Joan thought that we had enough time for an Ikea trip after the studio.
On the way we had picked up Frankie. Joan said that Frankie and her were the ultimate interior design experts and would work together to give my apartment a makeover.
Thankfully for all of them, this Ikea was not full of people. It was relatively empty with occasional people and mostly older people or parents with their toddlers and babies.
"This couch is superb." I heard Frankie exclaim and looked over to where he was. Joan and Frankie had been like kids in a toy store and had practically made decent grounds in Ikea while Ariana and I were strolling around behind.
I saw Frankie sitting on this very ugly suede swamp green couch. I suddenly felt fear about the potential look of my apartment.
"Is it bad to say I really don't trust your brother to furnish my apartment?" I said quietly to Ariana. She turned to see where he was sitting and she burst out laughing.
"Frankie, you are not putting this girl through this nightmare." She said motioning at that ugly couch.
"You're just jealous 'cause I got taste, bitch." Frankie said to her flipping her off, while getting up from the couch and walking away. She gave him the finger right back as he did.
I smiled at the sibling playful feud.
"I never knew your family took furniture shopping this seriously." I joked.
"Trust me, it would be worse with Nonna around. Our bad italian side come out." Ariana laughed and linked her arm with mine and got closer to me.
Joan and Frankie were putting items in the shopping cart and taking measurements for various furniture around the show rooms.
Although I should have been paying close attention to what they were getting for my apartment as I was going to live with all this, I was mostly focused on Ariana and our little moment together.
A few people had recognised her, despite the cap and my hoodie she used to 'disguise' herself with, but she had been nothing but sweet with the people approaching her. I had smiled at her and her kind nature, taking the time to sign autographs and taking pictures with them.
"This would be such a perfect living room, and with this open kitchen there!" I realised that Ariana's arm was no longer around my arm but instead she was at this showroom with a beautiful living room and open kitchen behind it. I joined her and sat on the living room couch.
"Home sweet home." I reached for the fake TV remote on the coffee table trying to turn it on, trying it once and another time.
"Hm, seems like our TV is not working. Must be something with the cable. Remind me to call the cable company later. Is the contact in my phone or yours?" I joked around.
Ariana was confused for a second but quickly caught on to what I was doing. She laughed and reached for the oven, opening it up.
"It was here on the fridge actually, but you must have thrown it out, like you always throw all these notes away. I swear it drives me crazy." She said playing along. I had turned to look at her and saw her now opening the display oven.
"Babe, food is ready. Fresh out of the oven." She exclaimed taking a display oven dish out of the oven and placing it on the kitchen counter top.
"You really have heat resistant hands to not get burned by taking that oven dish with bare hands like that." I laughed motioning to the dish and making my way to the kitchen area. I walked over to the empty dish and fake smelling it.
"Hmm, hippopotamus with ostrich gravy! You really know how to spoil me!"
She raised her eyebrows and burst out laughing.
"What the actual fuck?" she couldn't stop laughing.
I made my way to the kitchen's sink and turned the tap on. Of course no water ran out of it.
"The tap water is also broken. What is going on in this house?" I pretended to be annoyed, although still smiling at us playing "house".
"That's alright babe, we bought a house with two kitchens, remember?" She ran to the next kitchen behind the current show room we were in. I lightly jogged to meet her there faster.
"Of course, that was such a smart realty investment." I said to her, laughing and looking around this kitchen.
"Wouldn't have married me if I wasn't?" She said, joking, but it still hit me straight in the heart and the butterflies swarmed in.
There was a moment of silence in between us as she made her way closer to me and leaned in, totally focused on me. I, on the other hand saw something else.
"Honey," I started to whisper at her "there's a family in our kitchen."
She turned her head to face this family that was now looking at us a bit confused at what we were doing.
(A/N: Yessssss, I got really inspired by "500 Days of Summer", I love that movie and thought it was an incredibly cute scene. So no real original content there just appreciate for such a beautiful movie haha)
She burst out laughing and covered her face, a bit embarrassed as she grabbed my hand and led me away from the place we were in, making our way to see if we could find Joan or Frankie.
"There you are, you two lovebirds. Playing house are we?" Frankie teased as was stood by a quite full shopping cart of various items.
"Please tell me all of that is not for me?" I talked to Ariana as we were making our way to Frankie.
"I think my mom just wants you to be settled in well." Ariana explained, linking our arms together again.
"I feel really bad Ari, I don't want your mom buying me all this. It's not like I need it, I feel like my apartment is fine." I got a bit uncomfortable as the cart must have already reached above what I could afford.
"Then if not her, I will get it for you." She offered, not understanding what was making me uncomfortable.
We reached Frankie who was putting a questionable gold coloured shaped item in the cart. Not sure how that would fit into my place, unless it was for him, then by all means.
"Come on, we're done here. We just need to go grab a few furniture from the warehouse area and we are good to go." Joan said, waiting for us.
I paused in my tracks and so did Ariana when she noticed that I did. She turned around to face me.
"Seriously, Ari. This really must cost a fortune; I can't let you guys waste your money like that on me." I was getting panicked now. They had all come into my life two days ago and here they were, refurbishing my apartment.
"Y/N." She started, in a quite serious tone. "I completely understand that you have your pride and would rather do this yourself. I get that, I really do. But we want to do this for you." She pulled me to an area where no one was really walking by for more privacy.
"You seriously have no idea what kind of an impact you had on my life." She paused looking into my eyes as if she were trying to read my mind. "You came into my life just like that and it's as if I had found something I thought I had lost. I meant everything I said in my songs I recorded today." She paused. "Yeah, those songs are about you." She paused some more before continuing. "I know this is all going way too fast, but fuck it Y/N. I've got this feeling and I know this is right. I can't help it. I usually have very good gut feelings and you're one of them."
So these songs were dedicated to me. I blushed at the thought. She saw that too as she smiled at me.
"I'm not going to say or do anything you're uncomfortable with, as it's still too early to start making declarations. But just know that you're special to me and I love taking care of people that are special to me. So, let me take care of you." She continued.
I was seriously lost for words. Part of me now felt bad declining this generous gesture that they were doing for me and part of me still held on to my pride.
"Ari, I –"
My sentence was quickly cut short with her lips on mine. I glanced around quickly and no one was looking so I gave into the kiss. It was short but sweet, not as intense as the other kisses we had shared but this one was reassuring, it eased my mind and calmed me down.
She had such power over me.
"Please accept this. You've already done so much for me, let me do something for you." She said squeezing both of my hands that she was holding.
"Fine, but then let me treat you to dinner or a day out." I agreed.
"Is that a date?" She asked smirking at me.
My heart skipped a beat. Was it?
"Yes. Only if you want it to be." I let go of one of her hand and brought my hand to her face where I slightly caressed her cheek.
"Are you cooking?" She leaned into my touch and smiled.
"That's also answered by: only if you want." I laughed remembering the first time I made a salad for her in the hotel kitchen.
"It's a deal then." She wrapped both her hands around my waist and pulled me close into a hug. "But not in the hotel kitchen. At your place." She smiled.
Suddenly her phone rang, she reached into her jacket pocket and saw 'Mama' on the phone screen. She picked it up and Joan did not seem pleased on the other end of the line. I heard just a bit through the phone and "Ass over here" was definitely in that sentence.
"Better go, because the last person on this planet I want to see angry is Mama Grande." I said to her laughing.
I started following Ariana to where her mother said she would be.
"Oh, so you do not fear me being angry?" She joked as we walked fast through the bathroom showrooms.
"Well, now that you've mentioned it..." I could not imagine Ariana angry though. I know that she would always voice her opinions no matter what, but I could just not imagine her bursting out in anger. I hoped to never be in that position of making her angry.
"That's better. You know what they say about short people and anger." She said laughing.
We saw Joan and Frankie putting some ikea boxes on the flat shopping cart. I felt bad suddenly because they were doing all the work, so I ran over to them taking over for Joan and helped Frankie place items on the flat cart.
"About time you both showed up. Were you testing the beds?" Frankie said. I nearly chocked on my own saliva.
"Even if we did, that's none of your business." Ariana replied to her older brother.
Joan looked at me and the only thing I could do was rub the back of my neck, uncomfortable of having these kind of comments around Joan. I think she sensed it as she walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Trust me, I've heard far worse coming from these two." She motioned at the two of them which caused them to stop and look at their mother.
"Let's go kids. It's decorating time." Joan walked passed with the other cart while I proceed to push the flat one.
Ariana jumped on the flat trolley and was amused about being pushed around on it. I smiled at her childlike behaviour and proceeded to push the cart, careful not to knock anything, or go too fast to avoid her getting hurt or fall.
We got all the items checked out at the cashier. Ariana had stepped in and paid everything instead of Joan, which I was extremely grateful for and I knew I had to step up the game with the date.
Joan had actually arranged a van to take all of the items in a separate car and we made our way back to my apartment. The ride mostly involved in Frankie and Ariana bickering, Joan and I laughing at both of them, and lots of occasional lingering glances from Ariana towards me.
The drivers were actually bringing everything in and Joan was unpacking things bit by bit.
The Grande family was now redecorating myapartment.
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A/N: Just a quick heads up: next update for this book might take a bit longer than usual as I usually like to have a few chapters ahead written but I've been running a bit behind haha so I will try and do my best to get an update soon :)