Private A Surprise Housewarming

"Fine," Zoraida laughed at Stefan's assertion that he wasn't as good as she was at juggling everything. "I am an amazing delegator. There. Happy now?" she teased as a waiter person came to clear away their dishes.

"Well," Zora began as she glanced at her phone to see the time. "I think that maybe we can now go back to your place and have a look at the surprise waiting there," she said after a message from Proxentia Designs popped up to let her know they were finished decorating Stefan's apartment.

"Also, I just may have made arrangements before we arrived here that our dessert be delivered to your doorstep," she confessed with a happy grin as she pulled out the bags from under the table.

"Change rooms are really good for covert operations, you know," she added teasingly, admitting to the real reason why she had taken so long to try on clothes in the last store they had been at before they stopped for dinner.

Zora's grin just grew wider at the astonished look on her boyfriend's handsome face. She then nodded agreeably at his bemused questions, his bewildered reaction was exactly what she had been hoping for.

"Well, sort of. It sort of has been in the works for a while now. We just needed a moment to pull everything all together," Zoraida confessed as she looped her arm through Stefan's and gave it a tiny reassuring squeeze.

"We can take a taxi," she suggested, her excitement just barely contained as she walked quickly next to Stefan almost pulling him along in her rush to get him back to his apartment so he could see the transformation.

"Hey, hey, hey...." Zora laughed as she hurried up the stairs after Stefan. "Don't spoil the surprise," she called out, not at all upset. In fact, if he ran into the apartment it would only make the surprise more of a surprise, so she was not too worried about whether he entered his apartment without her or not.

"Okay, close your eyes," Zora instructed as she made her way down the hall towards Stefan. "And don't open them until I tell you to," she added as she stopped, stood up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek before proceeding to unlock the door to his apartment with the key he had given her.

"Alright, take a few steps forward, and then you can open your eyes" she said once she had opened the door and moved inside the entrance so that Stefan could enter his apartment which smelled faintly of fresh paint and a woody potpourri scent.

Standing back and a little behind Stefan as he checked out all the rooms of his newly decorated apartment, Zora smiled, happy in the knowledge that her boyfriend and soon to be fiance was delighted by her gift and what she had done for him.

"Maybe I am, but you deserve this and more," Zora said as she came up behind Stefan and embraced him from behind.

"Besides what's money if I can spend it on those I care about?" she pointed out as she hugged him around the midsection while taking in all the tiny details in the room that pulled it together.

"You're so very welcome," Zora remarked truthfully as she looked up at Stefan fondly when he kissed her, flushing softly and in pleasure at his words. It meant a lot to her to know that she had been able to do something like this for him.

"I'm really glad you like everything, your mom was such a great help," Zora confessed as she hugged Stefan to her as she spoke. "She chose all the pictures of you and of the Valkyries, and the guitar as well."

"Did you want some dessert now, or did you want to check out the apartment some more?" Zora asked curiously knowing that Harmonia had also redecorated the kitchen, his bedroom, and the bathroom as well.