chloe-austin - Tumblr blog

[chloe-austin]

The visible distaste on her face was probably quite enough to let Mason know where she stood on the issue of cheating but she was glad to have said it too. He should know how little she thought of him now. "Great idea. I'd rather limit our interactions anyway." She took another step away from him, shaking her head as she looked him up and down before turning on her heel. "If you need anything from me, please hesitate to ask." Chloe threw the comment over her shoulder and kept walking. "Have the day you deserve."

Mason knew admitted to having a wife was not going to land over well and if it had, then he'd have an entirely different problem on his hand. He watched as she took a step back, noting aloud that he was disappointing. Mason could not agree more with that statement and he was disappointed with himself. He lifted his gaze from the floor, eyes meeting her own. The regret weighed heavily on his shoulders, only growing in weight at the anger that flashed in her eyes. "Understandably," he gave a nod of his head. There was no way he'd forgive himself for what he did - but, it had been done and he had to live with that, "I've got some files for you, but I'll my assistant send them over when I'm done with them." @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

"Oh a fun little scavenger hunt for you on your burglary, how quaint." Chloe rolled her eyes and smiled as they walked down to her car and she unlocked it. She was too much of a control freak to ever let anyone else drive anyway so she was thankful her almost brother in law didn't argue with the suggestion. "Wallowing in self-pity is a full time job you know." She clicked her tongue and slipped her sunglasses on, hoping it would hide the bruising a little. "But I've been working a lot, trying to garner a little respect from the other attorneys in my office. Being young and hot is very trying, you know Cam."

Cameron shook his head, "Well I don't want it to be too easy, that's not fun. But if you could leave little hints and clues about the safe combination around your house so I can feel like I'm doing an escape room while I rob you, that would be awesome" he joked as they walked toward her car. "You'd look a lot worse if you lost a fight, you could totally get away with saying you won but they got one good hit in first" he said, with a soft smile before getting into the passenger seat, "Probably better that you drive anyway, I haven't driven much in the past 10 years" He did drive, of course, and he drove well, but most of years had been spent on tour buses or getting driven around so he didn't need to worry about it much. "I am absolutely down for Thai" he agreed, looking back at her, "Besides wallowing in self pity, what have you been up to?"

[chloe-austin]

His hands were larger than hers and more rough than her own that never delved into anything more daunting than washing her dishes. Brown eyes met his before she let go of his hand and climbed into her car, pressing the push to start and quickly turning down the music that was still on full volume from when she'd driven to the cafe earlier. "You ever been to the lookout?" She was sure Sam would have no idea what she was talking about because it was her secret spot and surely no one but Chloe even called it that. Before he could answer she was already pulling away from the parking lot and heading for the highway. "Tell me something about you, Samuel. You're very hush hush about your life."

Fantastic. The word itself was barely enough to bring a smirk's ghost to scratch at his expression. It was surface-level, once again shallow and barely enough to turn blatant and visible. Barely enough to reach his eyes. It was a diffuse cloud of intrigue that caused him to gravitate towards her and Sam would have lied, had he claimed to not find her beautiful - even with this nasty mark adorning her soft features. He glanced at her hand, listened to how the nickname easily rolled over her tongue in a familiar lilt and he ceased to react quickly enough. A questioning look guarded his face and before he knew it, she was leading him out into the cold, where the icy winter winds were still causing him to shiver beneath their chilling touch. So much unlike her soft fingers against his skin. Sam swallowed down the remark about his motorcycle, deemed it a useless admission, though a small twitch of his mouth's corners was the most he'd give away. He considered how much he actually didn't mind her taking her place in the driver's seat and gradually eased his hand out of her touch. "Sure, go ahead and take the wheel, sunshine." And yet, it sounded a lot like 'Please don't crash us into a tree'. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

"Isn't that the most hilarious fuck you Chloe from the universe?" She shook her head and sighed, looking up at the ceiling a moment while she considered the game the cosmos were playing on her. "As if a cheating husband of my own wasn't enough. the universe tried to set me up with another." Chloe wasn't in the habit of being judgey outside of work but that shit really rubbed her the wrong way. "Don't say that about yourself, you deserve all the good things, Park. Just because shit didn't go well between you two doesn't mean it wasn't good at one point."

"Married?" Parker's jaw nearly hit the ground when Chloe added the little tidbit about the man being married. "What a piece of shit," she shook her head. Cheating had a habit of finding it's way into her life, whether or not it involved the people she knew in Cameron's case. Parker let out her own humorless laugh at her sister's question, "No, not a chance. It's not like I'd even deserve a second chance with him if he gave it to me." Parker stated with a shake of her head, "so yes, new man, one that I can forget about tomorrow." @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

She smiled at him and rolled her eyes. "Should I give you the combination to the safe to make your burglary a little easier?" Chloe teased as she started back towards the street where her car was parked. While she wasn't normally the type to feel sorry for herself, the last year had been pretty fucking hard and she was tired of going through the motions and never letting herself really feel any of her emotions. "I appreciate the sentiment, even if it does look like I lost a fight." She nodded at her car. "Well if you're buying then I'm driving." She unlocked the car and got into the drivers seat. "How do you feel about Thai?" @cameronhatcher

"Oh perfect, I'll have to come by one day when you're at work to break back in" Cameron said with a laugh, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of it. It felt good to talk to Chloe, even if the topic of Parker was brought up or uncomfortably avoided he could deal with that. This was the reality of their lives now, whether they liked it or not. "Weird, if you were busy that was exactly what I was going to do for my afternoon too, looks like we have perfect timing" he said, also phrasing his as a joke but you could tell they were both being completely serious about the state of their lives. Shrugging when she pointed out the bruise on her cheek, he said, "I think it makes you look kind of badass, actually." Hopefully the comment would make her feel slightly better about having it, if anything. "Where would you like to eat? Wherever you want, it's my treat"

[chloe-austin]

She'd had a feeling Sam would say yes to her. Whatever it was between them, he seemed to be enamored with Chloe in some sense and she planned to utilize that to her advantage. "Fantastic." She gathered up her trash from her lunch and got up from her seat, tossing it in the garbage and then holding her hand out to Sam. "Come on, hot shot." Her little nickname for him after their first encounter at the bar. Chloe took his hand and led him out of the restaurant and out towards where her car was parked. "Unless you have a sexy motorcycle, I'm driving." @samxbradford

Allure. It was the first word that came to mind when his gaze wandered across the table, crawled up her arms and came to linger on almond-shaped eyes. Dark and warm and almost enough to drown out the sound of ice being stirred around inside a cup. This white noise, the mindless chatter of strangers. The pull on the corners of his lips increased and formed a marginal difference. A small detail in the way his expression now reached his eyes and Sam was oblivious to the fact. Leaning back, he let a moment linger on. Mere seconds at best. "Alright," he said quietly, as though accepting a challenge, before hoisting his body's weight up from the chair he'd occupied mere moment's prior. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

Well that was not what she was expecting to hear from him. Of all the reasons she could have thought up about why he'd run off like that, having a wife was low on the list. Chloe stared up at him, mouth slightly agape before she shook her head slowly. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." She took a step back from him and looked away from his stupid perfect face, trying to decide if she wanted to laugh or cry right now. "You are so..." She couldn't even think of an insult that really encapsulated how she felt about this situation. "Disappointing." Chloe finally finished her sentence and shook her head. "I don't associate with assholes who cheat on their wives so I can assure you that this relationship will be purely professional." Her angry eyes darted back up to his. @masonxpaterson

Mason had it coming. The man was far from stupid. What he had done was something he had never imagined doing in a million years. His heart did fully belong to Ari but lately? His mind was far from being in the right place after reading that text message on his wife's phone. He wished he knew how to approach it, even divorcing if he thought that was what would make her happier in the end. "I'm sorry," Mason stated, giving her a nod of his head, "I do owe you an explanation because you are not some slutty town harlot." He hadn't thought about her in a second. "What I did, it was a mistake, I'm married, I wasn't thinking clearly and," Mason shook his head once more, "it was inappropriate and will never happen again," he gestured between them, "I aim to keep this relationship professional from here on out." In actions and in words, but he worried his thoughts might not always agree. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

She glanced at her sister before taking the drink the bartender handed her and sliding the second one over to Parker. "Did I mention he's fucking married?" Chloe smiled, taking a sip of her drink and shaking her head. "How fucked up is that? I get cheated on by my husband and the first man who catches my eye after my divorce is out cheating on his wife." She laughed humorlessly and set the glass down on the bar for a minute. "So what do you think now? Is there ever hope of reconciling or are we on the hunt to find Parker a new man tonight?" Because Chloe obviously needed to take a fucking break from dating. @parkerxcampbell

Parker hadn't been all that good about getting out there - though she should be on the dating apps looking for hookups herself. At least mindless sex would numb her from the real feelings she had to sit with on a daily basis. "I should try that, honestly," doubting she'd find anyone that would strike her interest like did the new district attorney for her sister. "That does sound like a hell of a dilemma," she shook her head, "I wouldn't even know what to do," Parker state as Chloe flagged down the bartender. "Very. Well deserved, honestly, considering I let a stranger convince me he was cheating on me and it wasn't even him in the video." The tequila ought to keep flowing with each moment she relived the conversation with Cameron. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

"Please. Of course there are others. Mostly just tinder dates and hookups. No one who caught my attention like he did." Most of the time she'd had her sister in her life had been while she was with Jack, dating him, engaged and then married to the man she thought would be her forever. So it made sense that Parker was not used to this part of Chloe, the girl who was seeing multiple men at once and flirting her way through the city. "I can't avoid him at work, we're basically partners, or he's my boss, I don't know." She rubbed at her temple and sighed. "He's so sexy, Park. I don't know what the fuck to do about it." She waved down the bartender and decided she would be needing some tequila. "Oh? How was that? Awkward as fuck?" @parkerxcampbell

Parker nodded her head, "Yes, that one, unless there are other guys you're not telling me about." She joked with her sister momentarily before her jaw felt like it was going to hit the floor as Chloe said that he was the new district attorney in town. "No fucking shit," she said, fully gasping still as her eyes remained wide. "That's fucked, Chloe, you definitely need a drink." She told her sister, laxing her jaw as she guided them towards the bar, "What are you going to do? I mean, avoid him at work?" Parker questioned her sister, "Did I tell you I ran into Cameron, when I was supposed to be waiting for a date. That ghosted me." Karma was a bitch and well deserved. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

"I do have valuables in there so you picked the right house." She joked back at him as she slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. Chloe listened as Cameron tried to talk in circles around the topic of Parker and she wished she hadn't brought her up at all. They had been friends long before either of them even knew Parker existed, it couldn't be that hard to go back to that, right? "I'm not busy. You actually caught me at a really good time because I was just about to go wallow in self pity for a couple of hours so this is a much better use of my afternoon." She said it like a joke but the lack of laughter in her eyes was probably enough to make it obvious she wasn't. Chloe touched her cheekbone where the dark bruising from the windstorm had turned to an ugly yellowing mark. "As long as you don't mind being seen with the beast here, I stopped trying to cover it up with makeup when I realized that just made me look like I was a battered wife of some kind." @cameronhatcher

Cameron had just left one of his friend's homes in the neighborhood when he realized how close they'd lived to Chloe. He figured he would see what she was up to, if maybe she wanted to grab a bite to eat with him. He missed Parker's family, as awful as that sounded. "I was considering breaking in, I thought you might have something valuable in there" he joked back with a small smile, shaking his head when she started apologizing for bringing up his ex-fiance. "Oh, no- no, it's okay. It's an adjustment for all of us, right? Don't even sweat it" he assured her, not wanting her to feel bad for the slip up. It stung to hear her brought up for sure, but that wasn't Chloe's fault. "I was just in the neighborhood, figured I'd stop and see if you wanted to get lunch with me or something. Totally fine if you're busy, I should've texted or something first"

[chloe-austin]

Without a second thought, Chloe stepped into his office and closed the door behind her so no one else in the hallway might hear what they were talking about. She folded her arms over her chest and intentionally did not shake Mason's hand. "You absolutely cannot be the district attorney here. Not after..." She shook her head and a scowl made it's home on her features. "Not only is it so totally inappropriate that we made out in a bar the other night and now you're basically my boss, but you also fully ran off on me and acted like I disgusted you for being some slutty town harlot in a dingy bar." Chloe kept her voice low, even with the door closed. "Okay, whatever, look, that cannot happen again and it was clearly a mistake so, just, forget it happened." She ran a hand through her dark waves and huffed, frustrated. "But you know what, you do sort of owe me an explanation for your vanishing act." A hand moved to her hip. Chloe had thought they were hitting it off. It had been a while since she felt that sort of easy chemistry and connection with anyone. @masonxpaterson

Since the kiss, Mason had felt gutted. He had never done something like that and especially with their anniversary approaching, he wanted to kick himself into his grave. The moment, it had got the best of him and once he had realized what he had done, he stopped it. But, it didn't negate the fact that he had started it in the first place. The last several days, Mason had just done his best to throw himself into his work, through himself into his marriage, despite his worries about the marriage as a whole.

Going through files was a tedious process and as he finished up with one, he got up from his desk to put it into the locked filing cabinet. He was opening the drawer, placing the file into the appropriate spot when he heard someone in his office introducing themselves. Closing the draw, her turned the key to lock it and turned around to face the person with a smile. It didn't last long, as his eyes landed on the woman that he had kissed at the bar. Oh fuck me, was right. He could have easily repeated the statement but was stunned into silence a moment longer. He cleared his throat, "Hi, uh," he thinned his lips, holding out his hand, "nice to meet you, Chloe." Again. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

Chloe clicked her tongue and let her dark eyes linger on his handsome face a moment too long before she shook her head. "Unfortunate. Just like every other man I've ever met. All too eager to enjoy the ride but no idea where the best part is." She trailed her finger along the rim of her glass and then nodded at the cocktail waitress approaching them to take Demir's order. Chloe eyed him curiously, interested to see if he was going to check out the waitresses perky ass while he was on a date with her. She wouldn't be surprised, disappointed maybe, but not shocked. @demirediz

"That's too bad." Demir nodded, keeping up with Chloe's innuendo. He liked that she was bold, different than a lot of women he often encountered on the apps. Too many of them tried too hard, acting in ways they presumed he wanted them to. Hey, even he liked to switch things up and be told what to do every so often. "Thank you," he murmured, upon surrendering Chloe's borrowed drink. It amused Demir, how his date acted so unimpressed by him. "Clitoris?" he pursed his lips, teasing. "Never heard of it. I guess you'll have to introduce me."

[chloe-austin]

Thank god he could give it back to her with the same amount of attitude she shoved his way because Chloe couldn't be friends with people who took her demeanor personally. Not that they were friends. They were not. She didn't even like Sam. That much. Chloe reached for the iced tea she was drinking and swirled the ice around in the cup before bringing it to her lips, watching him from across the table. The curious glimmer in her eyes about why he was sitting with her stayed there as she spoke again. "Do you want to get out of here and do something fun instead of sitting here and making pointless jabs at each other?" She asked, keeping her eyes on Sam's baby blues as she awaited his response. @samxbradford

His simper widened at her words, the jab at his unrequested decision to keep her company. For him to disappear and leave her to dwell in solitude, telling him to get lost was all she needed to do. Bright eyes studied her, while his elbows were placed on the table's top and he leaned forward. Enough to make a notable difference. Not even remotely close enough to intrude the most basic borders of personal space. He was tactful enough to keep his distance, tactful enough to show at least some semblance of respect through the dark shadows below tired eyes. Sam nodded, confirming her question, before averting his gaze, looking down at her plate for mere seconds at best. Teeth grazed over his tongue, heightened irritability itching below his skin and he could feel it crawl. Biting back a snarky remark, he forced his smirk to persist. "Well, obviously. Great concluding, Sherlock." The words were drawn out, his voice smooth and low, as though Sam only spoke it to savor each syllable. And perhaps it was another instance serving as proof for a half-truth; that Samuel Bradford was blessed with a multitude of Lucky Sevens. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

Chloe didn't really care anyway if people asked questions. She'd be happy to flip them the bird and move on with her evening. For being a fairly well respected attorney, she was also a wild card and anyone who knew her history growing up in East Haven probably knew that about her too. "Which one? The guy who kissed me like I was the last breath of air in the collapsing ozone layer and then ran away after like my breath smelled like rotten garlic? That guy?" She rolled her eyes and then sighed as she tousled her hair. "Yeah. He's the new fucking DA at work and I ran into him a few days later when I went to introduce myself and almost shit my pants instead." Maybe she did need a drink. @parkerxcampbell

"It might incite more questions, but I can help field them for you if they come up tonight." Parker quickly offered her help to the other woman. "I never said it was the best idea," no, drinking to cope with the feelings that she had was likely the worst idea that she could have come up with, but Parker had a habit of making shit decisions. She'd have to live with the consequences no matter what. "Ah, see, this has to make you the best sister ever." She grinned, "You ever see that man from the bar again?" Parker questioned, walking toward the bar. @chloe-austin

[chloe-austin]

It wasn't unheard of for Chloe to get a little caught up in the moment, in fact it was pretty on brand for her to do so. What was more unheard of was for a good looking man to kiss her after a long night of flirting and then disappear like he'd seen a ghost. She'd tried not to think too much about it but her feelings were a little hurt. "New DA is in his office today Miss Austin, thought you might want to go and introduce yourself." An intern told her as they handed her a coffee on her way in the door at work. "Great, can't wait to meet the stuffy old bastard." She rolled her eyes assuming he was going to be just like the last one on his way out when she got hired.

She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and made her way down the hall, stopping in the doorway of the office next to hers and knocking. The man had his back to her when she appeared. "Hi, Chloe Austin, assistant DA, we'll be working really closely together so I thought I'd introduce my—oh fuck me." She stared at the man as he turned around. Mason. From the bar, who had kissed her and left in a flurry. "Hi." This was fucking awkward. @masonxpaterson

[chloe-austin]

"Are you trying to break into my house or are you just lurking out here hoping that maybe my sister is here?" Chloe folded her arms over her chest as she got out of her car and stopped on the sidewalk in front of her place. She was sure Cameron had another reason for being here, maybe he knew one of her neighbors or something, but she really couldn't help teasing him. "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought up Parker, I guess I'm just so used to the two of you being in one sentence that it's just. Right. Sorry." Chloe frowned and made her way towards her almost-brother-in-law. "But what are you doing here? Is everything okay?" @cameronhatcher

[chloe-austin]

She watched as he pulled out a chair at her table and sat down like he was meeting her there for lunch. "Sure, have a seat hotshot." Chloe narrowed her eyes at the man, who she had learned was named Sam, despite the fact that she hadn't asked him his name the first night they met, on purpose. Chloe went back to eating her sandwich and looked away from him, fascinated by this man who seemed to think that they were friends already, when she very specifically was not making friends with anyone who had a jawline that sharp and eyes that piercing. "I see you survived the windstorm unscathed then?" Not that she cared, she did not. She didn't even know this man. Chloe caught herself giving him a once over anyway. @samxbradford

It was an afterthought - how lucky he had been to make it out of the storm unscathed. How lucky he'd been in comparison to Maverick and now, well, Chloe. He tilted his head, his smile wide and crooked and unamused. It barely reached up far enough to catch his eyes and the fact was as blatant as her bruise was likely painful. Silence lingered and extended and he looked at her, for an undefined number of seconds. He pulled out one of the chairs from her table, sat down adjacent to her, eventually shaking his head no. "No. No, I think that's about it." @chloe-austin