Kailor: TWO IN A WEEK, WHO IS SHE, Y'ALL?
Tuesdays are one of the busiest days of the week for Barden Bloomingtails Grooming Salon and one of Chloe's favorites. She works with Ripley, one of her sweetest coworkers, and almost all her regulars come in on Tuesdays. Most of them need nothing more than a bath and touch-up, but it gives Chloe a chance to happily chat with their owners and catch up on all the local gossip.
This Tuesday in particular is fruitful. Mrs. Wittler's four-month-old poodle, Grace Kelly, apparently led a full-scale prison break from the dog park over the weekend that ended with Marcel's Supermarket having to trap three dogs in their break room until their owners could come claim them. Mr. Ledet, who comes in every two weeks with his young weimaraner, Samson, shows up with two weimeys in tow, as Samson apparently found love during a shelter visit. ("Couldn't just leave her there, the way he was whinin'. So this here's Angela. You got time for 'em both today, Miss Chloe?") Mr. Amhurst got married Saturday evening and Chloe, who had groomed his twelve-year-old teacup Yorkie, Teetee, just last week, is both amused and exasperated to find him bringing her back in because she'd jumped headfirst into the wedding cake. She quickly forgets any annoyance though, because the new Mrs. Amhurst lets Chloe watch the most adorable video of Teetee trotting down the aisle in a little cream-colored dress, the rings dangling from a ribbon around her neck. They squeal about it together for a while and Chloe practically begs Mrs. Amhurst to send it to her so she can show Beca later.
It's a (not) very well-kept secret that Beca Mitchell has exactly one weakness in life: tiny dogs. Chloe has seen Beca break literal bones and not shed a single tear. But show her a very small dog and that's it. Beca's eyes immediately fill with tears. It's the most adorable thing ever and Chloe can't wait to show her the video.
When the day finally slows at the end of her shift, Chloe takes a little break to sit down before she leaves. Usually, she spends this time sitting out in the backyard, playing with the dogs they get that are too big for the kennels. But she stays inside today as she's just finished bathing one of her new clients, Woofie Goldberg—a very sweet miniature pinscher puppy that has an intense fear of water. So Chloe wraps Woofie in her fluffiest towel and tucks her into one of their warmest chest harnesses, strapping her in place with ease.
"You're okay, my love, you're okay," she croons quietly as Woofie shivers in her little nest. "I know it's scary, but we'll get you used to it someday. I got you." She nuzzles the top of Woofie's damp head with her chin as she steps into the backroom.
It's a cozy little space with a plain steel table surrounded by mismatched desk chairs and a miniature fridge and microwave on the counter that runs across the far wall. There's a large bulletin board on the wall beside the door, completely covered in haphazardly tacked up pictures of past and current employees and clients. Chloe herself is in many of the photos—holding two golden retriever puppies under her chin, scrunching her face against a large spray of water as the Doberman she's washing is caught mid-shake, holding up a new scrub shirt with cartoon dogs all over it that she'd gotten after being made a full-time groomer.
Next to the board is a large mirror that usually only gets used by one of the other stylists when they're planning to go straight to a date after their shift, but Chloe pauses as she catches her reflection in it now. "Huh." She turns to eye the bundle strapped to her chest, smiling. "Look at that, Woofie. You're probably being great practice for me right now."
Woofie lifts her little shivering head curiously.
"I'm gonna have a baby," Chloe confides quietly, almost giddily. "A little one, just like you. And I'll carry them around just like this, I bet."
There might be a twitch forward of Woofie's ears, like she's listening, but it's hard to tell with all the shaking. Then her lips curl back and she gives a big, stuttering yawn.
Chloe chuckles, wrapping her arms tight around the puppy. "I know, I know, human stuff is totes boring. Come on, let's get you warm." She settles gently in the bright pink desk chair that she'd bought last year and uses her heels to scoot herself close to the little floor heater in the corner by the lockers. She kicks it on and listens to it whir to life, gently petting Woofie's head with one hand and opening her locker with the other to retrieve her phone.
There's a slew of snaps from their group chat which likely means one of two things: Amy has set fire to something again or the girls have found out that Aubrey and Stacie are back in town.
The odds are really fifty-fifty, so Chloe doesn't bother betting on which it is before she opens the messages.
The first is a selfie of Stacie, standing beside Beca's pool with water dripping down her sun-kissed face and a strawberry-filled mason jar of (maybe) water with a bright purple silly straw in her hand that she's cheersing the camera with. "It's a beautiful day to be a bad bitch, ladies!"
It's followed by a picture of just the upper half of Cynthia Rose's face, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Excuse me bad bitch, but is that B's pool?"
Stacie replied with an almost identical selfie to her first. The only difference is that Beca is very clearly in the background, wearing a wet, sleeveless tee and dark swim trunks, laying in a neon green pool tube. She has a pair of Ray-bans perched on her nose and her own strawberry drink cradled against her chest, her lips pursed out as they reach for the straw. Chloe snorts and screenshots the picture as she reads the caption. "No, why would you think that?"
Cynthia Rose sends back a photo of her middle finger raised. "How you just gonna lie to my face like that, girl?"
Stacie's next photo has her sipping nonchalantly from her drink, squinting into the bright sun. "Gaslight, girlkeep, gayboss, or whatever."
The next few snaps are just Cynthia Rose, then Jessica, Flo, and Amy, freaking out with many different versions of "WHY DIDN'T U TELL US U WERE HERE".
After that is a very blurry photo of Emily, like she's running, that just says, "I'M COMING OVER OMG, SAVE ME A POOL NOODLE".
"Wtf me too," Cynthia Rose sends a pic of her bathing suit as she pulls it from the closet.
Giggling heartily, Chloe leans down to give Woofie a few kisses on her muzzle. Her shaking has gone down and her little eyes are drooping, her head tilted against Chloe's chest.
Beca has sent a snap specifically to Chloe and she clicks on it next. It's a close up of Beca's sunglasses and Chloe can clearly see the swirling blue straw of her drink reflected in the lenses. "Come home, babe, we're pool partying apparently."
The words "come home" spread warmth all through her chest and stomach.
Or Woofie's just peed on her, maybe. She quickly slips a hand under the chest harness to check. It's dry, thankfully, and she sighs in relief. "Oh goodness, Woofie. I thought you were really making me put in practice for a second there."
Woofie blinks indignantly at her, barely awake.
"You're right, my apologies. You wouldn't do that."
"Wouldn't do what?" Ripley's voice sounds from the doorway and Chloe spins in her chair as her coworker walks in.
Most people wouldn't think "dog groomer" if they looked at Ripley, who stands just over six feet tall, with the build of a professional wrestler and the perfectly styled, short blonde locks of a kpop star. Chloe knows looks can be deceiving but even she had been surprised the first time they'd met, because despite her appearance, Ripley is very soft spoken and more than a little shy.
But they've been working together for two years and Chloe is proud to say that shyness has long since left for her.
"Pee on me," Chloe says matter-of-factly, gesturing to the bundle strapped to her chest.
"Is that Woofie?" Ripley grabs her jacket from one of the chairs, pulling it on. "Of course she wouldn't. She's an angel, aren't you, Woof?" She bends to scritch behind Woofie's ears. "Speaking of angels, are you still cool taking my shift Friday?"
Chloe nods enthusiastically. "Absolutely. Besides the fact that you deserve a long weekend with your lady, I'm on a saving money kick." She adds an actual kick to the air for emphasis. "So I won't say no to all the hours I can get for a while."
Ripley smiles, shoulders rising to touch her ears for a moment. "Okay, good. I'll tell Nevada she owes you a good home-cooked meal."
"You better not let her keep cooking for me. I'll marry her before you can."
"Hey, hey, hey, get your own wife, ma'am," she says, laughing. "How is Beca anyway?"
It's not like it's a new joke. Ripley has been making it since her first month working at the Bloomingtails, when Beca had stopped by to drop off lunch for Chloe and Ripley had thought they were actually wives. Their friends have called them a married couple for years. Chloe's parents have more than once called Beca their daughter-in-law. Hell, Chloe made the wife joke herself the other day at AutoZone. But suddenly there's something different about hearing it from someone else.
Maybe it's because Chloe's life has just been overturned by this tiny life growing inside her. Or maybe it's Beca's reaction to that fact–how easily and confidently she'd accepted it. How happy she'd been for Chloe as they laughed together on her bathroom floor. How simply she'd offered to be a part of it all.
Beca would be an amazing wife, Chloe thinks, grinning. If she ever got interested in dating, she would make some woman incredibly happy one day.
If something sparks a little hot in the back of Chloe's mind at that thought, she doesn't dwell too much on it.
"She's great! The album she's been working on is almost done so she's been having more time to relax. As you can see," Chloe says, dragging out the last word as she pulls up the screenshot she's just taken and shows Ripley.
Nose scrunching as she laughs, Ripley double taps the screen so it zooms in on Beca. "That's a new profile pic if I've ever seen one."
"I'll tell her you said so."
"Please do." Ripley leans over Chloe to pull her bag from her locker. "Alright, I'm about to head out. Do you need any help finishing up?"
"Nope! I'm all done once this little baby is all calmed and ready to go back to her kennel." Chloe gently boops Woofie's nose.
"Alright, take it easy."
"See ya!" She watches Ripley leave, then dips her head to kiss Woofie's head again. "What do you think? Profile pic?" She holds up the still zoomed in picture of Beca.
Woofie yawns widely at it.
"Now, no need to be rude, ma'am."
"GINGER'S HERE!" Amy's shout echoes through the backyard and more screams go up to join her as the girls notice Chloe's arrival.
Jessica and Ashley are the closest and rush to throw their arms around her, both happily greeting her like they haven't seen each other in months though it's definitely been less than a week since they hung out. Flo waves to her from atop the pool slide and Aubrey raises a pair of tongs over the hood of the grill in greeting. Amy is in the center of the pool with Emily on her shoulders and Cynthia Rose and Stacie are standing at the edge of the basketball court, watching Lilly do some kind of interpretive dance to the music blaring from the house speakers.
Beca is exactly where she'd been in the snapchat, lazing about in her pool tube in the deep end. She doesn't even budge at Amy's shout, so she might actually be asleep.
"Come on, Ging! I heard you're a single pringle again, so let's get WET!"
Cynthia Rose turns to give Amy a very pointed look over her sunglasses that Amy either misses or chooses to ignore.
Jessica, only half pulling back from their threeway hug, frowns. "Oh shit, Chlo. You and Tom broke up?"
"We did," Chloe says, smiling widely enough that it immediately erases Jessica's frown. "I'm totally fine about it, I promise. I'm actually pretty thrilled."
Patting her fondly on the shoulder, Ashley says, "Same, honestly. He kinda sucked and you're better off." She grins. "So are we calling this a celebration of Stacie and Aubrey moving back and your new singleness?"
Laughing, Chloe nods. "Hell yeah, let's do it!"
Jessica and Ashley throw their arms up with a cheer that Chloe happily adds her voice to.
Dropping her bag on the back patio, Chloe quickly makes her rounds, giving all her girls big hugs and kisses on their cheeks. (Minus Amy and Emily, who are practicing what looks like tandem combat moves in the center of the pool.) She accepts Cynthia Rose's congratulatory slap on the ass with a giggle and heads around to the deep end to reach Beca.
As if sensing her, Beca's head tilts back and her neck rolls as she tracks Chloe's approach. "Hey, Doc. Nice scrubs."
Chloe looks down at her lime green scrubs, grinning at the pattern of paw prints all over. "Thanks! One of my bitches gave them to me for my birthday."
"Sorry, one of your bitches? Is that what I am?" Beca gasps, fully affronted. "You put that sentence back in your mouth right now, Beale."
"Okay, okay, my main bitch," Chloe laughs. Crouching at the pool edge, she reaches out, wiggling her fingers. Beca's eyebrow lifts above her dark sunglasses, but she raises a dripping foot out of the pool and holds it up, letting Chloe grab her ankle and drag her closer.
Beca's head rocks forward and back as her tube bumps the edge. Her feet land on the concrete on either side of Chloe. "Mhmm. We'll just call that a slip of the tongue."
Well, that one's just too easy. "I can give you a real slip of the tongue, if you want, Becs."
Beca braces her feet against the pool edge and kicks off.
"No, stay!" Chloe catches her ankles as she cackles, pulling her back. "I'm sorry. It was right there."
"You offend my delicate sensibilities," Beca says, deadpan. She pulls her drink up from her chest and the silly straw slaps against her cheek for a moment before she manages to wrangle it into her mouth.
The sun has left her legs warm to the touch and Chloe trails her palms over Beca's damp shins, shaking her head. "You're ridiculous."
"Thanks, babe." Beca grins brightly. "I hear we're making this party both a homecoming and a 'Thank god she's single' party."
Chloe shrugs. "We might as well! Seems like everyone's as happy about it as I am!"
"We definitely are." Beca pushes her sunglasses up to sit on her forehead and Chloe is momentarily distracted by how much brighter the usual gunmetal blue of her eyes are in direct sun. There's hints of green in them that only come out in the light. Then Beca holds her drink up. "Could you put that down for me?"
"Sure." Chloe takes it and reaches to set it off to the side. "Are you getting out?"
"Nope. Just wanted my hands free so I could hold yours."
Chloe doesn't even get all the way through her "awww" before she realizes what's happening. Even so, she doesn't resist, just grins and presses her fingers along the strong muscles of Beca's palms.
"Do you have your phone on you?" Beca asks innocently, her smile wide as her fingers curl around Chloe's wrists. There's absolutely no way she doesn't know Chloe is aware of what's happening, but they both play along anyway.
"Nope. Left all my electronics and valuables in my bag," Chloe says, giddy butterflies filling her stomach.
"Good."
Chloe happily screeches as she lets Beca pull her into the pool. Amy and Emily take this as an invitation to come over and dump Beca out of her tube and all the screaming attracts the other girls to race over and jump in alongside them.
The ensuing splash fight is one for the record books probably and Chloe laughs so hard that her ribs ache. Her hair is plastered to her face and her scrubs are heavy on her limbs, but Beca is laughing in her ear as she tries to hide behind her and it's all beautiful. Chloe spins and throws her arms around Beca's neck, then hops up to wrap her legs around her waist.
"Bitch." Chloe giggles as she presses a kiss to Beca's wet cheek.
"Main bitch," Beca corrects with a wink, wrapping one arm around Chloe's back to hold her up. Her sunglasses have been lost in the fight and she raises her other hand to swipe water from her face. Her ring glints in the light.
Chloe grabs her hand, sliding the ring free. She releases Beca's neck, trusting her to keep them afloat, and slips it onto her own finger. "Main bitch," she confirms. She wiggles her fingers to display her stolen prize.
The sunlight may bring out the brighter blues and the hints of green in Beca's eyes, but Chloe's proud to say that she is one of only a few that can draw out the deep affection in them now.
Reveling in the swooping feeling in her stomach that the look gives her, Chloe leans in to kiss her cheek again. "Come on, Becs. I think I just heard Amy say she could crush you at Chicken."
"What? The fuck, Amy! You wanna go?"