Changing Shades - 8

Chapter 8

Things could not have gone on the same way for much longer, and they didn't.

But how matters would come to a head, Khushi could not have even dreamed.

Arnav came into office a few weeks later in a temper. He was early, and neither Khushi nor Lavanya were in yet. He barked at Suresh, and sent him scurrying off to call the girls. When Lavanya came in, he barked at her too. She answered back politely but fearlessly, and he grouched into his room.

“Send Khushi in when she comes,” he shot at her. “And you can tell her if she's late again, she can look for another job. I don't tolerate nonsense in my office.”

“She's not late, you are early,” Lavanya replied, calmly. “She left at past 2 last night.  The plans you need are on your desk. She left them there. Sir.” she added pointedly.

“How do you know?” he barked, and Lavanya looked at him coolly. “She called me last night to tell me,” she said, making no attempt to hide her annoyance. “She was afraid she might be late today, because she left so late, so she wanted me to wake her up in the morning.”

Arnav stared at her, his annoyance forgotten temporarily, as he tried to process Lavanya's words.

“She's got a whole army of servants to wake her up, and she wants you to call her? Why? Does she need a personal alarm clock, for heavens sakes? She can't make do with alarm clocks, like the rest of the world? And why you? Why not someone in her own house?”

Lavanya didn't reply. She got busy with her computer, and didn't look at him.

“I'll have this lot of letters and the proposal finished by the morning,” she said, briskly. “Is there anything else you need done today, sir?”

“I'll call you when there is,” he said, briefly, his face shuttered. “Send Khushi in when she comes.”

Lavanya didn't look up till he had closed his door, then she stopped her work and gave a sigh of relief.

“Boy oh boy, you nearly blew that one, woman,” she admonished herself, and looked up with a smile, as Khushi opened the door cautiously and came in.

“Storm warning,” she said, briefly. Khushi sighed.

“I really can't take it today,” she muttered, collapsing into her chair. Lavanya looked at her, and her expression spoke. Khushi smiled tiredly. "Don't give me that 'I told you so' look, Lavs. I'll manage. It's just that ... I'm so exhausted after the past few weeks, and on top of that, I just managed a couple of hours of sleep last night." She dropped into her chair, and stared out the window, her face pensive.  

Lavanya waited for Khushi to say something further. She knew something was wrong. And she knew what it related to ... or rather, whom. Khushi always had a peculiar look on her face when she spoke about ... him. But Khushi never spoke too much, she chose her words carefully, and took care to never be critical. She owed them too much, and she never forgot that fact. 

Khushi finally turned towards Lavanya. She spoke calmly enough, her tone not giving away anything. But her eyes were tormented.

 “Mummy called in the morning at 5. She wanted to remind me to eat something. It's karva chauth.”

Lavanya stared at her disbelievingly.

“Do you still keep the fast? For ... him?!”

“I didn't keep it the last two years,” confessed Khushi. “It's all over, except in name, so I didn't. I don't think of him as my husband any more, anyway.”

"But you're fasting," guessed Lavanya, and almost missed the slight nod, so imperceptible was it.

“Then why ... what ... just for them?" began Lavanya, confused, and Khushi looked at her with a twisted smile.

“You'll tell me I'm a fool, again, and I need my head examined. Maybe I do, at that.”

Lavanya whistled. “You are,” she agreed. Then she hugged the other girl. “But he’s a bigger fool! He's an idiot if he doesn't appreciate your worth. Khushi, tell him. Please! Tell him about Manish. You're not being fair to him ... nor to them ... and most of all, you're not being fair to yourself.”

Khushi shook her head stubbornly and Lavanya sighed defeatedly.

“I thought I told you to send Khushi in as soon as she came,” barked a voice, and both the girls jumped. Arnav was standing at the door of his office, looking decidedly grim. Khushi got up with a sigh. She gave Lavanya a look of 'here we go again', and walked towards Arnav's office. He stood aside to let her enter, and shut the door behind her.

Had he heard her conversation with Lavanaya, wondered Khushi. She spoke quickly to preempt any questions.

“The plans are already on your table,” she told him. “I did finish them last night.”

“I think that either I'm retarded or you are,” Arnav retorted. “I cannot understand what you have done at all. These look like the work of a fifth grader ... and I'm being insulting to the fifth grader. Could you be so kind as to explain what you have drawn? Where are the revisions I asked for?”  

 That was the beginning. Khushi was exhausted, and she answered back far more sharply than she ever had before. They had a roaring fight, and at the end of it, Arnav stomped out of his office.

“I have a meeting with this client, and I'll be back only after lunch. I want the plans done by then, with all the revisions,” he barked at her.

“You're not asking for revisions, you're asking me to do the whole lot again,” Khushi answered back equally sharply. “I can't possibly have them done by the afternoon.”

“You'd better, or you're out of this office,” he retorted, and walked out.

Khushi stared after him, almost at the end of her tether. Then she got determinedly back to work.

“He is not going to get me down, nor is he going to drive me out of this office,” she vowed to herself, as she picked up her pencils again.

She was still working when Lavanya popped into the room at 6 o'clock. 

"Khushi, you've been inside here the entire day! Aren't you going to take a break? It's evening, aren't you going? You have to go to the nursing home today, don't you?”"

“Can't leave before he comes and checks these,” said Khushi briefly, looking up. Lavanya came further inside and gasped at Khushi's face, drawn, exhausted, yet determined. She gave an exclamation.

“You're done in, Khushi. Go home and get some rest. You haven't eaten anything the whole day. You'll drop dead, the way you're going.”

“I should be so lucky,” replied Khushi, and looked over Lavanya's shoulder. Her face changed, the determination strengthened, along with a look Lavanya recognised as pure stubborn mulishness. Arnav was back, Lavanya thought, and he's in trouble. Khushi didn't often go on the warpath, but when she did, she was unstoppable. 

As she was now. Her next words were clipped and defiant.

 “The tyrant is back, Lavs. You'd better get back to your desk before he accuses us of wasting our time gossiping.”

She was at breaking point, and didn't seem to care that Arnav heard every word she said, indeed her words seemed to be aimed at him. Lavanya scuttled back to her desk, and Arnav passed her to come into his room and slam the door. He looked at Khushi and it was clear her words had found their mark. If she had intended to provoke him, she had succeeded.

He came up to her and grasped her by the shoulders.

“Don't ever…” he hissed at her in a low, menacing tone “…ever talk to my staff like that.”

“Like what?” asked Khushi innocently. “Oh, you mean, don't call you a tyrant? All right, I won't. She knows it, anyway.”

She was hurting from the pressure he was applying to her shoulders, his fingers digging into her flesh, but she didn't care. Something had finally snapped in her, a combination of the last few months' tiredness, the fights, the tension, and her own exhaustion and hunger, and she felt almost lightheaded as she faced him.

“You are trying to undermine my authority with my staff,” he said furiously. “And, for the record, you are part of the staff here, so…”

“So what?” she retorted. “Are you threatening to fire me? All right, go ahead and do it. Fire me.”

She looked at him and laughed bitterly.

“No, you won't fire me, will you, Arnav? You will never fire me. It gives you too much pleasure to see me here, under your authority, obeying your orders, being completely at your mercy. Face it, Arnav, you're not finding fault with my work, are you? For the last four months, you've been punishing me for what I did four years ago, and my work has nothing to do with it. And you want to continue punishing me, so…”

“You flatter yourself,” he broke in furiously. “You and I were finished four years ago, before we even started. There is nothing between us now, so don't manufacture anything, or give yourself imaginary reasons for your inadequacy.”

“My inadequacy!” she cried. “How is it that you are the only person who thinks I'm inadequate? Mr. Suri didn't think so, our clients didn't think so, only the great Arnav Singh Raizada, who is such a brilliant architect, finds fault with my work. No, Arnav, that won't wash. Just because Manish…”

“Don't take his name!” snapped Arnav. “I don't want to hear his name. He has nothing to do with this. Keep him at home, don't bring him into my office.”

“He has everything to do with this,” retorted back Khushi. “He is the cause of all this tension between us, and he doesn't even know it.”

“I said, don't talk about him,” ground out Arnav. Khushi looked at him squarely.

“Why shouldn't I talk about him. He is my husband, he has a right to know how I'm being treated at work, and by somebody who claims to be his friend.”

“Our friendship ended when you both got married,” said Arnav savagely. He came to her and grasped her by her upper arms in a grip that hurt, his eyes burning as he looked at her. “Come on, Khushi, tell me that he didn't know you loved me and I loved you. Tell me that he didn't know that there were never only the two of you in your bed. Tell me he didn't know that when you kissed him, it was my face you saw…”

“He knew everything! That was why …!” shouted Khushi. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth and stared at him. He looked back at her, stunned. His hands dropped like stone.

“He knew … everything,” she whispered, her tone anguished. She looked away from him and out of the window, and the anger, the fight went out of both of them suddenly. She looked around at him, and he stared back at her. The room seemed warmer suddenly, sparks flying between them, the tension in the air so thick that it was almost difficult to breathe. Then suddenly, she turned and picked up her plans. Without a word, she walked out of the room.