The girl was no stranger to Chloe.
Not really.
She had worked in her father's record store for a few weeks now. Chloe added her on Facebook a while back and she believed they even texted once about the work schedules and the possibility of switching shifts.
But Chloe hadn't really seen her.
Surely she had seen that the girl was good-looking. There was no debating that. But Chloe hadn't really noticed her.
The first day of the new week started like every other in the record store. Chloe sent out orders and waited for the weekly shipment to come in. Mondays weren't particularly exciting to the redhead and it were days like that where she missed her college days.
Chloe graduated a few weeks back and for lack of any better plans –or concrete plans at all-, she decided to kill some time working in her dad's store. Yet every Monday, she would wonder if she should've pursued a career as an exotic dancer, just for the thrill of it.
On that particular, boring Monday, Chloe had spotted the newest employee selling numerous albums to a middle-aged man. The girl, Beca, made eye contact with Chloe who smiled good-naturedly at the cashier.
Chloe foolishly thought that would be enough, but Beca made her way over as soon as she had closed the deal.
Chloe has never had a problem chatting with anyone in her life. But with this girl, it seemed small talk was all there would be. Beca was a hard worker and whenever Chloe interrupted her to talk, the brunette made it clear she would rather fill the stocks than chat about real issues or personal matters.
Hence, the only words that would get exchanged on a daily base were about how busy the day had been or how lazy the new intern was.
Chloe didn't mind.
She could laugh with the girl and she could always appreciate a hard worker.
"Hey." Beca said on her way over, but instead of it being a polite greeting, it came across as a firm statement and her fixated eyes and pointed finger scared Chloe a little.
The way she walked towards her intimidated Chloe to say the least. Suddenly, the girl that she had seen a couple days a week for a few weeks in a row turned into a powerful creature and all Chloe could do was await what she would do and surrender to it.
Beca's hand wrapped around Chloe's wrist when she had approached her and the firm grip on it made Chloe weak in the knees. "Cool." Beca simply stated as she stared at the girl's tattoo of a ladybug. "I love tattoos." She said with an honest twinkle in her eyes.
Chloe would reply with something witty if she could, but it seemed Beca had taken the air from her lungs and she had trouble comprehending the reasons behind her sudden astonishment.
"Is your father in?" Beca asked oblivious to Chloe's struggle. "I have to ask him something."
Chloe took a deep breath and put on her usual bright smile with playful eyes to match. "He is not, but I am. I take care of everything around here, so I'm pretty much his replacement." The girl shrugged confident, but Beca's stare was suspicious and questioning, as if she didn't believe a word she said. "Come on, you can ask me. I'm sure I can fix whatever problem you have."
The brunette sighed as she rolled her eyes in surrender. "It's not a problem, actually. I just need three weeks off."
"Okay, I can schedule that in."
"No, I mean,-" Beca chuckled before continuing. "-I need them off like now. Well, not now. Just, after this week."
It was adorable to Chloe to hear the girl stumble through a sentence like that. "You need three weeks off starting next week?" She asked rather serious, trying to take on the role of a superior to the best of her abilities.
"Yeah, I'm going to Europe. Bought my plane ticket last night." The girl said proud.
Something stirred in Chloe. Whether it was caused by Beca herself or just her bold plans for adventure, she didn't know. From the moment she walked up to her and predatorily took ahold of her wrist, her perspective of Beca changed and she was no longer just an employee in her father's store.
She became something else.
But Chloe has always had a soft spot for taking risks and being adventurous. It is why she was so bored working the job she is now. She would prefer doing something a little more venturous and crazy.
"You booked your ticket before checking to see if you can get off work?" She asked condemning to hide her true awe at the action.
"Your f- I mean, Mr. Beale said it wouldn't be an issue." Beca said smug in return.
"Oh. He did?" Chloe mumbled apologetic to which Beca smiled. "Okay, I'll just fix the schedules for the upcoming weeks then. It's no problem."
"I'm sorry?" Beca shrugged with a sincere and cautious smile before she made her way back to where she was stocking.
"It's fine. At least I'll have something to do on this boring day." Chloe complained while following the girl and taking advantage of the situation to finally move past the small talk. Although this time, Chloe was truly interested in getting to know the girl. "So Europe." Chloe pitched, but nothing more than a hum came in return. "You must be excited!"
"I am." Beca smiled at her for a second before resuming her work.
"Which countries will you be visiting?" Chloe tried again, having some hope left that this time Beca would elaborate and give her a little more to work with.
"I don't know yet." Beca stated as if it were the kind of question that you wouldn't have an answer to.
"How can you not know?" Chloe laughed, a hint of annoyance present in her voice. "Don't you have hotels booked? Trips planned?"
"No, not really." Beca said amused, yet terrifyingly honest. "My flight lands in The UK. I'm just gonna see where I end up."
Beca looked relaxed and unafraid while she told Chloe about flying halfway across the world and her calm demeanor changed hers. "You're insane." Chloe chuckled as she decided to leave Beca alone. "For your own sake, I hope you have more responsible travel buddies."
Six or seven steps away from Beca and fully convinced this would be the only conversation she would have with her that week, a voice rang through the store. "Actually, I'm travelling alone." Beca stated while eyeing the space around her.
"That's crazy!" Chloe yelled back in complete and utter disbelief. "And really cool." She realized as she spoke. "I wish I could do that." She ended with a smile that felt particular sad. Chloe has always had a longing feeling to travel and see views that a photo couldn't do justice. The few family trips upstate and spring breaks spent in Cabo with her college friends have never truly been able to satisfy that yearning desire inside.
"Why can't you?" Beca interrupted the girl's thought process and her remembrance of past vacations.
"I don't know." Chloe chuckled honesty. "I lack a certain sense of directions. My friends have been making me the butt of every navigation and orientation joke, but I got them back when I came out as bi."
Beca's cheeks colored at Chloe's sudden revelation and a shy smile awkwardly made its way onto the young woman's face. Her eyes eventually left the floor and found Chloe's across the room, still visibly uncomfortable with the amount of sincerity that came her way, but she spoke anyway. "Well, you could come with me."
"Yeah sure." Chloe joked back. "I'll just travel the world with a stranger." She said sarcastic which earned a wink from the girl who seemed to head towards the back.
"Not the world. Just Europe." Beca stated calm. "The world would be weird. Don't make it weird." She concluded with faked disappointment as she disappeared behind two large doors.
Chloe was left by herself and the smile Beca managed to put on her face and she spent the next fifteen minutes wondering if the girl was perhaps serious to a certain degree, but later decided that she couldn't possibly be.
The following days, Beca Mitchell –a girl gone unnoticed by Chloe Beale before- managed to draw her in. She had to remind herself multiple times a day that it was not okay to openly stare at someone as much as she was doing, yet her eyes continued to stray despite her own orders.
She learned that the newest employee liked to sing along to the radio when no one was around and whenever something electronic played, her head would bop ever so slightly to the rhythm while her bottom lip turned white from the amount of pressure her teeth clenched on it.
It was distracting, to say the least.
"Packed your bags yet, Beale?" She asked while passing by her one afternoon.
"Four out of five." Chloe joked along, continuing her banter with the smaller woman.
It had become a thing. Chloe couldn't remember how it started, exactly. Beca would insinuate Chloe's companionship on her trip and she would joke along, if only for the sake of having Beca Mitchell smile or shake her head at her in that adorably, stupid way Chloe had come to know.
"Packed for what?" The boss of the record store and her father, Mr. Beale, appeared out of nowhere and he seemed genuinely interested in the answer.
Chloe shared a look with Beca, whose playfulness hadn't abandoned her yet. "Your daughter is joining me on my trip to Europe." She spoke confident and she even wiggled her eyebrows at Chloe.
"That's right." Chloe pitched back without hesitation. "We're going to be globetrotters!" She yelped out enthusiastic, if only for the sake of watching Beca roll her eyes.
She could almost hear her complain about the usage of a variation of the word world while she's 'just' going to Europe.
"Well, that's amazing, honey. But don't you think you could've ran this by me? I'm already short-staffed with Beca gone." The man said tiresome and Chloe knew it was due to the amount of hours he worked to try and keep the store running.
"Dad, I'm not actually going." Chloe said as if he were the fool for believing it. "It's just a game Beca and I play." Chloe spoke as she searched for support with Beca, but the girl just seemed to be an observer in this situation. "Isn't it?" She questioned the look on Beca's face with little trust.
"I don't know." Beca chuckled bright-smiled. She seemed to enjoy the confusion that lived on in Chloe's head. "I was only messing with you, but-" Beca shrugged uncaringly, as if the idea of travelling with the other girl wasn't repulsive.
"But?" Chloe pitched in expectation of something more than just a shrug to convince her.
"But-" Beca continued against her will. Her stubbornness and locked jaw relaxed and eventually faded the longer she looked at Chloe. "-I guess it could be fun."
"You guess?" Chloe faked her pain. "Beca Mitchell, you have no idea how much fun I can be."
"Are we really doing this?" Chloe whispered anxiously to the girl who stood next to her in line to board the plane.
"Assuming we didn't just fly from Denver to Newark for fun.." Beca deadpanned while readjusting her headphones and getting her passport out of her large backpack.
"I don't know, Becs. I've never been to New York. We could just stay here." Chloe pitched carefully, but she followed the girl's lead and inched closer to the front of the line, the last bit of American ground her feet would touch before leaving for unknown territory.
"What is happening to you?" Beca perceived as she moved her eyes judging over the girl's current state, which Chloe believed to be the reason for her laughter after her moment of seriousness.
Chloe was nervous and perhaps a little scared.
Not about the seven plus hours she had to spend in a plane.
Not necessarily about flying halfway across the world with a girl she barely knew.
-Although that very fact wasn't calming her nerves, either.-
Chloe was scared, because it was crazy. She agreed to this insane plan only days ago and even though this was exactly what she craved, it came with an amount of fear she wasn't expecting.
Beca led and Chloe followed her into the plane and to their designated seats. The leading girl took the window seat before Chloe could have a say in it.
"What?" Beca growled offensive. "You seem like the kind of person who has to use the toilet four times an hour."
Chloe shrugged at the remark, since there was never little to argue about. She put the bags away and took a seat next to Beca Mitchell, her newest friend, even though there was still lots of bonding to do, she reckoned.
For a second, there was a silence that didn't feel comfortable to Chloe and she thought things would be weird. She doubted the decision to join this stranger on her three-week long vacation in Europe. She wondered what would happen if they ended up being completely incompatible and wouldn't be able to get along in the slightest. She wondered if she would be able to survive in Europe on her own, if she had to.
Chloe stood up from her seat, allowing all the worries and fears to slide off of her body as she did.
Beca looked at her, perhaps with worry, perhaps just with an interest.
"I have a small bladder!" Chloe defended herself even though no shots had been fired yet as she searched which way to head for the restrooms.
Beca's head dropped to her chest in laughter before she raised her hands in surrender. "I won't say a thing." She chuckled adorably.
And that was the last time Chloe Beale had any doubts about following Beca Mitchell.