Never a Bride-10/?
Author: BlueSuede
Title: Never a Bride
Rating: NC17
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings/Characters: primarily Chloe/Oliver
Summary: When a newspaper prints a false engagement announcement for Oliver Queen and Chloe Sullivan, and all their friends are thrilled, Chloe and Oliver decide to stage a fake engagement and breakup to prove to their friends how wrong they are for one another. Because, they will break up, won't they?
Warnings: completely Alternate Universe; also, sexual content and occasional language
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dandiandi22
First Chapter
Previous (Chapter 9)
Next (Chapter 11)
-10-
"Dress for the rehearsal dinner."
"Check."
"Shoes for the rehearsal dinner."
"Check."
"Wedding clothes."
"Check."
"Tape recorder, laptop, tablet, and pens."
"Check to all of the above."
"Paper bag."
"Paper bag?"
Edward glanced up from the check-list on his tablet and looked at Mia. "They're in the bottom left drawer of her desk. Trust me on this one."
Mia shrugged, heading into the study and opening the drawer, revealing a stack of brown paper lunch bags. She pulled out a couple and then stuck them in the front zipper pocket of Chloe's smaller suitcase. "Paper bags: check," she said.
"Great." Edward tapped out a few buttons on the tablet and then lowered his arms to look around. "That covers it."
"Does Miss Sullivan normally ask you to do things like this for her?" Mia asked curiously. "Like, personal errands, I mean."
Edward raised a casual shoulder. "Not very often. She's a very independent person-likes to look after herself. But things have been…different. Since she got engaged."
Mia raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"She's…" Edward frowned. What was she? Chloe had certainly been behaving differently since her engagement to Oliver Queen came out. She was…was…
"Oh my God, I swear, my sanity is hanging by such a thin thread right now," Chloe announced her entrance to her apartment, the door swinging open and her Louis Vuitton bag dropping to the floor unceremoniously. She leaned in the door frame, fatigue evident in every part of her body, and looked at her suitcases, then Mia and Edward. "Are they ready?"
"All ready to go," Edward said pleasantly.
"And we made you coffee," Mia added eagerly, rushing over to the counter to start fixing the coffee the way she had learned Chloe took it.
Chloe released a grateful sigh. "You two are unimaginably wonderful."
"How was the meeting with Jaurez?"
"Good…sort of. All they wanted to talk about was who I'm getting to do my wedding gown." She rolled her eyes. "It's all any of the designers want to talk about. I'm going to have to start sending someone else to these meetings until I can make a commitment."
"I thought you were going to do Vera Wang?" Mia asked curiously, handing Chloe the cup of coffee.
Chloe accepted it and took a long, relishing drink before responding. "They were just the first to contact me about it. The others will make official offers once we make the public announcement in this month's issue."
"Why did Vera Wang offer so early?" Mia asked curiously.
"Chloe and Vera are friends, so the offer wasn't strictly business," Edward answered for Chloe, who had made it to one of the chairs at her bar and slumped into it.
"You're friends with Vera Wang?" Mia asked incredulously.
Edward gave her a look and she blushed sheepishly. "Sorry. That's just…really cool," she said, unable to contain her awe.
"She's a lovely woman," Chloe said. "I always assumed if I ever got married, I would wear one of her dresses."
"But?"
"But, sometimes business comes first. It would be a really great move strategically for her to do an Oscar de la Renta gown," Edward explained. "Or of course, if we want to cause a stir, we could commission someone who's never done a wedding dress before. Makes for a sensation, and helps a new designer find the limelight."
"Oh."
Chloe rested her chin on her hand and observed Mia lightly. She was clearly biting her tongue. "What?" Chloe prompted, a little smile tugging on her mouth.
"It's just…I mean, it's your wedding," Mia protested. "It shouldn't be a business move!" She looked worried that she'd gone too far, but Chloe just smiled.
"I used to think that, too. But sometimes we just don't get that much of a say in our own lives," she sighed. "Everybody wants something," she added, looking down at her coffee cup idly. "And everybody needs something. And it's usually up to you to decide whose wants and needs are most important."
Mia heaved a sigh but didn't say anything.
Chloe had turned her attention to Edward. "So I'm set to go for tomorrow morning?" she asked.
He nodded. "All set."
"And the movers?"
"The movers will be here on Saturday, and Mia and I will have everything boxed up and labeled by then."
"Great," Chloe rubbed her forehead, trying not to cry about the fact that she was leaving her lovely apartment to go live with that ogre. "And Edward?"
"No matter how much they beg, plead, or connive, I will not let Vivian or Louise near your apartment to help with the move."
Chloe grinned weakly. "Thanks. How are the harpies doing lately?" she asked, glancing at Mia.
Edward smirked. "They're undergoing an internal struggle."
"Oh?"
"They can't decide whether to hate Mia more out of jealousy that she's so close to Oliver Queen, or to kiss up to her in hopes that they'll get gossip out of her. It's quite the battle of wills."
Chloe laughed, shaking her head in amusement. "All right," she said, glancing at her watch, "Edward, I believe you have a dinner with Darren to get to," she said, "and Mia, I'm probably violating labor laws by having you here this late."
"It's no problem," Mia said honestly. "I don't mind at all."
Chloe smiled at her. "And I appreciate it." She studied Mia thoughtfully, looking her over, taking in the pair of converse she was wearing that the soles were falling off of. "Edward?"
"Mmhmm?"
"When you're done with the move…take Mia shopping."
Edward looked like Christmas had come early. "My pleasure."
"Pack enough?" Oliver asked the next morning, looking over Chloe's three suitcases.
Chloe made a face at him. "Shut up. It's early." She was holding a thermos of coffee in her hand, and hiding her face behind a very large pair of sunglasses.
"Whatever," Oliver chuckled, pulling out the handle on the largest suitcase, with a smaller carry-on resting on top of it and wheeling it toward the door. "Let's get going."
"We're stopping at Starbucks on the way," Chloe informed him, following with the third suitcase.
He glanced back at her, raising an eyebrow at the thermos in her hand. "What's that, then? Gin?"
"This," she said, "is only going to last about ten minutes. If you want this to be a pleasant trip, I'm going to need a better supply than that."
Oliver shook his head, chuckling. "I wonder what would happen to you if you were deprived of coffee for a full 24 hours," he said thoughtfully, loading her bags in the trunk of his car.
She looked at him seriously. "Pray you never find out."
He laughed lightly, slamming the trunk and walking around to hold the door open for her. He closed it then climbed into the driver's side, starting the engine and looking over at her. "You ready for this?" he asked.
She smiled grimly. "On with the show," she said, and Oliver pulled away, heading in the direction of San Francisco.
When they finally arrived at their hotel, Oliver was convinced it wasn't a moment too soon. It wasn't that they hadn't gotten along on the three hour drive. They'd done the usual amount of bickering and teasing, but it had been good natured.
No, he was relieved because she was driving him crazy for a whole new reason.
Chloe stood up out of the car and stretched her arms over her head, groaning, her fitted T-shirt rising a little. She looked at him and grinned. "Well that wasn't so bad, was it?" she said, dropping her arms.
She was doing this on purpose. There was no way she was unconscious of how practically pornographic just that groan had been.
First he'd had to deal with her orgasmic noises and expressions while drinking the coffee. Then it had been warm in the car, and she'd stripped out of her jacket, leaving her in that low-cut T-shirt that put a lot more than just skin on display. In the close space he'd been able to smell her perfume, hear each little sigh when she'd fallen asleep for almost an hour. That had been the worst part. In her sleep, she had been unguarded, expressions flickering across her face, small noises escaping her parted lips, breasts rising and falling with her steadied breathing.
Oliver had thought he was going to last a lot longer without sex. It had only been a week, and he was starting to get really horny. Maybe it was just the close quarters of the car ride that had done him in. They'd freshen up and he'd get his head back on straight and stop trying not to picture her naked.
"So what's the plan?" he asked her, ignoring her statement.
"Well, we have about about an hour before we need to change clothes," Chloe said, looking at her phone. "The wedding party is having lunch together. I'm meeting with Lois after that, so you'll have some downtime to do what you want, and we're all going out tonight to some club."
Oliver rubbed his hands together. "All right. You ready for this? Our first public outing?" he joked.
She smiled grimly. "Yeah. I think s-"
"OHMYGAWDCHLOEEEEE!" Lois, Dinah, and Barbara came streaking out of the hotel front doors and descended upon Chloe. It was immediately evident to Chloe that Lois and Dinah had already begun drinking for the day, even though it wasn't even noon yet. And it seemed like they hadn't had any probably sharing the love with 19-year-old Barbara.
Oliver backed a step away nervously while Chloe tried to decipher what everyone was saying to her at once.
"You have to come upstairs and have mimosas with us," Dinah finally managed to get in over all the chatter. "We have to catch up." She turned to Oliver and gave him a hug, kissing him on the cheek. "Ollie," she greeted. "The men are in the gym. Doing manly things."
Oliver laughed. "Great, well," he looked to Chloe. "I'll get us checked in, then," he said, noting that someone was already walking over to get their bags."
He headed into the hotel, and Chloe looked around for the missing bridesmaid. "Where's Diana?" she asked.
"She's not here yet. And Courtney will be here later in the afternoon."
"We non-21-year-olds are going to hang out in the hotel tonight," Barbara explained, referring to Courtney. "And probably rack up the room-service bills a little bit."
"Mmhmm," Lois nodded heavily, "and we're all going to get drunk," she finished.
Chloe laughed. "Glad to see you got a head-start on that," she teased, as Dinah and Lois and Courtney all linked arms with her and started ushering her upstairs to the hotel room. "Where's Katherine?" Chloe added, wondering what the bride-to-be was up to.
"She's having a last-minute meeting with the wedding-planner," Lois supplied. "She'll be going to the club tonight."
"Speaking of the bride," Dinah added, "is everything ready for the bachelorette party tomorrow night?"
Chloe nodded. "I brought the tiaras."
"And I brought the tutus," Lois confirmed.
"What exactly are you guys planning to do?" Barbara asked.
"That's not for your virginal, junior-bridesmaid ears," Lois said righteously.
Barbara snorted. All eyes turned to her.
"I'm sorry," Dinah said dramatically, "was something Lois just said un-true?"
Barbara suddenly turned crimson, and everyone squealed.
"Oh God, really?" Chloe asked. "Already?"
Dinah clucked her tongue. "What do you mean, 'already?' She's 19. She's old enough."
"And she and Dick have been going out since they were in the womb," Lois defended.
"Actually, just a year," Barbara said, raising an eyebrow at Lois, "but long enough," she added.
Chloe shook her head. "Stop it. Stop growing up. I can't deal with it anymore."
Barbara rolled her eyes, still blushing. She looked plaintively at Chloe, who promptly changed the subject for her.
"So where are these mimosas?" Chloe asked loudly. "I've been in a car all morning with a man. I need a drink."
"Oliver, dude," AC greeted Oliver a little while later when Oliver walked into the hotel gym. "How are you?" he asked before returning to the leg presses he was doing.
Oliver shrugged a shoulder. "Not bad." He walked over to the speed bag and tossing his duffel against the wall. He stooped over to get a role of tape out of it.
"Hey, congratulations, Oliver," Clark said, take a breath between bench presses. "I haven't had a chance to say it in person."
"Yeah, way to go," Bart said from the floor, where he was doing crunches.
It took Oliver a second to remember that Clark was referring to his engagement. "Right, yeah thanks," he said.
"So how'd it happen?" Bart grunted.
Oliver finished taping his hands and slipped on the pads. "Well…"
"The day before was the big gala in Gotham-"
"The one you went to with Harvey Dent," Barbara said accusingly, passing Chloe a champagne flute.
"The gorgeous Harvey Dent," Lois added, generously pouring the champagne into Chloe's glass.
"Who you apparently only went out with to make Oliver jealous?" Dinah demanded, topping the champagne off with orange juice.
Chloe shrugged lightly.
"What about Dent?" Clark asked. "I thought she went on a date or something with him the night before."
Oliver shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah, well, we'd gotten into a little argument about where we were going with the relationship."
"She put the squeeze on you," Bart surmised.
"Actually, Oliver was the one who wanted to go public. I was just so nervous about dealing with the media-I mean, I work in media. I know what it can be like for a couple as in the public eye as we are," Chloe explained.
"So what about Harvey?" Barbara pressured.
"Well, we'd sort of put things on hold for a week by then. And we were both going to Gotham-"
"-but she was too stubborn to admit we should just go together and screw the press. So I asked Vera because it was getting to be last minute and I needed to go with someone."
"So when Harvey called me up and asked me, I figured two could play at that game. After all, I had to go with someone."
"And?" Dinah asked eagerly.
Chloe smiled demurely. "Well, you know how territorial they get. He thought I was trying to make him jealous. I thought he was trying to make me jealous. We ended up getting into it almost as soon as we both got there."
"So I finally put my foot down and said either she wanted a real relationship or she didn't."
"And the next night, he proposed. I couldn't believe it."
"She couldn't believe it. Looked at me like I'd gone out of my mind."
"Well I thought he'd gone completely crazy, but he said-"
"When it's real love, what's the point in waiting?" Oliver finished. AC, Clark, and Bart just stared at him.
Dinah, Lois, and Barbara were all looking at Chloe silently.
"That," Dinah said, "has got to be the most romantic thing I've ever heard."
"It's so sweet," Barbara agreed. "I still can't believe how well you kept the secret."
"And you're so right for each other," Lois added.
Chloe forced her smile to stay in place.
"Aren't they?" Barbara agreed. "They balance each other out, don't they?"
Chloe frowned a little. "What do you mean?"
She shrugged, grabbing the orange juice and pouring a little for herself. "You know…just that Oliver can be such a child sometimes-"
"And you've always been a little too grown up for your own good," Dinah interjected.
Barbara nodded. "Exactly. He brings a little fun into your life and you bring a little maturity into his."
Lois nodded. "What the kid said," she approved, taking another drink.
Chloe pondered that for a moment, surprised by the assessment. She'd always wondered how her friends could possibly think she belonged with someone as different from her as Oliver was. Apparently they were going by the 'opposites attract' theory. The trouble with that theory, though, was that she and Oliver were too different. There was no common ground at the end of the day. Attraction wasn't the same thing as compatibility.
"So what's he like in bed?" Dinah asked. "I've always wondered."
"Oh my God, Dinah, stop it." Chloe's eyes got wide, and she looked at Barbara in a panic.
"Oh please," Lois blew her off. "The kid's already admitted she's doing the dirty with her boyfriend. There's nothing you could possibly say that will shock her."
Barbara raised her hand. "I would like to disagree. There's plenty that could shock me,"
"Never mind that," Lois waved her off again. "How is he?"
"I don't want to talk about it!" Chloe said. "That's-it's-that's personal!"
"I've always figured Ollie would be amazing in bed," Dinah sighed.
"Jeez, Dinah, aren't you married?" Chloe protested.
"That doesn't stop me from speculating. But you may rest assured that my sex life is very fulfilling."
"Preach," Lois said, raising her glass in a toast.
"Okay, enough of that," Chloe stopped her from continuing any further down that particular road. She drained the dregs from her glass and stood up. "I'm going to go unpack my suitcase and get changed for lunch. You two," she pointed at Lois and Dinah, "need to sober up. Barbara," she looked at the youngest girl in the room. "You're in charge."
Barbara mock-saluted her and grinned. "You got it, Major Chloe."
Chloe left the champagne flute in the room and wandered down to the front desk, where she picked up her room key before heading upstairs.
She unlocked the room and found that Oliver had left her suitcases on the bed and his on the couch-indicative, she supposed. She opened the large one and pulled out a skirt and blouse for the lunch before pulling her T-shirt over her head. She pulled off the sweat pants she had on and reached for the skirt, her back to the door as she zipped it up.
…the door which presently swung open.
Chloe gasped and crossed her arms over her chest, spinning around to find Oliver and AC standing in her doorway.
In a blessing, AC's hand flew to his eyes, preventing him from witnessing Oliver's reaction of complete shock. He elbowed Oliver clumsily. "Sorry, man, I'll just look at it later," he said, referring to the new watch Oliver was going to show him. AC awkwardly backed out of the room, bumping into the door frame, closing the door behind him with a click.
Chloe threw her jeans at Oliver. "Stop staring!" she shouted at him.
He ducked nervously, breaking the spell. "Jeez! Sorry! Hey, what am I supposed to do? Look away? We're engaged, remember," he said winking roguishly at her. She threw a shoe at him as well, letting out a noise of anger. "Ooh! Get away, you pervert!" she said.
He laughed, heading for the bathroom. "Sure, sure. I'm going to shower." He paused, turning to look at her again. "Care to join me?" he asked with a suggestive grin.
She gasped and threw her other shoe, for once, hitting him square in the forehead.
"Guess not," he said, ducking into the bathroom and closing the door quickly behind him, in time to prevent her T-shirt from hitting him as well
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Next (Chapter 11)