I raise my eyes from my book to look at Karthik, who keeps throwing hesitant glances at me every few seconds.
"What is it, Karthik Anna?" I ask him when he catches my gaze and quickly looks down at his laptop.
I had asked him what he wanted when he came to work down here, instead of his room or his study, where he usually works. He gave me bullshit about wanting a change and choosing to sit in the living room, because of the weather.
He looks at me again and shakes his head quickly. "I was wondering which book you were reading," he offers a lame excuse.
"You asked me that when you first came down," I remind him.
"Oh," he realises. "I must've forgotten. Which book are you reading?" he asks again.
I roll my eyes at him. "Are you done?" I call his pretence. "You tell me what you came down here for," I demand.
He sighs and puts his laptop on his side. "Well, there is something that I need to tell you," he says like I didn't know.
"Oh?" I act surprised, putting my book down as I mirror his posture with my elbows resting on my thighs, and my hands clasped together. "And what would that be?" Are they moving the wedding date three months closer? If they were, I know they wouldn't tell me.
He frowns at me, looking between himself and me until he realises I'm imitating him. When he does, he rolls his eyes at me before falling back onto the backrest. "The company has appointed a bodyguard for you."
That, I hadn't expected. "Why would I need a bodyguard?" I ask him, puzzled at the proposition.
"The Board meeting to vote the next CEO is coming up," he says slowly, "And you still haven't given an interview after coming back. You're on the board of directors of a public company the media expects a statement from you. A bodyguard will essentially help you if and when you're caught unguarded."
"I could give an interview tomorrow. I don't need a bodyguard for that," I try to show him the ridiculousness of the situation.
"You will give an interview on Wednesday your PA will share the details with you."
What am I supposed to ask about, first? The PA that I didn't know existed or the interview that has just come to my attention?
"I don't have a PA," I say promptly. "I don't remember having appointed one for myself."
"Because you haven't appointed one," Karthik points out.
I raise my eyebrows at him, not knowing where he was going with this. "Don't speak to me in riddles, Karthik."
"I'm saying," Karthik starts with a smirk. "You better get yourself a PA before Wednesday because they'll have to tell you about your interview timings."
"I'm getting a PA?" I ask him. Why hadn't I seen this coming, either?
He shrugs, but the widening smirk on his face says it all. "Keep your morning free tomorrow you have recruitment interviews lined up. They've all already cleared the HR round, so you only focus on hiring someone that's right for you. Alright?"
"Alright," I affirm with a nod. Karthik stands up to go away when I remember the first thing he brought up.
"Karthik!" Karthik stills in his tracks, knowing he got caught. The bad news first and then the good news, deliver it and leave before they realise.
Gosh! I must be out of my mind. I'm getting tricked by Karthik now! He steered the topic from my bodyguard to an interview and a PA, and I didn't even see it.
He turns to me with a sheepish smile.
I raise a single eyebrow at him. "I don't need a bodyguard."
He walks back to me. "Look, Arvi," he explains. "We wouldn't hire one unless you need one."
"I don't understand why I need one!" I argue. Who in the world walks around with a bodyguard because they are on the board of a public company?
"Look, I didn't want to say this before because I don't want to keep rubbing it in your face," he confesses slowly, "but with your wedding coming up, we think you must have some sort of protection at all times. You're not just a Ravichander anymore you are also going to be a Kona."
I chuckle sarcastically. "And you not saying it is making it go away?" Not saying it doesn't make it go away, but saying it makes my fears intensify.
On a long list of what-ifs, my biggest fear is what if I can't fall in love with Arjun?
A voice in my head tells me that I'm paranoid. Why would I not love Arjun? But my pessimistic brain has questions and answers. How do you love someone you know practically nothing about, even if you are going to marry them in six months?
What if I learn something about him that will break everything we've built so far, even if we've created so little?
"Arvi," Karthik says comfortingly, as hugs me. He rubs my arm as the thoughts in my head make tears swarm in my eyes. "It may be too soon, but not all good things take time."
I chuckle tearfully at his lame attempt to cheer me up. An inevitable sniffle escapes me, and it doesn't take long for me to break down next to Karthik.
"Everything's going to change!" I cry, refusing to move away from Karthik and let him see my face.
Karthik chuckles insensitively. What sort of a brother is he? I wrap my arms around his torso when he tries to move, not letting him. He'll only make fun of me for crying.
"Nothing's going to change, Arvi," he assures me. "You'll still be my only annoying sister, and I'll still be your eldest annoying brother."
"I don't annoy everyone. You should feel special about yourself," I sniffle.
That's-- "Not true," Karthik completes the thought in my head.
I pout, wiping my tears off my face before I look at him. "I only annoy people I love," I tell him truthfully this time.
He laughs, making me chuckle through tears too. "You have very odd ways of saying you love me."
It is a prevalent tendency to annoy people to show affection, but what would I tell my insolent brother about it? "You think it odd because I've never told you so," I retort, wiping off the remnants of the tears from my eyes.
He laughs as he presses a quick kiss into my hair. "Don't worry. I know you do."
"I'm only worried because of your delusions," I tell him, rolling my eyes.
Karthik hums as if agreeing with me. "You know you'll have to tell Arjun you love him?" he teases.
"I don't love Arjun," I deny, pulling away from Karthik to look him in the face. "I don't even know Arjun."
"I'm talking about when you love him," Karthik tells me calmly. "No, wait," he says quickly, as though disturbed by something. "Nevermind, actually, don't tell him. Don't ever tell any guy that you love him, Arvi," he warns. "You're not allowed to love guys."
There's a reason why you shouldn't talk to your brothers about some things; like boys. Even if I were to gossip with my brothers about boys, I know I shouldn't speak to Karthik about them. On second thoughts, let's keep girl-talk away from the boys.
I shake my head at Karthik's stupidity. Not allowed to love guys but it's okay to marry a guy? What stupid, messed-up kind of logic is that? A voice in my head responds to my unasked question, the Karthik kind.
Wiping the remnants of tears off my face, I pull my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on my knees as I look at Karthik. "What if I never learn to love him?"
Despite how many times I tell myself that Arjun is not a topic to I should discuss with my brothers, I can't help but address him with them.
"Arvi," Karthik looks at me concernedly. "You aren't doing this out of obligation or because you can't say no, are you?"
"No," I deny, honestly. "I'm not selfless enough to marry someone to keep you happy."
"Why are you marrying Arjun?" he asks curiously, making me chuckle.
I brush my hair away from my face, trying to think of a reason I could tell Karthik. "Because of Gayatri Aunty," I tell him.
Karthik looks at me with a puzzled expression. "You do know you're marrying Arjun and not his mother?" he asks.
I roll my eyes at him. "You do know you're not half as funny as you think you are?" I retort sarcastically.
"Then what should that mean, 'because of Gayatri Aunty'?" Karthik imitates me.
"You know not all mothers-in-law are kind and wonderful souls?" I ask rhetorically, trying to explain to him. "I know Gayatri Aunty is as good as one can get."
Karthik still looks at me like I've gone crazy, an amused smile on his face. "You're marrying Arjun because you like his mother?"
Karthik's stupid. I have no other explanation for his dumbass questions. "Illa, Karthik Anna," I explain. One of the reasons I'm marrying Arjun is that: "I trust the woman that brought him up," I realise. "I know he's a good human." [(Tamil) Illa-- No.]
Sometimes, conversation makes inner dilemmas clear.
"Then why would you not love him?" he asks.
I breathe out with humour, hearing him ask me the same question that I ask him myself. I give him the answer, I have thought of a million times: "Because I don't know him."
Karthik ruffles my hair, messing it up more than it already is messed up, making me swat it away. "I've heard you say that a lot about him, Arvi," he says with a small smile on his face. "It's probably the only thing you've been saying about him ever since you agreed to marry him."
Because it's true, I don't know him! How pathetic. I don't know anything about the guy I'm supposed to marry.
"What else do you want me to say?" I ask him, disbelievingly. If I don't know him, that is what I will say.
"How will you know him when you don't spend any time with him?" Karthik points out.
I tilt my head looking at him through narrowed eyes. Why is Karthik making sense? I touch his forehead with the back of my hand, "Are you okay, Karthik Anna?" I feign concern.
He swats my hand away. "I am okay," he says. "Don't try to divert the topic. How will you know him if you don't spend any time together?"
"I'm not trying to divert the topic," I tell him. I honestly wasn't trying to. If I were, I would've done it without him realising it. "Two minutes ago, I wasn't allowed to love a guy. And now you're asking me to go out with Arjun?"
He rolls his eyes. "You act as if you do everything I say."
I widen my eyes at him, feigning a surprised, innocent look. "Don't I, Karthik Anna?" I blink innocently with a small pout. "Nenu eppudaina Anna maata javadaatana?" [(Telugu) Have I ever done something my brother asked me not to?]
He nods at me tauntingly. "Ledu. You're the ideal younger sister material," he mocks. [(Telugu) Ledu-- No]
I grin. "That I am."
"That is why you will not give your bodyguard a hard time, okay?" he asks, with a teasing grin of his own.
I scowl. "I don't want a stupid bodyguard."
"Arvi, not again," he sighs.
I cut him off with a disbelieving chuckle before he can say anything. "We never talked about this, to begin with, and unless I'm receiving death threats from ISIS, I do not want a bodyguard."
"Why won't you listen to me once in your goddamned life?" he asks frustratedly.
I turn my lips down, pretending to be ignorant. "Let's see," I ridicule. "Maybe because it is my goddamned life?"
"Arvi," he stresses irritatedly. "You know dad used to have someone tail you around when you were in London, don't you?" he asks.
I nod uncomfortably, not wanting to speak about our father or his ways. "Did you know about it, too?" I look at him, hoping he would say he didn't.
He shakes his head. "I didn't know about it," he tells me with a small smile. "But if not a bodyguard that will be your other option."
"That is another option?" I scoff. "Option one: hire a bodyguard, option two: hire someone to follow you around?"
Karthik looks at me seriously. "Arvi, I fought with dad about this. I personally picked out a bodyguard for you. I am talking to you about this." He makes gestures with his hands to make his point. "I don't know what I can do to convince you."
"He said he'd have someone tail me around even after that day?" I demand. There are certain things about my father that I don't like, there are things about my father I could try and tolerate, but there are some things about my father that only hurt me.
"He thinks you won't agree," Karthik reveals, slowly, "And he can't afford to have you go around unguarded."
I sigh, closing my eyes. "Do whatever you want, Karthik Anna. I have nothing else to say about this."
Karthik looks at me sadly as I stand up and walk back to my room with my book in my hand.
~.~.~.~.~
I come back downstairs after Pranathi Vadina comes back from her parents' home. My grandparents went back to Vijayawada before I came back from London, promising to come back for the engagement and stay till the wedding. Only, the dates for either aren't confirmed.
When Pranathi Vadina sees me, she grins. Her presence livens the place since no one was home till now, except me. After our conversation, Karthik went to his in-laws' place to pick-up Pranathi Vadina and spend some time with his in-laws. What a sweet son-in-law, na?
"Hello," she chirps, patting the place next to her for me to sit.
I sit down beside her, tucking my right leg under me as I do. "How's everyone at home?" I ask her.
She smiles. "Everyone's doing good," she says. "I hear you're giving my brother a hard time?" she teases.
I shake my head at her, mockingly. "Sure, I'm giving your brother a hard time."
Pranathi Vadina nods, as though I really were giving her brother a hard time. I widen my eyes in disbelief. "He's the one who's always teasing me. Every time he texts, he's only teasing me. Yesterday, he--" I stop short, realising what I was going to tell her.
Yesterday, Arjun had sent me a picture of a tomato (God knows where he got that from) and wrote my tomato is tastier.
The fuck does one say to that sort of a thing? What does he mean I'm tastier anyway?
Pranathi Vadina looks at me, wiggling her eyebrows. "What did he say, Arvi?" she urges. "Tell me, and I'll see his end."
She'll see my end with her teasing.
"I don't remember," I murmur, looking away, hoping I don't look like a bloody tomato.
"Oh," she clicks her tongue in mock disappointment. "It's okay. You tell me if Arjun teases you like that again, okay?"
I nod, biting the inside of my lower lip. I'd sooner jump off a cliff than tell anyone about Arjun's texts. He's an A-class flirt.
"Did he ask you out?" Pranathi Vadina asks after a while.
I find myself a little surprised at the question. Why are both Karthik and his wife talking to me about going out with Arjun?
I shake my head slowly, regarding her with scepticism. Are they doing something? They better not be doing something.
"He still hasn't asked you out?" she asks, her words dripping with disbelief and possible disappointment at her brother. I empathise with Pranathi Vadina. Even I would've been disappointed to have a brother like Arjun.
"Well..." I shrug. "No. But he has been busy, and I've been away, so I guess it's okay?"
"It's not okay!" Pranathi Vadina shrieks, echoing the voice in my head. Of course, it isn't. Dumbarse makes all sorts of suggestive comments but won't take me on one bloody date. What am I supposed to think? How am I supposed to get to know him?
"Okay," I agree with her softly, trying to appease her. "It's not okay." I pat her hand to soothe her. "Don't get worked up about it." It's frightening the shit out of me.
"What am I going to do with the two of you?" she groans, falling back onto the couch with a frown etched on her face.
She opens her eyes to look at me, angrily. "You cannot defend Arjun!" she orders, pointing her index finger at me. I swear to God, my mother has never scared me as much as my sister-in-law is scaring me. Fuck.
I nod, gulping out of fear. Fucking hell, where did Karthik find her? "I won't," I assure her, moving away from her a little. "I wasn't trying to--" I try to extend, but she shoots me down with a glare. I wasn't trying to defend Arjun I was just trying not to be a nagging arranged-fiancée.
"Okay," I back off, raising my hands in surrender.
Pranathi Vadina sits on the couch with a frown, a murderous look in her eyes. I think the family might have an inherited trait of anger. I remember the look on Arjun's face; he almost turned me to dust.
"How are Keerthi Vadina, Vinay Anna and Vithi?" I ask Pranathi Vadina, after a while, referring to her sister, brother-in-law and their daughter.
She looks at me blankly, like she knows what I'm trying to do; distract her. Well, I am also genuinely curious and concerned. The last time I saw them was in Udaipur; they hadn't made it to the Reception Party because Keerthi Vadina is heavily pregnant.
"Keerthi wants nothing more than to push the baby out of her uterus," Pranathi Vadina shares with a small laugh. "She has been giving Vinay Bava hell. Vithi is staying with Amma and Nanna until her mother delivers; they're visiting every day."
"When is Keerthi Vadina due?" I ask Pranathi Vadina.
"Two weeks later," she tells me with a small smile.
Some more talk about her sister effectively calms Pranathi Vadina. When I know she won't get mad at me again for apparently defending Arjun, I broach the topic slowly. "Pranathi Vadina," I address her softly. She looks at me with an encouraging smile. "I... don't get angry at Arjun--" her eyes narrow at me and it scares me--"Or me," I add quickly. "But don't say anything to Arjun about asking me out, please? I want it to come from him," I tell her slowly. If at all, it ever comes.
She absorbs what I said in silence and nods thoughtfully. "You are the perfect match for Arjun," she says as if agreeing with someone.
Am I, though?
~.~.~.~.~
An hour later, I'm in my library cleaning the bookshelves that I forbade anyone from touching.
The door to the library opens with a click, and I turn to look at the intruder. When I see Arjun after god-knows-how-long, my heart picks up speed and heat rushes to my face with a single glance from him. Damn me.
Arjun's eyes fall on me, and his lips turn up in a smirk of acknowledgement. He walks up to me in confident strides. I back away when he's too close, my eyes still wide with surprise.
His black eyes twinkle with amusement like stars in a clear sky. "Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you up," he says softly. Is he real? Or am I dreaming?
Involuntarily, my hand goes up to touch his stubble. His stubble pokes me, and I realise he is real. Did I just go and feel his stubble? Fuck.
I slap my hand to my mouth, hiding a gasp as I jump back. Arjun is here. What is he doing here?
Arjun looks at me like I'm a clown; very entertaining. I probably am a clown. What the actual fuck?
Arjun chuckles, pulling my hand away from my face and interlinking it with his. "I have been waiting do this for a long time," he says, walking closer to me. "Will you go out with me, Arvi?"
I look at him in astonishment, astounded and flabbergasted. "Who told you?" I demand when I realise what he is asking me.
A/N
I'm backkkkkkkkkk!!! I'm wonderfully happy to be back! How was the chapter? Does it seem like a filler chapter? I feel like all I write are filler chapters! :(
What do you think about Arvi getting a bodyguard?
What do you think about Karthik and his relationship with Arvi?
I also touched on Pranathi in this chapter. What do you think about her?
Finally, who do you think told Arjun to ask Arvi out? How thoughtless of him to not think of it himself!
Okay. One last question, if I were to have a character interview sort of a thing where you could ask the characters any questions you wish, would you have any questions to ask them?
Do vote, comment and share.
With love,
A.