It told Stacie so much about where she and Aubrey were individually in terms of their relationship that when they were alone in the privacy of Stacie's room, Stacie sat down on her bed while Aubrey opted to take a seat on Chloe's bed. Stacie wondered if Aubrey felt the same awkwardness that she did, wanting to talk about what had happened earlier at the roof of the music conservatory while at the same time just glad to be in the same room and physically within distance of each other.

Aubrey, who found the quiet comforting, was perfectly content to let the silence continue; not to mention the fact that she was pretty sure the alcohol in her system was going to affect the words likely to come out of her mouth – she probably shouldn't have started drinking the champagne – so she opted to remain silent.

Realizing her girlfriend wasn't going to start, Stacie sighed, standing up and going to the bath room to change into something for her to sleep in, and to remove her make up. She felt Aubrey's gaze follow her, but the girl didn't make a move.

Finding safety in being in separate rooms, but somehow still in relative proximity, Stacie asked, "Where did you go?"

Aubrey decided she could answer factual questions, and answered, "I had lunch with Dave."

Stacie rolled her eyes, because she'd been there when Aubrey made those plans, but the fact remained that Aubrey had been gone for hours, and Stacie knew Dave had work, which is why she pressed, "The whole afternoon?"

"He took the afternoon off."

Stacie peered out of the bath room to cast a curious look at Aubrey. "Where'd you go?"

"Bar." Aubrey replied.

Stacie arched an eyebrow.

Aubrey repeated what Dave had told her to convince her to go drinking in the middle of the afternoon: "Get a head start on the tasty downward spiral."

Stacie frowned. "That's…"

"He, uh," Aubrey racked her brain, trying to remember the bits and pieces of what she and Dave had talked about earlier. "He had a proposal. And I've been saying no for months, but he figured I'm gonna be unemployed and might be more accommodating if I'm drunk, so…" she shrugged.

Stacie's eyebrow arched higher. "What did he want?"

"There's a money guy and Dave wants some of it," Aubrey started, caught herself and how that sounded, before she amended, a little more carefully, "Dave has a meeting coming up with this money guy who funds start-ups or helps small businesses, so Dave wants me to look over his ideas and come up with business plans for them and make a presentation."

Stacie pursed her lips, hesitating briefly before asking, "Is that one of the reasons why you chose to stay?"

Aubrey shook her head. "I was talking about stuff I'm working on with Jill and Wes. Well," Aubrey paused, correcting herself, "not Jill and Wes. I'm working on stuff with Jill, and other stuff with Wes. And now with Dave." She frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to her. "I really should start making them pay me."

"You're working on something with Jill?" Stacie asked, unable to prevent the sharp tone her question applied.

"Yeah, that's…" Aubrey's frown deepened as she looked up at Stacie. "That's why she and I met up at Coachella. For work stuff."

Oh. Right. Stacie turned back to the bath room, partly to hide from Aubrey's gaze. She had honestly forgotten that Jill wasn't just a girl Aubrey had previously slept with and was still friends with, and that Aubrey being in Coachella at the same time Stacie and the rest of the Bellas had been there hadn't been the fates interceding. She continued her nighttime rituals, finding it disconcerting when Aubrey didn't continue telling her about what she was working on with Dave, Jill, or her roommate. Or explain anything about the topic of discussion Aubrey had summarily cut short earlier that day.

She didn't hear Aubrey's heavy sigh, but Stacie definitely heard the defeated tone in Aubrey's voice when she started, "Look, about earlier…"

Stacie frowned, and hastily wiped her face with a towel, having washed off most of her makeup, before turning towards the door and returning to the room, her sudden reappearance making Aubrey pause.

At Aubrey's pause, Stacie hesitated, wondering why, before she realized she'd gone to the bath room without a change of clothes, and had already shed the clothes she'd worn to the party.

Aubrey's gaze lingered for a beat longer before she seemed to catch herself, quickly averting her gaze and steadfastly trying to avoid looking directly at Stacie and her… assets. "I, uh, I don't know if I said or did anything that was… worse than usual for me, but I know I didn't come off, like, pretty good or…" Aubrey blew out a breath, glancing briefly in Stacie's direction, then quickly looking away again. "It's kinda awkward to say this stuff and not look at you."

"Why won't you?" Stacie queried, torn between wanting to ease Aubrey's awkwardness, and wanting to prolong it, to tease her girlfriend, finding the deepening blush on Aubrey's cheeks the cutest thing.

"It's hard to look you in the eye when you're that hot and almost naked." Aubrey replied, before groaning, "Fucking tequila shots."

"No brain to mouth filter?" Stacie asked.

"If I concentrate real hard I can control it." Aubrey admitted.

"You can't concentrate?"

Aubrey spared her a quick glance, noticing the diminishing distance between Stacie and herself, and averted her gaze once more. "There was a lot of alcohol."

"Aubrey," Stacie said softly, cupping Aubrey's face gently with her hands, forcing the blonde to look at her. She knew Aubrey had a remarkable alcohol tolerance, but from what she could tell, and what Aubrey was inadvertently admitting to, was that she had mixed her drinks, which was the surest way to get Aubrey inebriated. "Why were you drinking?"

"To get drunk?"

"And why is that?"

"Because," Aubrey began, faltering slightly in trying to find the words to adequately convey what she wanted to say. She tried again. "Because we fought."

"Couples fight all the time." Stacie pointed out gently.

"Yeah, I know, but I left." Aubrey added. "I left, and I didn't call. It was petty, I know, but I said, that if we're fighting, we have to say the stuff. And I didn't, and you deserve better than-"

Stacie didn't necessarily disagree with anything Aubrey was saying, but neither did she completely agree with Aubrey's self-assessment of how she had handled their disagreement. But she knew how Aubrey could get when she got herself worked up about something, and how her tunnel vision prevented her from hearing or acknowledging any opposing viewpoint, so she did the only thing she had in her arsenal that she knew could distract Aubrey enough to pay attention, and maybe hopefully get out of her downward spiral of self-recrimination.

And there was no shortage of relief to the knowledge that Aubrey immediately responded to her kiss, acting as means of reassurance that they would be fine; that despite their earlier conflict, it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed.

It wasn't exactly forgiveness, but they would get there eventually.

For Stacie's part, after having her shortcomings as one half of a couple highlighted, either explicitly or implicitly by both Aubrey and Chloe, and being reminded that there was still so much she didn't know about how to handle certain elements in a relationship, Stacie was only too happy to revert to more familiar ground, doing away with the complications of having her words twisted or misinterpreted and even purposely misunderstood, and going back to the more physical aspect of her relationship with Aubrey.

Maybe it was the reassurance that came from going back to a simpler time, when the basis of their relationship had been mostly physical and they found their reassurances in their lovemaking, back when they had both been fully aware of the complications that came with words, in defining their relationship, in making demands when there had been so little they were really ready to give.

Because she could never take back her initial reaction, the questions she'd had when Aubrey told her about her newfound unemployment; but she could make up for it, she could assure Aubrey that she wanted her to stay, she could tell her she loved her…

She could reassure Aubrey, for the missteps of their earlier conversation, and forgive Aubrey for making insulting insinuations about how far she was willing to go to ensure Aubrey would make the right decision.

She could reassure herself that she and Aubrey would be okay, taking comfort in the way Aubrey kissed her, the way Aubrey touched her, the way Aubrey said her name; the way Aubrey held her afterwards, as if she too had needed to be reassured that they were okay.

There was some tension in the silence that settled between them, the tension of things left unsaid, and Stacie resigned herself to the fact that despite the interruption of reestablishing their physical intimacy, they actually needed to talk things through.

But it was nice, being held, after the emotional and physical distance that had been so prevalent between them for most of the day, and Stacie was relieved when Aubrey seemed equally reluctant to leave their embrace; the limited space of Stacie's bed working in their favor.

The silence stretched on for long minutes, and Stacie wondered if she should be worried about Aubrey's prolonged silence, but Aubrey just looked back at her guilelessly, her earlier remorse gone, her guilt slightly lifted.

"When do you have to go back?" Stacie finally asked, finding the topic of their remaining time together the safest subject to start with.

"I have to be in New York on Monday," Aubrey replied.

"To turn in your resignation?" Stacie asked.

"And to start turning over everything in my workload," Aubrey nodded.

Stacie hesitated, but she leaned back just enough to put some kind of distance between them without breaking their embrace, as she tried to convey as much of her concern as prudent, without pushing Aubrey to the same emotional response she had that morning. "Are you really okay with this?"

Aubrey exhaled, looking past Stacie briefly before returning her gaze to Stacie's. "It would have been nice not to have to make the decision, but I really think I'm okay with the one I'm making."

Stacie studied her for a moment, searching her eyes for something that would indicate Aubrey's answer false, but she could only read her honesty. "I know you said there's a bunch of reasons—"

"Stacie…"

"I know there are other reasons," Stacie said firmly, because she could not drop this point so easily, "but I need you to look me in the eye and tell me that this decision isn't about me. That it's not about us."

"You know I can't do that."

Stacie frowned.

"Stacie," Aubrey said, the weariness evident in her tone, "You know I considered other things, more than just our relationship. But our relationship counts as a factor. Of course it's a factor."

"So that shit you said about reckless selfless behavior?" Stacie asked dryly.

"Yeah, that…" Aubrey blew out a breath, admittedly guilty, while the tips of her ears turned red in embarrassment. "That wasn't cool."

"Why would you even say that?"

"Because I was afraid you were convinced that I should take the job," Aubrey admitted.

"Aubrey."

"You didn't say a word about wanting me to stay," Aubrey pointed out gently. "Even if you had, that wasn't the feeling I was getting from you. And I was worried you'd try and take matters into your own hands."

"You know how I feel about cheating."

"And you know how I feel about people trying to make my decisions for me," Aubrey countered. "What I said wasn't cool, and I'm really sorry I said it. But I just… I needed to make sure, if there was the tiniest bit of a chance that you were thinking it, that you knew it wouldn't work."

Stacie sighed, before moving back closer to Aubrey. "Okay, but just so we're clear: you owe me."

"All right," Aubrey agreed, waiting for Stacie to get comfortable and settle before she adjusted her hold on Stacie, tangling one hand in Stacie's dark hair. Stacie sighed, melting into their embrace. Aubrey glanced down at her briefly before she voiced out, "I know you're worried that I'm refusing this post for reasons you think are questionable. And I know you're worried. I am, too."

"It's what you've been working for."

"I know," Aubrey conceded. "But that job doesn't feel right to me. At least, not anymore."

"But working on stuff with your friends is?"

"That's…" Aubrey stopped, figuring out how she wanted to deliver her answer. "I got this far in my job this quickly because I'm really good at telling people what to do, what I need them to do. Working with Jill and Wes, and now Dave: that's me figuring out what else I can do. Doing this, instead of just taking whatever job they want me to, is really just me figuring that out some more."

Stacie thought on that for a moment, accepting Aubrey's rationale, before she sighed. "But what if it doesn't work out?"

"Then the fact that I'm just two years out of college and have working knowledge of how Fortune 500 companies work are awesome lines to have on my résumé."

The job wasn't the only thing Stacie was talking about, but she took Aubrey's response in stride. "You're being irritatingly blasé about this," Stacie remarked.

"I'm going to get severance in exchange for the non-compete and non-disclosure lines they'll probably include in my separation contract." Aubrey informed her. "Company rivals are always trying to poach people from Oversight, I'm sure a few of them would be happy to pay whatever non-compete bond is included in my severance."

"You can't blame me for being worried."

"Maybe," Aubrey allowed, "but I had hoped you'd feel as good as I did about choosing something for me instead of the job."

Stacie reached up, pulling back slightly as she tilted Aubrey's head down so their eyes could meet. "Are you happy?"

"Yes."

"And you'll be happy no matter what happens from this decision?"

Aubrey smiled weakly. "I really want to stay."

"And I'm really glad you are," Stacie replied. "And if this is really the choice that works for you, then forget everything I said, OK? I trust you to know what you're doing." She paused, and then amended, "Or, given our shared relationship experience, I trust you to have at least some kind of vague idea of what you're doing."

Aubrey had to chuckle, and kissed her, relieved that she could still do that so freely. "Yeah, this worked out, didn't it?"

"Mostly thanks to me," Stacie pointed out. She smiled wryly. "You're kind of a mess."

Aubrey rolled her eyes good naturedly. "You love me."

"Yeah," Stacie drew Aubrey closer, kissing her some more and letting their kisses linger and deepen with each pass, decidedly taking advantage of having an absent roommate. "I really do."