Chapter Text
“I know it’s late! The client won’t stop asking for revisions! What do you mean he needs it tonight ?! The changes he asked for will take at least two days to finish!”
Max slaps her steering wheel in frustration as she comes to a stop. “Well I’m halfway home! Can this seriously not wait?”
She glares at the red light, willing it to change faster before the dreaded answer comes. “Fuck, fine, I guess if he wants to pay for a lot of overtime. Wait, seriously? He wants to pay how much?! Shit, I guess I’ll come back then, but you seriously owe me so much coffee. Are those the last of the revisions?”
The light turns and she signals to merge lanes, it’s a battle but she manages to get into a left turn lane. “Wait, he wants what ?! Mark, I’m not gonna get any sleep! Ugh, you owe me next week off then, because I’m going to be a disaster.”
Max does a little fist pump at the offer of a week's paid vacation if she can pull this off. “Deal. Forward me his email and make sure this is the last of it. Anything crazy I should be aware of? Seriously?! I can’t believe this guy! Next time assign him to someone else.”
She follows the car ahead of her into the intersection before turning sharply into a u-turn. Too late does she see the truck stopped ahead of her. Time slows to a crawl as she struggles to remember what a brake pedal is and how to use it.
She takes too long and she lurches forwards, her seat belt digging into her, her phone flying from her hand. Her stomach flip flops with the sickening crunch of her hood impacting against the truck’s bumper.
Then everything is still.
She blinks a few times, a sense of unreality taking over.
Phone.
She needs her phone.
It’s lying on the dashboard, she reaches for it and hears her boss calling her name. “Uh, hey Mark. I’m okay, just… hit a truck. I’ll call you back.”
She hits the end call button and sucks in a few breaths, trying to stave off a panic attack that’s coming whenever the numbness wears off.
Should I get out?
She turns off the engine and takes her keys out. What am I even supposed to do right now?
Breathe, breathing is good. She starts to take a long deep breath when the other driver finally gets into view.
Oh no she’s hot.
Hot and looks like she wants to murder me.
I just blew it with a beautiful woman that I’ve never met.
Max Caulfield, disappointing you before you’ve even said hello.
The other woman shouts something and points to her door.
Right, I guess I need to talk to her. Shit.
She opens the door a little bit and the other woman wrenches it open. Suddenly blue hair and blue eyes are in her face, shouting about something.
Wow, her eyes are so blue, they're really pretty.
“Well?”
She blinks a few times, trying to process whatever it was she had been trying to yell at her.
I wish I could take some shots of her, she’s just amazing.
Right, I hit her truck.
I need to talk to the gorgeous woman whose truck I just hit.
She opens her mouth to try and speak, all that comes out is a hoarse squeak as her throat starts to close up.
The other woman’s face turns into a snarl and she leans forwards. “Got nothing to fucking say, huh?”
Her chest feels so tight, breathing is a struggle. She tries to speak again but words don’t come out. Her vision starts narrowing around those pretty eyes. Her mind starts racing to remember what she’s supposed to be doing right now.
She’s going to kill me.
There are worse ways to die.
A finger jabs into her chest. “Can you fucking talk or?”
“A-air.” Is all she manages, and in a moment the other woman’s face flashes from anger to concern.
“Uh, shit, okay.”
She backs away and Max fumbles with her seatbelt. She needs to get out of this too small car with it’s stale, hot air. She needs to breathe. Her fingers are numb, she can’t figure out the catch.
“Do you need help?”
She nods frantically as she struggles.
“Fuck, fine, I got it.”
The woman leans across her body.
She smells nice.
With a click the seat belt comes free, the other woman pulls back and Max finally stumbles free and out into the exhaust choked air of a busy street. She just kind of collapses and ends up sitting on the median as she does her best to remember her panic attack exercises. The woman kneels in front of her. “Panic attack?”
How does she know?
Max can barely muster the nod she gives.
“Shit, okay dude, just watch me breathing okay?”
The other woman starts taking long, deep breaths. Max mimics her as best she can. It takes a few moments before she starts feeling able to breath again. The other woman smiles a little bit as she stands up. “You good to talk?”
“Y-yeah, I think so.”
“Okay, what happened?”
“I… uh, fuck, my boss called me and I was making a u-turn to go back to work for a stupid urgent project and I guess I just wasn’t paying attention.”
“Huh, shit, I wasn’t expecting actual honesty.”
Max just shrugs.
“Fuck, well I’m Chloe, Chloe Price.”
The other woman leans down and offers her a hand. Max takes it and finds herself hauled to her feet.
Oh, she’s strong too.
Why did I have to hit her truck? Fuck, why couldn’t we like meet at a coffee shop or something?!
“I-I’m Max, Max Caulfield.”
“Well Max Caulfield, I’m afraid I’m going to need your insurance information. Damage on my end looks pretty minor, but I think you’re gonna need a new hood.”
Max takes a peek and groans. The hood of her Fit had crumpled under the high truck bumper. “Shit.”
“Shit’s right. Fuck, I guess we gotta get the cops involved.”
“I-I guess. I need to tell my boss I’m going to be late, I’m so dead.”
“Is your boss an asshole?” Chloe asks and Max turns, finally getting a good look at her.
Yeah, she’s totally fucking hot. That tattoo is so awesome and that blue hair is just… augh, why did I have to hit her truck?!
“Y-yeah, him and the client. I mean, he’s giving me a chance that’s really hard to get but he’s such a perfectionist and this stupid client doesn’t know a thing about photography!”
“Photographer, huh?”
Max blinks a few times before realizing that she’s probably way oversharing. “Y-yeah.”
“Well okay, Max Caulfield, photographer. I’ll call the pigs while you get your insurance stuff out.”
“O-okay.”
Shit I’m totally at fault for this, there’s no way I can afford to fix this.
She watches Chloe walk away, her eyes mesmerized by the way her suspenders bounce off her hips.
Ogle later Max, you need to get your insurance out.
She leans back into her car, fishing out her details from the glovebox before hauling herself back out. She takes a few moments to better study the woman while she talks on the phone.
Studying, not ogling.
There’s something about the way she carries herself, this air of anger and don’t fuck with me that would normally send Max curling up in the darkest hole she can find. But instead she’s like a moth to a very hot blue flame.
Her phone starts ringing.
Shit, Jefferson.
She leans in and grabs it. “H-hey. Yeah, I’m going to be late, I got in a fender bender, nobody got hurt. Okay, I’ll try and make it in, I know the deadline on this is tight. Okay, okay. Mark, I can handle this, seriously. I’ll call you when I get there, bye.”
When she hangs up and finds Chloe standing there, watching her with a weird expression. “Mark?”
“My boss, he gets everyone working under him to call him that.”
That beautiful face gets a little pissed off again and her eyebrows go up, “Let me guess, there’s only a bunch of young women working ‘under’ him.”
“W-well there’s one guy, Warren, he’s our receptionist.”
“ A guy. Uhuh. Anyways, pigs are on their way. Got your insurance stuff?”
Why does she care so much? “Uh, yeah, here.”
Max holds out her insurance and proof of registration for Chloe, who takes them and puts them on the roof of Max’s car before snapping a few quick photos with her phone. “Thanks, give me your phone and I’ll send you my info and the case number the dispatch gave me.”
“Oh, uh, sure.”
Max hands over her phone and watches Chloe add herself.
Wait, am I seriously getting her number right now?
Holy shit I got her number.
“Here you go,” Chloe thrusts her phone into her face, “There’s my info.”
“O-oh, thanks.”
“Now where is this fucking cop? You probably need to haul ass back to work, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
An odd expression came over Chloe’s face as she leaned against the side of her truck. “Well we’d better get you a tow fucking pronto then. I know a guy.”
“You… know a guy.”
“Yeah, total skater bro, owes me a few favours. He’ll tow you gratis to the garage I work at.”
The image of Chloe in overalls with grease on her hands and face, sweat beading on her brow does things to Max. “You’re a mechanic?”
“Only when I have time. I’m a grad student at UCLA.”
She’s hot, a mechanic AND smart?! Wowsers, I am SO out of my league.
Max’s face felt extra warm, even in the LA sun. “What do you study?”
“Nuclear chemistry.”
“That’s… a thing? No way that’s a thing!”
A shit eating grin takes over Chloe’s face that makes Max’s insides melt. “Totally is, I study shit like radioactivity and the transformations in the nuclei of atoms, it’s actually hella rad .”
Max blinks a few times. She remembers some of those words from when she wasn’t sleeping through her science classes. “Did… you just make a pun?”
As Chloe laughs, she pictures the punk attire swapped out for a lab coat and that also does things to her.
Things feel hotter.
I really need a drink of water, holy crap.
Flashing lights make her wince as she watches a cop pull into the intersection, leaving the lights on. Chloe sighs and pushes off from her truck to stand up straight. “Alright, you wanna go first so I can make that call?”
“O-okay.”
Talking to the cops always makes Max nervous, even though this guy is clearly bored out of his mind. She manages to make it through her story without too many stutters. The cop clearly doesn’t care.
Once she’s done Chloe takes over and tells her very brief story of “I was stopped in traffic and this girl rear ended me.”
Crap, my insurance is going to skyrocket. Eugh. But there’s no way I can do this job without a car.
A hand on her shoulder makes her jump, she spins around and it’s Chloe, who immediately looks sheepish. “Shit, sorry for startling you. We’re all done, cop is going to update the case I texted you and the tow is on the way.”
Max nods a few times, trying very hard to not blush that this so clearly out of her league holy crap the woman had touched her! “O-oh! Thanks, you seriously didn’t have to do that!”
“Don’t mention it, you’re having a hella shitty day so I figured why the hell not. When do you need to be at work?”
“As soon as possible, but an uber there is gonna be stupid expensive at this time of day.” Max presses her face into her palms. “Augh, I am so screwed. Goodbye paid week off.”
“Chill, I’ll drive you.”
“W-what?”
“Yeah, where do you work?”
“Uhhh, East Anaheim and Hoffman.”
“No problem, I was heading that way anyways.”
Okay, now the hot, totally out of my league scientist wants to give me a drive? What?! “Um, okay…”
“Awesome, my guy should be here in a few minutes, he was just a couple blocks that way.”
Max can’t miss the happy expression on Chloe’s face. Is she… happy to do this? Then again, her truck didn’t really get damaged that much and I’m totally at-fault for this. Just… play it cool.
Me, playing anything cool. Hilarious.
“So what do you do photography of?”
Why is she asking me about that? “Um… just about anything and everything really. For work it’s mostly stuff for ads, fashion or weddings, but my personal work is mostly candid stuff.”
“So you just have a camera on you all the time?” Chloe nods, leaning against the side of her truck and pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
“Yes, I… MY CAMERA!” In a panic Max throws open the rear door and dives into the back seat to find her camera bag. She breathes a sigh of relief to find it still snugly strapped in where she left it. She pulls out her personal Polaroid to hurriedly check for visible damage. Relieved to find it unharmed, she turns around to show it off to Chloe, and maybe take a ‘test’ picture, just to make sure it’s still in working order of course.
When she comes back out she finds Chloe standing nearby, her gaze skywards. Was she… checking me out? No, she must have just been wondering what I was doing.
She proudly presents her camera to the other woman. “This is my camera, I hope it still works…”
“Damn girl, you’re definitely rocking it old school. Total hipster power move.”
“H-hey! I’m not a hipster!”
Chloe laughs again, and there’s something about it that makes Max’s heart flutter. “You are so a hipster. Little hatchback, old ass cameras.”
“What do you have against my camera!”
“Nothing, my dad used to have one. Just very hipster is all.”
Max chews on her lower lip as she watches the smirk on Chloe’s face fade for a moment when she mentions her dad. “He stopped using it?”
She shakes her head. “He died.”
“Oh, I’m… so sorry.”
Chloe shrugs. “‘S fine. It was a long ass time ago. So, your camera still work?”
“I need to test it.”
There’s an amused snort. “So you want to take my picture.”
Her face feels so hot, she must look so stupid right now, blushing like crazy. WAY TO PLAY IT COOL ME! “I-I mean, if you d-don’t mind. I’d hate to waste f-film on a pointless shot.”
“Sure, go nuts, it’s cool” Chloe says, a smug grin plastered on her face as she leans back against her truck and pulls out a cigarette.
Sensing a shot, Max flips up the flash before turning it off, moving to position herself so the glow of the afternoon sun catches on Chloe’s face just right as she moves to light the smoke. At the moment she strikes she takes her shot. The mechanism works flawlessly and she feels a rush of relief as the camera pushes out the shot.
She gingerly takes it out, holding the developing image in one hand while she tucks her camera safely back into its case.
When she pulls back out of her car, Chloe walks over, smoke blissfully going upwind. “So?”
Max grins as she shows off the photo of Chloe, framed in the warm glow of the sun, fresh red cherry on her cigarette as she cups it with her hands. “Turned out great!”
Chloe whistles low. “Damn girl, you weren’t kidding about being a photographer, this is hella amazeballs!”
Max has to try to not giggle at the dated slang, but like everything else about Chloe, it did have its own kind of charm to it. Just like the smoking. Normally she hated smokers, but when Chloe did it… “T-thanks. I’m not that good.”
“Nah fuck that girl, this is amazing. Do you mind if I keep it and put it up somewhere in my place?”
Warmth fills her, her fluttering heart accompanied by an explosion of butterflies at the idea that Chloe likes her shot so much she wants to actually put it up somewhere. “A-are you serious?”
“Hella serious.”
“O-okay. Let me just sign my work.”
Chloe chuckles as she hands it over. “A Caulfield original, I’m fucking made.”
Max tries to ignore that the burning in her cheeks has spread down her neck and up to her ears as she titles the image ‘After the Accident’ and signs her name. “You’re just saying that.”
“I don’t just say anything. I’m serious.”
A truck’s horn shakes them out of the conversation. Chloe waves and calls out. “Yo! Justin!”
Justin turns out to be a very scraggly, skinny dude who looks like he should be chasing after scooby snacks. “Yooooo! Price!”
The two share a fist bump and start quietly talking about something out of her hearing. She does her best to not just stare at Chloe, but it’s really hard. Her muse and nothing else is very much awake and Max just wants to be capturing her. There’s just something about her, the way her punk appearance clashes with her smooth and easy grace. She can’t get enough.
She motions to Max’s car and he nods before walking over to her. “Alright, so you’re my tow?”
Max has to tear her eyes away from Chloe to look at him properly. “Y-yeah. Sorry.”
“It’s totally cool bro. Just clear all your stuff out of the car and throw it all in Chloe’s ride. She’ll take care of you.”
Images of just how she would like Chloe to take care of her flash through her head as she nods.
Her face is burning again.
Pulling her things out of the car isn’t hard, there’s not a lot in there, the stuff from the glovebox neatly fits in her messenger bag and the only other thing she cares about is her camera.
As she gathers her things, Chloe’s truck starts up. As she pulls free there’s a metallic scrape that makes Max wince.
“That’s everything!” She announces and Justin gives her a thumbs up. “Cool, just hand me the keys and I’ll take your car over there no problemo.”
After a moment of hesitation she hands the keys over and turns to see Chloe jogging up. “Alright, come with me and I’ll get you to work.”
Max doesn’t know what she expected from the interior of Chloe’s old beater truck. But an Elvis bobblehead and graffiti were not on that list.
Okay, now I just need to make small talk with the woman whose truck I just hit. How hard can it be?
Max turns to look at the other woman as she drives. Her hands immediately itch to fish out her camera again.
Come on! Come up with something to talk about!
Crap.
“So…” Chloe’s voice blissfully breaks the silence and she has to try not to visibly sag with relief. “What’s this thing you’ve gotta work crazy hours for?”
“It’s, um, a fashion spread. Except the client keeps wanting all these crazy changes and edits that make no sense, but won’t even listen when I try to tell him that it’s just ruining my work!”
“What an asshole! Let the artist work! It’s not that hard!”
“ Thank you! It’s like I’m talking to a brick wall, but oh no he’ll listen to Mark!”
“Oh. So he’s a sexist pig.”
Max sighs as she drums her fingers on her arm. “Yeah, pretty much. But he pays and keeps requesting me .”
“Dude trying to put the moves on you or something? What a creep.”
“Ugh, ew, gross! Now I really don’t want to work with him! Like what part of gay does he not understand?!”
A weird silence fills the cab before Chloe speaks again. “You’re gay? Cool, same here.”
Oh no she’s gay and she’s hot. I’m so, so dead, why did I have to hit her truck?! “O-oh, awesome!”
“Fuck yeah dude, queer solidarity. Guess the ‘I have a girlfriend’ thing doesn’t work with the fucksticks in the industry? I know it sure doesn’t work on the dibshits in undergrad.”
Max laughs a little nervously and her fingers drum faster. “I, um, don’t have one so…”
Wait! Was she trying to find out if I was single or am I just oversharing? Oh god, what even is going on?!
“Oh. Well. Could just lie?” Chloe offers, nodding slowly as if this is sage advice.
“Y-yeah, that could, um, work. But they’d probably ask to see y-her so…”
Her face starts burning again and she quickly turns her head to look out the window to hide her no doubt very massive and very obvious blush at her slip up.
Way to go brain! I can’t play it cool if my life depends on it!
Thankfully, Chloe either doesn’t notice or chooses not to comment. “Shit, well, that sucks. I guess you’re kinda out in your circles too.”
“Y-yeah, my last breakup was… very public.”
“I hate to ask…”
“N-no, I brought it up. She stormed into the shoot and broke up with me because she was jealous that it was for women’s underwear. I wasn’t even doing the shoot! I was just helping Mark and getting used to being on an actual set.”
“Whoa, sounds like you dodged a bullet there Mad Max.”
“Yeah, I… Mad Max?” She looks back from the window to find a shit eating grin on Chloe’s face.
“Yeah, Mad Max. I give people nicknames dude.”
Wait, I’m worthy of a nickname? Chill Max, she probably doesn’t mean anything by it…
“Ah, we’re here.”
Chloe signals and turns into the small parking lot. “I’ll give you a shout with the details for your car, yeah?”
“S-sure.”
“You good to get home after work?”
“Yeah, I’ll probably be there all night so I’ll catch an uber or the bus in the morning.”
“Cool, cool. Well, good luck.”
Max finds a fist bump extended in her direction, and after a second to process the gesture she returns it. “T-thanks. Sorry again about hitting you.”
“Like I said, it’s all good man. Accidents happen.”
Their eyes lock and Max feels an overwhelming urge to lunge forwards and just kiss her. Her body yearns to feel those pale, chapped lips against her own and to feel those rough hands combing through her hair.
She doesn’t and instead meekly opens the door and grabs her things. “Thanks again for the ride.”
“No problem, see you around Maxster.”
It takes actual effort for her to shut the door to the truck, like she’s closing off something important.
But she does and Chloe is soon pulling out of the parking lot.
With a sigh Max gathers up her things and heads into the small office building and badges herself in.
“Oh, hey Max!”
Of course. “Hey. Warren.”
Warren had once had some sort of charm, like a goofy younger brother. Now she just finds his presence cloying. Especially after this third attempt to ask a lesbian out on a date. “I heard you got in an accident. That really sucks, you okay?”
She waves a hand, hoping it will dismiss him but it doesn’t and she feels a little stab of disappointment. “Yeah, I’m fine. Hopefully the damage isn’t too bad. Look, I really need to get started on these revisions.”
“Oh, sorry, don’t let me keep you.”
She heads into their little not-quite-open-concept office, heads to her computer and starts it back up. She lays her things out on the desk and takes a moment to look at her phone.
Wait, I got her number.
Holy shit, I can just ask her out.
Wait, no that would be a disaster. ‘Hi, it’s the dumbass who rear ended your truck. Wanna have dinner?’ God I’m so fucking lame.
A cheerful chime announces to her that her computer is awake. She logs in, pulls up some chillhop on spotify and with a sigh starts her night’s work.