Okay, WOW! Mad love to each of you for reading, PMing me, reviewing, and following. Your support means so very much! Over 200 followers and almost 100 reviews! Wow! I'm blown away by the support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
Also, I apologize for the delay, I hope to be able to update more often but life has seemingly gotten in the way. This chapter is a bit more fluffy, but it's an important one. Please let me know what you think! I love hearing all your comments.
"Chloe, Jesus Christ! You look awesome… Please stop doing this." Aubrey said standing at the doorframe of her spare bedroom as Chloe continued pacing the wood floor throwing different outfits in different directions.
"Not good enough, Bree…" Chloe replied not giving her full attention to the blonde.
"Chloe… Pretty sure you could wear a paper sack and Beca would still look at you the same as she always has." Aubrey approached Chloe grabbing her shoulders gaining her attention.
"Beca's never looked at me a certain way…" Chloe shook her head in denial.
"Right. Okayyyyy… I know you can't possibly believe that, Chloe. You're seriously delusional. You both are." Aubrey replied with a scoff. "It's just lunch, Chlo. You go to lunch all the time."
"But this is with Beca… Beca asked me to go to lunch." Chloe replied running her hands through her hair frazzled. She was just getting a piece of Beca back in her life, the last thing she wanted to do was scare her away again by doing something stupid. "What if I say or do something stupid and scare her off?"
"You won't do anything stupid, Chloe. Beca is different now. I'm surprised she didn't reschedule though, you know her and Jesse were in the studio all night? He just got home like a half hour ago. That says something; she really wants to see you." Aubrey said holding a dark blue tank top up to Chloe for her approval.
"All night? What were they doing there all night?" Chloe asked furrowing her brows as she flung her current top off and took the new one off the hanger and put it on.
"Beca's working on her solo album. From what I've heard, it's going to be incredible… maybe you can get her to talk about it?" Aubrey added.
"Maybe. I just want to talk to her to her in general… Now, how do I look?" Chloe grinned doing a small spin. Chloe was wearing a dark blue tank top and white shorts with navy chucks. She looked the epitome of summer sexy.
"You know you don't need me to answer that. You look awesome! Now, have fun. Don't forget everyone needs to meet me at 3:00 over on Madison for the dress fittings. Do not be late, Chloe Beale!" Aubrey yelled after her as Chloe patted Billie on the head and picked up her purse, sunglasses, and iPhone and darted out to her old beat up Jeep. Chloe loved that thing and swore she would drive it until the wheels fell off.
"We won't Bree. I promise!" Chloe said backing out the driveway releasing a deep breath. She couldn't remember a time when she had been so nervous.
Beca was tucked away in the corner of the small café. She liked coming here because it was a low-key place where she could work on her music and not be bothered much. It still baffled her that people were interested in talking to her, and seemingly knew more about her life than she did.
She was definitely running on empty, she hadn't slept a wink – which wasn't totally abnormal, but she felt so drained. From the club opening to the completion of the song last night, everything was just catching up with her. There was NO chance she was going to cancel on Chloe though; she was surprised Chloe had even agreed to meet up in the first place.
How was this going to go? Was Chloe going to ask about her love life? Her music? Her family…? She hadn't thought it through much because the idea in itself terrified Beca. Her nerves were shot and she was surrounded by coffee cups and crumbled up paper.
Chloe had texted her about ten minutes ago letting her know she was on the way, so she should be arriving any minute. Beca closed the laptop and pulled her headphones from over her ears.
She picked up another napkin and jotted down a few more lyrics.
She remembered soon after coming to L.A., Kelly Clarkson, one of her first big clients, took her out to a hole-in-the-wall bar in downtown L.A. After a night of drinking and dancing, one of Kelly's exes showed up in the very same bar and she began writing down lyrics on a bar napkin. She went through several, scribbling down lines and tossing others on the floor. Beca had found it all very strange at the time, but when she asked Kelly about it, her response was very simple – "Sometimes, you just have to get the ideas out of you in order to move on, no matter timing, place, or where you write it – just as long as you do. And who knows, it could be a #1, and there's nothing like karma more than that." Kelly was right. It was a #1, topping the charts for 52 consecutive weeks. Ever since that day, Beca had found herself taking Kelly's advice and writing wherever she could when ideas struck her.
Beca had jotted down a few more ideas when she was startled by a voice above her.
"Is this seat taken?" Chloe said with a lazy grin on her face and playfulness to her tone. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
Chloe stood awkwardly across Beca at the small table in the café. She noticed the many cups of coffee, Beca's laptop with stickers all over it, and the crumbled up pieces of paper everywhere. Chloe's eye caught on a napkin with lyrics scrawled across it in fresh ink…
Tell me that you turned down the man who asked for your hand.
Because you're waiting for me.
I know you'll be away awhile, but I've got no plans at all to leave.
Beca, catching what Chloe's eyes had focused on, quickly grabbed all the papers and napkins from the table and shoved them in her bag before standing up to greet the redhead.
"I…Uh. Hi." Beca stood awkwardly gaping the back of her neck as she looked Chloe over. Beca suddenly felt very underdressed, even though Chloe wasn't really dressed up, she just made everything look so good. She looked down at her own attire and noticed that her jeans and green plaid shirt were a little too big and her jeans were ripped at the bottom.
Beca knew she was doing it again, that whole being self-depreciating, but sometimes she just couldn't help it.
Chloe sat down at the table across from Beca, and Beca felt a little sad that Chloe hadn't enveloped her in one of those famous Chloe Beale hugs. But what did Beca expect? That was probably asking way too much considering the circumstances since they'd been back in each other's lives.
"You look great, Beca." Chloe said reaching to pat Beca's hand. Beca was caught-off-guard. It was like Chloe was reading her thoughts exactly.
"How did you… What?" Beca said shaking her head and rubbing her free hand on the thigh of her jeans. She was profusely sweating.
"Please… I may've not seen you for five years, but you haven't changed THAT much. I still know what you're thinking." Chloe said retracting her hand and picking up the menu on the table.
"The secret powers of Chloe Beale, I guess." Beca smiled slightly.
"So what's good here? Is there where all the big time celebrities come. Gotta tell ya, Beca. Doesn't seem like a place a six time Grammy winner would be hanging out in…" Chloe said with a smirk peering over her menu.
"I guess I'm not your average Grammy winner then." Beca retorted.
"Touché. I must say now that Aubrey has threatened both of our lives if we are not at that dress fitting at 3:00." Chloe grinned.
"Ugh. Don't remind me of that. Aubrey is going to be on that bridezilla show before all this wedding stuff is said and done." Beca huffed in annoyance.
"Hey! Be nice!" Chloe said chuckling. The table fell silent before Beca cleared her throat and spoke up.
"I hope this place is okay, I come here all the time. It's nice because I'm not really approached that much here and I do a lot of writing and mixing at this table." Beca said.
"Ah, yes. Celebrity Beca. I've heard a lot about her." Chloe smiled.
"Don't believe everything you hear. Most of it is bullshit." Beca said taking a sip of her water.
Before they could continue, a young waitress approached ready to take their orders.
"Hey there, what can I get for you two?" The waitress began.
"I would like the turkey burger, please and my friend would like the…. Turkey Reuben?" Beca said questioning towards the redhead.
"I can't believe you remember that, Beca! Oh my god!" Chloe said with a swat to Beca's arm. "Yes, a turkey reuben would be awesome, thank you." Chloe said handing her menu over to the girl.
"Wait! Beca! Beca Mitchell. You're Beca Mitchell! Shit, I heard you came here a lot but it's usually always during Jenny's shift, she's going to be so pissed!" The waitress rambled on excitedly.
"Could you keep it down please? I'm kinda trying to keep a low profile." Beca said with a smile, she didn't want to be rude, but she didn't want attention brought to her and Chloe.
"Oh yes, Miss Mitchell. I totally understand. I will put these orders in for you right away!" The waitress responded scurrying to write down the orders and walked away. Chloe was giggling at the girl, this was her first up close experience with realizing how famous Beca really was.
"It's Beca." Beca responded to the excited girl. "Right, Beca. Sorry!" She said refilling Chloe and Beca's water nervously before leaving the table.
The waitress spun back around to face them, "Oh! And you are like, really pretty in real life. Like, really pretty. Way different than I thought."
"Thanks… I… Uh… Think?" Beca responded with a polite smile as the waitress walked off.
"Wow. Celebrity Beca…I had no idea I was eating lunch with someone so populah." Chloe said laughing, knowing already that Beca wasn't a big fan of the celebrity aspect of the job.
"Yeah, yeah. You done with that, Beale?" Beca grinned flicking her straw wrapper at her.
It kind of amazed Beca that they fell into such an easy banter again so quickly, it was like nothing had changed. But, everything had… The air suddenly felt heavy at how to approach the conversation.
"So… Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, I know the impression I've given off since I've seen you hasn't really been ideal. I swear I'm not some booze hound who runs around hooking up with girls and ruining my best friend's engagement party. DESPITE what the tabloids say…" Beca began.
"Noted." Chloe nodded in understanding.
"It was just… uh..." Beca could feel the attack coming on and the room starting to spin. She noticed Chloe's eyes shift in concern, but she refused to do this. She had to keep her shit together, she owed that to Chloe. "It was… really hard for me. You know... to uh… know that I would be seeing you again. It was really hard. Especially since we-I… I ended things like we did. And you uh-you did so much for me. I'm an asshole." Beca rambled off, afraid to meet Chloe's eyes at the dejection she might find in those crystal blue eyes.
The eyes she had never been able to push out of memory, no matter how much she tried.
Chloe reached across to grab Beca's hand lightly to get her to look into her eyes, "Beca, it was hard for me too. To know that I'd be seeing you, and knowing how different your life is… it's all been really hard." Chloe breathed out in almost a whisper. Beca swore the redhead was tearing up a little.
Beca felt heavy. It was all too heavy. Too hard. "SO! You're in L.A." Beca declared changing the subject completely as Chloe pushed her hand back to her side of the table.
"I'm in L.A." Chloe nodded.
"What happened to Atlanta?" Beca questioned.
"Time for a change I suppose… Aubrey's been trying to get me to come out here for awhile ever since… uh… well…." Chloe shook her head, it was too soon to tell her what had happened, "It's not important. She's been trying to get me out here for awhile and I found a really amazing teaching job here at that private school over on Sunset and Park." Chloe gleamed.
Beca sensed a part of the story was missing, but she was in no position to pry, "that's so great, Chloe. You deserve that. I can only imagine how amazing of a teacher you are." Beca smiled at Chloe, she'd forgotten how much she'd missed the redhead's smile.
"Thanks, I'm going to try to dabble a little in acting too, we'll see about that though. So, what about you?" Chloe said trying to take the pressure off herself, her life was mediocre in comparison to Beca's.
"What about me?" Beca said shifting uncomfortably. She hated talking about herself.
"Well, Bree told me you and Jesse were in the studio all night last night working on your solo album. Sounds like it's going to be pretty aca-awesome." Chloe chided.
"Yeah… I've been working on it for a while. It should be quite a different experience." Beca said fidgeting with her straw.
"Do I get to hear any of it?" Chloe said smiling. "You used to give me your mixes all the time before anyone could hear them."
"I was such a nerd… Remember that first one I gave you? You were so persistent that I let you listen to it and I was a nervous wreck waiting for you to listen." Beca said smiling over to Chloe.
"It was so awesome! I still play it all the time. Who would've thought The White Stripes and Rihanna could go together so well. I knew you were going to make it big time." Chloe smiled proudly.
"You still have that?" Beca said in disbelief.
"I have all the stuff you gave me, Beca." Chloe grinned.
"Well, I never got to thank you for believing in me… I will never figure out why you did, but thank you." Beca said, the conversation once again turning serious.
"You were always worth believing in." Chloe smiled as the food came out to the table.
Beca was starting to feel that thing in her chest again that used to happen when she was around Chloe. She didn't even know it was possible anymore. That tightness in her chest.
It was happiness. Content. Easy. Alive.
She'd gone through the past five years just feeling a sense of numbness. Empty.
Maybe she did belong somewhere after all. Maybe Beca had known it all along.
"If you play your cards right, Beale, I may just let you hear something I'm working on." Beca smiled taking a bite of her turkey burger.
The song written on the napkins is "One" by Ed Sheeran. Amazing song.
The next chapter will pick up where this left off.
Read and review :)
