KISS: Road Trip

Ch 67: The Worst Day (Peter)

"Okay so this one then?" Ace asked, turning his laptop around to show me the listing for a house a few miles away. "Yeah, that one! It's a good size, it's one story but it's got a guest room, and the living room and kitchen are separate!" I said, leaning over and giving him a kiss. "Hell yeah, I'll inform the realtor we've finalized our decision!" he said, pulling out his phone before giving me a look.

"But you know what that means, right?" I frowned, shaking my head slowly. "Means we're gonna go to IKEA tomorrow!" he cried triumphantly. I fell back on the couch, burying my face in my hands. "No! Please Ace no! If you love me you won't make me go!" He slapped my thigh, pushing me away. "Shut up I'm on the phone! And yes. We're going tomorrow and that's final."

I let out an over dramatic sigh, closing my eyes. "Fine! I'll try and mentally prepare myself for the worst afternoon of my life tomorrow." He laughed, giving me a shove. "After the life you have lived, don't you dare call IKEA the worst afternoon of your life."

It was weird to think that we had just bought our first house when he finally hung up. Smiling, he slipped an arm around my shoulders, giving me a kiss. "Damn babe we did it," he murmured. I nodded, closing my eyes and kissing him back. "Mhm. Mmmhmmm. We did. And I would say we should celebrate in bed but I gotta go to sleep early so I have the strength to make it through shopping tomorrow."

He rolled his eyes, kissing me again, before giving me a look. "You're serious though?" I grinned, nodding. "Yep. Sorry babe, you have to make a choice between either sleeping with me or shopping at IKEA." To my dismay, he rose to his feet, stretching with a yawn. "IKEA babe, I'm sorry. Now go get some sleep since you need it so badly!"

Heaving a sigh, I nonetheless crawled into bed, closing my eyes and dropping off to sleep.

"Peter! Wake up we're going to IKEA!" Ace cried, shaking me awake. I let out a groan, burrowing deeper into the pillows. "Nnnoooo! Not IKEA day!"

"Yes! IKEA day!"

Despite all my protesting, I was trailing behind him pushing a shopping cart half an hour later, already ready to waste an entire day here. "Ace why are we here this is stupid. I hate IKEA. Can't we just order stuff online?" I grumbled. "No! I like to look at everything and figure out how it'll look in our house! So shut up and just help me get some stuff."

I heaved a sigh, leaning on the cart and scrolling through my phone as he wandered among the shelves, getting furniture and dishes and towels and everything in between. "Mm hey babe which of these plate sets do you want?" he asked. I shrugged, running a hand through my hair. "Could not care less. Whatever you want is fine with me." He shot me a glare. "Come on Peter. This is for our house where we live together! Try and at least act like you care."

"Fineee get the blue ones," I muttered. Rolling his eyes, he threw them in the cart. "Whatever," he snapped. I sighed again, following after him. "Hey come on now Ace don't be like that! You know I'm just joking, whatever makes you happy makes me happy!" "Well at least pretend you're interested." "I am!"

I mean I wasn't, not at all, but I forced a smile and faked it. It had been over three hours and Ace was showing no signs of being done shopping. I was bored out of my mind and overjoyed to see Gene calling. "Hey what's up?" I asked.

"Hey me and Eric and Bruce and Eric were going to go out to lunch, since we were all the calculus kids back in high school. You were the fifth member of the group, so you want to come with us?" he asked. I heaved a sigh. "I'd love to but I'm stuck at IKEA with Ace for apparently the rest of my life. You guys have a drink in my honor or something."

He burst into laughter. "Hah! That sucks! Damn, welcome to the married life! Shannon's the worst about furniture stores, literally the worst afternoon of the year. Well hey, if you make it out alive and we're still at lunch feel free to join us. Good luck man!" he cried, getting way too much enjoyment out of this.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up. I'll maybe see you later, who knows. I might starve to death on aisle 32. Anyway have fun at lunch, tell the rest of them I say hi," I said, hanging up with a sigh. "Hey Ace, how much longer do you think we'll be here?" I called.

He shrugged, setting another thing in the cart. "I dunno. I still want to look at the warehouse section. Maybe an hour? Or two?" I winced, forcing a smile. "Alright sounds good." He gave me a kiss, smiling. "Thanks for putting up with this," he said softly. "Well you're my husband and I love you and I'm willing to go shopping for ninety years if that's what you want to do."

I kept standing lazily by the cart, swapping texts with Gene as he kept making fun of me for having to go shopping. Ace walked over, putting one last thing in the cart. "Hey babe that guy keeps staring at us," he said quietly. I looked over his shoulder to find a man giving us a disgusted look. "Oh yeah he is. Probably doesn't like us being a couple. It's okay though, we could take him in a fight."

Ace laughed, rolling his eyes. "Don't you dare instigate a fight. But anyway, that was the last thing. We can go now." "Aah sweet freedom!" I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the checkout line. We finally checked out, heading for the parking lot. "Hey Peter. Dude's following us," Ace said under his breath. "Don't look behind you though, that's suspicious."

"Yeah I know I saw him. He's probably just going to yell at us, but I told you, if we need to fight we can take him." He nodded, taking things out of the cart and putting them in the trunk. We both sort of held our breath as the guy walked past, still staring at us. But he didn't say anything, just glared silently, and we got into the car without trouble.

"There, you survived the trip. I'm so proud of you," Ace said with a grin. I rolled my eyes, kissing him. "Oh, hush. I only did it because I love you."