KHUSHI

4 Years Later...

"Take a picture for me please?" I pouted as I handed him my phone and started posing in front of the Eiffel tower, trying to throw my dress in the air so it would look like it was because of the wind, but it didn't help much.

"Yeah, we still have to find you a guy, better take windy pictures." He rolled his eyes.

"Idiot." I frowned as I threw the tissue I had been holding in my hand at him.

"Khushi!" he pouted.

"Ved!" I mimicked him.

Oh shit, I forgot, meet Ved, remember the guy I had met in the club that one day and he asked me if I wanted to go somewhere else with him and I said no? He was right, the world is small, and I ended up bumping into him at another club one day, he was with his group of crazy friends partying and he introduced me to them and since then, I became like a permanent member of their group.

"Oh come on, I'll make your dress fly." Lavanya, one of our friends said as she came to hold my dress in a manner that it looked like it was flying. So much for a picture right?

Once we were done taking my pictures, our whole group posed for some more picture in front of the tower, but every picture we would take at least one of us had to be doing something wrong in it, it was crazy I tell you.

"Imagine someone proposes you, right here." Lavanya said dreamily.

"Don't worry, we would suggest the idea to your boyfriend." I said.

"Sure, and make sure I'm perfectly dressed so I can get good photos." She said excitedly.

"Yeah right, as if anyone will propose to you, have you seen your face?" Ved joked.

"It's better than yours idiot!"

"Okay guys enough, if everyone is done with pictures, can we please go? We still have a lot of places to visit and little time, come on..." Sheena, another girl in our group said.

"We have a whole week Sheena, relax." Raghav said.

Ved, Lavanya, Sheena, Raghav and I had become really good friends in the past couple years and for a while we had been planning lots of trips together none of which ever ended up being successful, but finally after so long, we managed to plan this trip to Paris and make it successful and we had been here for two days now but we were already having so much fun.

I never thought I'd be this happy in my life, not after everything that happened with me in the past, but I was glad I made some right decisions and finally I was able to find some happiness for myself, the happiness that I deserved the most.

"A whole week is such a short time span to find Khushi a boyfriend in Paris." Sheena pouted pretending like finding me a boyfriend was what they came to do here.

"Yeah right, let's find you one first."

"He will run away as soon as she starts complaining." Ved laughed to which Sheena made faces making us all laugh at her.

"How about we stay here for a little longer, take a walk around, see how it is and then leave?" I suggested.

"Yeah, we've just been taking pictures since we came, it's time we just walked around this place and admired everything with our eyes and not our cameras." Ved agreed with me.

"Okay, let's take a walk then." Sheena finally agreed so we all started walking around, looking at everything around and discussing how gorgeous this place was.

"Imagine if we could get to go inside and see how it was?" Lavanya asked as we stood so close to the entrance from where you could go inside the Eiffel tower.

"I know, I so wanted to go, but the tickets were all sold out." I pouted, the bookings for entering inside were always done in advance and by the time we decided to come here, everything was pretty much booked.

"Anyway, let's go see other places around." Raghav said, so we all turned around to walk away with him when I heard someone call out my name.

I wasn't even sure who would know me here in Paris of maybe if I heard it wrong but I turned around and saw Arnav walking towards me.

Holy mother of God!!! Was this Arnav? Was it really him? Or maybe I was just dreaming. What would he be doing in Paris? The last time I met him, four years ago, he was going back to Hyderabad, and now he was here?

"Hi." He smiled happily as he stopped in front of me.

"Hi... what a surprise." I said as I greeted him with a hug, I would say, four years later, things weren't really awkward between us, I mean of course if it had ended on a bad note, maybe we would have just ignored each other or something, but we had both grown so much since then, and it felt really good to finally meet again.

"These are my friends." I said as I introduced them all to Arnav, he greeted them all with a smile and then looked back at me.

"So, what brings you here?" he asked.

"Just holiday, what about you? Did you move to Paris or something?" I joked.

"No... After I moved to Hyderabad, I joined a big company for a job, they sent me to work here as some things needed to be done from here, it was for a year though, I'll be moving back soon in a month's time." He said.

"Oh wow... that's really good. It's good to know you're doing well."

"Yeah... it's good to see you here, on a holiday, it's been like your dream I know." He smiled.

"Yeah." I smiled as I just continued staring at him, Arnav and I had known each other since childhood, but there was something different with him right now, I couldn't really put a finger on it but he seemed relax? Calm, and just so different from the person he had been in the past, you could just notice it from how he talked and all... he seemed to have changed a lot since we last saw each other.

"I think we should get going though, it was nice seeing you." I said to him.

"Yeah, same here. Hope to bump into you maybe in another country someday." He laughed.

"Hopefully." I nodded, he took a step backwards and then turned and walked towards a group of people standing a bit further from where we were standing and started talking to them, I turned towards my friends wanting to leave but they were all looking at me like I had committed a crime or something.

"What?" I asked.

"Now we know why you've never had a boyfriend in the past few years we know you." Sheena said.

"Why?" I said eyeing Ved, he was the only one I told about Arnav, did he tell everyone else about him?

"Because of him, you had this glow on your face while you were talking to him and that stupid smile on your face, it's just not going away" Sheena said.

"That's stupid, there's nothing like that."

"Is that so? Let's find out." Sheena smirked.

"Hey Arnav." She called him out as she waved her hand at him, Arnav looked at us in confusion as he walked back towards us.

"We were wondering, if you're free, would you like to show us around? You've been here for a while, I'm sure you know some good places?" Sheena asked. I gave her a serious look wondering what she was up to but she chose to ignore me. I don't think Arnav was going to agree anyway.

"Yeah sure, I don't mind." Arnav said, so I turned to look at him in surprise, why would he agree? Damn it!

"Great, where should we start from then?" Lavanya asked.

"Let me just say goodbye to my colleagues and then join you." Arnav said as he walked away once again, I turned to Sheena and pinched her on the arm while she squealed.

"What are you trying to do?" I asked.

"Playing cupid." She smirked.

"I don't need anyone playing cupid in my life... things with Arnav were so messy, I'm okay acting like he's someone I just know, you can't just bring him back into my life like that." I frowned.

"He seems different now Khushi." Ved said.

"You've never met him, you don't know that!"

"I've heard about him, I know everything, you told me and the Arnav I imagined when you told me about him and the Arnav I see here are two different people, maybe he's changed, maybe he's become better."

"So what, I should just forget everything that happened in the past?"

"No, but you can't hold it against him forever. He made mistakes, but so did you... you went separate ways because definitely things between you wouldn't have worked then, but maybe that's what you needed, some time apart so that you can know that you need each other and that time apart helped you grow, helped you become better."

"We've just met him Ved, we can't know if he's changed, we can't know if he's grown... you can't just assume things, this isn't a movie."

"That's why you should let him hang out with us and maybe you'll get to see if he's changed or not. Come on Khushi, deep down you know you've missed him." Ved looked at me seriously.

He was right, I missed him, there wasn't a day when I hadn't thought of him, there wasn't anyone out there that I could be close to like I was close with Arnav, there wasn't anyone that I could love like I had loved Arnav, but I had left it all behind me and I was scared if he came back into my life, things might just mess up again.

"Hey, don't overthink this, just do what your heart tells you to, sometimes, it's okay to ignore your mind." Ved smiled at me.

I sighed as I looked at Arnav who was now walking back towards us, he joined us as we all started walking out while he told us about the places he liked the most so we could choose one and he would take us around to visit them.

"Hey, you okay with me tagging along right? If you're not I can just leave?" Arnav whispered to me.

"No... it's okay, I don't have any problem." I smiled faintly.

Was it really okay though? I don't know, I had made a firm decision and I knew I didn't want him back in my life, so why was I letting him back? Maybe I wasn't, maybe it was just because of my friends and maybe once this trip ended, I wasn't going to see him again for a couple of years until I bumped into him in some other place years later...