Radhika's POV:

"What's going on?" I ask, quietly.

"Mom!" Aarohi yells. "Geez, you scared the hell out of me!"

I lean against the door and cross my arms, smiling at my daughter.

"Well, I was surprised to see my daughter do something other than studying", I grin and she immediately shoves her cellphone away.

"Were you looking through my chats?" She asks, a little outraged, but it's hard for me to ignore her red cheeks.

I pinch her cheeks and pull a chair, and sit next to her in front of her study table.

My daughter is twenty now, but she doesn't seem like it. She has always been the quiet, introvert, geek- to the outside world (she talks a lot at home though, and with her small group of friends). I don't wish to call her a geek but she never stops reading! I want her to go out and explore the world; whereas she just wants to put her nose inside a book and stay there for hours together.

Sometimes she reminds me of myself. She is exactly like Reehaan- she has the same pragmatic approach towards everything, and she is brilliant at whatever she does. Even though she isn't that outdoorsy, I know that if she is forced to play a game, she won't give up until she has mastered it.

"Mom, what are you doing?" She says, rubbing her cheeks. "Don't pull my cheeks, you know I hate it."

"You are just like your dad", I grin. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only fun person in this family."

"Well", she pushes her glasses up her nose with her long painted fingers. Wait, painted? "Statistics show-"

I grab her hand and she exclaims, "Mom!"

"Is that nail paint?!" My eyes widen. "Red nail paint?"

"Mom, let go!"

"Who's the guy?"

"What guy?" A rough voice says and Aarohi groans.

I suppress a groan myself. Reehaan is over protective when it comes to his daughter. And he can be scary as hell.

"What guy?" He repeats as he draws a chair himself, and sits facing us. It's as if we are the suspects.

"You have a boyfriend?" He gives Aarohi a stern look and Aarohi goes red in embarrassment. I roll my eyes.

"Leave your daughter alone, Reehaan", I scold him and he just glares at me.

"Not until she answers my question."

Both of us look at Aarohi, whose face is hidden behind her long hair.

"Ro?" Reehaan's voice goes soft now. I smile. Reehaan and Aarohi have a very different relationship. She's his darling daughter, and he can't bear to hurt her in any way. And he won't stand it if anybody even tries to hurt her. They have their special Sundays every week, where he takes her trekking, and teaches her all the adventure sports things. She loves to do it only with him. I gladly get out of the way. Sunday is the one day I have the house all to myself, and I spend it exactly the way Aarohi spends her weekdays- by burying my nose in a book.

Aarohi and I are nothing short of best friends. But I have noticed, that since the past few weeks, she has been rather secretive. I know she has a boyfriend- you cannot hide anything from your mother- I'm just waiting for her to come and tell me. But today, I couldn't resist.

"Yes", she replies, in a small voice. That's probably because she's blushing so hard. "I have a boyfriend."

"You do?" Reehaan clenches his jaw, and I glare at him.

"About time", I chuckle, looking at Aarohi. She looks at me and grins and I wink at her. Her grin falters when she looks at Reehaan who looks very angry.

I roll my eyes again. "Let me handle this", I whisper in Aarohi's ear. She nods.

"I don't want any guy near her!" Reehaan explodes.

Just what I expected.

"Do you want a girl near her?" I smirk, and Reehaan looks shocked.

"I- I don't- I mean-" he stutters.

"Don't worry dad, I don't swing that way", Aarohi reassures him and he turns red in embarrassment. Now I want to pinch his cheeks; he looks awfully cute- but I know he'll just hate that.

"You are just like your father", Reehaan glares at me and I laugh. "Both of you know how to shut me up. With different tactics."

Now it's his turn to smirk and mine to stutter and blush.

Aarohi just shuts her ears.

"Anyway, back to the point", Reehaan looks lovingly at Aarohi. "Ro, you can't have a boyfriend now. You are too young."

"I'm twenty!" She says, indignantly.

"So? You aren't an adult!" He says. "You are still a child, and I know how guys are, okay?"

"Dad, I'm the only one amongst my friends who hasn't dated before! I'm the only one who has her first boyfriend at the age of twenty! I'm the only one who hasn't had her first kiss-"

I quickly slap my hand on her mouth. "Too much information darling!"

"He is not touching you in any way!" Reehaan yells and he looks very furious now.

I glare at him. He's such a baby.

"Reehaan", I say. "Let's talk outside."

"This is non-negotiable!" He says, angrily but immediately shuts up when he sees my expression. He sighs, knowing that I will always get my way. "Alright, let's talk outside."

I drag Reehaan inside our room.

"I don't want her dating a scumbag-" he begins.

"Neither do I", I cut him off. "But Reehaan, before you say anything, don't you think she deserves to have a boyfriend? All her life she has been this topper with only a bunch of friends- she hasn't gone on one class trip or one holiday with friends- nothing. The only holiday she enjoyes is Sundays with you. So if she has gotten out of her tiny little shell to date somebody, this guy must be good. Moreover, she's our daughter. She makes the right choices- just like we have, er, most of the times."

He chuckles and runs a hand through his hair.

"Look, I know she needs to live", he begins. "But I don't trust boys these days. They just want to sleep with girls. And she's my little girl. I don't want anything bad happening to her."

"Nothing will", I assure him. "How about this? We ask her to invite him to dinner. And we can see for ourselves how he is."

He nods, and then his expression turns sly. "Let's have a bet on this."

"What kind?" I narrow my eyes.

He puts an arm around my waist and pulls me close. He then whispers in my ear, "If he turns out to be rotten, which I think he is, you will give me whatever I want. And if he turns out to be good, which you think he is, I will give you whatever you want. And you know what I want." He ends, in a husky voice, and the next second, he starts kissing me feverishly, and I respond with equal fervour.

Our bedroom door bangs open, there's a yell, and it shuts just as quickly. We break apart, and look at the door sheepishly. Poor Aarohi.

"Tactics", winks Reehaan and I blush.

#####

The door bell rings and I look at Aarohi, who looks absolutely pretty and a little excited. Reehaan just looks like Amrish Puri in DDLJ.

Aarohi opens the door, and invites her boyfriend inside. My jaw drops, and I am pretty sure Reehaan looks stunned too.

The guy is a hunk- he is wearing casuals- shorts and a sleeveless shirt which outlines every ab, and his biceps seem like they were overdosed with botox. He has an earring and a tattoo on his arm.

What's even more unnerving, is that he looks like somebody. I just can't figure out who.

He checks Aarohi out, not so subtly, and I see Reehaan clenching and unclenching his fists from the corner of my eye.

I have to avoid a bloodbath at any cost.

"Hey babe", he greets Aarohi and gives her a tight hug. Aarohi blushes and then puts her arm around his, and smiles widely, "Guys, this is Mayur. My boyfriend."

Reehaan and I look at each other.

We need to be polite, and atleast treat him like a guest, I tell Reehaan with my eyes. His eyes blaze with anger but he agrees anyway.

"Hello, Mayur", I am the first to greet him. He shakes my hand, and subtly eyes me up and down as well and I feel disgusted. The next second, Reehaan as wrenched his hand out of mine and is giving him a tight hand shake. "I'm Aarohi's father. Reehaan."

Mayur winces slightly. "Hello, Reehaan-"

"Sir to you", Reehaan says coldly. Meanwhile Aarohi is giving us perplexed looks, and she seems a little hurt.

"Let's have dinner?" I quickly suggest, and literally drag Reehaan inside the kitchen. Reehaan links his arm to Mayur's, and drags him inside as well. I think he doesn't want to leave him alone with Aarohi.

Once dinner is served, Reehaan starts firing Mayur with questions. Mayur looks least bothered, and holds Aarohi's hand, who blushes furiously. Reehaan holds my hand and almost breaks it with the effort of restraining himself from breaking Mayur's face.

"So what do you do, Mayur?" I ask him.

"Right now, nothing", he says casually. "I'm just waiting to join my dad's business."

"How old are you?" I ask, confused.

"Twenty four", he says and grins at Aarohi, brushing his hand up and down her arm, and now it's Reehaan's turn to restrain me from throttling the son of a bitch.

"What does your father do?" Reehaan asks, as I take a sip of water to calm myself down.

"He is the owner of the Raina Industries", Mayur says, and I spit the water out of my mouth, coughing, and Reehaan thumps me on the back.

"Mom, are you okay?" Aarohi asks concerned.

I ignore her. "Your father is Dev Raina?"

Mayur just nods. "Yeah. So you've heard of him."

This is great. This is just simply fantastic. There is no way in hell my daughter is dating Dev's son.

This dinner is over. Way over.

Reehaan looks at Mayur, who is now looking at Aarohi like a predator, and both of us quickly stand up.

"Dinner's over", I say, and Reehaan drags Mayur from the kitchen, leaving a bewildered Aarohi behind.

"Er- what-" he begins but Reehaan just shoves him out of the house and yells, "Stay the fuck away from my daughter!" and bangs the door on his face.

Both of us turn around to look at Aarohi, who looks utterly shocked.

"What was that?" She yells, angrily.

"You are not dating Mayur and that's final", Reehaan says.

"I don't care!" She screams at him. "Somebody showed interest in me for the first time, and you guys treat him like shit!"

"That's because he deserves it!" Reehaan yells back. "The way he was looking at you- just be glad I did not rip his throat out!"

"He hasn't tried anything with me!" She shouts, angry tears running down her eyes. "He has been a perfect gentleman, and we are taking everything slow!"

"You don't understand honey, you are still a child-" I begin.

"You had so many boyfriends when you were young!" She screams at me. She then looks at Reehaan. "And don't even get me started with you! And just because you don't want me to repeat your mistakes, you cannot ban me from dating him! It's my decision!"

And she stomps her feet, and shuts her bedroom door with a bang, leaving us both numb and in shock.
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Hey there beautiful readers! This is technically NOT the first chapter; it's just the prologue. You might know if you have read the bonus chapter of T for Trouble.
PS: I might update slightly earlier than I mentioned ;-) :P