning stupid)"
She wanted to be polite in front of the kids.
And whom did they meet there? Yep, Aarav and Khushi!
It's NK idea and he made Aarav to drag his mother to this exhibition since Nk felt that she needed some refreshing change.
Arnav - "What are you doing here!?"
Khushi replied in her usual sarcasm-pipping tone, throwing her hand over the zillion flowers in front of her - "Cooking chicken biryani! Can't you tell? " which made Arnav to roll his eyes making him wonder what was he thinking when he asked her the question. Her royal sassiness!
He saw that Aarav and her were sitting with a group of people, making some sort of flower crown contraption.
Khushi - "Would you like to hang out?" offering a seat next to her.
Tara looked at her mamu (Arnav) with those bleady little eyes pouting, which made Arnav to reply back - "of course! i mean, yeah, it would be nice..." trying to be nice in front of his niece, although he didn't necessarily want to do it.
As the kids were making their crowns excitedly, Arnav was having a terrible time visualizing what he wanted and Khushi showed him the ropes on how to make flower crowns.
Arnav - "Hey, sweetheart can you grab that for me?" asking for the tiny flowers that were next to Khushi
Khushi had the look of 'What the fuck did you just call me?' and asked - "You're talking to me?"
Arnav - "Who else would I be talking to?" trying to be sweet and polite in front of the kids, who were looking at him curiously.
Arnav leaned in and whispered - "I love to call you all other colorful things but kids are around."
Khushi whispered back - "Ass!"
Arnav muttered back - "Hey !! Language!"
Of course, Khushi being Khushi, asked Arnav loudly- "can you repeat that? i don't think i heard you..." which made Arnav to smirk, shaking his head.
Arnav - "Hey, sweetheart can you PLEASE grab those flowers for me?" dragging on the word 'please'.
And Khushi passed him the flowers and replied - "Here, my dearest!" in a sugar-coated voice, which Arnav found it slightly weird.
Arnav raising an eyebrow -"is that like a friendly nickname or?"
Khushi in her sarcastic tone - "yes, i go around calling all my friends 'my dearest'."
Arnav - "oh, really?"
Khushi - "no!"
To onlookers, the two of them looked like husband and wife flirting with each other whilst making flower crowns with their kids.
Khushi got busy as she continued to make her flower crown while keeping an occasional eye on Aarav. And obviously, that didn't sit with Arnav and he was being really obnoxious.
And it lead Khushi to give him one nasty look and politely asked -"Can you not?"
Had the kids not been around, she was pretty sure that she would smacked him on the head but luck was on his favour.
Arnav replied showing his tongue - "I cannot not!" and Khushi basically ignored him and continued to decorate her flower crown.
(A few minutes later)
Khushi flaunting her crown, asked the kids - "Is it (crown) pretty?' to which they nodded giggling with delight.
Arnav - "It's almost as pretty as you.."
Khushi - "Almost?"
Arnav - "Al..most..!"
Khushi - "I'm going to take it as a compliment, mutton-head!"
A/N - mutton-head = stupid
Arnav - "Sure, if it helps your tiny little brain, cookie!"
Tara jumped her seat and wore her pretty little crown of white and pink flowers.
Tara twirled in her frock - "Is it (crown) pretty?"
Aarav replied - "Very beautiful."
Arnav too replied - "It's stunning on you, princess!c
Khushi also made a bouquet of flowers for Arnav.
She had read somewhere that most men only ever receive flowers at their funeral and it was literally sad to hear. She thought if she had ever gifted flowers to Rahul and it was always the other way around.
Arnav - "This had got to be the ugliest bouquet I have ever seen."
It really wasn't, but he wanted to mock her.
It was a pale pink rose surrounded by baby-breath flowers.
Khushi leaned forward and whispered - "Oh sweetheart, the next time you will get a bouquet of flowers is at your funeral" making Arnav to collect the bouquet from Khushi.
Khushi watched as Arnav stared at her idea of a bouquet and instantly regretted giving him the flower. Maybe he doesn't like flowers or maybe it reminded him of Sheetal.
Khushi was having second thoughts and asked - "did I make you uncomfortable?"
Arnav almost immediately said - "no! No, it just caught me off guard. I like it a lot actually..."
Later that evening- back in Arnav's home
Arnav watched Tara flaunt her flower crown and her bouquet and recite the events of the day to her grandfather, as Arnav sipped a cup of coffee.
He stared at the vase in his room, that had always been empty in the past three years and now it had the bouquet Khushi that had made for him.
Back at Khushi's house
Khushi watched as Aarav arrange the pink roses that Arnav had gotten her at the exhibition.
She couldn't help but see Aarav as Rahul arranging the roses into the vase, as it was something Rahul used to do for her.
And the fact that it's the same smile, would always haunt her...
CHAPTER INSPIRATIONS
· "is that like a friendly nickname or?" [sarcastic] "yes, i go around calling all my friends 'my dearest'." "oh, really?" "no!"