Arjun was sitting in his vanity van waiting for his shot to be ready. The door flew open and in entered Kriti Kharbanda. He frowned looking at her," What are you doing here, kriti?!"

"I thought we were still friends so I thought maybe I could just come here and sit till my shot is ready." She tried to explain herself.

"Kriti, even though we are friends we cannot be seen together. I am engaged now and where the fuck is your common sense gone?! Do you have any idea what the fuck will happen if anyone even sees you in here?!"

"Arjun take it easy...."

"Kriti, just leave me alone. I don't want you and me to be all over the internet."

"Are you scared?! Scared that I might just blow up your engagement?!" She smirked.

He chuckled and leaned forward and just when she thought happily that he was coming closer to her to kiss her, he tilted his face to her ear," You know what darling, you are so predictable and the fact of the matter is I know you too well to fall prey to any of your whims and you know how dirty will it get for you if I start to play with you, my way."

Her eyes widened in fear," What you mean?!"

"Now think about this, if you and I will be the cover page of some tabloid, I will be termed as the Casanova, womaniser nothing new for me to hear but what would happen to you and your reputation. You will be slut shamed as a whore who wrecks marriages and you really think you can do anything to stop my marriage?! I will marry her and there is nothing you can do to stop me but think about what I can do to your career if you cross my path." He gave her a smug smile as if he didn't just threatened her.

Tears betrayed her eyes," Why?! Why all this when I am here, telling you how sorry I am, I am begging you to forgive me and take me back. If marriage is what you want then we will get married. I will do as you say, you want me to sit at home and do lunches and select decors, I will do it for you."

His fury skyrocketed,"Well too late for that now, I like that girl and she is a nice gal. I am a man of my word, I am hers by oath and I am not going to break my promises to her just because you think you can just waltz back in my life. I have made a commitment and I will honor it."

She turned him towards her," Do you love her?! You know it Arjun, you are lying to me, you always wanted me over every other girl who tried to hit on you...."

His eyes turned to splits," And you threw it all away! I will hear no more as this will yield nothing, all I know is she held my hand when she didn't even know me as a person, she took a leap of faith and you who had known me for two fucking years, bailed out on me! I will spend my whole life being the man Radhika deserves because she deserves the best and you are just a selfish girl who loves no one but herself."

She stared him right in the eye,"You will regret this one day and I will wait for you to realize that I am and will always be the only girl you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. You think that you have moved on and you will be happy but you know what?! You and I are the same, we are never satisfied with the ordinary and you are fooling yourself if you think you can be happy with that fucking...."

"Don't you dare kriti! I will fuck your career so bad that you will be left with nothing but the short-lived days of glory.  You want to call me names, go ahead abuse me all you want but no mudslinging at her." He said as his whole body shook in fury and his veins lift out of his skin. He was furious scratch that he was murderous!

She leaned closer and held his face the way she use to calm him down," I will wait Arjun, I know one day you will come back to me and we will be together, you always found your way back to me in all these years. No matter how pretty any girl was, she couldn't keep your mind captured the way I did. You are fooling everyone if you think you can get over me after what we had, after what we shared. The things we did Arjun, the experiences we shared, the feelings we had were not some passing phase, you have been with so many girls yet no girl was your match. No one could go toe to toe with you, no one could challenge you the way I did, no one could match your wild spirit, You are a fool if you think you can forget me and accept that bit...girl as your partner."

His anger knew no bounds as he pushed her away not harshly but not gently either," Get out! Get the fuck out of here and this is the last film we are doing together. I don't want others to suffer because of my personal life that is why I am completing the project but don't push me, Kriti. If I walk out of the film, you know what will happen."

She turned to leave but his voice stopped her," And don't ever come close to me, your new boytoy might not have any issues laying with a girl who dreams of another man but I certainly have issues with another girl hitting on me when I am engaged."

"Arav is not my..."

"I don't give a flying fuck, Kriti! Just don't try to fuck my relationship or I will have to fuck you over which I clearly don't want to."

"So you do care?!"

"Care?! No it's sympathy that I feel for you. I know how hard you have struggled and I don't want to destroy your career just because you are behaving like a lunatic after me."

"You will come back to me one day." She said and departed sparing him a last glance.

He dipped his hand in the pocket and his fingers shuffled for a packet of cigarettes. He finally found it and took one out. He lit it up and took a puff to calm himself down. His mood had rapidly soured and he knew that there was no point shooting today. He called the director inside his vanity to stall today's shoot.

Pravin entered inside and coughed as the smoke penetrated his nostrils. He grimaced finding the several butts of  cigarettes in the ash tray. He was Arjun's old friend and he had time and again advised Arjun to give up smoking.

"Arjun..."

"That fucking bitch! What does she think of herself?! She will decide things for me....She is fucking slut....a fucking gold digger...spreading her legs for another man using him like a ladder like she used me...I will fucking destroy her..."

"No you won't and you know it! Arjun, why does she affect you so much?! Why do you care so much to hurt yourself?!"

"I don't fucking care about that money grubbing bitch!" He roared.

"Then why are you hurting yourself!" He asked pointing to the butts of cigarettes.

"Because I hate her! I hate her so much, Pravin more than...."

"We can only truly hate someone we loved. You loved her, Arjun and you know it in your heart. You are just hurt and angry that she didn't feel for you as much as you did."

"Doesn't matter, she is a bitch! She was never worth it. She is just a selfish skank, you know she is sleeping with Arav Khurana and she claims that she will wait for me to come back to her. Like seriously?!"

"Why does it matter Arjun?! Why does it matter what kriti is doing when you have moved on?!" Pravin asked him, clearly perplexed by his both friends throwing  tantrums on his set.

He was friends with Arjun as well as Kriti but if he had to choose between the two, he would clearly side with Arjun.

For the first time, his vulnerability peaked through his anger," Have I?!"

"Have you not?!" Pravin asked, crisply.

"You know I feel I have really rushed things its like I jumped out of a relationship, I was telling mom to wait and not rush but all bets were off when I met her. She is a very sweet girl always putting me ahead of her ownself, always worrying about my feelings over hers. I don't want to feel like this, I don't want to be affected by what that bitch does, I want to be Radhika's by body and soul but...."

"Do you love her still?!"

His eyes turned fiery, "I hate her! She pushed me to a dark place where I am filled with just anger, disgust and hatred." He got up swiftly," I can't shoot today, I need to see Radhika."

Pravin looked shocked," Now?! How will you..."

"I will drive, it's a four hour long drive but I can make it to her house before sun set."

"Arjun, you can just call her..."

"No I need to tell her that she is more important than anything else. I need to assure her and myself."

"Arjun, I don't think so its a good idea, you are not in the right state..." Pravin tried to reason with him.

"I am fine and I will be more than fine if I see her." He shut his friend up.

"Listen to me, Arjun we can shoot tommorrow or some other day but you are not in the right state...."

"If I don't go now, this thing will be clawing me bit by bit." He said in a weary tone.

He drove all the way from his set to her hometown which was miles away but still he had to see her, he just had to!

He looked at himself in the rear view mirror to fix himself, his hair were all messy and his eyes were red and swollen and his breath screamed of cigarettes. He buried his hand in his pocket to look for mints that he always kept handy. He couldn't find any so he opened the small drawer in the front of his car and finally found some. He popped one of them and heaved a sign of relief. He didn't want to paint a dark picture in front of Radhika's parents. She knew he smoked like one brushes one's teeth and that's enough for her as long as he wasn't lying to her, he could live with himself. He combed his hair backwards raking his fingers in them and now he had to do something with the eyes. He looked for the eyedrops in his drawer, thankfully they were there. He looked heavenward and dropped two drops, one in each eye. He closed his eyes to let the drops seep in and do their work. He looked at himself in the mirror again and when he was assured that he had cleaned up pretty well, he got down from the car.

Radhika's family were taken aback to see him but nonetheless they welcomed him warmly. His eyes only searched for her and finally he found her sitting with her cousin on a swing. When their eyes locked, her face grew hot as if she was caught doing some mischief and by the way her cousin elbowed her, he could tell they were talking about him.

She looked away breaking eye contact with him but he kept staring at her as if his gaze penetrated right into the deepest of her being.

"Papa, can I take Radhika out?! I promise I will drop her before 8." He requested his to be father in law.

"Arjun, she is yours, you don't need to ask but be careful, you know what I mean, Son." Her father smiled but his eyes cautioned him.

Theirs was a traditional family but they trusted Arjun and his family so they didn't mind but at the same time they didn't want people to gossip about their only daughter and hurt her image.

"Don't worry, Papa. She is my responsibility." He said as he stared her father right in the eye, his voice loud and clear and his tone, firm.

He looked at her who was standing a few feet away listening to their conversation. He strode over to her and held her hand," Let's go, we have about three hours in our hand before I have to drop you back."

Once they were seated in the car, she couldn't help herself from asking," Arjun, are you okay?!"

She felt something wasn't right! He looked fine but she could sense that something was wrong. The way he showed up unannounced and the way he was looking at her scratch that gawking at her the whole time.

"Yeah everything is fine, don't worry." He assured her in a nonchalant tone.

She looked around herself and her eyes widened in shock looking at the butts of several cigarettes in the small saucer in the front.

"Arjun, are you out of your mind?! So many...." She pointed to them feeling so angry and frustrated with him.

"Haa so what?! I will do as I please." He screamed at her.

She looked outside the window  hiding the tears that swimmed in her eyes. He screamed at her so suddenly scaring her a bit.

He pulled the brakes and stopped the car at the side of the road. He pulled her into side hug wrapping his arm around her shoulder," I am sorry, it came out wrong."

She lifted her face up from his chest," Tell me what is wrong?!"

He held her tiny face in his large hands," Nothing is wrong, I just needed to tell you that I am yours and only yours. I know Radhika I come with a lot of baggage but I promise I will never leave you alone, I will always be there for you, I promise to take care of you, protect you and keep you happy. You will always be first, I will put you before everyone else even before myself."

She leaned into his hand," I know all this and I trust you, please believe me I really do. Just don't break my trust.."

"Never baby." He leaned and kissed her softly and broke the kiss when she tried to kiss him back which made him chuckle admist the lukewarm situation.

He carressed her hair and cradled her head as she laid on his chest, his heartbeats seemed like a music to her ears," That bitch barged inside my vanity today and sang the praises of her eternal love for me. She thinks she can take me for a ride, as if I was born yesterday."

She looked at him," Who?! Aisha?!"

He rolled his eyes at her," No, Queen Elizabeth! Who else will I be talking about idiot?!"

She didn't know what to respond to that, whether to grimace or laugh on his face as she was clearly amused by his patience wearing thin.

"She is a fucking slu..."

She shushed him by placing her hand on his mouth," No it's not right please don't talk about her in that way. It's not the right way to talk about a girl."

He pulled out another cigarette," You are a saint, I am not. You mind?!"

She snatched the cigarette away," Yes I do mind! One thing I don't like about you is this deplorable habit of yours." She chided him.

"Radhika..."

"I don't like this, Arjun. I really don't please I have never asked for anything else and I won't ask for anything for next ten years, just give this up! You are ruining yourself and you will ruin me if something ever happens to you." She teared up now, seeing the remnants of his smoking spree that had really scared her.

"What! You are scared that I will die?!" He joke asked but the tears in her eyes made him wish to take back his words.

"I am sorry, it's just that it's been my get away for a long, long time and now I need it like I need to breath for air." He confessed.

She shook her head," You need only me, remember you promised that you are mine and I take care of my people. Your life is mine and I won't let you hurt yourself..." Her words drowned in his mouth as he claimed her lips, he pushed her to the window frame and kept ravishing the sweetness of her mouth.

He was simply in awe of her, the fact that she was so sweet, always telling me how good he was but he knew it in his heart, he wasn't half as good as she thought him to be. Still when she looked at him with adoration, respect and most of all love, he could not help himself from believing her even if it's for a minute until his inner conscience rebuked him. What was she doing with him?! He was just a pretty face and what lied inside was not so pretty and he wished he could tell her to think again and stay away from a guy like him but she had become his habit now. He felt selfish to keep her even when he didn't deserve her, even when he knew he was filled with anger for his ex. He knew he wasn't in love with kriti but she had driven him to hate her like no other especially with the way her actions affected him.

He kissed her with raw passion and broke the kiss only to nibble on her neck. He slide her sleeve down to kiss her shoulder and he buried his face in her blossom to calm himself down. He knew he was sporting a hard on and she could feel it too against her stomach.

He looked up at her," I will try to quit smoking for you." His eyes held promise and sincerity.

Her eyes that were closed, shot open in shock hearing his words. She knew how addicted he was and how his hands shook if he didn't take a puff.

She touched his whiskers carressing his face," Why?! Because I don't like it?!"

"No Because I want to live long and grow old with you." He smiled his million dollar worth smile and his words touched her heart and she kissed the top of his head affectionately. She felt content that she had made the right choice, despite all his vices and his temper tantrums, she didn't doubt him. She would have her personal happily ever after with her favourite hero who she was madly in love with.

"I can't wait to be your husband." He cupped her face and looked her in the eye. Indeed his mom knew what's best for him and he would be forever grateful towards his mother for pestering him to see the girl and then decide for himself and he had decided that he was going to hold this girl's hand forever because she brought out the ultimate good in him and pushed him to be better not for herself but for himself.