Author's Note – Dialogue heavy… Sorry.
"Where'd you find this place?" Chloe asked in awe. She had been staying in the city for three months now and never came across this place. She wouldn't have known it was there if it weren't for Beca. The front door was masked in graffiti and the sign was hanging off one chain. It looked run down to put it mildly.
"Stacie brought me here one day. Claimed their food was 'to die for'. I think she only did it to get a reaction out of me. Didn't help she had a shovel with her." The redhead wanted to ask more about the shovel but the brunette just carried on towards the restaurant. Holding the door open for her to enter first. "After you m'lady."
She laughed at the exaggerated bow. "Why thank you kind miss." She returned with a small curtsey, any more would have stood out in her trousers. Didn't stop the laughter from erupting from Beca.
It was rough around the edges. There was no other way to describe the place. The walls of exposed bricks were lathered in tattoo styled paintwork. No two images were the same and each section was covered. Between to-do lists and signatures to the more phallic imagery, they were only blended together by the same coloured pen to make them seem meant.
It was strangely endearing.
They were seen to quickly and, from the look on the waiters' face, enthusiastically. The six-foot tall tattooed goth was a golden retriever in all but appearance. Although the look in his eyes could rival the cutest of puppies in persuasion. She hadn't even realised that she had ordered his recommended concoction until it wound up under her nose.
Her arm raised to inspect the glass. While it looked pretty, the iridescence of the liquid was a little worrying. Beca noticed her face scrunch up in concentration. "Don't worry, he pulled the same thing on me." Chloe turned towards her. The brunette lifted her drink in a silent 'cheers'. She had a more calm looking version of hers. The blues mixing slowly together. "It's typically just fruit juices, he claims they represent the person." The darkest parts of her drink matched the hue of her hair colour.
"Really?" She chanced a glance towards the waiter. She only received two thumbs up in response. "Huh." The straw hesitantly reached her lips before casting a final glance towards the server. The taste was an explosion. There was no other way to describe the flavour burst. While she was certain that if she tried she could taste each part individually, she quite liked the small battle of dominance each aspect. Whether the pineapple fought with some sort of citrus it helped create a warmth within her that she could relax to. Wow.
She hadn't realised she had spoken out loud until the loud cheer came form behind the bar knocked her out of her concentration. Looking up, the waiter was smiling brightly back at her. She mimicked the action. She could only faintly hear Beca choking on her drink before turning towards her in worry. "Are you okay?"
The brunette only choked further into her arm in the hopes of regaining any control. Once clear she spoke. "You have a beautiful smile." It was Chloe's turn to choke minutely, before blushing.
"What can I get for you?"
"I'll take the usual for me, max." The waiter, max, nodded along, obviously expecting the answer. "What would you like Chloe?"
She hadn't even had the chance to look at the menu yet, glancing briefly she ordered a classic burger. "Is it possible to get some onion rings as well please?"
"Make that two please." Beca interjected.
"For you ladies, anything." He punctuated with a wink. Chloe watched as he left, a little affronted by the blatant flirting. Beca chuckled into her drink.
"Don't worry, he wouldn't do that to his boyfriend."
"He's gay?" Beca shakes her head, taking another sip.
"Bi, but he won't correct you." She gives her a cheeky smirk. And despite not knowing her for long, she knew that smirk was going to be the death of her one day. The brunette looked towards her watch. "I'm sorry for taking up most of your lunch."
It was a stark contrast from the confident boss that Beca had mumbled her words. "Don't worry about it. I usually spend it trying to convince the others to go do things outside of work anyway."
"And they say 'no'?" Beca was clearly shocked. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to get reject her.
"Not everyone likes the same things as I do." She only received a raised eyebrow in response. "Amy likes party, Lily – I don't really know about her actually. The closest I've gotten was taken Aubrey to the gym, but she's still as bossy there as she is during shifts."
"You go to the gym, on purpose."
"Oh totes. How do you think I maintain all this?" Gesturing jokingly towards her body. Catching the producer's wandering eyes. "I'm pretty confident about all this."
Chloe could only vaguely make out a murmured 'you should be' before the girl embarrassed herself into a silence. They both tried to ease it out with the drinks. They both needed a refill before Chloe started a different line of questions.
"So, you make music?"
"Yeah, have done for the last… five years. Only started professionally for three years though. What brings you to LA?"
"Needed a break. Grew up in a small town near Wisconsin but always wanted to move somewhere big, try my hand." It was vague but Chloe knew that she was among the millions in LA alone that had dreams that took too long to come true.
Beca knew the look in Chloe's eyes. She had seen it in the mirror all to often. "So, LA? That's quite the travel." She always liked looking for the new talent, but she had a feeling that this was a thirst for something else.
"Heard it was the music capital of America. I was in an Acapella band in high school, visited for a competition and haven't really looked at it the same way."
Chloe had started to smile wistfully at the memories before collapsing in slightly. Beca reached for her hand drawing her attention away. "I can show you around if you would like."
"I'd love that." A smile worked its way onto her lips once more.
"What about you? What brought you here?"
"Youthful spite. Dad tried to get me into college, that didn't really work out, but managed to make enough of a splash to promote me into an internship here." Her head lowers into a half-hearted shrug. "I think it worked out pretty well despite everything."
"I would say so. You have seen the phone you carry around with you right?" Gesturing towards the device.
Beca picks it up, turning it over in her hands. "It's only my work phone."
Chloe laughs. "That, right there. 'It's only my work phone' some people can only afford one phone."
"Whatever cowgirl. Not everyone can have a pony growing up." The redhead looked up, an expression of awe on her face.
"How'd you know I had a pony?"
"Lucky guess." She punctuated with a wink.
P.s. I lost track of where this was supposed to go... I will mark this down as complete until i get inspiration, or someone has an idea on how they want it to go.