Worlds Collide
Chapter One – 'Bought Down With a Bump'
The alarm buzzed steadily on the nightstand, screaming its wake up call and disrupting its owner's peaceful sleep. It was 06:45 on Friday morning, and like every morning so far this week, Beca groaned, rolled over towards the device making the obnoxious sound, and hit the snooze button on her phone. All too soon, the alarm was sounding again, and with an annoyed eye roll she sat up groggily in bed and stretched the sleep from her muscles.
Her routine for getting ready for work was always the same; shower, dress, apply her makeup (which namely consisted of a little too much eyeliner, mascara and a sweep of lip balm), fix her hair and grab her keys, wallet, phone and most importantly to her, her headphones which she nestled delicately around her neck, and then she would head out of her front door to the Starbucks around the corner from her apartment. It was a well-known fact to the few people who knew Beca well, that she just simply did not function in the morning before she had her morning caffeine boost.
As she walked down the street listening to her latest mix, she rounded the corner and sighed. There was a huge queue in her favourite coffee shop and although she had given herself plenty of time to combat this before heading to work, she was not in the mood to deal with all of the strangers lined up chatting obnoxiously loudly to each other and bumping past others before she could even order her drink. And so, this lead to the decision to continue on her walk to work and try to scout out an alternative coffee shop along the way.
Beca worked at a small production company called 'Phoenix Beats', it was only about a 20 minute walk from her apartment so she saved money by walking to and from work every day instead of driving her car. She had initially done an internship at the studio straight out of university and had impressed the management greatly thus she was swiftly offered a full time job as a producer. She loved her job and couldn't wish for a better team. Within her team she worked with Jessica who was an executive producer (she mainly dealt with organising the financial side of the producing process), Stacie who was a talent manager with a sharp eye for bringing in talented artists for Beca to work with and finally Cynthia Rose who owned the small recording studio. They were a tight knit unit and had formed friendships that Beca hoped would span a lifetime.
Beca rounded another corner, the music still running through her headphones when she finally spotted a small coffee shop nestled between an empty rental space and a flower shop. She slipped the headphones back to their near constant position around her neck and grabbed her phone from her back pocket to pause the music still pumping through the headphones. She was looking down at her phone as she lifted her arm towards the handle of the door, as soon as she began to pull open the door and started to look up, a flurry of red wavy hair was barrelling its way through the doorway, the offending head turned back facing the coffee shops counter and shouting that she would grab her wallet and be right back. In her rush, the redhead had not seen Beca on the other side of the door, and in turn let out a surprised 'oomph' as the glass panel of the door she was intending to shoulder open was no longer in her way, and instead she had collided with a short brunette who was now currently sitting on the floor with a maddened expression on her face.
Beca had landed hard on her ass and was pretty sure that if she wasn't in public then a string of profanities would be currently making their way out of her mouth. She glared upwards, ready to unleash her fury, but as soon as she locked eyes with the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen, all of her anger dissipated. She couldn't look away from the visibly shocked redhead, she couldn't speak, she simply stared with her mouth agape. The woman who was stood over her, had on a navy blue dress with white polka dots scattered across the fabric, her long tanned legs disappeared beneath the fabric and Beca had physically struggled to keep her eyes travelling north, but she was sure glad she had, Beca was certain that this woman above her was the most beautiful person she had ever seen, she would of gladly stayed sat there all day admiring her if she could!
The redhead seemed to recover first, she started rambling her apologies in a non-stop flurry of "oh my goodness, I am so, so sorry, please forgive me, here let me help you up" as she reached down and to Beca's surprise looped her arms underneath Beca's own and lifted her small frame up off of the ground. Beca was stunned by the redheads seemingly lack of personal boundaries, most people would of at most stuck a hand out to help pull the fallen person up off the floor, but this woman….well she just leapt ahead and wrapped herself around the smaller brunette effectively pulling their bodies together as they both returned to an upright position. They stayed in this close intimate position for a few seconds before Beca cleared her throat in an embarrassed cough and took a step back. She wasn't one for physical contact, especially with someone she had never met before, even if this woman was seemingly trying to hypnotise Beca with her heavenly eyes!
The redhead was the first to speak, offering her apologies in a sincere tone. "I am so sorry, I was rushing and didn't see you and then well, you know, I slammed into you…oh god I totes just knocked you down and it must of hurt…I really am so sorry, you must hate me" the woman worriedly rambled. Beca interjected, she could see the redhead getting visually upset, tears staring to rim in her eyes, and for reasons that Beca could not fathom, she felt the need to console the beautiful woman stood in front of her, she didn't like the thought of this gorgeous creature being upset, especially when she was the cause of the upset. "Honestly, it's fine" Beca quipped, "look I have the use of all of my limbs" Beca said as she wiggled both her arms in demonstration continuing the wave down her body. The redhead giggled glad that the small brunette was not readying herself to lay into her verbally for being so clumsy.
As she looked at the woman, she noticed for the first time just how attractive the she was. She eagerly took in the woman's small frame; she was easily 2 inches shorter than herself, her style was alternative; black skinny jeans, a grey vest top with a purple plaid shirt, grey slightly beat up converse on her feet, big bulky headphones looped around her neck and her mouth forming a tight lipped semi smile/ smirk. But it was her eyes that the redhead was drawn too most, they looked to be the colour of a dark stormy sky and she could see a range of emotions passing swiftly across them; first the woman looked worried which was bizarre to her as she was the one who had careened into her, and then that quickly moved to happiness that was then schooled into a neutral look that the redhead noticed coincided with her own giggle coming to an end.
Beca gave the redhead a genuine smile, pleased that she had silenced the torrent of apologies and also managed to make the beautiful woman giggle, a sound that was heavenly and oh so cute to Beca's mind. Both women stood facing each other, wondering what to say next. The redhead broke the silence by saying "I really am sorry….." the sentence hung unfinished in the air and it took Beca longer than she'd like to admit to realise that the redhead was waiting for her to share her name. "Oh, uh, Beca, that's my name, Beca Mitchell" Beca extended her hand with the intention of shaking the redheads, the woman in question however had other ideas and enveloped her arms around Beca's shoulders. "I'm Chloe Beale" the redhead said as she tightly embraced the shocked brunette. "Personal boundaries really aren't your thing are they Red?" Beca muttered as Chloe blushed slightly, smiled and removed herself from around Beca. "Well I thought I better make amends after knocking you clear off your feet, besides, I couldn't pass up a chance to get that close to you again now could I?" Chloe giggled as she gave Beca a brilliant smile and threw her a wink. It was Beca's turn to blush, not used to the level of affection that was being directed at her from a complete stranger. "Umm…I was…coffee, that is, I was going to get coffee" Beca stammered pointing at the near empty coffee shop behind them with a vicious blush that was running from her neck up to her ears. Chloe laughed a full hearted laugh. "Well then allow me to get one for you, you know, as an apology"? Beca smiled at Chloe, she was mesmerised by those brilliant eyes, currently donning a puppy dog quality as she asked Beca's permission to buy her a beverage. There was no way that Beca could say no to those eyes, and so she turned in the direction of the coffee shop and allowed Chloe the lead.
Chloe held the door open for Beca, and they made their way through the small shop to the counter where an older guy with dark curly hair stood watching them curiously. "Hey Carl, can I add another drink to my order please?" Chloe directed her question to the man, who in turn nodded and asked what she would like. "A Grande Caramel Macchiato please, extra hot" Beca requested. "But honestly Chloe, I can pay for it myself" she quickly added. "Don't be silly, it was my fault that you ended up on the floor, it's the least I can do Beca". Beca enjoyed the way her name sounded coming from the gorgeous redhead and gave the girl her signature smirk in way of silently agreeing to the kind offer.
"I'll be right back Carl" Chloe said as she skipped towards the exit once more, leaving a rather confused Beca staring after her. Less than 2 minutes later Chloe returned, holding a purse in her hand and sauntering back towards the brunette. Beca couldn't take her eyes off of her; however she apparently still had a confused expression on her face as Chloe quickly explained why she had abruptly left. " Oh, I accidentally left my money in my shop" Chloe pointed animatedly towards her right hand side and gave Beca a lopsided smile that reached her eyes that made Beca's heartrate quicken. "I own the flower shop next door" she continued to explain. "That's where I was headed in a rush when our worlds collided" Chloe laughed slightly embarrassed by the memory of her klutziness.
Just then Carl bought over the two drinks and Chloe handed over some notes to pay. "Keep the change" Chloe smiled towards the man. Beca glanced at her watch and internally sighed as she realised she was now running late for work – she would never make it there in time and she hated to keep people waiting. Chloe noticed Beca's brows furrow. "I'm sorry Chloe, I need to get going. I'm going to be late for work" Beca grumbled. She didn't want to leave the redhead, she felt a pull to stay, but she had no time to contemplate the reasons why, she was in a rush and had to get a move on. Chloe looked disappointed but placed a smile on her face and told Beca that she understood and that she hoped they could 'bump' into each other again. Beca rolled her eyes good naturedly at the bad pun and shot her smirk towards Chloe saying "I'd like that" as she rushed towards the door, nearly knocking a tall blonde woman over as she paid no attention to her path. Chloe giggled and waved as Beca practically ran through the door, however the smile slipped from her face when she realised that they had not swapped contact details or arranged a time to meet up again. 'Maybe she wasn't interested in me and was just trying to be polite' Chloe dejectedly thought to herself.