Super huge thank you to everyone who's read/reviewed so far! Without further ado, I present chapter three...
Beca
Beca grumbles as her alarm shrills loudly in her ear, stretching out her arm and fumbling blindly with the switch to shut it off.
The apartment is eerily silent once her alarm stops its daily 'rise and shine, motherfucker' series of screeches, and as Beca flops back onto her queen-sized bed and spares a glance at the vacant other half of the bed, she realises just how fucking alone she feels when she's not at work.
It's not that she's not popular - anyone who's anyone in London knows who she is and is vying for her time, but they're journalists and PR's and business marketers, and they're not really the same as having friends, at all. They want to exchange superficial friendship for mere centimetres in her columns; any gifts or pleasantries are merely the foundations for a working relationship. And it fucking sucks, but it's part of the whole 'being editor of the country's biggest paper' package that Beca's undertaken, and nobody except for her highly overpaid therapist understands how miserable it's making her.
With another grumble she throws the sheets off the bed, shocking her body with the sudden lack of warmth and pulling herself up into a sitting position on the edge of the mattress. She sits still in the darkness of her bedroom, mentally psyching herself up for the next fourteen hours until she can crawl back into her bed, before standing and padding towards her en suite.
She showers quickly, humming absent-mindedly to herself as she soaped her aching muscles, before wrapping herself in a towel and dragging herself over to her coffee machine with wet hair plastered across her bare shoulders.
She tries prodding a few buttons, even flipping the mains' switch almost hoping that a little jolt of electricity could kickstart the bloody thing back to life, but it's hopeless. With one last exasperated sigh, Beca returns to her bedroom to forage through her wardrobe for something to wear.
Tuesday appears to be extra cold, and as Beca pulls her thin jacket closer around her body she stubbornly wished she'd chosen something a little warmer for this morning. She's once again swept up in the morning crowd the second she sets foot outside of her building, and she allows herself to be dragged along the pavement by the constant stream of people until she's reached her turning, forcing herself against the flow as she turns and practically dives into Caffe Concerto.
The heat hits her instantly, and, oh god, that freshly-ground coffee smell is heavenly and Beca's pretty sure that she won't be able to help it if she suddenly starts drooling on the spot. She's earlier than she was yesterday, and the line she joins at the counter is noticeably smaller this morning, which pleases Beca.
She orders her usual no-nonsense cup of strong black and politely nods at the barista as he sets it down in front of her less than a minute later, before she takes it over to the serving station to grab a lid.
She fumbles with the stack of plastic lids, quietly cursing them under her breath as they all cling together, before she manages to prise one off the stack and affix it to the top of her coffee cup. She raises the cup to her mouth, that delicious caffeinated steam teasing her lips as she's about to take that first, glorious sip of the day when suddenly there's someone tapping at her shoulder.
She turns, and God fucking damn it, if that's Luke wanting to make awkward coffee shop small talk again she's going to forcibly connect her fist with his nose, but it's not Luke.
She's met by a cheery "hi!", and it takes her a couple of seconds to recognise the cute redhead from yesterday.
Beca's caught slightly off guard by the redhead, who's actually initiating conversation for a second time in public, and it takes her a couple of seconds to realise that the young woman is still waiting for some form of greeting or recognition.
"Oh, uh, hello"
If Chloe had even the foggiest idea who she was actually talking to then she'd know that Beca, award-winning journalist-turned-editor, was well known for her exceptional use of words and emotive language. But Chloe, new to this strange, cold country and it's even stranger capital city, is completely unaware. She doesn't know who Beca is, doesn't realise that she's living most PR's dreams by making small-talk in a coffee shop with this woman, so she simply ups the wattage of her smile and makes a mental note that the awkward brunette is not really one for flowing conversations.
"You're here a lot, right?" Chloe casually comments, busying herself with the paper sachets of sugar, giving Beca space to answer in her own time without Chloe's ever-questioning gaze to unnerve her.
Beca frowns slightly, unsure why the redhead is even trying to further this conversation that has already gone way further than Beca's even comfortable with.
"Uh, I guess so..."
If by 'a lot' she means twice, then yes, Beca's here quite a lot
The redhead smiles again at Beca's limited use of vocabulary, but she's not put off.
"I'm quite new here," the redhead adds, completely undeterred by Beca's lacking in decent conversation.
"Oh... Really?" Beca nods awkwardly, unsure of how to steer the conversation with the redhead.
"Oh yeah, I moved here from Georgia to take a new job." Chloe brushes it off as if it's the most casual thing in the world, and Beca's taken by surprise because good god, she hasn't been back to Georgia in years now and this stranger in a coffee shop just happens to be from Beca's home state.
"Georgia, huh? That's... That's far" Beca muses, and she internally debates telling Chloe that she's Barden University alumnus, but she stops herself at the last minute because that's really none of the talkative redhead's business, and the chances of her even being from the Barden area are pretty slim anyway.
The redhead practically beams at Beca, and Beca mentally recoils (perhaps five words was too much) when conveniently Luke decides to show his handsome yet unwanted face in the door of the coffeeshop. Beca accidentally makes eye contact with him over the redhead's shoulder, and she hurriedly mutters her second "I've gotta go" before weaving her way past the other woman, beelining for the door.
Luke makes as though he's about to stop Beca and engage her in another one of his terrifically dull conversations about work, but she expertly dodges him and marches out of the door, coffee in hand, before he can even utter the first syllable of her name.
Chloe
Chloe sips her lukewarm latte and surveys the scene between the two.
Impatient asshole who grumbled at Chloe on Monday morning clearly knows the cute brunette with the limited vocabulary, not that the other woman seems particularly pleased with this. Chloe chalks it down to an old relationship, which probably ended on mutually bitter terms. They'd make an odd couple; attractive, but odd.
Impatient asshole (with the totally cute ex-girlfriend, Chloe's subconscious helpfully pipes up) glares at Chloe as she brushes past him on her way out. She flashes another award-winning smile in his direction, internally laughing as his face flushes an angry shade of red at her antics, before she slips out into the chilly city.
Her eyes scan briefly along the pavement, searching for the young brunette woman, but she's probably already at work, wherever that may be. With another sip of her latte she's off, stumbling through the stream of jostling commuters towards her offices.
Chloe suspects Aubrey has been waiting for her in the lobby of the offices, because the second she's through the door the blonde woman pounces.
The blonde steers her towards her desk where she shrugs off her coat and bag, and then she's taken back into the little kitchenette where the kettle is already brewing.
"Tea or coffee?" Aubrey questions, bustling about with mugs and teaspoons and a pot of sugar.
Chloe doesn't really have the heart to tell her she's just downed nearly a pint of coffee and that she's probably all set for caffeine for the rest of the day, and so she opts for another coffee, already knowing that she's going to be practically bouncing off the walls come lunchtime.
A few seconds later Aubrey presents the mug to Chloe, then directs them over to the little array of bar stools set up against the counter.
"I want to discuss your workload for the week," Aubrey announces as they sit down, and Chloe suddenly notices the notebook and printed timetable the blonde already has prepared for her.
Chloe nods, and takes a sip from her mug of coffee, mentally reminding herself to never let Aubrey make her coffee ever again. Aubrey clearly notices Chloe's face scrunch up at the nasty aftertaste and laughs.
"Tastes like dirt, right?" The blonde admits, clearly aware of the fact she makes awful coffee.
Chloe laughs, relieved that she doesn't appear to be insulted. "Yeah, sorry, I've had better" she admits, trying not to sound too rude.
Aubrey waves a hand absentmindedly. "I can't make coffee to save my life. Tea, on the other hand, I'm an expert." The blonde punctuates her words with a small wink, and Chloe can clearly detect the pride in the blonde's voice,
"I haven't decided whether I like tea or not" Chloe admits with a warm smile and another sip of her coffee which, yup, still tastes faintly like dirt.
Aubrey laughs again, and Chloe can't really believe that this laughing, joking, almost flirting Aubrey is the same as the sharp and upright Aubrey who showed her around yesterday.
"Whatever your drink, you'll be having a lot of it in this industry I'm afraid. Consider it one of the bare necessities in PR" the blonde adds.
Chloe nods. She's perfectly happy with consuming copious amounts of coffee, so long as Aubrey isn't allowed anywhere near it. In fact, she's perfectly happy with even more of an excuse to visit that coffeeshop just around the corner, or rather, she's perfectly happy with even more of an excuse to see the awkward yet drop dead gorgeous brunette again.
Aubrey takes another sip of her tea, then, with a brief re-shuffle of her papers she's back to professionalism, her relaxed smile instantly replaced with a neutral expression.
"I'm going to start you off with some writing this week. We have a few releases, and a few bits of ad copy, that need to go out by the end of this week so I thought it would be good for you to write them. Then if you're feeling brave you can sell them in to regionals and nationals on Friday - it's just standard intern stuff, but I think it's good experience for you anyway!"
Chloe grins, a slightly over-excited "I can't wait!" escaping from her mouth, to which Aubrey responds with a small, yet warm smile, before taking another sip of her tea.
Aubrey nods at Chloe's half-finished cup of barely-drinkable coffee, a small smirk gracing her lips.
"You'll probably quite like this client I'm assigning you to."
Again, totally aware this is still moving a bit slow - I promise it does pick up a lot more later! As always, let me know what you lovely lot think :)