Part Six - Back Together

bOOk of cliChes - 

-VI-

Arnav had lost count of how many days it had been 11/28/40 or 45 since he had last kissed his wife or made love to her. Ever since Khushi had figured out that the Great Gazoo was none other than Arnav posing as his kidnapper, her temper had flared, she had thrown his ipad and had broken it to pieces literally, hurling it to the wall across their marital bed in sheer anger that he could pull off such a nasty trick as the one day kidnapping fiasco that had left her very scared at the thought of losing him. It wasn't just the love he had been missing out on; apparently he had also lost the privileges to listen to her quirky scripts. No, not because she had stopped working on them, on the contrary she was always drowned in her scripts now. He knew she was making great progress because every now and then, she would squeal and jump in joy and turn towards him eagerly as if to share her triumph only to retreat back, but he could sense the last few days, her resolve was dwindling, he had managed to chip off those layers one by one. It was just a matter of time. He hoped, anyway. He missed hearing about her zany ideas and even more crazy scripts, the demands for artificial lighting producers and the rest. He missed her, it was really simple. This silence between them had to end. Because at this moment, he wanted nothing more than kiss her red nose...well sort of anyway.

He didn't realize he had been gawking at her so obviously, that she had begun to grow concern at his melancholic stare, something had to give, a girl could only resist the irresistible for so many days, and hers was just an act to start with. Well, not really, it was true anger for the first few days, then it was hope that he would make the first move and placate things, then it had come down to ego, nope no way in hell she was going to relent. She had played her tricks well, even increased the percentage of taekwondo poses entrapping him on the bed to lure him, entice him, nothing worked, maybe she needed to dress up and go for the kill to awaken her dormant man. She mused, as she stared back at him, had she taken it too far, he was only pulling a prank and that too obviously because she had bored him, gone overboard with this whole soap script writing thing. May be she should just call it truce she wondered, and her eyes drifted to his lips, she sighed, it had been long, terribly long...11/28/40 or 45 days she was not sure. It was at this moment, Khushi Kumari Gupta always been SR decided to take things in control and break the ice, it was time for them to ditch the damned Arnav rekha. This thought alone made her face light up like a thousand sunflowers blooming at the first sighting of the morning sun, she had a plan. It was in her hands.

He saw her walking towards him, with a piece of paper in her hands. May be it was his lucky day after all, he pretended to go back to reading his book but the sound of her anklets told him, nirvana was fast approaching. Then he heard that voice after so many days he had lost count.

"I need something" she stood in front of him.

He pretended to look up casually, forget that both their hearts and err...were somersaulting at the rate of knots, and would wake the neighbors soon, if they didn't do something about it. Thank goodness for sound absBankeLalent walls. "Let me guess", he put the book down on the table next to him, and took her hands in his, "Would that be...  an artificial rain maker, an artificial lightning creator, a fake full moon and twinkling real lookalike stars, big fans to create breeze in closed rooms and close contact situations, a shaky ladder, a derelict guest house with filmsy formwork, fake pani puri stalls, an office set up, a temple with sound bells, a minimum of ten plinth steps and a marbled plane for banging the head if need be... and...err.. a first aid box and almost forgot a butcher's knife"

"What no!?" she looked aghast at his suggestion, "a butchers knife?" she raised her eyebrows, at the incredulity of that list, of her list, and the absurdity of it all.

He shrugged as if to imply, it wasn't him. She took the seat next to him, and looked at him seriously, "I really said all those things?"

He nodded smugly, "I've remembered to the T"

She smiled, "I'm sorry for being such a..."

"Shh..." he placed his fingers on her lips, "No, I'm sorry for being such an ass. I should have known better than to pull off that stunt, will you forgive me?"

"What took you so long?" she asked, inching closer, as he snaked his arms around her back drawing her closer. They were about to kiss, when her phone rang, she jerked back instantly, he didn't let her go that easily, "You can get it later"

"No..." she pushed him away slightly, "That ringtone...its"

"What..?"

"It's the production house!"

"What the...!? When did that happen?" Now he was mad, like fuming mad.

~~