Being reckless was never really her thing. But today she couldn't care less. She loved the bitter taste of alcohol burning her palette, hitting her nerves at a hammering speed, but somehow the feeling cajoled her intently.

She knew she was quite a center of attraction today. Although her beauty that she was well aware of, was always men's fascination and women's envy, she knew that today it was just ultra-prominent.

Reason?

Her low cut, figure hugging, little black dress that exposed her skin a lot, but she had no qualms, for a change. After all, wasn't all of this a little nuance of the stage of moving on?

She chuckled at her own connotations, taking another sip of vodka from her glass.

Break ups were always so bad to overcome, especially for her, a true Indian at heart living in the all-agile city of New York.

But then that had its own set of merits as well. Rebounds were far too easy to fetch when you were really striving to move on.

Khushi smirked as she seductively eyed at her date for the evening, Riaan, the same guy who had had a crush on her since forever, ever since they joined the same college.

Back then she had always ignored him, given that she was smitten by someoneelse, the heartthrob of the college, with agendas of his own.

But then of course, that relationship too came with an expiry date.

"Focus, Khushi!"

She reminded herself, chiding her own senses mentally because the whole reason for giving Riaan a chance was because she wanted to move on from her break-up!

She regained her composure and smiled at Riaan, who looked extra-lovingly at her, and soon pecked her on her right cheek.

Khushi's snowy complexion instantly displayed scarlet as she smiled faintly at his gesture and continued enjoying the music.

She didn't want to delve in the past haunting anymore and wanted to take life as it came. The only way to achieve that was if she really, really put her 100 percent in this endeavor, and she was sure as hell she was going to do it.

And so without wasting another second, she kept her vodka glass on the counter, the pub's soothing music complying with what her mind was ushering her to.

She bent down slowly, and without giving it any other thought, softly pecked Riaan on his lips.

.

.

To say he was taken aback would be an understatement.

And well, he wasn't the only one taken aback at the moment.

Because both Riaan and Khushi missed the deadly sight of a tall figure gazing at them with a ferocious demeanor.

His eyes spit fire as he curled his fingers in tight fists, while the new couple remained oblivious to the havoc that this person was going to wreck on them.

Without sparing a second thought, he drank the entire whisky from his glass at one go and marched forth.

"Khushi Gupta. You are dead."

.

.

But no, wasn't it the irony and fact of life that everything was not always what it seemed like?

Well, the loving might not be the loving after all, the indifferent might not be the indifferent after all, the innocent might not be the innocent after all, and theoblivious might not be the oblivious after all.

Khushi had noticed him way back.

The person who had made her go berserk, the man who had tested her patience, the entity who had made her have the strangest adrenaline rushes. Simply put, her ex, Arnav Singh Raizada.

She smiled victoriously as she could already feel the heat of rage in his veins streaming high seeing her so close with Riaan, and if not anything, she wanted him to burn. Burn with jealousy.

She enjoyed every ounce of the moment, knowing it well that it served him right.

Yes, this wasn't an expected stance in her moving on process, but her wicked ex had the tremendous power of driving her to any extreme.

She felt that cauldron of anger once again bubble in her head as the reason for their break up from two weeks ago resurfaced in her mind.

..

.

He couldn't control the multitude of rage that hit his nerves seeing what she was doing without any qualms.

He quickened his pace as he took long strides towards her only to see her disappear in the washroom and that halted him in his tracks.

"Damn it!"

He gritted through his teeth, gazing unblinkingly at the direction she went.

Right after five seconds, he spared a disgusted glance at the sore loser that he regarded that guy to be: Riaan Malhotra.

He saw green as the sight of Khushi kissing that guy once again flashed in front of his eyes, making him go furious beyond limits.

He felt this strong urge from the pit of his stomach to punch the loser real hard on his face and distort those features that boasted of being kissed by the woman he,ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA loved.

But he controlled himself knowing that once he did something, he wouldn't be able to stop, and on top of that, they were at a public place.

He tried to curb the adrenaline and came back to his senses much later, when he saw her coming out of the washroom.

Without wasting another second, he rushed towards her, not giving her a moment to react as he pinned her to the maroon wall on one end, giving her no chance, no choice to escape.

She gasped as she suddenly found herself at a loss of words and felt herself encaged within those strong muscular arms, the same ones that had been so familiar to her in the past six months.

But then again, two weeks back...

And her uncontrollable anger came back in a jiffy.

"What do you think you are doing, RAIZADA?"

She gritted through her teeth as he kept staring at her, his eyes spitting fire.

"I should be the one asking you THAT Khushi! What the hell do you think you are doing?"

He retorted.

Khushi stared at him blankly, before turning her face away.

That infuriated Arnav all the more.

In one swift move, he grabbed her upper arms, pushing her further into the wall, while he stepped dangerously close to her, so much that their lower bodies were now almost touching.

"Answer me damn it!"

He demanded.

Khushi callously looked at him, her eyes giving him a thrash of reality as she spat,

"Maybe your memory is damn weak, Raizada! Let me remind you then! You have no f**king right to question me about anything I do, given the fact that we broke up two weeks back!"

Arnav gazed at her as she spoke her words, his vice-like grip on her still stagnant.

She waited for him to answer, but when he didn't, she knew that this stubborn hot-headed man didn't deserve another word from her. And so, she tried with all her might and strength to push him away and escape, only to have her efforts jeopardized as he grabbed her once again, now more tightly.

"I am not finished, yet."

He averred.

Khushi looked at him with a mocking gaze but her moment of rejoice was short-lived as he dangerously spilled,

"I have EVERY f**king right to question you! You are MINE!"

For a moment, Khushi was caught off guard.

All her relentless courage that she had managed to muster with a lot of efforts seemed to disappear into thin air.

She knew she couldn't be so nave again and so regaining her composure, she spat,

"Oh yeah? Do you say the same thing to Lavanya as well whom you were so busy kissing a fortnight back!? Or you got bored of her so quickly that now you suddenly want me back!?"

And that made Arnav flinch.

His hold on her loosened automatically as he reluctantly took a step back, not wanting to go through that same route again but he couldn't condone what Khushi did some time back at all, for he knew he wasn't wrong.

"For the LAST time Khushi! She was kissing me, not the other way around."

"Yeah, like THAT makes a difference! You are just an ex now, and mean nothing to me! Just let me go!"

Arnav was beyond pissed now.

First, she didn't believe him and broke up with him so easily. He knew that the situation wasn't in his favor and he knew it was difficult on her part to give him a benefit of doubt, but under no circumstance could he tolerate her going to such an extent of kissing another guy, that too in front of him, just because she had amisconception about him cheating on her.

He held her tightly by her shoulders once again as his penetrating gaze remained fixated on her. She could feel her breaths hitch, just like old times, her senses going limp at his mere touch, as she tried to remain conscious and not just fall into the pit of helplessness like she usually did.

"YES. That does make a difference. Because, Khushi Gupta, Arnav Singh Raizada DOESN'T lie! You may feel it is way too easy to just say that I am your EX, but you know what? I am sure as hell even YOU don't believe that sh*t. And you know how I know it?"

He lowered his hands towards her waist, making her feel those zillions of unexplainable emotions fly up her radar as he pulled her closer and whispered near her ear in a tone barely audible,

"THIS Khushi. This. The way your body reacts, when I am close to you. The way your heart beat picks up pace, when I touch you. The way your breaths forget the word normal when you know I am nearby. And the way your eyes convey your love for me, although your mouth screams out the words that I mean nothing to you!"

"So Khushi Gupta, scream as much as you want and deem me to be your ex. Because in any case, both you and I know, that's NOT the truth. Can never be!"

Khushi felt her legs become jelly and if he wasn't holding her now, she would have definitely collapsed on the floor.

She didn't know how to react, what to say. But she did know that his words weren't untrue. His eyes couldn't lie, and his gestures couldn't deceive.

But even then what made her irked was the fact that he still didn't verbally apologize to her.

If he did, would she forgive him?

Well, she didn't know.

She was still not over the fact that this guy made her go through hell in the past two weeks, but she also couldn't deny the fact that he also gave her peace, right at this moment, just with his words.

For starters, she just wanted to run away from him, far away, so that she could think straight, and decide for herself what she wished for.

And as if her wishful thinking was heard by the almighty, she instantly saw groups of people approaching the restroom area, and in just that moment, she took advantage and escaped his grip, while he stood there all silent.

Before he could even assimilate his thoughts, he saw her disappear from the area.

He raked his hand through his hair in frustration, his heart clenching at the mere feel of losing her touch, and in that one moment he knew, that Khushi was not just another girl in his life.

Yes, women threw themselves at him, after all being the son of an influential entity in the States did have its perks, and with that, he was also exceptionally intelligent and good looking.

But the plethora of girls he had dated before, none of them could match up to the stand that Khushi began to have in his life.

He would be lying to himself if he said he never cheated on his girlfriends before. Of course he did. But never could he confess that he cheated on Khushi, because the fact was he absolutely did not!

And if Khushi didn't want to understand this, he would bloody MAKE her understand!

He promised himself as he lashed out of the area, only to embrace disappointment once again when he saw Khushi was missing.

He darted his eyes at all directions and found that even Riaan was missing.

The venom in his system shot up as he had no control over his rage anymore. He was sure that he was going to murder someone today, and with that thought, he paced out of the space quickly.

He knew his adrenaline wouldn't calm down anytime soon, but the next thing he saw, totally caught him off guard.

He saw Riaan sitting on his bike, talking to someone over phone.

Arnav looked around and he couldn't see Khushi anywhere in the radius.

A blanket of confusion took him in as he walked back to the pub, trying once again frantically to locate Khushi, but as expected, she was not there.

Frustrated, he made up his mind to get out of the place and search for her when suddenly his eyes fell on something.

He narrowed his gaze as he looked at the tissue paper having imprints of something written on it, placed neatly on the same counter where Khushi had been sitting this entire evening.

His heart skipped a beat as he headed towards the spot and with bated breath picked up the piece in his hand.

His eyes grew wide while his heart drummed at a rapid pace, as his mind enunciated the words that she had so perfectly encrypted on the tissue paper.

If your ego is fatter than the lion,

Then mine is bigger than the world.

8'o clock at Time Square is your last chance,

Else you are just an ex, undone!

.

And Arnav Singh Raizada fell in love with Khushi Gupta all over again.

His signature smirk sat braggingly on his face as he held the paper close to him, his mind propagating only one thing, which his mouth finally uttered,

"I'm going to win you back Khushi! You are going to be MINE, again!"

https://youtu.be/6nXI6r6aCoU