Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: So this is a random little drabble of a story that was inspired by a prompt given to me by Melissa7187 via a post made by laraaelric. Hopefully it leans more toward the cute than pointless side but I guess we'll see!
"Imagine Me and You"
Chloe Beale loves her job. Really, she does. Not all parts of it, of course. And there are obviously some mornings she'd rather stay in bed than venture off to work but for the most part, she has no complaints. But that doesn't mean that she's not happy when she's seen her last patient of the day and she can say goodbye to the nurses and technicians and lock the door behind all of them. Most of the time, she heads straight to her apartment and makes something for dinner or relaxes with a nice hot shower. But some evenings she's not in the mood for her empty apartment or ordering takeout and since Chloe's not exactly a party person (she shed that persona during her last year of veterinary school), she usually hits the coffee shop near her complex instead of a bar.
Chloe finds an empty spot in front of The Daily Grind and steps out of the car, heading toward the door. Only to turn around when she realizes that she's still wearing her white lab coat, which may or may not be a sign that she should skip the coffee and just head home and call it an early night. But she always has liked to live a little…and yes, she's aware that it's sad that "living a little" now consists of getting coffee on a Wednesday evening.
The coffee shop is surprisingly busy for a weekday evening and Chloe scans the smattering of tables, all of which appear to be taken. There seems to be some sort of Bible study going on in the corner and the large group has commandeered most of the tables. There are a few people working away on laptops or studying with piles of textbooks spread out in front of them. Chloe remembers those days well. She smiles when she sees an teenaged couple obviously still in the honeymoon stages of their high school romance. And there's a blonde sitting by herself at one of the circular tables on the other side of the café from where the Bible study group has congregated.
While she waits in line to place her order, Chloe can't quite stop herself from glancing over at the blonde. She has absolutely no idea why her eyes keep drifting in that direction when there are plenty of other things in the café to keep her attention. But there's just something about this woman… If Chloe had to guess, she'd put money on the fact that she's waiting for someone, probably a date of her own given the shoes she's wearing. Those are not work shoes or meeting a friend at a coffee shop shoes. They're I'm trying to make a good impression shoes.
After she orders her drink, Chloe finds herself turning toward the blonde once more. The other woman checks the display on her phone, no doubt checking the time. Chloe wonders how late her date is and feels a stab of sympathy for the woman. She was stood up only once before, when she was a sophomore in college and had just realized that she'd rather be friends with men than date them and her first attempt at dating within her own gender hadn't exactly gone swimmingly. And even though it was years ago, Chloe still remembers the sting of disappointment and rejection and how angry she'd been at men and women and dating in general. Of course, she's probably jumping to conclusions in relating her own failed attempt at dating to this woman that she doesn't even know.
Chloe takes her drink from the smiling barista and turns toward the door. The fact that every table is occupied, even the plush leather armchairs, means that she's going to be heading home after all. Or…
Maybe living a little doesn't just have to consist of getting coffee on a Wednesday evening.
Chloe walks over to the blonde's table and puts her free hand on the back of the chair. The blonde looks up quickly and Chloe feels like the way that her face quickly goes from relieved to stoic means that her assumptions about the future of this date weren't far off after all.
"I'm waiting for someone." The blonde informs her in a clipped tone, a hint of a sigh in her words.
Chloe gives her what she hopes is a friendly smile. "I figured. I saw you checking your phone. Do you mind if I sit here? All the other tables are full and-"
"So is this one-"
"I'll just stay until your date gets here." Chloe ignores the other woman's interjection.
The blonde arches an eyebrow. "What makes you think I'm waiting for a date?"
"Your look eager." Chloe says, pulling the chair out the rest of the way and taking a seat. She figures that the conversation might as well be an invitation to sit down. The blonde frowns slightly and Chloe quickly adds, "Not in a bad way. Just a…hopeful way."
This doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the blonde's facial expression and she doesn't say anything. Instead, her eyes flick toward her phone once more and Chloe hates the way that her eyes seem to dim slightly. There's a coffee cup and a plate with an uneaten, but mutilated, muffin sitting off to her right. Chloe wonders how long she's been waiting.
"I'm Chloe." She says to fill the silence. "Thanks for letting me highjack your table."
The blonde shrugs. "Aubrey Posen." She introduces absently. "Maybe I should just leave the table to you and be on my way."
Chloe arches an eyebrow. "Been waiting long?"
Aubrey just sighs. "Probably longer than I should." She admits.
"Tell me about your date." Chloe suggests, even though she could honestly care less about whatever asshole is standing her up. But she can't fight down the impulse, the little voice in her head that says don't let her leave.
For a minute, Chloe worries that Aubrey isn't going to answer her question and is going to take off anyway. She can see the hesitation in the other woman's eyes, the expression that suggests that she doesn't talk to strangers. But then she seems to almost give in, her shoulders slumping slightly.
"She works on the floor above mine." Aubrey tells Chloe. "For some fashion magazine. She started a few months ago."
"You work on a magazine?" Chloe questions in an effort to avoid the fact that Aubrey said "she" and not "he" and that one letter can make a big difference. She learned that a long time ago.
Aubrey shakes her head. "No, not really. I mean, yes, I suppose so. I'm just the book keeper though, or the financial advisor if you want to get technical about it. I don't work on any of the content or anything like that." She shrugs. "Probably not what my father had in mind when I went to business school."
"Business school, huh?" Chloe feels like her tone is appropriately impressed. "So what do you think your dad did have in mind?"
Aubrey shrugs. "Working for some big, important Wall Street company, I'm sure." She replies. "It was bad enough that I didn't follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, like my brother did. Now I manage the spending of some trashy magazine. I'm sure he's thrilled." She mutters. She shakes her head then stops, looking up at Chloe with a slightly surprised look on her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start rambling like that."
Chloe smiles at her. "It's okay, I don't mind." She assures her. "Besides, I asked. So, by all means, talk away."
Aubrey just rolls her eyes. "I'll try to avoid that." She informs the redhead. "What do you do? It's only fair that you get the chance to bore me, seeing as I just did the same to you." Her cheeks grow pink and she purses her lips. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to imply that your job is boring, I just meant…"
"I know what you meant." Chloe jumps in quickly with another smile. She's trying to avoid all thoughts involving Aubrey and her obvious embarrassment and her reddening cheeks because it's just better that way. Avoidance can be a very useful thing indeed. "I'm a veterinarian, actually. So I suppose that can definitely have its boring moments."
Aubrey actually looks interested, which Chloe figures is a point in her favor. Not that it matters, not that there's a tally to keep or anything. Though, if there was, Chloe figures that she'd be winning, seeing as the date isn't the one sitting in this chair right now.
"I bet there are far more interesting moments than boring ones." Aubrey remarks. "And I bet that is a very difficult job."
Chloe knows exactly what she means, even without Aubrey having to clarify. It's the exact same thing she hears from anyone whenever she tells them she's a veterinarian: oh how sad, I could never put animals to sleep. As if all she does all day is kill people's pets.
Chloe just shrugs. "It has its moments," is her trademark answer and the one that she gives Aubrey now. But for some reason she feels compelled to add, "My first year on the job, I cried every time I had to put an animal down. I was so bad sometimes that I would cry in the room with the family, which didn't make me very popular. But it's different now."
Aubrey nods knowingly. "You get used to it."
"Not necessarily. You just learn to focus on different things." Chloe corrects. "Like today a lady brought in a kitten that had eaten her son's entire Lego Star Wars collection. The kid was bawling. I think he was more upset about the toys than the cat." She laughs at the memory, shaking her head. Kids are cute and all but there's a reason she didn't go into pediatrics.
The corners of Aubrey's mouth start to turn up into a smile but she quickly purses her lips instead, shaking her head. "Well, maybe that will teach him to be more careful with his things." She replies, her voice as clipped and pragmatic as it was when Chloe first asked to sit down.
Chloe finds herself inexplicably curious about that reaction and about what it would be like to see that smile if Aubrey allowed it to bloom across her face. She wonders what it takes to actually make her grin and wonders why she's thinking about these things in the first place. Though Chloe has to admit that it's becoming harder and harder to ignore certain things about Aubrey, things that she's been forcing her eyes not to linger on: her jade eyes, the curves of her cheek bones and the sweep of her shoulders. The way that her clavicles just barely peek out from the fabric of the blouse that she's wearing. How her hair looks almost golden in the shimmer of the setting sun as it filters through the coffee shop windows. These are the things that Chloe knows you shouldn't notice about someone waiting to go on a date with someone else.
Chloe realizes all too late that her gaze must be lingering after all because Aubrey suddenly looks self conscious, ducking her head slightly under the pretense of fumbling with the coffee beside her. Chloe wonders if she should apologize for staring but worries that the words that would come out of her mouth would sound more like "you're beautiful" instead of "I'm sorry."
So she changes the subject all together: "So, you already told me you had a brother. Do you have any more siblings?" Chloe questions, figuring that's nice, safe getting-to-know-you territory that hopefully won't result in any more uncontrolled staring.
Aubrey shakes her head. "Just my older brother." She replies. "The other lawyer in the family. Getting married next fall. And I'm getting stood up on dates in a coffee shop." She mutters, pursing her lips into a thin line.
Chloe finds herself intrigued by the bitterness in her tone, the words that suggest that there's so much more to know about this woman in front of her. And there's no way to deny the fact that she's desperate for the chance to get to know all of those things.
"Maybe you're not being stood up." Chloe suggests with forced hopefulness. It's not like she wants Aubrey's date to be a total asshole but…yeah, okay, she does. "Maybe there's just traffic."
Aubrey gives her a pointed look, shaking her head. "I think it's time to be practical." She admits. "I've been waiting for her for too long."
That little voice is back in Chloe's head, the one that whispers don't let her leave and she's understanding that impulse more and more with every passing second. "It just means you're an optimist." She remarks.
Aubrey rolls her eyes. "Or a masochist." She counters.
Chloe arches an eyebrow. "You don't seem like a masochist to me."
"Then how else do you explain going to business school instead of law school?" Aubrey questions. "It's a miracle that family even still talks to me."
"Your family sounds very….intense." Chloe figures that's the nicest way of putting it given the little that she knows about the circumstances.
Aubrey sighs and shakes her head. "It's not something I usually talk about. Especially not with strangers. I'm sorry."
Chloe smiles at her. "Don't be sorry. I like talking to you." She admits, for better or worse, this confession. This truth that is becoming harder and harder to ignore. The fact that she wishes that she were the one on this date. "Plus I'm not really a stranger. You know things about me."
"I know that you're a veterinarian and that your name is Chloe." Aubrey points out and Chloe can't help but admit that she loves the way that her name sounds passing her lips. Like a promise, a suggestion of more. "Hardly enough to justify making personal confessions."
Chloe shrugs. "So what else do you want to know?" She arches an eyebrow.
Aubrey opens her mouth, no doubt to ask some boring and expected question, but she pauses, studying Chloe instead. Chloe lifts her eyes to meet her gaze and wishes that she could read the thoughts that she sees there.
"What made you decide to sit down with a stranger in a coffee shop?" Aubrey questions instead.
Chloe smiles at her. "All the other tables were taken." She says, her tone slightly teasing.
Aubrey's eyes tighten almost unnoticeably but for some reason the reaction doesn't escape Chloe's attention. "I'm kidding." She assures the blonde. "I don't know. I just…I…couldn't help myself." She blushes, finally pulling her eyes away from Aubrey's. What an idiotic response.
Though, Chloe figures that it has to be better than admitting that she couldn't take her eyes off Aubrey, that she looked at her from across the café and thought about how beautiful and sad she looked. How she wants to know what her smile looks like and how she wants to know more about her family and what she orders to drink when she comes to places like this.
When Chloe glances a look back at Aubrey, she can't read the expression that she sees there in her eyes. She has the feeling that Aubrey is very good at concealing how she really feels; it all seems very practiced to her and Chloe wonders what it would be like to see her walls come down. Clearly she's getting ahead of herself here.
"Well I appreciate the company," Aubrey says finally, "but I really should be going. It think it's obvious that I've been stood up."
Aubrey gets to her feet, taking her purse off the back of her chair and slipping it over her shoulder. Chloe stands up as well, fighting the urge to reach out for Aubrey and push her back down into her chair so that she can learn more about her, so that they can pass another hour or two together.
Aubrey sighs and shakes her head, slipping her cell phone into her pocket. "I knew trying to date someone I worked with was a bad idea. I'm sure I'm going to see her tomorrow." She looks up at Chloe and rolls her eyes slightly. "Am I just supposed to pretend like this never happened?"
Chloe isn't sure whether Aubrey is sincerely asking for her advice or just talking out loud. But she can't help but offer a reply anyway. "If she says anything, you can just tell her that some random woman came and sat down with you and that you had a great time talking with her," hopefully this isn't a stretch, "and that she asked you to go out with her on another date, to another coffee shop, and that she has no intentions of standing you up." Chloe forces the words out before she can convince herself to swallow them back down.
She's supposed to be living a little, after all.
It takes a minute for Chloe's words to register and when they do, Aubrey looks at her with a hint of surprise on her face. "Oh." Aubrey says simply. "I didn't realize you…"
Chloe smiles at her and shrugs. "One of the reasons I couldn't stop myself from sitting down with you." She admits.
Aubrey smiles faintly, the expression flittering across her face quickly before disappearing again. But Chloe considers that it's a start.
"So," Chloe begins, feeling her heart bounce around in her chest, "would you…like to? Go out with me sometime?" The boldness she felt when she walked over to Aubrey's table seems to have deserted her all of the sudden.
Aubrey hesitates for a moment before another smile takes the place of the one that vanished so quickly before. And this one isn't chased away so easily. "I think I would like that." She admits softly.
Chloe tries to control the intensity of her own grin, lest she look like a crazy person standing here in the middle of a café across from a beautiful blonde. "I would like that too." She says. "I'll give you my number and you can call me when you're free."
Chloe holds out her hand so that Aubrey can hand over her phone. Much to her surprise, Aubrey slips her hand into hers instead. "I happen to be free right now." She remarks. "It seems as though my previous plans have fallen through."
Having Aubrey's hand in hers is not something that Chloe has a problem with. Not in the least. She hopes that Aubrey doesn't mind the way that she threads their fingers together. And the way that their palms press together seems to indicate that she doesn't mind at all.
"Well, what do you know, I happen to be free right now too."
end.