it was soon nearing 6am and I was surprised Ariana was still awake.
Asides from her working on writing from time to times, we had talked quite a lot during the shift about everything and nothing.
I mostly listened to her talk so passionately about her dogs and pig, from Harry Potter to her learning Japanese. She also talked a lot about her family; mostly of hergrandfather and grandmother's love story, war stories of her grandfather and her ownchildhood before fame.
I was so seriously in awe to see how much of a genuine person she was and how much all her family had gone through. She was also very down to earth.
In return, I had told her my own story of my upbringing, how my childhood was like and how I ended up being stuck in this city.
"I would love to come and see where you live." That sentence pulled me out of my thoughts as I looked at her, a bit dumbstruck.
I lived on my own in a tiny apartment, so it wouldn't be so much of a problem. I just simply grew self-conscious of showing Ariana, who most likely had a huge estate in a scenic place, my little apartment with almost barely any furniture inside of it.
"Yooooo. You need to come back down from wherever you are." Ariana waved a hand in front of me from across the desk as she giggled.
I shook my head realising that I had spaced out yet again on her.
"My apartment is really tiny." Was the only thing I could utter.
This sounded like the stupidest of excuses.
"And? I don't see how that is a problem?" She asked very confused. I found that I was also confusing myself as to why I thought that would have been a good excuse.
"Oh, Well aal-alright..I guess."
That came out wrong and ended up sounding as if I was uninterested. This caused her to frown slightly, slightly drop her head and look at her fingers, with which she was nervously playing with.
"Don't sound too excited there." She softly mumbled, not looking up.
I felt the hurt. I felt bad for having what I said come out that way.
I got up from my chair and made my way to her. I crouched down so that I could meet her gaze, which she had still not detached from her fingers.
"Hey look, I'm sorry. I did not mean for it to sound so uncaring or rude. I would love for you to come over. I think I just got a bit nervous because...and I know you won't judge or anything...but I just got self-aware of the fact that I'll just show you a shitty apartment. I mean it's cold there half of the time since the heating system is fucked, so you'll probably have to bring a really warm sweater. The main staircase also looks disgusting, the walls are pretty thin so you literally hear everything and then ther-"
Her lips interrupted my unnecessary rambling.
I seriously would never get tired of kissing her. She put my mind at ease and all my worries and doubts went away.
"What time do you usually wake up?" She said as she pulled back from our kiss. It took me a few seconds to get my mind back together as I stood up in front of her. She managed to grab a hold of my hand and squeezed them tight as our fingers interlaced.
"Uhm, anywhere in between 5-6pm usually. I can always arrange to wake up earlier for you." The last statement made her break into a wide smile.
"I want you to come to the studio with me. I need to record later today and I would love if you could be there with me. I want you to hear a song or two."
I felt very flattered that she was inviting me to hear her record. I had never done anything that exciting in my life and I was not about to let that opportunity slip. Especially if she was also letting me get an exclusive peak at of her songs for her next album.
"Let me know what time you're going and I will plan my sleeping schedule around that." I said as I dared being bold and stroked her cheek lightly. She leaned into my touch and smiled.
"I'll text you. Should be around 2:30-3pm if there are no last minute changes. Are you sure though?" She hesitated.
"I wouldn't miss this for anything in the world." I reassured her.
She got up and was now facing me. Her hands reached around me and pulled me in tight for a hug. As she was slightly shorter than I was, her head rested particularly perfectly on my chest.
"Honest to god though. You need to get that heart checked out, it's beating like crazy." I heard her laugh as I slightly tightened my hug.
"It started going out of control since you walked into the reception. Been telling myself all this time I should be deceased by now seeing how hard it's been pounding out of my chest." That sounded excessively cheesy. But she chuckled at my remark and pulled away.
"I'm going to go and get some rest, and you should too as soon as you get home babe." She took the papers that were laying on the desk on which she had done a lot of writing and stood up heading out of the back office. I followed her out and walked her back to her room as we stayed silent for most of the way back.
The security guard from earlier was outside of her door and when he saw us arrive towards the room, Ariana quickly nodded at him and he instantly stepped to the side, walking further down the corridor as to give us some privacy.
She opened the door and turned to me, leaning against the door frame.
"You better make up a good war story for this." She lightly touched where I had been punched. I had forgotten all about the beginning of this night. I winced a bit as I felt it was still sore.
"Sorry." She whispered as she slowly approached her lips and placed a soft kiss right next to the bruise.
"I'll arrange to come by your place and pick you up tomorrow. We'll be at your place around 2pm then." She smiled.
Obviously it meant a lot for me to be able to come to her recording session, which filled my heart with nothing but joy but also made me wonder why she was so eager for me to go with her.
"Goodnight gorgeous. I can't wait to see you tomorrow again." She said wrapping her arms around me and nuzzling her face in the crook of my neck. I hugged her tightly. Her perfume just overwhelmed me, she was so intoxicating and knowing I was going to be left without her in a few seconds already made me feel empty. I did not want to let go.
But I let go and she disappeared back into her room. I instantly found myself missing her terribly.
Trailing my feet, I made my way back to the reception desk. People would be in soon and I needed to be ready to deal with the questions.
I tidied around the front desk and got everything set up for the morning team. I heard footsteps heading towards reception and was surprised when I saw my boss.
He apparently was surprised too, but most likely from my bruised cheekbone.
"Y/N? What the hell happened to you? Are you okay?" He rushed over to me, dropping his briefcase to the ground.
"Hey Michael, don't worry, it's all good! No harm done, just a drunk guest trying to get in the hotel to try and bother our VIP." I explained.
"Did you call the police?" He asked, still worried about the situation.
Michael was a really nice guy and a good boss, always willing to help out. I really couldn't complain about this work place, it was like having big brothers around all the time.
"Nah, our VIP's bodyguard heard the noise and dealt with him. It was just a bit of a tense situation as he was slightly out of control, but seriously it's fine. Our VIP is fine as well, no harm done and no panic caused." I answered, he nodded his head and smiled at me.
"Quite the little fighter I hired uh?" He joked and I smiled at his comment.
"Look Y/N, please take the night off tonight. I can imagine that after a night like this one you need to take a day for yourself. I'll find someone to come in for you, if not I will take your shift. But please get some rest okay?"
I was not about to say no to that. This was absolutely perfect as I could have a full day with Ariana without worrying about work.
"That would really be amazing. I feel like I just need to process these emotions and hopefully will be better for tomorrow." I lied as my emotions were definitely already processed. "but Michael, can you make sure the guys don't access the security footage. You know how Oscar gets when something happens, the Gossip Queen spreads the stories everywhere and I would rather this altercation stayed in between the both of us."
He laughed, everyone knew that Oscar was a serious drama queen and drama lover.
"Sure Y/N. Look just go now; I'll handle the desk until the guys get in for their shift so that they don't see you in this state. I'll just tell them you felt ill and went home early." I really appreciated him.
"Thanks partner in crime." I went to gather my stuff in the back office and heard a voice coming from behind me.
"One thing though, you really need to tone it down with the perfume in the back office. I don't know who you're trying to impress when you are alone back there but us guys can't breathe during the day, so please, no more excessive perfume."
I laughed knowing full well whose perfume that was.
"Sorry; I'll make sure to not suffocate you guys with my perfume next time."
After saying bye to Michael, I went to the changing rooms and made my way to the train station. I couldn't help but text and let Ariana know of the good news.
I put my phone away and hurried to get back home so that I could get as much sleep as possible.
I got to my apartment several minutes later and quickly got ready to head to bed. Knowing full well I was not going to hear from Ariana before I got up later, I set my alarm to 12:30pm and managed to quickly fall asleep.
After what felt like only 5 minutes of sleep a loud noise woke me up. I quickly recognised the sound of doorbell for my building's entrance door. I glanced at the time, which read 11:40am and saw I had a few messages from Ariana. The doorbell rang again and another time right after, reminding me I probably should go and see who it was. Why the urgency in the ringing of the doorbell? I pressed the intercom button to talk to the person who was ringing.
"Who's this?" I asked through the intercom.
"Y/F/N Y/L/N – This is the police; we would like to ask you a couple of questions." I heard an older woman say.
My heart dropped. Why were the police at my place? Was this because of Pete yesterday? Was that why Ariana was trying to text me earlier, because she knew about Pete pressing charges?
I buzzed the police in. What have I gotten myself into?
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A/N: SO...A bit over 5k reads now. You guys are seriously the best! Thank yoouuuu! ❤️