- Part 1 -


Arrhythmia


And when she says she wants somebody else,
I hope you know, she doesn't mean you.
And when she breaks down and makes a sound,
You'll never hear her, the way that I do.
And when she says she wants someone to love,
I hope you know, she doesn't mean you.
- Howie Day


"I think we should get something to wear tonight," Chloe says. They stroll through downtown, peering into the windows of the shops. Most are closed for the season, but every now and then, an open sign hangs on one of the windows.

Aubrey smiles and shakes her head in confusion. "We brought plenty of clothes." She unlaces her fingers from Chloe's and turns to walk backwards, facing her. "And I know you didn't forget anything. I basically packed your bag." It's not like this place is shopping spree central where they're tempted to max out their credit cards in all the stores. She's just happy to be out of Beca's bra and into her own clothes at this point.

"I know." Chloe smiles back and shrugs. "I'm just thinking if we're going on a date, we should have something new to wear." She grabs Aubrey's hands and spins her around so Aubrey is walking beside her again. "I want to look cute." She pauses. "Well, cuter, anyway."

"I don't know, Chloe," Aubrey responds. "Do you think it's possible for you to be cuter?" Aubrey sure doesn't. She stares at the way a few loose strands of red hair escape the messy bun they're supposed to be twisted into and resists the urge to brush them away from her face.

Chloe looks up at her, trying her best at a serious expression. "Probably not. But we can try."

Aubrey rolls her eyes and laughs, wrapping both of her arms around Chloe. She can't determine whether her happiness is real or forced as there's a sinking fear of the entire island in the pit of her stomach - especially as they walk past the Maritime Museum with its boarded up window on the door. But her enjoyment of Chloe is sincere; she knows that much.

Chloe hugs her back, nearly running them both off the sidewalk and into the grass.

"What about this store?" Aubrey asks, stopping them outside a typical beachy tourist shop. It's decorated in shells and starfish, but it looks like it carries a little bit of everything outside the usual tourist knickknacks. The sand dollar patterned sundress hanging in the window is actually kind of cute.

Chloe pulls back to look at her and nods her head. "Let's check it out."

Aubrey walks to the door and pulls it open, causing a bell above the door to jingle. She props the door with her foot and waits until Chloe walks inside before going in. The shop smells pleasantly of vanilla, and Aubrey inhales deeply as she looks around at everything from picture frames to stationary to clothes.

"Oh, Bree, look, these are so cute!" Chloe grabs a plush starfish from a bin of stuffed animals. "We should buy one."

"Sophia would love one of those," Aubrey agrees. She takes the starfish from Chloe and looks it over. "It's so soft."

"I meant we should buy one for me." Chloe picks up several plush fish at the same time and looks them over.

Of course. "I don't think so," Aubrey says, "Don't you think Sam would be jealous?" Heaven knows they don't need more stuffed animals in the bed at night. She already barely fits as it is with Chloe hogging the entire mattress - and all the blankets.

"Jealous?" Chloe asks like that's the craziest thing she's ever heard. "He'd be so happy to have a friend! They could live in the blanket cave together. And then he wouldn't have to be alone when we're not in bed."

Aubrey nods. How could she not have assumed that? She takes a breath and puts a smile on her face, because Chloe is an adult who can make her own shopping choices, and it hits her that this isn't a fight worth picking. It can just happen to fall on the floor every night after Chloe falls asleep. "Which one do you want?" She asks and approaches the bin, tucking the starfish under her arm for Sophia.

"What about this one?" Chloe holds up some sort of grey whale that doesn't look particularly soft. It looks almost leathery.

Aubrey tilts her head and scrunches her nose. She can't imagine Chloe cuddling up with something that isn't the least bit fuzzy. They should be looking through a bin of bears and bunnies rather than sea creatures.

"Yeah, maybe not this one," Chloe agrees and tosses it back in the bin then keeps digging.

"Maybe we should look somewhere else for a stuffed animal." Aubrey sifts through a few more. "This isn't the only store open. Or we could look when we get home."

"Wait!" Chloe gasps and leans her entire body over the bin, her feet almost off the floor. She pulls out a blue seal by its tail and holds it out in front of her as she stands up straight again. It's fluffy and floppy and most likely filled with poly pellets that Aubrey already dreads cleaning up if it ever rips. Everything about it screams Chloe.

"Yeah." Aubrey smiles and realizes that, despite that there's going to be another stuffed animal hogging her bed and that it's filled with miniature beads that are a disaster waiting to happen, she's happy Chloe found one she likes. She reaches over and touches it, stroking its tail with her finger tips. "What are you going to name it?"

"Hm." Chloe squint and looks directly at its eyes. She scrunches her entire face for a second then lowers it down and looks at Aubrey. "It hasn't told me its name yet."

"Oh." Aubrey blinks, unsure of how to respond to that. "Well, let's look at clothes until it does." She turns and walks over to several unorganized rounders of clothing. It's impossible to find anything someone could be looking for. She hesitates and glances at Chloe then begins to try to put like items together as she browses for dresses. Either Chloe isn't paying attention or also decides some things aren't worth the fight, because she doesn't comment and just begins searching through the racks as well.

"Do we want to, like, match?" Chloe asks after a few minutes. She doesn't look up as she pulls dresses from the rack and holds them up against her body. "I mean, like, not the same dress but so it looks like we're together?"

"Oooh, that would be cute." Aubrey walks over to the rack she's looking through. "Maybe I'll wear pants." She pulls out a pair of fitted black dress pants in her size and holds them up against her waist. It's beginning to get cooler out, and she's still not even sure where she's taking Chloe, to be honest. When they get back, she's going to have to go to the front desk at the inn for recommendations. She had been wanting to go later in the week, after she could scope out the nicest restaurants, but she knows what Chloe's lack of patience is like.

Chloe looks at them then smirks and looks up at her. "I'd enjoy taking those off of you," she answers with a wink.

"You're getting very far ahead of yourself." Aubrey drapes the pants over her shoulder and begins seeking out a shirt.

"This is cute." Chloe pulls out a blue sequin dress and holds it up to her body by the spaghetti straps. She places one arm across the chest area of the dress and another across the waist, checking the length. It's low enough to cover the important areas but definitely not enough to be modest. "I packed shoes that would go with this." She looks down at the low v neckline and spins in a circle.

"What about this to match?" Aubrey pulls out a gold sequin, off the shoulder top and holds it out in front of her. If it's too cold, she can always bring a jacket.

Chloe leans over Aubrey's arm to get a better look at it. She stares without saying anything.

Aubrey rolls her eyes and flings the shirt over her shoulder. "You can go ahead and keep undressing me in your head if you don't want to do it for real later."

A sheepish grin spreads across Chloe's face. "I'm going to go try this on," she says and holds up the dress. She turns to leave but Aubrey grabs her arm to stop her.

"Chloe…" Aubrey holds her breath for a moment, trying to figure out how to word what she wants to say. "Don't do anything gross in the dressing room."

Chloe stands up taller and presses her lips next to Aubrey's ear. "I wouldn't have to if you'd come with me." She winks and slaps Aubrey on the ass then turns and walks to the fitting rooms.

Aubrey gives her a disgusted look and shakes her head. She'll draw the line at sex in the fitting rooms of a tourist shop for now. She walks farther through the racks of clothes, casually browsing for anything that she could wear to the office, and avoiding the touristy clothes full of various palm tree and tiki shack patterns. When she doesn't find anything, she exhales with puffed out cheeks and glances around the rest of the store. Off to the side are several racks of bras, underwear, and fancy lingerie. She shoots a glance at the fitting rooms area then tilts her head and looks at the lingerie from where she's standing, her cheeks feeling slightly warm at the idea of picking something out. She has time. It does take Chloe forever to change.

xxxxx

"You already paid?" Chloe asks and eyes Aubrey's bag as she approaches the register. "That was fast." She tosses her stuff on the counter and grabs her wallet out of her pocket.

"That's because you have a very peculiar sense of time," Aubrey retorts, well aware of her patronizing tone. One day, she's going to make sure Chloe realizes how important the concept of time is. She's made it a life goal. Unfortunately it's proving harder to achieve than her other goals - like winning the ICCAs, finishing law school, and making sure Chloe doesn't bring stray animals into their apartment.

Chloe turns to face her with her elbow resting on the counter after she thanks the cashier and hands over some cash. She smiles and bats her eyelashes. "Because we're not absolutely made of time on this island, right?" She matches the tone of Aubrey's voice near perfectly.

Aubrey opens her mouth to hit her with a comeback, but she can't find one.

Chloe looks at the time on her phone. "Oh my god." She presses her phone against her chest. "We still have so much to do!"

"Oh!" Aubrey gasps. "I guess I do have a lot of spare time since it's not important for me to show up for our date." She raises her eyebrows at Chloe, waiting for her to make her move.

Chloe thanks the cashier and takes her bag and change then starts making her way to the door. She heaves a sigh of exaggerated disappointment. "I hope Beca likes my dress when I text her for a booty call then." She turns to look at Aubrey with a smirk.

Aubrey gapes at her as she follows her to the door. "That's really low, Chloe." She reaches over Chloe's head and pushes the door open for her. "Especially for you." She lets the door shut behind them and realizes she's not all that fazed - even though they aren't supposed to be talking about Beca at all. It's not like Beca answers her phone anyway.

Chloe grabs Aubrey's hand and drapes her arm over her shoulders. "I think we should go get changed."

"Oh?" Aubrey pulls away slightly as they walk and turns to look at her. "I thought we were made of time, Chloe."

"We are." Chloe rolls her eyes. "But the sooner we put these dresses on –"

"The sooner we can take them off?" Aubrey guesses.

"Of each other," Chloe adds. "Hey, Aubrey?"

"Hm?" Aubrey hums.

"I'll beat you to the room." Chloe slides Aubrey's arm away from her shoulders and rolls her shoulders a few times.

Aubrey tilts her head to the side with a perplexed smile. "Like a race?"

"Of course not." Chloe waves a dismissing hand. "But last one there's a Treble." She winks then turns and takes off running.

"What?" By the time Aubrey processes what just happened, Chloe is already several steps in front of her. "That's not fair, Chloe!" She takes off after her. "That's cheating!"

"That's the only way I'm going to win!" Chloe yells back. "See ya there! Hope you're on time!"