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“Why do you hate me?” Chloe stumbles out the words before she can even think them through. This is the one thing she doesn’t like about alcohol. The sheer fact that after a few too many drinks she’ll blurt out the first thing that comes to mind to anyone. Even the coworker who absolutely despises her.
“I don’t hate you,” the coworker, Beca, mumbles easily before knocking back yet another drink. Honestly she probably should have stopped three drinks ago but now she’s too far gone to give a shit about being too drunk around all these people.
“Then why do you glare at me all the time?” Chloe asks leaning closer to the other girl.
“Cuz you’re pretty,” Beca stutters. “And I kinda like you but we’re gonna pretend that you’re too drunk to remember that.”
“Oh,” Chloe replies automatically. “Oh.”
“Um,” Beca stumbles into the redhead. “Sorry. I should probably go.”
“Yeah,” Chloe agrees although the second the words are out in the open she wishes she could take them back. She doesn’t really know what to think but maybe that’s just because she’s too drunk for thinking clearly right now. Beca just nods her head and awkwardly turns away to refill her drink.
//
The first thing Chloe remembers from the staff party isn’t how much fun she was having or what she drank or the present she received but rather her conversation with Beca. She laid in bed staring at the ceiling for as long as she possibly could before absolutely having to drag herself out of bed to get ready for work. The absolute truth of the matter is that she didn’t want to go to work. And if that’s because of the hangover or Beca she really can’t tell. Either way she just really did not want to go into work today.
Chloe wasn’t doing well with this whole admission thing. As seen by the fact that when Beca strolled up to make coffee coincidentally at the same time as Chloe she wound up spilling scalding hot coffee all over her hands. She cursed silently to herself but the second it looked like Beca was about to say something she bolted from the break room entirely.
And the rest of the day continued in a similar fashion. Whether it be tripping over the edge of Beca’s work area or getting caught staring or someone else calling her out for spacing out during work. Everything that could possibly be done to embarrass herself happened she just hoped that Beca wasn’t one to notice anything. Although by the end of the day that proved to be pretty wrong.
“So, uh, how are you today?” Beca asks upon joining the redhead in the elevator. Chloe looked up at the numbers and the second the door closed she knew she was stuck for a solid minute or so.
“Good. You?”
“Alright. Although you seem a bit off today,” Beca starts with a smile. “A little clumsier than usual.”
“Um, yeah. Hangover and all,” Chloe lied easily. She looked between Beca and the numbers counting down but it seemed that time was going by as slowly as possible.
“Right,” Beca mumbled. “Sorry if I said anything...weird.”
“No, not at all,” Chloe waved off the comment hoping she would leave it at that.
“Really because you kind of seem affected by it. I’m sorry about what I said and if that’s causing your...clumsiness but, uh, I tend to blurt things out when I’m really drunk like last night,” Beca stumbles out awkwardly. And suddenly Chloe feels overjoyed. Maybe because instead of her feeling awkward now Beca is feeling awkward.
“It caught me a little off guard but ya know I can’t help how irresistible I am,” Chloe joked with a nudge to Beca’s side. The other girl bit her lip in response which caused Chloe to laugh right as the elevator doors opened. “I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Beca replied numbly following the redhead out of the elevator. Chloe smirked to herself having successfully turned the tables before winking at the shorter girl leaving her to stand in the lobby of the building looking a bit more the flustered.