Hey guys, I have exams all this week so I wanted to get this out to you. Also, I wanted to reply to some of your reviews so here we go...
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Chapter 10
Beca had woken up from her sleep and had decided to make breakfast, eggs, pancakes, and sausages along with some coffee to get her ready for her day, she had a bunch of meetings with artists then a board meeting this afternoon to discuss the construction and development of the New York branch. Then this evening she had interviews, great, for the manager and new producers who will be in the starting team and then given the freedom to employ and build on the company while they work there, it was a similar set up she had to the one here in LA.
She decided to put some music on while she was cooking because who doesn't love to listen to music. She had an oversized shirt on some shorts on as she went to grab her phone from the lounge and plug it into the dock where she pressed shuffle and the inbuilt stereo system came into play, music filling the entire apartment at just the right level, not too loud but not too quiet either.
Her phone was playing "Can't stop the feeling", she decided to just go with it and by the time she had made it over into the kitchen she was already singing along, damn you, Justin.
She had never been the best cook...so to say the kitchen was only a little messy would be an understatement. There was pancake mix practically everywhere along with broken egg shells and one burnt pan sitting in the sink. But nevertheless she managed to do it, and sitting on the table was a spread of scrambled eggs, sausages and blueberry pancakes and a platter of fresh fruit consisting of strawberries, pineapple, mango, apples, raspberries and orange slices, and of course a two steaming cups of coffee. She was honestly quite proud of herself as she stood back and admired her work before turning around an wincing at the burnt frying pan that was still sitting in the sink, so she just picked it up carried it to the bin and dropped it in, well it wasn't like she could ever fix the damage that the pan had sustained in the past 40 minutes.
She was just about to go and wake the sleeping redhead when she saw her walking down the stairs looking around in confusement. She emerged from the kitchen and went over to her.
"Morning Red," Beca called out, "How did you sleep?" Chloe just rubbed her eyes, yawned and replied sleepily.
"Yeah really well thank you,"
"Well that's good, come in the kitchen, breakfast is already done," Beca said walking back into the kitchen.
Chloe just followed still trying to work out why she was in her boss's house in the morning, still, she followed her into the kitchen. When she walked in, her jaw dropped it was incredible, for a girl that only seemed to wear black she certainly had taste. It had grey and white marble counters, with white drawers filling the entire back wall along with matching stainless steel appliances. And just in front of the counters was a large rectangular island with the marble wrapping down the sides going down to the floor, which was a sort of slate-like tile, and judging by the warmth coming from them the producer had underfloor heating. To the side was a table, it had two benches on either side like an oversized picnic bench, which had three black and gold pendant lights hanging from the ceiling, giving the space a rustic yet classy feel to it.
She sat down on one of the benches opposite Beca and looked at the food that was splayed across the table.
"This looks great, Becs thank you," Beca just nodded her head.
The two sat in a comfortable silence, the occasional topic of work came up, but nothing about last night. Chloe looked up from her plate and saw the brunette staring at her but instantly turning away when she was caught, Chloe just smiled to herself at the producer's action.
For the entire time that morning neither girl seemed to feel strange that they had been in each other's company out of office hours with both wearing very minimal clothing. So after they finished breakfast Beca took her laptop and went and sat on the sofa, she was working on a few emails and looking over a few of the finances and updates from the past week, until a knock at Beca's door interrupted her, she sighed placed her laptop down on the coffee table and went to see who it was.
She opened the door to see Jesse standing there, "Morning Boss, how are you?"
"I'm fine thanks, why are you here?" Beca asked confused as to why the boy had turned up at her house.
"Well I came to tell you, " he was interrupted when he saw Chloe walking around in the apartment and raised a brow, "Beca?"
"What Jesse?" Not realizing what he'd had seen
He leaned down and whispered, "Why is there a certain redhead in your apartment?"
Beca instantly closed over the door so the inside of her house was covered.
"She just stayed over last night, she got really drunk last night and I just wanted to make sure she was okay so I brought her back here," she said deciding to leave out the whole fiasco with the two men, it wasn't her story to tell.
"Right…" Jesse replied with unconvinced by the brunettes answer, "Well I better get to work, what time are you in today?"
"Well I need to sort some stuff out here but I'll be in 10 at the latest,"
"Okay, see you then" he waved and walked back, Beca closed the door and realized that Jesse didn't even tell her what he had come here to do in the first place, she just shook her head and headed back into the lounge to finish off a bit of her work. She was walking back when she spotted a ball of red hair facing away from her sitting down on the sofa. She went and sat down next to her.
"Hey," Beca said softly, looking at the redhead who seemed to be deep in thought. It took Chloe a little while before she replied, turning her head to face Beca.
"What happened last night?" She said a hint of sadness in her voice
"You don't remember?"
"Only bits, but I do remember you coming to get me apart from that it's all a bit blurry,"
"Well," Beca said taking a deep breath, preparing herself for what she was going to tell the girl, "we were dancing at my club then I went to the bathroom, and when I came back you were talking with two guys and one of them was putting something in your drink, so I went over there and told them to back off and got security to escort them out, they won't be coming back there I can tell you that, and then you collapsed. I caught you before you hit your head, then decided to take you back here as it was closer," Beca finished nervously looking down at the ground.
"Your club?" Chloe said after a while.
Beca just grinned, "I'm glad that's the only bit of information you got out of that, and yes my club."
Chloe laughed, "How did I not know it was yours?"
"Well I actually own a few clubs but not many people know that I do,"
"Do I know any of these other clubs?" Chloe said smiling
"Maybe, there's Exchange LA, Playhouse Hollywood, Academy Nightclub, The Highlight Room and there is a chain of the one we went to last night, 'H20' in LA, New York, Miami, Malibu and San Francisco and New Orleans,"
"Isn't that a bit ironic, calling it H20 when you serve alcohol?" Chloe said with a laugh
"Yeah, but that's the idea, it's sarcastic, like me," Beca said with a smirk
"Point," Chloe said with a smile.
They were both sitting silently on the sofa, the only noise coming from the tapping of the keys on Beca's computer as she was finishing off some emails. Chloe was staring out the window admiring the view that the producer had, you could basically see most of downtown LA and Hollywood from this high, it made the cars look tiny and the noise of the outside world was almost non-existent, no wonder Beca enjoyed it up here, it made her think of her apartment, her apartment that she shared with her boyfriend...her boyfriend...oh shit. In a panic Chloe bolted up from her seat on the sofa causing Beca to look up at the Chloe confused on why she was practically running up the stairs, she put her laptop down and ran after her.
"Chloe," Beca called out whilst running up the stairs. "What's going on?" She walked into the guest room to see Chloe picking up her clothes from last night, Beca rushed over and stopped the girl putting her hands on her shoulders forcing her to look at her.
"Chloe, calm down, what's going on?" She said concerned.
"Tom," the redhead managed to say, short of breath from her sudden panic.
"What about Tom?" Her heart dropping as she said his name.
"I need to get back," Chloe said shakily.
"Okay, well you're not going back in that," Beca said pointing to the clothes from last night, "Wait here," she instructed before turning and going into her own room. She headed into her walk-in closet and grabbed a black and blue plaid shirt, white t-shirt, black jeans and a pair of blue Adidas trainers, Chloe looked about the same size as her.
Beca returned and placed the clothes next to the redhead, "Here," she said.
"Thank you," the redhead said genuinely looking up at the producer, noticing how blue her eyes were they were like the night sky, a really dark blue compared to her bright ones, they were beautiful. They held each other's gaze for what seemed like an eternity until Chloe turned her head and picked up the clothes and headed into the en-suite bathroom.
Beca had returned back downstairs and began clearing up everything from breakfast, placing all the plates in the dishwasher and wiping the table and counters over. She heard footsteps coming from the stairs, she turned and was met with the redhead who looked stunning in Beca's clothes, how could someone look that good in casual clothes she didn't know, but well it was Chloe we were talking about.
Chloe looked very stressed and Beca wasn't too sure why, she just assumed it was partly due to the alcohol that was still in her system and the fact her boyfriend didn't know where she was and he was probably very worried about her, well that's what Beca thought.
Chloe walked over to Beca finding herself very comfortable in the producer's clothes and leaned up against the breakfast bar.
"Hey," Chloe said.
"Hey, feeling better?"
"Yeah, thank you,"
"No problem,"
"No, seriously, not many would've done what you did. You let me sleep here, and made me breakfast, most would've just left me at the club by myself, so thank you for that," Chloe said genuinely. Remembering the one time, her and Tom and went to a club and after a few drinks he just up and left her without saying where he was going and she'd ended up falling asleep on one of the sofas. Not one of her best moments. But one of the reasons why she never went to clubs with him anymore.
"Well, I'm just happy you're safe," Beca replied the thought of Tom still lingering in the back of her mind.
"Umm, so I'm just going to head back then I'll be in for work, so I'll see you there, thanks for everything Beca," Chloe said before turning around and headed for the door.
"Chloe wait," Beca called, the redhead turned on her heel a confused look on her face.
"You can't walk by yourself, it will take ages," Beca said grabbing a pair of keys from the table. "Here, take these," Beca said holding out the keys. Chloe just shook her head.
"Becs, I can't take one of your cars, honestly I can just walk," Chloe said knowing how much Beca's cars meant to her.
"Right, as your Boss, you will take my keys, drive it back to yours then drive to work understand," Beca said with a straight face, Chloe just smiled at her finding the producer quite amusing when she was being in control.
"Okay Boss," She replied. Chloe took the keys their hands brushing lightly as they did so. Chloe felt a shoot of electricity run up her arm as their hands touched, they looked into each other's eyes, but Beca turned and broke the contact. Inside Chloe felt a pain of sadness as this happened but said her goodbyes and headed out the door.
Chloe headed downstairs and was met with a valet guy, he looked like he was in his late 20s, and had brownish hair, she approached him and held the keys out, "Hey, do you mind pulling this car around for me?". He nodded and took the keys. Chloe just stood there looking around the lobby of the building, it had a very modern feel to it, there was lots of woods and dark colors and lots of glass all around the building making it feel airy and large. The valet guy pulled up front and handed the keys back to Chloe,
"You must be one special lady," he said with a grin.
"What?" Chloe said confused.
"Beca doesn't just give out her keys to just anyone, or anyone in fact. I've been working here for nearly 5 years, and she's never given her keys to anybody, especially her favorite car"
Chloe was really confused by what the guy had said, Beca was just letting her borrow them as a favor, right? She looked past the guy and saw that there was an Aston Martin DB11 proudly awaiting her, damn the producer had good taste in cars. She thanked the guy and got into the seat instantly feeling the soft leather underneath her. She moved the chair back a bit making enough room for herself, before turning the engine on and hearing the roar as she did so, it felt incredible to be sitting behind the wheel of this incredible machine. She pulled out of the parking lot and into drove through the streets of busy LA, despite the fairly early time there were lots of cars out already.
Chloe had grown up with a car enthusiast father so she had naturally also grown up to love them, and driving one of her dad's favorite cars made her have a small buzz in the pit of her stomach, she drove back to her apartment without any problems, thank god. It was probably around 8.30 by now, as Chloe stepped out of the car, shut the door and headed inside, she was dreading what she'd be met with but she'd rather face it sooner than later. She opened the door hearing the lock click, her heart pounding in her chest. She was met with Tom standing by the sofa, anger plastered over his face, Chloe instantly became scared. She had seen him angry before but never this angry, he walked over to her, she was frozen in place her hand still on the doorknob.
"Where the fuck have you been?" He shouted at her.
"I'm sorry," she said she was now shaking with fear.
"I said where the hell were you?" He growled
"I went out with work and then I stayed over at a friend's for the night because I didn't feel very well,"
"Well you look fine to me," he said folding his arms across his chest.
"It was just something I drank last night," Chloe said honestly trying not to get Tom any angrier than he already was.
"What did you drink?" he said suspiciously
"I don't know but some guy tried to drug me okay!" Chloe said her voice raising.
"Some guy, so what are you cheating on me now or something?" he said practically shouting
"No for god's sake Tom will just listen to me-"
"And is that is his clothes you have on, and his car outside? Wouldn't be surprised you always have been a slut," he said with a snarl
"Shut up Tom, you are lying and you know it, and if you must know they're my boss's,"
"Oh so now you are screwing your way to the top," he said getting in her face making her back into a corner.
"Tom stop you're scaring me," Chloe said her voice suddenly becoming very small
"Oh I'm scaring you am I," he said stepping closer to her.
"Just please stop Tom," Chloe said her voice trembling as tears began to fall.
"No. No, Chloe, I won't stop, and there is nothing you will be able to do about it,"
And before she knew it a sharp pain hit her cheek, Tom, her boyfriend, the guy she had trusted for so long, had slapped her. She looked up at him in fear, his face showed no regret, in fact, he almost looked pleased with himself. She grabbed the closest thing she could find that being a lampshade and hit him on the side of the head, he instantly fell to the floor. Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, thanking that he hadn't done anything worse. She checked to see if Tom was still breathing, she put a hand on his wrist, she felt a pulse. She decided to just leave him there and went and packed up her things, mostly the essentials. Laptop, purse, some of her personal belongings, like clothes, shoes, and makeup.
She then went to the bookshelf that was near the TV and pulled it out, she had found a small gap when they'd moved in and she'd kept small amounts of money in there in case of an emergency and over time the sum had gradually built up, she looked inside and saw stacks of bills in neat piles, she must of had at least $40,000 dollars in there.
She grabbed everything and began pilling it into her bag, she pushed the bookshelf back in place, took one last look around the place. Despite all the bad memories here, she was going to miss this place. She took one last look around and shut the door.
Not realizing that her land lard for work was laying on the floor.
Chloe practically ran down the stairs of her apartment black and opened the boot and threw her bag inside, she went around the car and sat on the leather seats again, sighing as she leaned back. She silently let the tears run down her face, she had never been so scared in her life, when he'd got closer to her she didn't know what was going to happen and when he'd hit her it was as if the whole world had stopped, her mind had clouded. She still hadn't really come to terms with everything that had happened in the past 20 minutes.
She wiped her eyes, pulled down the mirror and re-applied some mascara, that had streamed down her face from all the crying. She took a deep breath, and re-composed herself before starting the engine again and driving off.
Chloe realized that she still had about 25 minutes until she needed to be in for work so she decided to head over to 'Amy's' for a drink and a chat, she really needed someone to talk to.
She arrived outside after about five minutes, she pulled the car into a parking space, careful not to get it caught on anything. After she'd successfully parked she got out of the car and walked through the door of the smoothie bar.
"Hey Ames," she called out, walking towards the bar stools and sitting down.
"What's up Gingernut?" Amy said walking over to her. Chloe just stifled a laugh, she had always loved the girl's nicknames for her, she'd practically heard everything from Ginga to firecracker but Amy's always seized to surprise her, it was something so ridiculous yet clever about Amy's endearments for her.
"Umm, well I actually came to talk to you about something," Chloe said playing with her fingers.
"Well, I am the best listener in Tasmania. I'll get you a drink then we can have a chat, what can I get you?"
"Just a coffee please," Chloe said before looking up and seeing the shocked look on the Austrailian's face. "What?" Chloe said confused.
"For the past year and a half you have ordered the exact same thing, and no you are ordering Coffee, something must be wrong," Chloe just looked down feeling tears beginning to well up in her eyes again.
Amy returned a few minutes later holding two cups of coffee before sitting down to where the redhead had moved into one of the booths that ran along the wall.
"So come on out with it, gingernut?" Amy said taking a sip of her coffee.
"Well, there is this girl, she is kind and smart and funny and generous. She is unbelievably talented and takes such pride in her work. I barely know her, but at the same time feel like we've been friends forever. There is just something about her that makes me feel...safe. Safe to tell her anything, but I don't know what to do. I've never felt like this before, she's special Amy I know it. She's on my mind all the time, we see each other every day and when I get home she's still there. What do I do Amy?"
"May I just ask one thing?"
"Yeah, sure,"
"What's her name?"
"Beca," the redhead replied with a smile. Amy just smiled because funnily enough, she'd had the exact same conversation with the DJ about 20 minutes ago. They had been friends for a while, and the brunette normally ended up there around lunchtime, which was funny because her and the redhead always seemed to be there just minutes apart, Amy was surprised they hadn't met before.
Flashback-20 minutes ago
" Hey Amy, can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure short stack, what's up?"
"Well, there is this girl. We have only met recently but I feel like I've known her my entire life, we are so different but it works, she's kind and funny and sweet not to mention she's flawless. I think it's her eyes, they are just mesmerizing, like the ocean. It's like I could look at them forever. But, I'm scared. I've never felt like this before, i don't really know what's going on whenever I see her my heart skips a beat, and I seem to get nervous around her. But she's easy going and we get along great. I mean she got quite drunk last night and I took her back to mine. But, this morning we just talked and I gave her something to change into then said she can have my car keys. I have never given my keys to anyone before not even Jesse. It's like an instant bond that we share, and whenever we touch it's like I feel electricity running up my arm," Beca looked at her friend sadly.
"What's the problem then Beca?"
"She has a boyfriend, and she's my manager,"
"Well, I've never been one for rules so I'd say go get your girl. You seem to be serious about this Beca you have that look in your eye,"
"What look?"
"Love," Amy said simply
Beca thought about what Amy said, she decided to think some more about what she'd said. Seh got up and was about to leave when Amy called out to her.
"What's the girl's name?"
"Chloe," Beca said with a smile, and that was when it truly hit her. She was in love with Chloe Beale.
End of flashback
"Well, there is only one thing I can say, Ginger, Go get your girl," Amy said with a smile.
And that was when it truly hit her, She was in love with Beca Mitchell.