Thanks Kelly for your review! I can't make any promises on if Pierce will leave the girls alone...
Chapter Forty-Seven
Monday 6th January – 9:45am
At the Kennedy household, Chloe was running around from the bedroom to the bathroom over to the kitchen as Elly was in the kitchen making breakfast.
Elly watched the blonde with a small amount of dread that Chloe had slept in and was running late for work. Slept in after being up all night being with her and the baby but she had finally unintentionally nodded off for a solid hour and a half of sleep at 7.30am, waking up half an hour ago.
"I'm late, I'm so late. Meeting at 10am, I promised Terese I would be there," Chloe mumbled to herself as she rushed through the living room to the kitchen to grab her handbag, "I need to get more of my work clothes from home and bring them over here in my suitcase. I'll deal with that later. I'll see you tonight. Have to stay back to make this up."
"Could you at least have some breakfast first?" Elly asked before Chloe was halfway out the door, "As long as you feel up to driving, you can take my car to work? You'll get to your meeting."
Chloe turned around and headed back to the kitchen, grabbing one slice of toast from Elly, "I'm not up for driving but I'll take this and eat it on the way."
"It's not your fault you slept in, Chlo. Terese will understand. You needed that hour and a half sleep, we both did. We're still getting used to all this, sharing a bed as a couple, having to deal with being up all night trying to settle an infant," Elly tried to reassure her girlfriend.
Chloe took a bite of her toast, "Uh huh, we'll talk some more tonight. I'll be back here late. Text me if you have any problems with the peanut."
Chloe turned to leave, but Elly sighed at her, "Can I at least get a kiss goodbye before you take off?"
"Of course, sorry, just in a mood," Chloe apologized as she turned back to Elly, wrapping her free hand around Elly's lower back, pulling her into a kiss, "I'll see you tonight."
Chloe then untangled herself from Elly, took another bite of her toast and rushed out the door.
Fifteen minutes later, Chloe stumbled down the hallway towards Terese's office, having confirmed with Ned at the front desk their potential clients had already arrived and were in Terese's office. Chloe was relieved when she spotted Terese and Paul in the hallway about to head into the meeting.
"I'm so sorry I'm late," Chloe immediately apologized.
Terese looked relieved to see her EA but Paul was his brisk self, "Being late on your first day back isn't a good look, Chloe, don't let it happen again."
Terese hushed her husband, "Don't be like that. I told you last night Chloe needs more flexible hours. She's helping her girlfriend raise a baby together, she can't have maternity leave like Elly can but the least we can do is support the pair of them with Chloe working around her personal life a bit more."
"Alright, alright, just as long as I don't have to hear about the baby or see all the baby pictures all the time," Paul groaned, "We're here to work not have D&M's over everything Elly's baby does."
"Thanks, Terese," Chloe smiled at her boss before turning to Paul, "Are you sure because I have some super cute baby photos of Elliot on my phone? Even your heart will melt, Paul."
"I'm sure it will…okay fine you can show us all your cute baby photos after the meeting," Paul immediately caved.
"Are you sure you're right to start back at work today? Do you have everything you need for this meeting to take notes?" Terese checked.
"I'm perfectly fine…okay I'm exhausted but I'll be fine. I don't suppose anyone thought to put my laptop on charge since I left it in your office before my unexpected leave of absence?" Chloe asked.
As Terese shook her head, Pierce appeared from around the corner, "You can borrow my laptop."
"Pierce…I wasn't sure you would be at this meeting…uh…thanks about the laptop…maybe I can just write the notes out and as soon as my laptop is charged, I'll have them typed up and emailed to you all," Chloe offered.
"Don't be ridiculous, that's twice the workload," Pierce pointed out.
"Pierce does have a point, Chloe," Terese advised.
"Okay, I'll borrow the laptop," Chloe agreed.
As Paul placed his hand on the office door, he then turned back to Chloe and Pierce, "Things aren't going to get awkward here at work for you two because that is the last thing we need?"
"I'm a professional, I won't let what happened between us affect me at work," Chloe declared.
"I'm fine," Pierce announced in a decidedly not fine tone of voice as he pulled out his laptop from his bag and handed it to Chloe, shocking her by leaning in close to whisper in her ear, "My password is the day we met."
As Paul and Terese walked into the office, Chloe shrugged at Pierce, "Yeah that's not much help to me, I don't remember when that was. I don't need a trip down memory lane, Pierce, just key it into the laptop for me as soon as we sit down at the table with our clients."
Pierce grimaced at Chloe as he followed her into the office.
An hour later, the business owners were still talking to their clients which Chloe had been dutifully taking notes for on the laptop before she started feeling exhausted at the process. Chloe closed her eyes for a moment, hoping that her feelings of exhaustion would pass.
Instead Chloe was embarrassed when after an indeterminate amount of time, she found she had Pierce with his hand on her shoulder, gently waking her. Chloe blinked her eyes open, shrugged her shoulder out of Pierce's grip as she saw all the clients and her colleagues staring at her, "Sorry about that. I'm fine."
Chloe immediately yawned, apologizing again specifically to Terese.
Before she knew what was happening, Pierce winked at her, turning to the clients, "I'm so sorry about that. My fault. I kept my girlfriend up all night long last night."
"Excuse me?" Chloe spat out at the insinuation from Pierce that her tiredness was due to him, without thinking of the fact she was in a professional meeting, "As if you could ever go all night, Pierce. I'm not your girlfriend anymore! We broke up!"
"Chloe, do you think you could-?" Terese tried to intervene.
"No, I will not sit back and let him say something like that about me in front of everyone. I don't care if Pierce owns a stake in this hotel, he doesn't get to say stuff like that. Yeah, I didn't get any sleep last night but for your information, not that you need to know, I was up all night long with my girlfriend helping her take care of her infant son," Chloe snapped.
"Chloe," Terese raised her voice, quietening her employee, "Pierce, can you take over taking notes? Chloe, can you take a moment out in the hallway? I'll meet you out there."
Chloe shoved the laptop towards Pierce and took off out of the room to leave Terese and Paul to apologize to the clients while Pierce hung back not apologizing for anything.
A moment later, Terese found Chloe in the hallway, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, "Chloe, are you sleeping against the wall?"
"No," Chloe replied unconvincingly as she opened her eyes then noticed Terese was holding her handbag, "Terrific! Are you kidding, Terese? I'm fine. I can go do other work, just cause I had a go at Pierce in there for acting like he kept me up all night long. You know that wasn't professional of Pierce."
Terese handed Chloe her handbag, "Chloe, it wasn't professional of either of you or Pierce. Paul and I will have a talk with Pierce after our meeting with the clients. I know it wasn't fair what he said but you're tired and stressed out and I can't really have that in front of clients. Go home to Elly's place, get some rest for a couple hours. If you feel up to it, come back later on in the afternoon otherwise we'll see you in the morning and hopefully we can make it a bit easier for you."
Chloe sighed in exasperation, "Terese, I can do my job, I can do all this, I don't need any special treatment and I don't need punishment because Pierce went and-"
"Chloe, as your boss, I'm asking you to go and get some sleep for a few hours. It's not punishment, go home, Chloe, a few hours' sleep will do you a world of good," Terese insisted.
"Fine, I'll be back here in a few hours," Chloe agreed, "If you could keep Pierce out of my way for the rest of the day that would be for the best."
A little while later, Elly was in the kitchen cradling her son when Chloe came through the front door, "Hey, what are you doing here so early? I thought we wouldn't see you until tonight."
Chloe dumped her handbag on the dining table, "Don't ask, just here for a few hours to have a sleep and then I'll be straight back to work."
Elly watched as Chloe took off down the hallway, glanced down at her son, "Let's go see what's wrong with that gorgeous girl of mine."
Elly opened the bedroom door, almost surprised to find her girlfriend rifling through her suitcase of clothes she'd shifted from next to the couch into Elly's room several days earlier after breaking things off with Pierce.
"I'm getting changed out of my work clothes into something more comfortable to nap in," Chloe explained.
"I'm not going to stop you…or stop staring at you whilst you change," Elly whispered.
Chloe glanced back at Elly to smile at her and the infant in her arms, "Yeah I bet you won't. I don't need privacy from you, watch away if you must."
"Oh, I must," Elly decided as she licked her lips and stood by the doorframe watching the blonde.
Chloe was still turned away from Elly as she slipped out of her work pants, removed her blouse and bra before slipping on a plain shirt over her head, leaving her panties on as she changed.
Chloe put her work clothes to the side, then turned back to Elly, "Get a good look?"
"Of my girls' gorgeous body? Would've gotten a better look if you were facing me," Elly pouted.
"Well, I wouldn't have wanted to tempt you when I came back here to nap and you have the peanut in your arms," Chloe teased.
"I'll always be tempted by you," Elly admitted.
Chloe smiled at Elly as she went over to the bed and slipped under the covers. Elly shifted to place Elliot in his cot, even though he wasn't sleeping, before lying on top of the bed next to Chloe and curled up to her, "What happened at work, baby?"
Chloe rolled her eyes, "Pierce is a jerk."
"Not telling me anything I don't already know. What'd he do?" Elly comforted.
Chloe placed her head on Elly's shoulder, "It was me, I snapped at him. I fell asleep in the middle of our client meeting. Pretty embarrassing to have Pierce wake me up. Terese and Paul weren't exactly impressed. Then bloody Pierce went and claimed my exhaustion was on account of him."
"How does you been tired enough to fall asleep at work have anything to do with Pierce?" Elly asked.
Chloe screwed up her face, "Pierce told the clients plus Paul and Terese he kept me up all night…as in he and I were…going at it all night long."
Elly raised her eyebrow, "Bastard."
"Don't swear in front of the peanut," Chloe scolded the mum, "I snapped at Pierce after that, telling everyone he'd never be able to go all night. That I'd broken up with him and the truth was I was tired because I was with my girlfriend and her infant son all night long. Terese wasn't…pleased by my outburst. I don't blame her. I lost my cool in front of clients. Should've been more professional even though Pierce wasn't. I just need a few hours to sleep and then I'll be fine. Go back to the office, try and not be there all night long. Try and make tomorrow a better day."
"Maybe every work night, we should make sure you get a few hours of solid sleep…we do still have Finn's room free or I can be out in the living room settling Elliot to leave you in peace to get some sleep," Elly offered.
Chloe closed her eyes as she curled up to Elly, "Not gonna work, it's been less than a week and I'm already at that stage where I don't think I could fall asleep without your arms around me."
"Me too," Elly whispered, "Sleep for a couple hours. I'll wake you when you need to go back to work."
"Will you stay with me?" Chloe asked, yawning.
"Of course, I will, until the baby needs me," Elly agreed, then shook her head as Elliot promptly burst into tears, "So…ah…now then. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"You better," Chloe decided as she nodded off to sleep, with Elly getting up to check on her son.
