Two years later
"Didn't think I'd see you back so soon," Mary comments as she comes up to the corner booth where Beca and Chloe are sitting. Chloe is tucked right up against Beca's side, arm dangling into Beca's lap.
Beca fights a blush as she looks up. "Yeah, what can I say, she's persuasive." She leans her head down to gently bonk against Chloe's.
"I was being sarcastic, it's been what, two years?"
"Oh, sorry, I mean, this is one of the smallest gaps between visits, at least for me," Beca answers.
"Maybe so, but I usually see Chloe once or twice a year and ever since you two ran off together after her wedding, you've been keeping her away."
"Sorry, I'm not sorry," Beca says, smiling and turning to look at Chloe, the epitome of heart eyes.
Chloe looks up at Mary beaming, "Can we get–"
"–Strawberry milkshake and fries?" Mary asks, already turning back for the kitchen.
"Can you make it a zebra milkshake instead?" Chloe pipes up, looking at Beca with a knowing smile.
Mary looks back at them, "I can do that." She takes two steps toward the kitchen, then abruptly turns back to them again. "I like this view a lot better than the last time," she comments, mostly towards Beca, and then she finally does head back behind the counter, calling to her cook.
Chloe immediately turns to Beca, "What's she mean?"
Awkwardly, Beca fidgets with one hand in her hoodie pocket until Chloe lays a hand overtop the wiggling lump. "Becs."
"Well, you know, last time I was in this town, you were, you know, getting married, and, um, I came here before the wedding, you know, to have, like, a final goodbye to the Beca and Chloe we used to be or whatever."
Chloe raises her eyebrow. "Did Mary catch you slipping Speyburn into her milkshake?"
"Pfft, no!" Beca says defensively. Then she meets Chloe's eyes a little bit embarrassedly, "I didn't actually do it, I just really, really thought about it."
"You're such a dork," Chloe says, and she kisses Beca on the cheek.
"You didn't get strawberry," Beca comments, pulling her hand out of her hoodie to hold Chloe's under the table.
"Astute observation, Becs," Chloe replies, closing her fingers around Beca's. It's gentle and comfortable, like their entire relationship after their rocky start.
Beca rolls her eyes. "You know what I'm getting at."
"Oscar told me one night at the bar that you don't actually like strawberry milkshakes that much, but that you'd always get them because I wanted them."
"Traitor."
Chloe gently slaps Beca's hand. "Hey, be nice, he's just looking out for you."
Beca doesn't head back to L.A. until two weeks after Chloe's wedding. And when she does, she's not alone. Chloe's not moving to L.A., at least, not immediately, but the two aren't quite ready to be apart, she has time off for her honeymoon that didn't happen, and Beca's due back in the studio tomorrow.
"What's there to do for fun around your place?" Chloe'd asked in the cab from the airport.
"I don't really go out that much, unless a Bella's visiting," Beca admitted. "I mean, there's a bar I like to go to, but it's not super popular or anything. It's kind of under the radar, I guess."
"Let's go! I want to see where you've been spending your time," Chloe said, and Beca didn't even think about saying no.
When Beca knocked on the door to the nondescript bar, Chloe looked a little awed when the door slid open mere seconds later.
Oscar's face dropped to an almost sadness when he saw Beca, but it almost immediately went back to a passive inspection once he took in Chloe beside her.
"Hey Oscar," Beca said as he continued scrutinizing the redhead. He pretty openly looked at her left hand.
"Hey Lil Bit, I take it things went better than expected?" Oscar settled back into his regular bouncer posture. Beca saw his lips and the corners of his eyes turn up in amusement.
"Yeah, um, so this is Chloe," Beca gestured between them. "Chloe, this is Oscar."
"Nice to meet you!" Chloe smiled widely and stuck her hand out. "I'm glad I got to meet one of Beca's L.A. friends!"
Oscar shook Chloe's hand and then stepped aside to let them in.
"You still going to stop by once your shift is over?" Beca asked, fidgeting with the hem of her jacket. It was a bit more awkward an encounter than she'd expected.
Oscar nodded once. "You've got a lot of storytelling to do; I wouldn't miss it."
Beca smiled. "Alright, see you in a bit, Oz."
"You too, Lil Bit."
As soon as Chloe thought they're out of earshot, she said, "Why don't I get to call you Lil Bit?"
Beca pulled her along into the bar, heading for a four-top in a back corner that someone clearly just vacated. "Because you're not a mountain of a man who guards the entrance to my bar of choice."
Chloe dropped into the seat beside Beca. A server stopped by their table, introduced himself as Jack, and asked if he can get them anything.
"Speyburn, double, on an iceberg please," Beca said, only a little stiffly. Behind him, she could make out Maura behind the bar.
"What do you guys have here? Anything signature or special or just really yummy?" Chloe asked, patting Beca on the knee as she turned a little to better face Jack.
"We make a mean Old Fashioned, if you're into whiskey. Our pisco sour is made with Macchu Pisco, straight from Peru and distilled only by women. Other than that, we can make you pretty much anything that suits your fancy," Jack said, grinning and tucking his serving tray under one arm. He nodded behind him at the backlit bar holding a variety of bottles. Maura seems to have noticed Beca's there by now and gives a little wave.
Chloe thought about it for a moment, glancing over at Beca who half-heartedly put her hand in the air to return Maura's greeting.
"You know what," Chloe said, "I think I'm going to follow the regular's lead." She smiled up at Jack and gestured toward Beca. "I"ll have what she's having please."
"Okay," Jack nodded. "Two double Speyburns, Titanic-style. They'll be right up." And he headed back toward the bar.
"Who's that?" Chloe asked, following Beca's gaze to the bar.
"Oh, that's Maura." Beca turned to face Chloe. "She was new here the last time I was in. She was pretty nice, made my drink the right way without me having to explain it," Beca chuckles. "I blame Oscar for that, though, he warned her about my habits."
"Well hey there, stranger," Maura greeted as she approached the table. She mockingly inspected Beca. "Now, I would assume you're Beca, but you're not sitting at the end of my bar and drinking Speyburn like you're trying to practice being an oak cask."
Beca kind of shrugged towards Chloe.
"Oh, I see!" Maura said, eyes alight in amusement. "Well you must be the one who got away, or almost, I should say, considering you're here now," Maura had turned to Chloe, but now she turned back to Beca, "How'd you manage that?"
Just thinking about it made Beca blush. "Um, you know, nothing big."
Chloe rolled her eyes, and gestured Maura to one of the chairs. "This one," Choe jabbed a finger in Beca's direction, "decided that she'd take her Speyburn-drinking show on the road. Left in the middle of my ceremony, so of course I had to go after her."
Maura raised an eyebrow, but Chloe just waved her off. "I'd been in love with her since forever and she was always supposed to be at my wedding — one way or another. She basically confessed her love across town in a park we used to play in as kids."
"That seems uncharacteristically romantic of you, Beca," Maura said. Beca flipped her off.
"Oh no, she's totes mushy, just, only around me," Chloe beamed.
"Can we stop talking about me now?" Beca asked, grumpily.
Maura stood up as Oscar approached the table, "Yes, but only because your partner in crime is here."
They switched places, Oscar sitting where Maura had been, "Bring me whatever they're having, will you?" Oscar asked as he shifted and got comfortable.
She flipped him off as she walked back to the bar.
Oscar honed right in on Beca. "Alright, Lil Bit, spill the beans. Last I saw you, I was dragging your punk ass back to your place you were so lit."
If Chloe could tell Beca blushed in the rather dim lighting of the bar, she didn't let on.
"Yeah, so, you know, I went to the wedding and then I dunno man, had to split," she shrugged and Oscar nodded sagely, like he knew exactly what she meant. And maybe he did, Chloe wasn't sure. "Chloe followed or chased me or something and I thought that, you know, Stacie had spilled the beans because she's been bugging me to do it forever, so I guess I kind of confessed, and then yeah, Chloe got a little mad–"
"I did not!" Chloe defended. Beca raised an eyebrow in her direction. "Okay, so I was a little surprised and frustrated, but I was not mad."
Beca rolled her eyes. "Anyway, so she was mad, but then she said that she loved me too, blah blah blah, and now we're here and together. So it all worked out."
Oscar turned to Beca. "Maura's definitely told Jack not to bring our drinks, so why don't you go get them? For you girl, of course." He smiled widely, too innocently.
"Ugh, I don't even work here!" Beca said as she got up with a huff and headed toward the bar.
"Okay, love of Beca's life, a few things you should know. First and foremost, I don't know if you've been around her when she's in the middle of a record, but she forgets how to be a basic functioning human being, so make sure she eats and drinks water, and doesn't survive on Red Bull alone…"
Chloe listened with rapt attention as Oscar told her all the things Beca never would.
"And finally, I know it's a thing or whatever between the two of you, but for the love of all that is holy, please don't make her drink strawberry milkshakes anymore. We went to a diner once and that was somehow the only flavour they had left, and she was basically drowning it in tears the entire night, so please."
"Looking out for me or not, if it was a big deal, I would've told you." Beca says, convincing exactly nobody.
"It never really mattered to me which flavour of shake we got, Becs, I just wanted to share it with you."
Beca blushes as the distant sound of the blender trails off. Mary lumbers back over, a beautifully striped milkshake in one hand, a basket of fries in the other.
"Here you two go," Mary says, placing the items in front of them. "So, what brings you two back to town?"
Chloe grins, "I'm trying again."
"Trying what again?"
Beca turns to Chloe, "Why do you keep saying it like that, Chlo?" Then she turns back to Mary. "We're engaged," she says as Chloe pulls her hand out of Beca's lap to show Mary her new engagement ring.
"Well, congratulations," Mary says, smiling and taking a few seconds to inspect the ring. "Nice work with that one, I thought the other was a bit too flashy for Chloe's style."
"We picked it out together, and because everyone now knows that I want to get married in this town, we're here making plans and booking things," Chloe explains, happily driving two fries through the top of the shake.
"Speaking of," Beca says, adjusting herself on the booth bench. "We were wondering if you'd kind of cater part of it?"
Mary seems a little taken aback. "While that's a lovely thought," she says and hesitates, possibly for the first time in either Beca's or Chloe's recollection, "don't you think your wedding should have something a bit, I don't know, fancier than diner food?"
Chloe smiles up at Mary as she finishes her mouthful of fries and shake. "We're not having this wedding to be fancy, Mary, we're having this wedding to celebrate how much we love each other and, you know, how well we know each other, how long we've circled around each other. We will have some other food, but we both agreed that having you and having your shakes and fries there would be a really great way to celebrate.
"After all," Chloe continues, "there was no other food, no other spot around town, really, where Beca and I spent most of our time together. We want to commemorate that, because this place, the food," Chloe gestures to the food in front of them, "they helped shape who we are and who we are are two dumbasses who finally got their shit together."
Beca can see an extra watery layer in Mary's eyes, and it makes her happy that Mary seems to be touched by Chloe's speech. They did have a wavelength moment when discussing food for the wedding, Beca saying, "So I know it might be untraditional, but I was thinking that Mary and the diner have made such an impact on our lives…"
Chloe had said, "I couldn't agree more Becs."
But now, Mary looks away for a moment, off and up towards the ceiling, and when she turns back, Beca can no longer see the beginnings of tears. "Well we'll have to settle some details, but the diner and I would like nothing more than to help y'all celebrate."
Choe reaches down to squeeze Beca's hand. "Aca-awesome." Beca looks around the diner to make sure no one's watching them before giving Chloe a kiss.
"So romantic, making sure no one can see how in love we are," Chloe rolls her eyes and digs back into the fries.
Beca squirms a little in her seat. "Reflex, you know I feel weird about PDA what with all the paparazzi around L.A."
"Yeah," Chloe shrugs, "but they're not here."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they followed us," Beca grumbles, but kisses Chloe again without looking around first. Then she jumps into the fries and milkshake with vigour, trying to catch up to Chloe.
She's always been trying to catch up with that woman, always loved it, and now, she thinks while looking down at her own engagement ring, now she gets to spend the rest of her life doing the thing she loves. She smiles at how well the fries go with the layered shake.