Once the girls hit the lobby, Chloe marched them up to the Hyatt Gold Passport desk, by passing many people in line for a different desk who were starting to arrive for their early check in times. The girl who was working the front desk, smiled and waved as the girls approached.
"Miss Chloe, how are you my love? Everything going well, I hope? Who's your friend that you've brought with you? I haven't seen her here before."
"Cora! I'm great! How are you? This is my most favorite person in the whole entire world ever, Beca!"
"I've heard a lot about you Beca!" Cora replied. "It's nice to put a face to the name. You're just as pretty as Chloe described you!"
Blushing for what felt like the millionth time, Beca muttered a quick thanks and looked at Chloe to take the lead.
"Would you please make Beca a total access keycard like mine?" Chloe asked.
"Of course!" was the reply, with no hesitation at all. "Just like yours or do you want anything different?"
"Exact same please!"
With a big smile Cora said, "You got it! Do you want to pick out a design Beca? Chloe's is sparkly and silver."
"No thank you, just the regular card is fine." Beca said, thinking the regular one would be a standard white and gold hotel card. She was not super keen on the idea of having to carry around a glittery card in her wallet.
"Sounds good. Now we just need to get a photo to go on your ID card. We have a webcam, right here," Cora said. "Or you can quickly send one to me, and I can use that instead," as she saw Beca subtly gaze down at her outfit and grimace.
"I know just the picture you should use," Chloe squealed! "I'll send it to you right away!"
Without letting Beca see which of the probably thousands of photos she probably had of Beca, Chloe sent one off to cyberspace.
5 minutes later, when she was handed her card though, she was not in luck. Turns out, that "sparkly and silver" was the regular card. She did however, really like the photo Chloe had picked out, even though she didn't remember Chloe actually taking the picture. It looked like Beca, but on one of her best days, unlike her driver's license photo. That photo was taken directly after a Bellas practice had just gotten out, as she rushed to the DMV to get there before it closed the day before her old one expired. Needless to say, she was not prepared to take that one either. Beca preferred to wait until last minute to do things, but would not be making that mistake again.
"What all does this do?" Beca asked, as she examined the plastic card with her name and photo printed neatly under the words "Gold Passport VIP with Total Access" still a bit warm from when it popped out of a machine. "This looks like it is like, for rock stars at a concert or something!"
"It gives you all of the perks and privileges that being a Diamond Status level member does, meaning you get the best room available when you check in, suite upgrades, premium Wi-Fi, club lounge access and extended arrival and departure times," Cora explained proudly.
"Well, damn, is that all it does? I would've expected more for something that looks this fancy." Beca said sarcastically, to cover up how shocked she was at everything it did. Unfortunately, Cora didn't know Beca as well as Chloe did, and she looked a bit take aback.
"Well," Cora said, a bit less sure of herself, "Since you have Chloe's clearance, it lets you go anywhere and do anything in the building. You can also use the card to charge expenses to as well. So if you get anything at Cassis, Onyx, the coffee bar or something, the bill just goes to the hotel. If you ever stay here, for some reason, you can always charge your room service to it too. The hotel will then take care of any charges that get made on this card, so you don't have to worry about it."
The Diamond card was the highest that the Hyatt offered to everyone, but apparently Chloe's card was even a bit beyond that.
"What Beca means to say, is thank you," Chloe said quickly, elbowing Beca in the ribs when she remained silent and gawking at the poor girl. "Occasionally, she just forgets how to use socially acceptable words or manners properly in certain situations."
"Yes. Really. Thank you. It's great," Beca covered, rubbing her sore side, "I'm sorry I said that. I just wasn't expecting this card to do all of those things, and I don't know, just didn't know how to react or what to say I guess."
"No worries. I hope to see you around here soon. John has already created a file about you, to all the core staff, so I'll just add this to the memos and you should be good to go. If anyone questions you, just show them this card and you shouldn't have any problems. If you forget your card, just come to the desk and someone will make you a new one. Try not to lose it though."
"I will take care of this more than my headphones," Beca said seriously.
Cora didn't quite understand what that meant, thinking about her own $8 pair of earbuds that were wrapped up in a ball at the bottom of her bag, but could tell Beca meant what she said and appreciated it nonetheless.
"That means she'll probably kiss it multiple times a day, and punch anyone who tries to touch it," Chloe teased.
"Shut it, you weirdo," Beca snapped, "I don't do that."
"No, but you might as well."
"Whatever, let's just go," Beca said as she turned to leave. "The Uber is here. Thanks Cora, I appreciate it," she managed to add sincerely over her shoulder. "I've got a feeling we'll be back soon."
"DING!" 1 UNREAD MESSAGE
At the airport, Amy's flight just landed. Hope to be home soon. See you there?
Taking that as their cue to leave, the girls waved goodbye to Cora and headed out to the Uber that was waiting for them in the passenger pick up and drop off area.
The girls made their way back to the Bellas house feeling more relaxed than they had been in a long while. As they walked up the stairs of the white house with blue trim, they noticed Aubrey's car parked outside. Beca actually felt a bit sad when she thought about not having Chloe constantly by her side anymore. Sure, she'd be glad to have her left hand back, and it'd be nice to take a shower and be able to pee on her own too, but she found that she didn't mind Chloe's presence as much as she thought she would, had you asked her a day earlier. They were already close, but this experience just made them even closer, if that is possible. Beca wanted her best friend to be around her for a long time. And not only did she want Chloe to be around for a long time, she wanted her to be more to her too. She wanted Chloe to be her girlfriend. In retrospect, Chloe basically already was her girlfriend, just not officially. But Beca found she wanted to change that fact. And now, Beca realized with a jolt, was the perfect time to say something. She just had to figure out how she wanted to approach the subject. She was pretty sure that Chloe wanted the same thing, but what if she didn't?
'Oh god.' Beca thought to herself. 'What if I have been reading everything wrong, and Chloe only wants to be friends? I don't know what I'd do. If I don't say anything, nothing will change, and we can stay friends. But if I don't say anything nothing will change, and we'll only be friends.' Realizing this, Beca knew what she had to do.
Stopping suddenly, Beca pulled on their joined hands causing Chloe to lightly stumble back and gently bump into Beca. Beca put a hand on Chloe's hip, partially to stabilize her, and partly to spin her around so they could meet in the middle. As Beca turned and faced her best friend, knowing she could lose everything, she started to ramble nervously, "Chloe, you're my best friend in the whole entire world. You're probably one of my only friends in the world, except for the Bellas. And really, I am only friends with the Bellas because of you. You are directly responsible for almost every single good thing that has happened in my life since coming to Barden, and what you aren't responsible for, you were still there to be a part of. I want you to know that. No. I NEED you to know that. Because you make my life better." Shooting Chloe a quick smile and questioning look to make sure she wasn't going to freak out, Beca took a big breath and continued on.
"You are also always there for the not so good things in my life, and I want to thank you for that too. You have always been there for me, even when I didn't know I needed you. Even when I don't want to need you- or anybody for that matter- at the end of the day, you always seem to be the one person I want to talk to. The past 24 hours or so have really opened my eyes up and shown me some things I never thought to consider. It made me realize that I want to always have you in my life. I need you next to me, by my side, as I go about trying to figure out this crazy thing called life. Adulting is hard, and I don't know if this DJ/producer job idea will actually work out or if I'll totally fail, but I know as long as you're with me, I can handle it. Whether it's just to talk, or us watching movies or music or just sitting in silence, I want you to be there. I need you to be there."
Taking Chloe's silence as encouragement, she continued on.
"I have a question for you, but I'm no good at words or feelings. You know that. But I don't know what else to do or to say, so I'm just gonna go for it. I'm gonna do it and please don't be mad. Because I could be wrong, but I think you know what I want to say and what I'm going to do and you can stop me at any time if you want to but I really don't want you to and—."
Before Beca could finish her sentence, she was cut off with Chloe's soft lips on hers. It was enough to make Beca freeze, but her mouth seemed to know what to do, as if it was on autopilot driven in part by hormonal desire and another part pure love. Immediately, Beca was returning Chloe's kiss with fervor, even if it took her brain a bit of time to catch up. Beca's brain was working overtime, busy processing what was happening, what it all meant, and what all could go wrong, that it was a bit distracting. When Beca realized what she had wanted for so long was finally happening, she decided to quit analyzing it, and just let it happen. Time stopped and Beca wasn't sure how long they had been kissing for but she knew 2 things for a fact. One, was that she needed air, but two, she wanted to kiss Chloe forever.
"Does that answer your question?" Chloe asked, as they broke apart after a while.
"Uh yeah," Beca said stupidly with a shit-eating grin. "But also... no."
"Huh?" Apparently Chloe needed some clarification. "What part of us kissing do you not understand? I would've though that this was pretty obvious."
"Yes, but what does this mean, exactly?" was Beca's response.
"Whatever you want it to mean," Chloe replied, giggling, as she led them over to the big porch swing to sit.
"I'd like it to mean girlfriends, but I'm cool with whatever," Beca said nonchalantly, though you could still tell she was nervous about the answer. This was a life-changing event, yet Beca was still trying to pretend like it wasn't a big deal, mostly as a defense mechanism in case it didn't turn out how she wanted it to.
"I'd like it to mean girlfriends too," Chloe beamed. "As for the whole, 'adulting' thing, I'm going to tell you a secret about everyone else's job. No one knows what they're doing. Deep down, everyone is just faking it until they figure it out. And you will, too, because you are awesome and everyone else sucks. You're Beca Fucking Mitchell, and you're going to take the music industry by storm. You have so much to offer, they'd be crazy not to let you share it with the world."
"We can talk more later tonight if you want to, after we've been un-handcuffed and you've had some time to process all of this on your own, without me chained to you," Chloe offered, seeing Beca smile, but still look nervous. Chloe squeezed her hand and quietly said,
"Okay?"
"Okay."
Beca was so glad for Chloe's ability to read her, because that was exactly what she needed. While she knew she wanted this, she had a lot to work through, now everything that she had wanted had actually happened and it wasn't just a wish in her head.
"Okay," whispered Beca, as she leaned in to peck Chloe on the lips. "I do want this though. I want you."
"I want you to," Chloe whispered back, smiling into the kiss. She gave Beca another quick peck, and a one-armed side hug.
Beca found herself leaning into Chloe's embrace, not caring that her arm was being bent at an odd angle. Beca loved Chloe's hugs more than almost anything. Except, kisses from Chloe. Those were definitely quickly becoming her new favorite thing ever. If Beca could keep Chloe's hugs and kisses, but had to give up everything else, she probably would. After a long embrace, sprinkled with tender strokes on arms and light kisses on cheeks, they finally broke apart.
"You ready babe?" Chloe asked, with her bright blue eyes sparkling.
"Born ready," was Beca's response.
"Let's do this."
With that, they went in the house and found Aubrey in the living room, looking quite annoyed. All of the happiness and calm that had settled over them as they enjoyed their special moment on the porch swing was gone in an instant, replaced with an uneasy feeling.
"Why do you look like you've got a stick up your ass, Posen?" asked Beca.
"Where's Amy?" asked Chloe at the same time.
Ignoring Beca's comment, Aubrey turned to Chloe and sighed.
"She didn't show up to the airport."