A/n: Baby Gordon will be called Junior in this story in case anyone gets a little confused.
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"Can someone please get the door?" Mom shouted. "Who is even here? You said your friend's getting here later right?"
"Yes, and it's probably whomever Vaka opened the gate for."
"In that case Vaka go and see who's at the door." He mumbled something as he stood and Mom hit him square in the back of the head with a towel.
"Dinah it's for you!"
For some reason, that meant everyone had to stop what they were doing to eavesdrop. As soon as I saw Normani standing at the door, I wished that I had at least stopped to check my appearance (I had flour on my face).
She waved, "Hey, I know I was supposed to get here later but there was an earlier flight so I just took it and I'm here."
"Hey," I murmured slowly. "Uh where's your stuff. I hope you didn't book a hotel or anything."
"No," Normani mumbled with a laugh. "I am capable of following instructions. And it's in the car. Let me just go and get it." The driver got out of the car and unloaded Normani's suitcase, a laptop bag and a backpack from the back of the car. Of course she used a car service.
"Do you need anything else Miss Hamilton."
"No I'm good Rob, thank you for the ride. It's always a pleasure to see you when I come to LA." She smiled as she tipped him.
"The pleasure's all mine Miss Hamilton. Enjoy your stay." I gave him the exit code and picked up Normani's suitcase despite her protests. "How was your flight?"
"It was okay, you've got a little flour on your face," Normani murmured as she reached up to wipe it off my cheek. "There, it's gone. So are you future brother in law and his family here?"
I shook my head, "just Fetu. His family is going to arrive on Monday for the engagement party in the evening and I think they're spending Thanksgiving with us."
"That sounds awkward."
"You have no clue," I mumbled. I introduced her to everyone before taking her upstairs to get comfortable. When we got back downstairs, Mom had already heated up some food for Normani and she joined me on the floor.
I shouldn't have been surprised, given that I had seen her easily charm a room just by smiling, but I was shocked to see how perfectly she fit in. After having known her for two years, I felt like I could safely say that I knew her well enough to know when she was faking and she wasn't. She took everyone's jokes like a champ and dished out a few of her own. I could tell that my brothers were enamored and my parents were impressed and confused because I had called then and complained about her a few times.
As soon as she was done eating, she came into the kitchen and helped me with the dishes since it was my turn to clean up. At some point, I ended up sitting on the counter while she did the dishes.
"I can feel you staring Hansen."
"I'm just surprised that you do dishes and normal stuff."
Normani rolled her eyes, "my parents wanted me to stay grounded despite the money, so I did chores, I got a job when I turned 16, and not at the magazine. Mom and Grandma taught me how to cook."
"That sounds like the perfect childhood. You know like rich but grounded."
She tensed, "it was far from perfect."
"How so?"
"That Hansen," she looked up at me and smiled, "is a story for another day."
When she was done, I took her on a tour of the house before we went upstairs to my room so she could unpack. Not that there was much to unpack anyway. But my brothers kept trying to find ways to hit on her and despite the smile that had remained on her face the whole time, I didn't want them to overwhelm her this soon.
"What happens now?" she asked as she leaned back against my bed. I picked up my Polaroid camera and took a picture of her. Normani made a face. "Hansen stop."
"You're so photogenic though," I said, taking another one. She got up stalked towards me and I started scooting backwards on the bed. "Okay I'm putting it aside. No more pictures." She pinned me down and started tickling me. "Mani I'm going to pee if you don't stop!"
She stopped tickling me but didn't move, at least not immediately. "You get one more picture, but you have to be in it with me."
"Okay," I took a deep breath as she picked up the camera and lay down beside me. She took the picture and put the camera aside without bothering to look at the picture. She looked at me and grinned. "What are you smiling at?"
"I've never noticed how pretty your eyes are. I like them."
I smiled. "That's a huge compliment coming from the prettiest of them all. "We should probably start getting ready for bed. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day, for me at least."
"Sounds good," she murmured. Mom was leaning against the door with the airbed and pump. Normani got out of bed, not looking the least bit bothered and went to take both from her. "Is this for me?"
"Yes, unless you two are sharing a bed..."
Normani shook her head, completely missing the suggestion in my mother's tone. "No I'll take the airbed. Dinah sleeps like a weirdo."
"Okay, well don't stay up too late. We have an early start tomorrow."
My sisters came into my room and we ended up falling asleep way later than we had intended. When I woke up in the middle of the night, the airbed had deflated so I woke her up and made her get into bed with me. Although we had fallen asleep on opposite ends of the bed, I drifted over to her side and somehow ended up snuggle against her chest with her arm wrapped around me.
The next time I woke up, I was alone. In bed that is. Normani stood on the other side of my bed, still wet and in nothing but a towel. She looked up from my phone when she noticed that I was awake. "Morning Hansen, did you sleep okay?"
"Morning, I should be asking you that. You were basically sleeping on the floor when I woke you up."
"Yeah but you didn't leave me there and that's what matters. You should go and shower, your mom said we have to go and get some stuff from the store, then we have to go and get your grandparents and pick up Duke and Ryder from them."
"What's everyone else doing?"
"Oh everyone's got errands to run, I feel like we got off easy compared to everyone else. Possibly because I'm running errands with you and I'm still considered a guest."
"Probably, okay let me go and get ready so we can go."
I finished getting dressed quickly and I found her downstairs playing with Junior and Seth; my heart started fluttering excitedly as I watched her pick up my youngest brother and throw him into the air before tickling Seth. Everyone that I dated always fit in with my family and loved them as much as I did. But she had been there less than 24 hours and she had won Seth and Junior over and Dad as well; he was always the most difficult to impress.
I cleared my throat, "we should probably get going."
"Yes we should. Alright Little Man 1 and Little Man 2, I'll see you later. We can draw pictures like I promised."
"Bye Mani."
We took my rental and went to get the groceries first, then my grandparents and dogs (all of whom loved Normani obviously) then I decided we should take Duke and Ryder out. We took a trail that I had never used before and let Duke and Ryder run ahead of us. Normani took out her camera and started taking pictures of me and the dogs. Our late night conversation on Sunday had revealed that one of her secret hobbies was photography.
"You never told me what got you into photography."
"Well I dated a photographer and one of my closest friends is a photographer so when they weren't taking pictures of me, I was learning to take pictures of them," she responded as she snapped a picture of me. "After a while, I got my first camera and started taking pictures of stuff and I realized I'm okay at it. I'm probably not going to be hired for a shoot at a magazine any time soon or ever but I like it."
"Then you should keep doing it. I am always a willing subject."
She smiled as she took another picture of me. "You're a pretty subject."
After a while, we walked back home to get ready for Funaki's engagement party. Normani wore a mid-length, wine colored, off shoulder dress with black stilettos. We were riding with Regina, Seth and Junior and I watched her play with them on the way there and keep them entertained during the long, boring speeches, except mine and Kamila's which were short, sweet and funny of course. After a while, they ran off to go and play with some of the other kids, which left her to finally start listening and shielding me from Nela's attempts to talk to me.
"Imagine how shocked I was when I walked into her apartment and found an entire naked man in there. I almost went to jail for murder that day," Dad said with a laugh as he recounted the story of how he met Funaki's fiancé to the crowd. All things considered, their engagement party was going a lot better than any of us thought it would and the more troublesome Saveas were behaving for the time being.
I nudged Normani and gestured to an old lady who was struggling to stay awake. She stifled a laugh. "Wanna get out of here?"
"And go where?" I asked, turning to face her.
She shrugged, "I don't know, let's go to the beach?"
Normani slipped out first and I followed a few minutes later with a bottle of wine, two glasses and a blanket. We both took off our heels once we were on the beach and walked barefoot until we found a good spot. Once our little set up was complete, I took a selfie of us and posted it to my IG story with a caption that said, "On cloud wine". Normani called it absurd and told me to post it anyway.
"So what's the verdict? Did I do what I came here to do?"
"Oh definitely, you have definitely proven yourself to be a nicer person than I originally thought. I feel like I can even tell people we're friends for real."
Normani smiled, "then my work here is done. I'm jumping on the next flight back to New York."
"Out of curiosity, what made you want to prove that you were different to me of all people?"
"There's just something about you. We couldn't really be friends when you were my assistant."
"You and Avery are friends."
She groaned, "I knew you were going to bring that up. It's different with Avery though. For starters, he didn't dislike me from the first moment that he met me. Secondly, he and I are literally the same person."
"I didn't dislike you from the first moment."
"Yes you did," she said with a laugh. "You thought I was a spoilt brat who only got the job because my mother was on the board. Those were your words, verbatim."
"You did see that email?" Those hadn't even been my words, and they weren't the ones I would have chosen, but there was a time when I didn't think Normani was worthy of the job. A very short time. "For the record, I may not have liked you but I always respected you as a writer and an editor. I admire your work ethic and your ability to give zero fucks."
She smiled, "I learnt that from my grandma. That woman does not give a shit what anyone thinks of her. Although I guess since I seem to care what you think, I guess I haven't completely mastered the skill yet."
"We're friends though, you're supposed to care what I think. Within reason obviously."
"And what exactly do you think of me now?"
"You're still infuriating, but I think I like that about you, among other things of course."
Normani tilted her head to the side and studied me. "What else do you like about me?"
"Well obviously your work ethic and your ability to give zero fucks," I mumbled with a laugh. The temptation to gush the way I had a week earlier while we stood in the underground parking of her apartment building was strong. "I like how good you are with kids, especially my younger siblings. They can be a lot, Vaka and Hoi are more annoying now that they're in college and about to go pro. But you're super patient and you actually sound interested when you're talking to all of them. You're like that at work too. You're a really good mentor. I like your laugh, I like how you think. About general stuff. I like― why are you looking at me like that?"
"Like what?"
Like you're going to kiss me, the thought popped into my head. Not that I mind. I frowned. What the fuck am I saying? I do mind, you do mind Dinah Jane. She's just a friend.
"Dinah Jane?" Normani asked and I realized she had been talking. "Are you good, you kind of disappeared there for a moment?"
"Yeah I'm okay. I just got lost in thought."
"You were saying?" Normani asked, her eyes flicking down to my lips briefly. I felt myself leaning in, despite my internal argument moments earlier. Before anything that neither of us could come back from could happen, my sisters came down to the beach with their significant others.
Of all the fucking times...
"Dinah you suck!" Funaki called out and I fought the urge to groan. On the plus side, they had more wine, the downside was that a part of me had wanted to see exactly what would happen if Normani and I kissed.
We hung out on the beach for a little longer before they left while Normani and I opted to stay out a little longer and go for a walk. "Wait, how will we get home? I think they took my car."
"Don't worry about it, I can call Rob. I hired him for the duration of my stay here."
"You hate change don't you?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"Well you've had the same driver since you were a little girl. You hire the same guy every time you're in LA, and I'm pretty sure there's a lot of stuff that you don't change."
Normani shook her head. "It's not that I hate change. I don't mind change, I like being in control of my life though. And consistency kind of helps me keep that control."
"The need for control always come from someone who's lost it."
"Yeah... so I was bullied when I was younger. Choie and I didn't go to the same school and I was a really shy and quiet kid. So easy pickings I guess. Mom and Dad got me tutors and decided I'd be home schooled and interact with other kids during dance. Yes I used to dance. Not long after, Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and we almost lost her. Then hurricane Katrina happened. We were in Houston by that time but the rest of my family was still in New Orleans and they lost so much. Then Mom relocated La Sienne to New York. I could deal with the change and the moving, but I spent a lot of my childhood not knowing whether things were going to be okay. So as soon as I was in a position to control stuff in my life I did."
"Until Eli," I murmured, finishing her sentence for her. "That's why you don't want to commit to anyone. Because you can't fully be in control in a relationship."
"Maybe..."
"Do you trust me?"
She shrugged. "Yeah... I guess so."
"What if I could help you lose control in a safe environment where you know it's going to be okay afterwards?"
"I'm listening."
"Have you ever done yoga before?"
"I have."
I smiled, "good, we're going to do some yoga tomorrow. For now, I'm taking you to the place that does the best donuts in Santa Ana."
"Let's do it." She called Rob and I gave him the address of a little place that I had accidentally discovered when Seth and I got lost one time.
Despite promising myself that I wasn't going to embarrass myself and further entrench myself in the friend zone I did. I promise though, I'm not a glutton for punishment or anything weird like that. Not really anyway.
"I'm probably going to look stupid trying this again but what the hell? Go big or go home right? So the other day in your parking lot when I told you that I like you, I didn't mean as a friend. Obviously I like you as a friend and you're an awesome person but I like like you as well, if you know what I mean. You're smart, beautiful, charming, infuriating, and funny and so many other things and there's this vibe between us. It might be all in my head in which case we can pretend this conversation never happened but if by any chance it's not just me, then can we try? I know you don't want to fall in love and we're not there yet, we're far from there. Not that falling in love with you is hard, just that we just met and I'm not trying to run before we can even walk―"
"Hansen," Normani interrupted me, an indecipherable look in her eyes. We stared at each other, gazes intense as though we were engaging in a silent argument. I won, or maybe I lost when I leaned in and kissed her lips.
They're so soft... fuck I'm kissing Normani Hamilton. And she's kissing me back.
As though sensing my distraction, Normani tilted her head and deepened the kiss. I felt my heart beating wildly, kind of like the first time you held hands with your crush when you were a kid and it felt like something completely alien but exciting.
I loved it. The kiss, not her, yet. But I also knew that I would fall in love with her eventually. Not just because of the kissing, but it would help, considerably.
We eventually pulled apart because we were still in public, despite having taken a booth when we got to the donut place. Normani dropped her hand from my face and put it over mine.
"That was―"
"Shut up Hansen," she murmured, placing a finger on my lips. "We're going to finish our donuts, go home, make out for a little while, if you consent of course, and then we'll sleep and we can talk all you want in the morning. Okay?"
"Okay."