Chapter Text
He walked down the stairs in the dark, mentally wording the things he would tell HP. It was Diwali, so why the hell was the house in dark? Wasn’t it a pain enough that he had to allow hundreds of meandering eyes into his house, that now he had to bear the utter darkness as well? He had never liked the darkness; he was of the darkness. He did not need more of it in his life.
He scowled and slipped his hands in his pocket to extract his cell phone. There was no way he was walking around trying to fumble his way through the dark. Arnav Singh Raizada never fumbled; he strode confidently everywhere. And his cell phone would provide sufficient light to do so, until he managed to find the person he would lash his anger out.
As soon as he clicked his cell phone on, it flashed a series of missed calls and messages. If he thought, a moment ago, he could not be angrier, he was definitely wrong. He swore soundly and then swore some more, but his fury kept increasing. What the hell was wrong with him? How could he have left his phone in the silent mode after his meeting, he would never know. He had never been so careless. Every time he worked from home, he kept a diligent watch on his phone. After all, that was how Aman could reach him in case of any problems. So how had he forgotten something so vital, that too, so close to his next fashion show? If it were up to him, he would be working right now. But Di had batted her eye lashes in front of him, early this morning, and then swiftly ordered him not to even put a step outside the house. And he could not say no to her. He never had been able to. But at least he thought he could work from home. But then he had gone off and left his cell phone silent for the entire duration of the day. A perfect day lost! And of course, he knew who to blame. Where there was Khushi, there was always a drama!
After talking to Di, he came to his room for an online meeting he just could not cancel. Then he discovered that, that chit of a girl had the audacity of mixing something with his drink. Not only that, but she had also been hiding in his own room while she watched him drink it. And if that was not enough, when he caught her red handed, she actually drank the rest of the drink as a punishment to herself, even before giving him a chance to lash out on her. Outrageous! He could not decide if he was madder at her attempt to sabotage his meeting, or with the fact that she drank that vile thing. And that too, not including, her out-of-the-world explanation for her behavior. Black magic indeed! And then she had gone on talking about acidity. Did the girl ever, not talk?
At one moment he wanted to break her to pieces for all the assumptions and accusations she threw his way and next moment he wanted to put her some where she would be safe, mostly from her own destructive self.
And then another illuminating thought hit him. Why was he even thinking about her when Aman obviously needed to talk to him about something urgent? He cringed inwardly at the thought that he had been standing in the dark for five whole minutes wasting his time on some chit who had the guts to tell him she thought he was putting a spell on her! This time he did not even lower his voice as he swore.
As he claimed himself a man of action, he jumped right into his cell phone and called Aman. Self-indulgent thoughts could wait. He still had his fashion show to organize.
‘Yes Aman,’ he said, as soon as the call went through. ‘Keep checking your emails and give me a call when you receive the confirmation.’ He listened for a moment and replied, ‘Does not matter what time. As soon as you hear something, just give me a call and we will take it from there. Anything else?’
As Aman kept talking about other things that still needed his permission, he replied in monosyllables and walked down the stairs. He completely forgot the dark as he got submerged into the conversation.
That was until he reached the bottom of the second-floor landing. The moment his feet touched the ground his eyes, which had become accustomed to the semi darkness by then, completely sunk in the dazzling display of lights. A sea of small lamps was lit all around the room, and their meager lights danced to the air coming from the pool side. But it was not just the lights that enthralled him.
Amidst the swaying lights stood out a lady draped in red. And for the second time in his life, Arnav Singh Raizada found himself blinded by the sheer, subtle brilliance that graced his line of vision.