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The rapturous scent of Italian hit her the moment the door to #1703P opened.
“What a delightful sight!” Elle swept Arianna into her arms before the carry-on bag could drop to the plush carpet in the hallway. “Right on my doorstep like a gift from Santa.”
Arianna’s feet landed on the floor with a giggle slipping right out of her. “Santa? Doesn't he come down the chimney?”
Elle took her hand and led her inside. Once Arianna was in the hardwood foyer, where she stepped out of her sneakers and walked with only her socks on, Elle pulled the luggage inside and latched the door shut. “I never had a chimney growing up.” Everything was blissfully quiet now that they were both in Elle's penthouse. “I've always lived in buildings like these.”
“I lived in a little house once. Before my father left.” Arianna gingerly stepped deeper inside, taking in the light beige walls contrasting with dark walnut kitchen cabinets and crimson red throw rugs atop planks that Arianna would never name by sight in her life. “But, yeah, no chimney like the kind Santa comes down.”
Her luggage rolled into the sunken living area that separated itself from the cooking and dining space. Already, this room was larger than the entirety of Arianna's studio flat by Changi Airport. She was so beguiled by the delicate golden sconces hanging from the vaulted ceiling that she nearly missed the sight of the sunset outside the tinted windows.
“Wow…” She stood behind a couch and pressed her fingertips into the slight condensation gathering on the windowpane. “So, this is what Seattle looks like.”
Something rattled on the dining table a few meters to Arianna's left. “Beautiful, isn't it? I'm enamored with cityscapes.”
“Me too.” Arianna could hardly pull her face away from the view, even with the growing pit in her stomach hungering after the Italian delicacies being plated on the table. “I wish I could afford a view like this in Singapore. Even on layovers, I don't get to see sights like this. They always put us up on lower floors. It's cheaper, you know.”
Elle came nearer, the flowy material of her white top adding to the casual atmosphere she cultivated in her home. “Oh, I know, but I don't recall you ever making such a fuss about the view from my hotel in Singapore.”
“You usually keep me occupied elsewhere.”
Finally, they faced each other, Arianna's hands clamped around Elle's arms as they almost embraced. “This is different. This is my home.”
Arianna passed up the opportunity to kiss her girlfriend to instead look around again, her eyes almost unable to comprehend the sheer size of the TV, the screen imitating the current collection featured at the Seattle Art Museum. You couldn't fit something like that in most apartments I've seen. And she thought that her mother Pearl had a big TV in Kuala Lumpur!
“It's a beautiful home…”
A hand brushed against Arianna's arm. “Dinner's still hot. You'll have to tell me what you think of the garlic bread. To settle a dispute for me.” Elle turned, her gait elegantly homey in her domain. “I think it's some of the best you can buy anywhere in the world. An old friend of mine says it's ‘mid.’”
Arianna hustled to the dining table, where she was welcomed to sit on the side facing the view from the windows. She always had one eye on the purpling skyline and another on her girlfriend. “I don't know what ‘mid' means.”
“I only found out a few weeks ago. When I was told this garlic bread is ‘mid.’”
Arianna figured it out and had to agree that the bread was exquisite from the first bite. “This is the dangerous thing in America,” she said with her fingers covering her fervent masticating. “You have some of the best bread in the whole world. It wants to make everyone fat!”
“Only if you let it.” Elle broke the crust away from her bed before leaving it atop her chicken parmesan. “God knows I've tried.”
Arianna hesitated before taking a bite of her noodles. “I'm really happy to be here.”
Elle looked up from cutting her food. “I'm happy you're here, too.”
Arianna was smiling so widely that she almost couldn't eat her first meal in her girlfriend's staggeringly impressive penthouse.
Chapter 22
Arianna allowed herself to forget silly things like jetlag, work, and what waited for her back in Singapore. She even forgot that she was a minor celebrity in Royal Asia, thanks to her face not being up everywhere in the middle of Seattle. Elle assured her that most Americans didn't pay attention to corporate models, but it made no difference to Arianna, who had already forgotten what she was worried about once she saw the Space Needle in the distance.
She knew that Elle didn't care for the touristy things around Seattle. It's not like I'm biting at the champ to show people around Singapore. That was fun when someone was new in a city and wanted to show friends and family all the hacks, tips, and tricks they had discovered in the past year or two. Now? Singapore was home, and Arianna didn't see what was special about it.
Seattle, though… she loved it!
“Alamak!” Arianna exclaimed when she saw a hole-in-the-wall restaurant serving Malaysian food, complete with Malay written on the signs and in the windows. “You didn't tell me I could get my mother's home cooking around here.”
Elle was slow to follow her to the café sporting plastic chairs outside and a fan working overtime over the main entrance. “I had no idea this was here. When's the last time you had good Malaysian fusion? Look! They have some of my favorite Indonesian dishes, too!”
“We ate brunch two hours ago.”
“I'll have you know, Ms. Sparrow,” Arianna confidently said with her hands on her hips, “that when a girl from Kuala Lumpur goes on holiday, she has to eat. We do not return from vacation without gaining a kilo.”
