Thursday

Thursday morning, Chloe wakes up to see Beca is still wearing the sleeping mask. She rolls her eyes remembering the night before. Beca had still refused to give in. Chloe had stated that a night out wasn't all she needed, apparently. She had found an old sleeping mask that came as a free gift at Victoria's Secret that no one had ever used- until last night that is.

Chloe pads down the hallway and finds Aubrey in the home office. She's wearing a tank top and Chloe can see the failed lingerie peeping out from underneath still. "Whatcha working on?" She walks up behind her to peek at whats up on the computer.

"I'm making a playlist." Aubrey says determinedly.

"A playlist?" Chloe asks, although confirming her own questions as she sees Aubrey play around with the Spotify account in front of her.

"I've tried apologizing, i've tried reasoning, i've tried flowers, food, the headphones, and sex." Chloe notes the extra huff of irritation at that last part. "And now I'm trying the only other form of communication Beca speaks. Music."

Chloe leans forward to get a glimpse at the songs she has already. Her eyes widen a little. "You might want to remove number seven."

"It's about the message in the song, Chloe." Aubrey defends.

"She'll see the words Taylor Swift and this fight will last another week." Chloe thinks if anyone knows Beca's feelings about Taylor Swift it's her. She's been scolded to turn it off enough times in their relationship to know that Beca has a vengeance toward her.

Aubrey huffs and clicks delete. Chloe's about to turn to leave when Aubrey talks again. "I hope it doesn't last another week. I have to spend a night or two at the lodge this weekend. I don't want her to be mad while I'm gone."

"What, why?" Chloe might have stomped her foot a little, okay. But this is why they moved out here, so they didn't have to be away from each other.

"You know this happens sometimes." Aubrey twists in her chair to face Chloe. Her face is sympathetic. She's right. Chloe does know this. Theres certain situations where Aubrey has to attend her lodge, and Chloe gets it, but it takes a tole on her. Well, on all of them.

Chloe reaches and plays with the ends of the other girl's hair gently. "But do you absolutely have to?" Chloe tries her puppy dog eyes; She hasn't used them at all on her girlfriends in the past week and she hopes that gives her a leg up.

"I do."

Guess not.

"Ugh," Chloe falls into the other girls lap, wrapping her arm around her neck for support. She knows its dramatic, but, its been some kinda week. "But why?"

"The client I met with the other day decided he wanted to shock his subordinates with the 2 a.m. wake up call, and start the activities in the dead of night, I guess."

"Why haven't you taken that one off the brochure yet?" Chloe asks, a little rhetorically.

"I will be after this, trust me." Chloe doubts it. Aubrey loves this kinda stuff more than she'd ever admit.

"So," Aubrey states, "how do you think she'd respond to a country song on the playlist?"

"'Bree."

…

"I'm plugging my ears! I am plugging my ears! I can't hear anything!"

No, that doesn't work either. Chloe had just walked into the bedroom when she heard the yelling come from the master bathroom.

Beca had apparently left door cracked while taking a shower, and since Beca had earlier refused to even open the playlist Aubrey messaged her, Aubrey was taking this as a chance to blast it while Beca had no where to run. And again, it was definitely not working.

She's about to step forward and help, when she realized no one saw her walk into the room. Chloe retreats backwards and then down the hall, the music fading away behind her.

…

Chloe was slouched in an arm chair in the office looking over the Lodge's brochure, red pen in hand. She may or may not be making some changes to the offered programs. Except then she recognizes the sound of Aubrey's quick pace coming into the room and quickly shoves it under her leg.

The blonde stops short and eyes Chloe suspiciously upon entering the room. She offers an innocent, toothy smile in return, and her girlfriend lets it go.
"The playlist didn't work." Aubrey huffs, taking a seat in one of the swivel chairs.
"You bombarded her shower 'Bree."
"Please," Aubrey lets out a huff of laughter, "you're one to talk!"
Chloe shrugs because, well, she's not wrong.
"Is that my brochure you're marking up?" Aubrey eyes the paper sticking out from under Chloe.
"No…" Chloe moves her leg to cover it, batting her eyes. Aubrey knows all too well and soon Chloe is being tickle attacked until she looks up and sees Aubrey holding the brochure.
"You crossed out half of the stuff on here! What's wrong with this one?" Aubrey holds out the paper to Chloe and points.
Chloe stares at her nails, avoiding Aubrey's eyes. "You're always really tired and grumpy when you come home from doing that." She shrugs.
"And this one? Come on! That activity has done wonders!" Aubrey points to another, and Chloe looks, squinting to see.
"You have to stay late those days! Last time you did that one you weren't home until like, midnight." Chloe pouts. "And before you ask, yes I've made the executive decision to band all overnight activities as well from here on out."
Aubrey smiles down at her softly. Chloe knew Aubrey wouldn't just up and completely change everything, but she also knows she's about to be let down easy. "We'll make a deal." Oh, that's not what Chloe expected her to say. "I will only take overnight's once a month. And i'll get rid of the other one. I wasn't so fond of it anyway."
Chloe's not totally thrilled, but she decides she should take what she can get. "It's a deal." She reached her hand out and Aubrey meets her, shaking it firmly. "But this weekend's overnight counts, so no more this month!"
"You're gonna be gone this weekend?" They both look and see Beca standing in the doorway, laptop in hand, ready to come in the office to work.
"You would know that if you would have talked to me this week." Aubrey crosses her arms and Chloe lightly hits her leg, because its so not the time for her to be defensive. Aubrey uncrosses them and takes a seat in the other armchair.
Beca purses her lips and moves to start setting her things up on her desk. "One night or two?"

"I mean does it matter? You made me sleep on the couch the other night." Chloe sends her a pointed glare because, really?
"Posen." Beca leans on her desk, eyebrows raised at the other girl, silently having a conversation with her that Chloe never really learned to read.

Aubrey lets out a huff. "I'm not sure, it depends what happens the first night. It could be two."
Chloe thinks this might be a good time to intervene. "So… don't you think this might be good time to forgive her Beca?"
Beca purses her lips and traces circles on the desk. "Well… I-"
"I really am sorry Becs." Aubrey pushes, and Beca looks up again.
"Well. No. No I'm not ready yet." With that the small girl turns and takes a seat in her swivel chair, proceeding to shove her headphones on her ears.
This is when Chloe feels herself snap. "Oh for the love of God!" She gets up and stomps up to the other girl, pulling her headphones off her ears with a little force. "Seriously? What is this Beca?!" Beca stares up at her wide eyed. "Its a damn TV show! Life Goes on! New seasons air! Why are you so hung up on this?!"
Beca opens her mouth "I…" Chloe motions for her to go on. "… am still hungover from last night… so maybe you can stop with the loud talking…"
Chloe narrows her eyes and takes a step back, crossing her arms. Beca then turns and looks at Aubrey. "Aubrey it's just…you really hurt my feelings." And Chloe finds herself tilting her head and Aubrey seems to look equally confused, because Chloe thinks they were both expecting something a little… more.

But then it comes.

"Aubs', I don't want all these elaborate things from you. Watching that show is the only thing we have thats only our thing. When we lived in the city, we used to have other things like our walks to try different desserts on Wednesday nights or our game where we would take a shot every time we could hear our neighbor doing it through the paper-thin apartment walls. And then the finale was posted on Hulu a few weeks ago, and you're right. I was avoiding it, because its the only thing we have left since moving here thats just mine and your thing, and I didn't want it to end. But then you watched it and I felt rejected I guess." She shrugs. "So no, I haven't felt ready to forgive you yet. Because flowers and food and stuff isn't going to fix that I'm still getting used to it here."

And okay, Chloe gets it now. She also regrets being so crazy about it, but she thinks maybe thats not entirely her fault. But thats not the point. She hesitantly walks back toward Beca and puts a hand on her shoulder, if anything to remind her that she's there because she can see Aubrey walking up and about to start talking. The blonde crouches in front of the girl, resting her hand on her knee.

"Becs," Aubrey says in a whisper. "I'm sorry. I didn't think of it like that. It was really inconsiderate." Beca shrugs. Chloe thinks maybe she should chime in but then Aubrey surprises her and continues to apologize. "I didn't know this move was so hard on you. But, sweetheart," Aubrey shakes Beca's knee a little, "we're going to find new things that are special to me and you here. And things that are special between all of us."

Chloe notes that Beca definitely looks calmer. She's playing Aubrey's hand now and her shoulders seem less tense. "Me and you already have something ya know Becs?" Chloe asks.

Beca looks at her curiously. "Laying outside and watching the stars when 'Bree's gone at night."

Beca smiles softly at this, and hums in agreement.

"And Beca, theres so many shows on Netflix. I mean, I thought we agreed to start Parks and Recreation after this! Thats partly why I wanted to finish Master Chef!"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." Beca says, smiling a little more now.

"And every time you get stuck in hour long traffic on Wednesday nights, you call me and we play that game where you tell me something that happened at work and I try to guess which one of your idiot co-workers did it!" Aubrey says. Chloe smiles because she didn't know this, and she thinks her girlfriends are really damn cute for it.

"You're right." Chloe sees Beca lace her fingers through Aubrey's.

"So does this mean you'll forgive her?" Chloe tries.

Beca looks down at Aubrey for a minute, who stares back with puppy dog eyes. "Yes, I suppose this means I forgive you." Aubrey leans up and they kiss softly for a minute, until Chloe clears her throat, because okay this hasn't been an easy week on her either.

They pull apart and Beca rolls her eyes at Chloe. But then Aubrey is standing and takes Chloe's hand in hers. "And we're sorry you had to suffer through this week too Chlo'."

Beca nods in agreement. "Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?"

Chloe smirks. "Well…"