Backseat Romance

Chloe loves Uber.

Ever since she was in her teens, she considered the profession of taxi driver to have something inherently romantic. The idea of bringing people from one point to the other, fleetingly being a part of their life, and actively helping them go about their lives… That was something that really connected with Chloe.

So, when Uber became a thing, Chloe was quick to get herself an account and register as an Uber driver. It was a fun and easy way to earn some extra cash, and the fact she could decide when she wanted to work for herself meant it was easily combined with her studies.

Aubrey, of course, had objected vehemently, stating Chloe was likely to be axe-murdered by someone she’d pick up, most probably on the first day of her being an Uber driver.

Now, with almost a year’s worth of experience, Chloe was happy to have proven her wrong and not have been axe-murdered. Or otherwise murdered.

She had, of course, picked up some weird types - but that was to be expected as an Uber driver in Los Angeles.

Just last week, she had picked up a very pregnant woman and delivered her to the hospital, where she had given birth to a healthy baby girl. Or the week before, when she had picked up a lovely young couple, who had ended up breaking up on her backseat. That had been painful to watch…

Not to mention the dozens of guys who insisted on leaving their numbers for Chloe…

“Alright, Senorita! This is for you!” the latino smiled from the backseat, handing Chloe a slip of paper with his phone number scribbled on it. “Gimme a call when you’re free!”

Chloe politely waited for the man to exit her car. She knew for a fact she got better ratings when people didn’t see her throwing their phone numbers away without even thinking twice. And she was pretty darned proud of her five-star rating.

Merging back into traffic, Chloe tossed the slip of paper with the number into the little garbage bin in front of her, with all of the others, as she made her way to a quieter part of town. She was about to go offline when a fare popped up, and she decided there was enough time for just one more.

She switched lanes, signalling before turning the corner and pulling up next to the sidewalk. She waited for two minutes before someone opened the door and poked her head in. “You’re my Uber, right?”

“Yes, hi!” Chloe smiled, turning her head to look at the woman. “I’m Chloe!”

“Hi, Beca,” the woman introduced herself, sliding into the backseat. Chloe gave the woman another smile through the rearview mirror, but found her already occupied with her phone - like most of her fares.

Merging back into traffic, Chloe checked her phone for navigation. “We should be there in about ten minutes,” she announced to the brunette. In her experience, customers liked knowing how much time they were going to spend in her car. 

The woman briefly looked up from her phone, making eye contact with Chloe through the mirror. “Okay, cool. No hurries,” she smiled briefly, before looking back down at her phone.

During her drive, Chloe made sure to check the rearview mirror as often as possible. She told herself it was to check on the comfort of her passenger. Obviously, it had nothing to do with the fact this Beca-girl was stupidly cute.

There was something mysterious about her, making Chloe instantly want to strike up conversation and get to know her better, even if every fibre of her passenger was screaming to be left alone - which Chloe would respect, of course. 

Didn’t mean she wouldn’t admire the chocolate brown hair, messily tumbling past her shoulders, or the way she really knew how to rock that leather jacket.

The brunette didn’t look up from her phone for the rest of the ride, which made Chloe a little sad. Taking a right turn, she spotted a parking spot right in front of the restaurant Beca had entered as her destination. “We’re here,” she announced.

The brunette looked up sharply, taking in her surroundings. “Already?”

“Yep!”

“Alright, cool. Thanks, dude!” Beca smiled, opening the door. 

Chloe waited a few moments, watching Beca jog up to an older gentleman, who gave her a one-armed hug that the brunette, apparently reluctantly, accepted. Family dinner, Chloe told herself with a grin, before merging back into traffic.

--

Chloe did not spend the next two days thinking about the girl with the brown hair and the leather jacket who called her ‘dude’ for no apparent reason.

Honestly, she didn't.

She did recognize the address when a ride popped up on her phone, though, and maybe accepted it a little too hastily. 

She also didn’t not think about the girl with the brown hair and the leather jacket who called her ‘dude’ for no apparent reason, during the past two days.

Parking in the same spot as she had done before, she noticed Beca before the brunette recognized her car as the Uber she had ordered. Still, she was quick on the uptake, moving towards the car as Chloe observed her.

The leather jacket was gone, this time. Instead, Beca was wearing a little black dress, reaching down to her mid-thighs, with high black boots. Her hair was loose again, but not in the messy way from earlier, but in lush, smooth waves. Chloe was willing to bet a pretty penny Beca was going on a date tonight.

Chloe’s blatant staring was forced to an end when Beca opened the door and slid in the backseat, eyes immediately lighting up in recognition. “Hey,” she smiled. “Chloe, right?”

“That’s me,” the redhead nodded. “And you are Beca. I drove you a few days ago.”

“You remember?” Beca asked, somewhat incredulous.

Chloe wanted to make a flirty comment about Beca being hard to forget, but opted to settle on a simple shrug. She had no clue as to this woman’s sexual orientation, and it wouldn’t do to make her uncomfortable during the fifteen minute ride they were going to be stuck with each other.

“It should only be a fifteen minute drive,” Chloe told her passenger as she drove down the street. 

“Alright, that’s fine. Would you mind turning the radio up a little?”

“Sure thing!” Chloe smiled in the rearview mirror, earning her a flash of a grin as the music turned louder, filling up the car with its soft dulcet tones.

Her passenger surprised her by not taking her phone out of her purse. Instead, Beca’s attention was focused on the streets outside for as far as Chloe could tell. Every few seconds, Chloe’s eyes would dart back to the rearview mirror, studying her passenger and drinking in the sharp lines of her face, as if committing it to memory.

“We’re almost there,” she announced as she turned the final corner, eyes already zoning in on the parking spot closest to the restaurant Beca had entered as her destination. She winced as the building came into view, looking more like a rundown bar than the kind of restaurant a girl like Beca deserved to be taken to.

“Um, are you sure?” Beca asked uncertainly, eyes on the building beside them as Chloe pulled to a stop. 

“This is the address you gave up,” Chloe shrugged, biting her lip as she made eye contact with Beca.

“Right,” the brunette nodded. “Do you mind if I check real quick? I’m supposed to meet someone - someone I’ve never even met… So I kinda want to check if I got the address right?”

“Sure thing!” Chloe nodded, understanding the sentiment all too well.

Beca sent her a grateful smile as she pulled her phone out and tapped the screen a few times, before holding it to her ear. “I’m at the address you gave me but-”

Chloe couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but she watched with fascination as Beca’s teeth clicked together. “Yeah, okay, I get that, but I-”

Chloe quickly averted her eyes when Beca ran a hand through her hair, tousling it and making her look even hotter, albeit entirely by accident. “Okay, whatever. I’ll be right in.” With a sign and a shake of her head, she ended the phone call, turning her attention back to Chloe. “Thanks for letting me make that call, and y’know, thanks for riding me here.”

“You’re very welcome,” Chloe smiled, looking over her shoulder. “Have fun!”

“Hopefully,” the brunette grunted, before getting out of the car, waving at her as she closed the door again. 

She waited until Beca was inside before pulling away from the curb. A quick check on the Uber-app told her there were no particular areas in her neighborhood where there were more than the average amount of fares, so she pulled into a parking spot a little further down the street, turned off the engine and waited.

She grinned as she got a text from her best friend, deciding to give her a quick call. The phone rang twice before Aubrey picked up. “Hey Bree!”

“Oh, good, you’re alive.”

“I think, by now, it’s fair to assume I’m not going to be murdered, Bree,” Chloe told her friend with a roll of her eyes.

“My father always told me that you might as well throw yourself off a bridge if you let down your guard,” Aubrey told her primly. 

“Well, excuse me for not thinking the worst of everyone,” Chloe chuckled. “Hey, you’ll never guess who I picked up just now?”

“The hot brunette you’ve been talking about nearly non-stop?”

“How’d you-”

“You’ve been talking about her,” Aubrey interrupted. “Nearly non-stop. Please tell me you didn’t wait outside her house for her to request an Uber?”

“Of course not, Bree!” Chloe laughed. “I’m not that desperate. I swear it was a coincidence!”

“Hm, if you say so. Did she at least look at you this time?”

“Yes,” Chloe huffed. “We’ve talked a bit. She’s on a date now. A blind date, if I’m not mistaken.”

“And you’re waiting outside the restaurant, right?” Aubrey’s fond voice came over the phone. “To make sure she’s okay?”

“It’s not like that, Bree!” Chloe countered. “It’s like, a really sketchy place… And there are literally no fares right now, so I’m just waiting. I’m not stalking her.”

“If you say so, Chloe,” Aubrey chuckled. “Hey, listen, I’m going out to that dinner my father is hosting, so I won’t be in when you get back, okay?”

“Right, yeah, of course,” Chloe nodded, distracted by movement in her mirror. Turning her head, she noticed Beca stepping out of the restaurant, intently looking at her phone. Seconds later, the fare request popped up on her phone. “Have fun, Bree! I need to go now, I just got a fare.”

“Alright, be safe!”

Chloe accepted the fare, turning her car around and pulling up in front of Beca not even twenty seconds later. The brunette opened the door with a single eyebrow raised. “Were you literally just waiting for my date to come to a bad end?”

“Not really,” Chloe smiled into the rearview mirror. “I was honestly just waiting for any fare to pop up. Yours was the first.”

“Lucky me,” Beca smiled, tossing her purse onto the seat next to her. “Thanks, though. Like, for real, that guy was such a tool.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Chloe answered as she drove off. “Want to talk about it?”

“No,” the brunette practically snapped, wincing immediately after. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean… No, I don’t want to talk about it, thank you.”

“That’s fine, too,” Chloe responded, reminding herself this woman was just a fare, and not a friend.

A few minutes of silence followed, and then the brunette surprised her by speaking again. “I mean, I should’ve known it wouldn’t work out when we pulled up. That place was as cheap and dirty as it looked on the outside,” she sighed in irritation. “He was already on his third drink when I arrived, and he kept talking to my cleavage… I swear, I don’t know where my friend found this guy…”

“Sounds rough,” Chloe smiled sympathetically. 

“To think I went through all this trouble,” the brunette huffed, gesturing up and down her body, giving Chloe a free pass to look and take in the creamy skin of her legs where the dress stopped, as well as the swell of her breasts, modestly emphasized by the dress - or her underwear, perhaps.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think he’s the one missing out,” she winked into the mirror. Seeing the girl blush and divert her eyes, Chloe focused back on the road in front of them. 

Ten minutes later, they said their goodbyes, not having spoken another word during the ride to, what Chloe assumed to be, Beca’s apartment building. As the brunette walked away, Chloe couldn’t help but admire her figure.

Yeah, that guy was definitely missing out…

---

Where the first two times Chloe had picked Beca up had been total coincidences… the third was not. 

It wasn’t that Chloe was waiting specifically for Beca to pop up on her Uber-app - that would be ridiculous. She didn’t even know if Beca was home, or if she intended to go out. The redhead told herself she just liked driving around this neighborhood, picking up fares when they appeared on her screen. It had nothing to do with the brunette who just so happened to live around here, too.

Well, maybe not nothing.

Did it mean something that, after a week of picking up random fares, Chloe was still using this area as her default spot to start when she fired up the Uber app? Probably, yes. Was she willing to think about what that could be? Most definitely not.

Though even Chloe can’t deny the little jump of her heart when she sees that familiar address pop up, and she finds herself frantically reaching for her phone to accept the request.

Parking in her usual spot in front of the apartment building felt a bit like coming home, and that thought was so ridiculous, Chloe found herself snorting at herself.She quickly sobered when Beca opened the door, sliding in without even checking, and giving her a look of wry amusement. 

“Should I be worried?” the brunette asked with a teasing grin.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Chloe feigned ignorance.

“Oh, so it’s just a total coincidence you’ve been my Uber driver for, like, four times in a row, now?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Chloe grinned. “I can’t help you live right in the middle of the area I tend to frequent.”

“Uh-huh, whatever you say,” Beca grinned back at her. 

Making good use of her rearview mirror, Chloe took in Beca’s appearance. Her hair was loose again, but straight this time, and neatly tucked behind her ears. Much more interesting, however, was the sequin jumpsuit she was wearing, giving anyone daring enough to look a mouth-watering view of her cleavage. 

“Hot date again?” Chloe smiled as she began their trip.

“How’d you know?”

“You look nice,” Chloe shrugged, meeting Beca’s eyes through her mirror again. “He’s a lucky chap.”

“Yeah, well, it’s another blind date set up by my best friend, so I’m not holding my breath,” Beca sighed. “I told her this was the last time, though.”

“That’s a shame,” Chloe muttered. “It’s been nice driving you around.”

“Dude, I’ll still use Uber, don’t worry,” Beca laughed quietly. “It’s been kinda nice, yeah. Almost like I have a private chauffeur.”

Chloe barked out a laugh, before tipping her imaginary hat, making the brunette laugh, too. And that was something Chloe considered a victory, because Beca had the prettiest laugh, and somehow the redhead felt like there weren’t a lot of people who had gotten to see it.

It also made Chloe realize that she, maybe, had a little crush on this stranger…

“So, any chance you know the restaurant we’re headed for? Like, if it’s a shithole, I’d rather you tell me now so we can turn around and I can get back to binging Netflix…”

Having been driving around this neighborhood for a while now, Chloe had dropped off a fair few people at that address. “I’ve never been,” Chloe answered honestly, “but it seems to be a pretty classy place.”

“Well, then this dude is already off to a better start than the last one.”

“Need me to wait around the corner to bail you out?” Chloe joked lightly, sobering once Beca shrugged.

“I’m sure you have something better to do,” the woman replied, and Chloe idly noted that it wasn’t a ‘no’ exactly.

“Alright,” Chloe grinned over her shoulder, just having pulled into the parking spot she had eyed. “Have fun!”

“Thanks, I guess?” 

Chloe watched Beca step into the restaurant, only vacating her spot once she had lost sight of the brunette. Against better judgment, she parked a little ways down the street. Uber told her there wasn’t much to do right now, anyway, and this was as good a spot as any to wait for a fare to pop up.

When a fare did pop up, Chloe hesitated for a few seconds before declining it. She told herself she would definitely accept the next one, though, because she couldn’t keep standing here declining jobs until Beca came outside again. After all, for all Chloe knew, the brunette was having an amazing date in there, and wouldn’t be coming out for hours.

After a few more minutes of waiting around, Chloe shook her head and told herself she was being ridiculous. Deciding to just call it a day, she closed the Uber-app and started the engine. The clock on her dashboard told she’d been standing here for fifteen minutes, and she rolled her eyes at her own idiocy.

Just as she turned the car around, she noticed the door to the restaurant opening, and then Beca came stomping out, phone in hand. Taking a deep breath, Chloe pulled up close and rolled down her window. “Need a ride?”

Beca startled visibly, pressing a hand to her heart. “Goddamnit you scared the shit out of me!” she hissed.

“Oops, sorry,” Chloe winced, suddenly feeling awkward.

“Were you seriously waiting down the street to bail me out?” Beca asked with raised eyebrows.

“Kind of, by accident,” Chloe admitted. “No fares popped up, so I had no place better to be. Anyway, need a ride?”

“Yeah,” Beca sighed, running a hand through her perfectly smooth hair. “But I didn’t…” she mumbled, awkwardly wiggling her phone about. 

“That’s fine,” Chloe shrugged. “I was planning to call it a day anyway. I’ll drop you off, no sweat.”

“You sure?”

“Totes!”

Biting her lip, Beca seemed to consider the offer for a moment, before opening the door and sliding onto Chloe’s backseat again. Chloe just smiled at her as she pulled away again, easily navigating through the traffic, knowing the way to Beca’s home by heart.

“Thanks for this, by the way,” Beca muttered after a while.

“Like I said, no sweat!” Chloe chirped happily. “Bad date?”

“No date, more like,” Beca sighed. “I can’t believe he stood me up.”

Checking Beca out in her rearview mirror again, she, too, could not believe someone would pass on a date with this girl. “That’s rough,” she responded after a few beats. “He was probably an idiot, anyways.”

“And how would you know?” Beca asked with an amused grin.

“Anyone who’s not an idiot wouldn’t have stood you up,” Chloe shrugged easily.

The comment brought a blush to Beca’s pale cheeks, and Chloe couldn’t help but admire how pretty it made her. She was about to follow up with an even flirtier comment when the brunette’s phone rang, interrupting their moment.

“Beca speaking,” the brunette murmured into her phone, sending Chloe a grateful smile when she turned the radio down. “I’m on my way home, dude,” she heard Beca huff. “Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t have been fifteen minutes late, then.” 

Chloe studiously focused on the road ahead of her, not wanting to give Beca the impression she was eavesdropping on her conversation. “No, I’m not coming back…” she heard Beca say. “Yeah, well, go fuck yourself!” 

With a huff, the brunette ended the call, tossing her phone on the seat beside her. “Now I’m actually glad he didn’t show up. He sounded like a dick.”

“A girl like you deserves so much better,” Chloe agreed with a nod.

“Are you hitting on me?” Beca asked incredulously, suddenly making Chloe feel nervous.

“No, just being nice,” the redhead shrugged, mentally slapping herself for back-pedalling when really, she had been hitting on the pretty brunette on her backseat.

Beca hummed something indiscernible, and turned her attention on the streets outside the window again for the remainder of the ride.

Pulling into the parking spot in front of Beca’s apartment building, Chloe turned the engine off, sighing at the awkward silence lingering around them now. “So, there we are,” she exclaimed, forcefully happy. 

“Yeah,” Beca nodded. “Thanks a bunch, like, really. Um, I don’t have much on hand right now, but this should be enough to cover your expenses,” the brunette offered, digging into her purse.

“Oh, no, no,” Chloe objected. “You don’t pay your Uber driver, Beca. You know that!”

“Yeah, but this wasn’t an Uber ride,” the brunette pointed out dryly. “Remember?”

“Consider it a favor then,” Chloe decided. “Seriously, I’m not taking your money.”

“Dude,” the brunette laughed. “Don’t be so stubborn and just take it.”

“Nuh-uh, not gonna happen,” Chloe shook her head. 

“But-”

“Nope.”

“Dude, just-”

“Nope.”

“I swear-”

“Nope.”

“Okay fine,” Beca huffed with a roll of her eyes. “If you’re sure.”

“Absolutely. Now get out so I can go home,” the redhead smiled, waving as Beca stepped out and made her way inside.

Traffic wasn’t kind to her on the way home, and it took Chloe over twenty minutes before she pulled into her own parking spot, where she closed her eyes for a moment and let her head fall back against the headrest. 

It was very possible she’d never see Beca again, and she’d blundered her way through a chance to hit on the girl. Hell, she had been hitting on her, and then she’d blatantly denied it when Beca called her out on it. Like a fucking coward.

Shaking her head, Chloe told herself not to dwell on it. No use crying over spilled milk, after all. Unbuckling and opening the door, Chloe checked the backseat like she did everyday. Throughout her time as an Uber driver, it had occasionally happened that someone left their purse, wallet, or other belongings on her backseat.

Like Beca had left her iPhone, apparently.