A knock on the door of her office made Gwen Conrad look up from her laptop. When she granted access, her daughter's head popped on the slightly open door.
"Hey," Stacie greets. "Bad time?"
Gwen raises her eyebrows, "What are you doing here?"
The younger Conrad laughed, now fully entering the room with her mom's assistant, Peter. "What? I can't visit my mom at work now?"
"That's right. 'Cause you're not five anymore, plus, you've been here every other day ever since the summer started. I'm getting suspicious," Gwen narrows her eyes at Stacie. It's two weeks into summer, it is very unlikely of her daughter to be hanging out at the law firm instead of going to beaches.
Peter chuckled at the mother and daughter exchange. He's been in Conrad, Posen and Associates for too long to not know exactly why the young Conrad is visiting frequently. Aubrey Posen, daughter of partner David Posen, started her internship this summer. It is not exactly a secret that Stacie has been crushing on her since they hit puberty, she is out to world anyway.
"You know why she's here, don't you?" Gwen turns to her right-hand man.
Again, Peter chuckled when Stacie's eyes widened. She looked at him with a don't-tell-my-mom-anything expression.
"Peter," Gwen drawls impatiently.
He just shrugged and when he saw Stacie's shoulders slump ed in relief, he says, "You know Aubrey started her internship two weeks ago, right?"
Gwen grumbles, "I hate it when you change the top- Oh, wait." She turns to Stacie, who groaned. "You should be in her area instead of being here!"
"What are you talking about?" Stacie asks, thrown off by her mom's reaction.
"I mean, you should be there to ask her out or something instead of bugging me with you presence," Gwen explains.
"I-i don't... Why would I ask her out?" the young brunette stutters.
"Because it's ridiculous to crush on her and not do anything about it. Besides, it's about damn time for you to give me grandchildren. I am getting old, you know," Gwen states in a matter-of-factly tone.
"I do not have a crush on her, Mother," Stacie denies. "And you do know that I am not biologically capable of impregnating her and vice versa, don't you?"
"Uh, yeah, you do have crush on her," Peter retorts. "Like the hugest and longest crush in the history. And I want grandkids too! I'll find you a donor."
"You two are nuts. I'm just gonna go home," Stacie moves to exit the room.
Gwen and Peter roll their eyes simultaneously. They exchanged a look and then grabbed each of Stacie's arms.
"Hey! Stop man-handling me!" Stacie protests. She flails but couldn't shake the two off of her. "Where are you taking me?"
Her "captors" didn't answer, they just dragged her to the other side of the office floor where Aubrey's work area is located. They let her go when they were in front of the blonde, who was stunned to Stacie being dragged by the one of the heads of the law firm.
"Aubrey, dear," Gwen greets. "I am terribly sorry for not coming here earlier. Peter here just told me that you started your internship two weeks ago."
"Oh, hi, Aunt Gwen. It's okay, Stacie hangs out with me everyday. She tells me that you're busy," Aubrey says. "I'm sorry for not coming up to your office."
"Everyday?" Gwen emphasizes, turning to her daughter. "I thought you're here every other day only."
Stacie just shrugs, "She's better company than you are, Mom."
Aubrey's heart secretly swelled at what her friend said. They grew up together so it's hard not to admire just how awesome Stacie is. She doesn't consider herself as gay, though, because she is only ever attracted to Stacie. Too bad the brunette doesn't seem to be attracted to her.
Due to her musings, the blonde didn't notice the exchange of looks between the Conrads, Gwen mouthing "Go ask her out already!", and Stacie shaking her head.
"Aubrey," Peter grabs the blondes attention. "You may be wondering why we came dragging Stacie with us."
"Yes, actually. She usually can come here on her own," Aubrey jokes.
Gwen and Peter laughed while Stacie hid her face in her hands. "Well, she wants to ask you something. We just made sure she gets here," Gwen informs.
Aubrey looked expectantly at Stacie who didn't say anything. Peter cleared his throat. "So, we'll leave you two alone now," he says, steering Gwen to where they came from. "Do your best, Stace."
Stacie exhaled as the two left. "Sorry for disturbing you, Bree. Are you busy right now?"
"That's what you planned to ask?" Aubrey teases.
Stacie blushed at this. She suddenly took interest on the pair of Chucks she's wearing.
"Stace," Aubrey says slowly. She waited until Stacie looked back up at her. "You know you can ask me anything, right? We're friends."
Shit, I knew it, Stacie thought. I'm just a friend for her. What should I do? This is all you fault, Mom! And Peter, too!
"Hey, you okay?" Aubrey worries. Stacie is not usually speechless and shy.
Okay. Just suck it up, Conrad. This might be your only chance. Stacie cleared her throat, "Willyougooutwithme?"
"What?" Did she just ask me for a date?
The brunette took a deep breath breath befor slowly saying, "Aubrey Posen, I like you a lot. Will you go on a date with me?"
"You like me?" Aubrey repeats.
"Uh, yeah," Stacie rubs the back of her neck.
"As in like like?"
"Yes, as in like like." Stacie feels her hands get sweaty. Aubrey still hasn't answered her question so the butterflies in her stomach haven't settled just yet.
"Oh my gosh, Aubrey voices her disbelief.
"Is that a no?" Stacie inquires, unable to hide the pain in her words.
Aubrey's eyes snapped to Stacie's. Seeing the pain in the brunette's face, she could help but cradle the pouting face in her hands. She decided to be brave and placed a light kiss on her friend's (for now) lips.
"I actually like you too so it's a yes," the blonde said with a smile.
"You like me?" Stacie, astonished.
"Yes."
"As in like like?"
Aubrey chuckled at this, "Didn't we just clarify what kind of like it is?"
"Yeah, we did," Stacie says dreamily. She's staring at Aubrey who is still cradling her face. "Gosh, you're so beautiful."
Aubrey blushed.
"And adorable too," Stacie adds, seeing the blush.
"Shut up," Aubrey chastises, clearly embarrassed.
"So are we girlfriends now?"
"Totally," Aubrey again kisses Stacie.
"Finally!" Gwen exclaims from her hiding place. She and Peter decided (meaning she forced the latter) to eavesdrop.
"Mom!" Stacie whines as Aubrey hides her face in the former's neck.
"What? I've waited long enough for this, I wanted to make sure you do it right,," Gwen says as if it's the most natural thing to do.
Aubrey raised her head to look at Gwen. "Five minutes of waiting is not that long, Aunt Gwen."
Peter scoffs, "Oh, please. Stacie's been crushing on you for the longest time. Since freshman year, if I'm not mistaken."
"College?"
Stacie mumbles, "High school."
"That long?" Aubrey asks incredulously. "And you ask me on a date after ten years?"
"I was afraid that you'll reject me. Have you sen you? You're just too gorgeous," Stacie defends herself.
Aubrey blushed at this. "Have you seen you?" she counters softly. "You're gorgeous, too."
"Great!" Gwen interrupts "Now that we've settled that you, Aubrey, I want to tell you something. I already told Stacie about this but I don't want to wait another ten years."
"What is it?"
Gwen looked at the young Posen straight in the eyes with a dead serious expression. "I. Want. Grandchildren. Soon."
Aubrey's eyes widened and looked at Stacie for help. "Don't worry about mom. She's just being crazy," her girlfriend assures her.
"I can totally hear you, oh sweet daughter of mine," Gwen deadpans. "By the way, I texted David. He's on his way." She turns to Peter, "Let's go, we need to hide from him. He sounded angry with his reply." With that, they again left the two alone.
It was Stacie's eyes' turn to widened. Part of the reason why it took so long for her to ask Aubrey is because of the latter's intimidating father.
"Oh, love," Aubrey notices her girlfriend turning pale. "I wish I could tell you not to worry 'bout my dad, too."
And with that, Stacie Conrad fainted.