bechloe short stories

Birthday Adventures

For the first time in what seems like forever, Chloe woke up without the beeping of an alarm, or the voice of her girlfriend telling her that she overslept said beeping alarm. Yawning and stretching with her arms over her head, Chloe grinned. She could tell by the light coming through their bedroom window and from her own well rested-ness that it was well past her usual wake up time of six thirty. Turning to Beca's side of the bed, she noticed that it was empty, and that the clock on Beca's bedside table read nine fifteen. Chloe let out another yawn and turned back over, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and standing up. The wood floors were cool under her toes as she threw a baggy t shirt over her usual nighttime attire of a sports bra and briefs. She could smell coffee coming from the kitchen, and followed the scent. She was met, not with the sight of her girlfriend reading album reviews on her iPad like usual, but instead a cup of coffee fixed the way she liked it, and a cloche on the kitchen table. Raising an eyebrow in question, Chloe lifted the cloche, revealing chocolate chip pancakes, fresh cut strawberries, perfectly cooked bacon, and scrambled cheesy eggs just like she liked them. There was also a small, folded piece of paper to the left of the plate with her name on it in Beca's handwriting, which read:

Good morning, Beautiful. I have a few things planned for today that I hope you like. First on the agenda, breakfast, then maybe a shower.

The corners of Chloe's lips turned up into a smile at the lengths that she knew Beca had gone to in order to celebrate the redhead's birthday. She was 25 today. Half a half a century, and very happy with where she is in life. She was living with her amazing girlfriend, working as a choir teacher at a high school, with promise of getting a job at the local community college next, and still having a great group of friends. Her life was exciting, and she was loving every second of it. After finishing her delicious birthday breakfast, which was still warm, Chloe headed back into her and Beca's bathroom, pulling the t shirt that she was wearing over her head as she headed to the bathroom to take a shower as her birthday note suggested. As Chloe went to turn on the shower, she noticed another note with her name on it taped to the faucet. Smiling to herself she opened the note, which read:

I know you like to sing in the shower, so enjoy some tunes on me. There's a special mixtape for youon the bathroom sink. Maybe the music will inspire you to check out our favorite record store.

Chloe carefully refolded the note and placed it by the bathroom sink, next to the CD she somehow managed not to noticed on her way into the bathroom. She smiled as she took in her name written on the CD in sharpie. She loved Beca's handwriting. Popping it into the CD player they had installed on the underside of the shelf in their bathroom, she let the music fill the bathroom as she once again went to run her shower. As the steamy water beat down on her shoulders, the sound of Jessie J's domino filled her ears, mixed with several other pop songs that she enjoyed listening to. By the second song on the CD she had finished her shower, and stepped out of the shower, toweling off and heading back into the bedroom to get dressed for the day, the music from the bathroom seeping into their room. After deciding on a black v neck t shirt that was at one time Beca's and a plain pair of jeans, she grabbed her keys and phone and headed to the record shop downtown that she and Beca went to almost every Saturday. The bell on the door dinged brightly as she entered the store. It was definitely a cool shop. The upstairs of the record store was mainly chairs and couches with several record players throughout the room so people could enjoy playing music out and also with headphones. On more than one occasions, Beca and Chloe had come into the shop and made themselves at home on one of the upstairs couches, listening to the blues or a classic rock album, trying to explain what was so great about it to each other, even though they both knew that they knew exactly what was so great. Some of their best memories had been here. The walls were covered in graffiti style art and old album covers, as well as pictures of bands and artists, and DJs. Smiling, Chloe went up to the front counter to say hi to Ned, the 20-something music nerd that ran the store most days.