Before we begin... this is from Jesse's POV so if you've seen PP3 then you might know more than him about certain things...
Jesse woke to an empty bed, which had stopped surprising him over a year ago. Sarah did not like to remain in bed, she was up and out for an early start at work or a run or other plans 7 days a week. He still groaned quietly, sometimes it would be nice to wake up as a couple. Heaving himself out of bed he slowly got ready for the day ahead, contemplating what was on the cards at work that day. It was going to be a high stress day, it always was when a celebrity came in to do a recording. Even if they weren't overly demanding and rude then the other staff often got a little bit star struck, and of course, everything they did would be office gossip for the next month.
Apparently the celebrity of note today, a Becka something, had a heavy musical film background, a genre Jesse was not particularly enamored with (after all, having the actors actually singing the songs negated the point of a soundtrack. Soundtracks had subtlety about them. Breaking into song was just cheesy) so he hadn't actually seen any of the films she was in.
The office was already crammed when he got in, carrying the necessary coffees and snacks for his superiors. Amanda, slightly higher in the pecking order than him, was already looking flustered. "I can't find her list of demands," she told him, shuffling through papers on the desk.
Jesse knew how much of a potential disaster that could be. While he knew most reasonable people would not be bothered if the studio did not have the exact brand and flavor of chips or the right decor, some celebrities were weird about this stuff. Any list of demands was usually complex and unnecessary, just to show the normal people how much they could demand.
At that moment, their boss Albert, strolled past and heard Amanda. He turned to both of them and shrugged, probably to appear more relaxed than he actually was - Jesse knew he had been stressing about today for the last week. "It's okay Amanda. All the request was for was water and apple juice. There was then a comment attached by her agent that she'd prefer it didn't have fluff in it but was easy-going apart from that." Turning away from them and gathering the attention of the rest of the room, he continued "Today I need everyone to give 110% or more. There is to be absolutely no slacking from anyone. No breaks until this is over. I don't want to see anyone standing around. I don't want our visitors to see anyone standing around. However, you must respond to any of their requests immediately. Does everyone understand? Good, now everyone back to work!"
About an hour later Albert summoned those that were involved into the meeting room attached to the recording booth. Becka and her posse were due to arrive on the hour. Jesse was included in this, but as with most of the assistants, only as an observer and gopher. He would not be involved in the big table conversation, that was reserved for Albert and the senior staff. He instead settled on a lower lounge stool at the back of the room, like crouching at the side of the tennis court waiting for one of the players to hit the ball out.
Silence descended on the room in anticipation. It was always the case before these productions. All those at the "big" table were rereading notes, organizing scores; those round the side were fidgeting nervously while still trying to look professional. Finally a beep sounded from the intercom, indicating that Becka and her posse had arrived at reception. Albert straightened and stood as the door opened and Ishbel, the receptionist, was heard saying "Just in here…"
A man, about Jesse's age with dark hair and sunglasses on, entered alone. Albert walked forward to greet him hand outstretched, despite his confusion, "Hello, I am Albert, head composer. It's lovely to meet you"
The man returned his handshake, taking off his sunglasses and storing them in the front of his t-shirt. "Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Theo, music executive for DJ Khaled and representative for Beca." He took an easy seat down, and the rest of the table exchanged introductions with him. Amanda was sent away to get him a coffee.
"Where about is Beca?" Albert asked, once the introductions were over. She had been due to arrive 10 minutes ago. However, Jesse knew that some celebrities did not view appointments as commitments and turned up whenever so ten minutes was nothing.
Theo sighed apologetically, "She is en-route, however her daughter's been ill for the past few days so she's had to go via the pharmacist. She sends her apologies for the delay and I'm here to deliver her suggestions until she arrives."
Her suggestions? What was a singer giving suggestions for? Jesse frowned, but obviously did not say anything.
"It'll be easier if we go over the video first then look at the files." Theo said, not noticing or acknowledging the confusion in the room.
Albert, for his part, seemed to take this in his stride, or maybe he had already known that this was happening. Gesturing for one of the tech guys to connect Theo's laptop to the screen at the end of the room. As quickly as it was done, a slightly grainy Facetime video recording appeared on the flatscreen TV.
"Now," Theo explained before pressing play, "This is just the conversation I had with Beca this morning but it shows her reasoning for these changes and then I have the score changes and example recording as files."
All the senior staff looked intrigued, everyone ready to take notes as the corner of the screen showed Theo's face directed at his camera while the rest of the screen was filled up with a video of a ceiling?
"Beca?" The onscreen Theo said, "Where are you?"
An offscreen voice was heard "No, your toothbrush does not go on your nose. Put it in your mouth. Properly."
"Beca?" Theo tried again.
"Yes. I'm here. Where do you think I am?" The voice replied, "Bella, you can clean your teeth properly, and then clean Brownie's teeth." The female voice was clearly distracted, not really paying attention to the phone call.
"Beca, I need you to listen to me. This meeting is at 10. How late are you going to be?" Theo tried again.
The grainy screen shifted, swinging from the ceiling downwards, until it focused on a small child in a gold princess dress standing on a stool in front of the sink holding a toothbrush. The mirror reflected the petulant look on the toddler's face as she stared at the toothbrush as if it might attack her. It was almost humorous. "Mumma. Clean teeth!" The little girl exclaimed.
The camera shook again, "No, you don't have clean teeth. You have toothpaste on your nose," her mother, the voice offscreen, said almost exasperated. "You need to brush properly otherwise you won't have nice white teeth anymore. We don't want to have rotten teeth do we?"
Jesse glanced around the studio, checking for similar expressions of bewilderment and amusement. Theo seemed to be looking resigned at the front, "I apologize for this, unfortunately you can only save full video chats, not portions."
By the time Jesse had stopped focusing on the captive audience around him and back onto the screen, the video had shifted forward to a black screen, or wait, was that hair? Either way, the onscreen Theo did not seem concerned, "Why is your daughter wearing a Beauty & the Beast dress?" He had asked
"It's the first thing either of us have had on in three days that hasn't had vomit or snot on it. I'm not an idiot, I can pick my battles," then the voice raised a bit, "Bells, go get some tights and a jumper sweetie. Then we can put them on."
Clearly the child was not happy about that idea because a petulant "no" ran out followed by pleading from the girl, and firm responses from the mother until it was clear that parental authority had won out. "Am I allowed to say I hate Emma Watson? Or is that seen as Hollywood treason?"
Onscreen Theo laughed, "Did Bella prefer Beauty & the Beast to Into the Woods? Is that what this is about?"
The camera tilted, clearly Becka had had it balanced between her shoulder and ear, and spots of color appeared, "petrified of those wolves. No, Emma got her the dress as a present as she's a 'mini Belle' apparently. But it's been hidden to prevent puke stains. Anyway, so last night I was looking at the song and-"
"Did you sleep last night?" Onscreen Theo interrupts.
"Not a lot," Becka replied nonchalantly, "Bella was up and down. Anyway-"
"You need to hire a nanny."
"No I don't. And I certainly do not need you to tell me what to do." The bite back was immediate, firm and somehow felt familiar. Clearly females did not appreciate being told what to do and their reactions were universal.
"Anyway, oh, where is it," the screen shifted, back to an image of a ceiling, but with brown hair peaking out the side of the screen, "Ah, here. Just let me swap you over."
The screen went black for a few seconds, and then once an image reappeared it was steadier and much clearer. The view of a slightly messy room ran out, toys scattered across the floor, a table covered in tissues and magazines, and a comfortable looking couch, "There. That's much easier. Right, have you got the score in front of you?"
A hand reaches out to move the screen and suddenly a woman appears in the view. Brown hair, pale skin- wait. Jesse releases a breath of shocked air. Becka is not Becka something, random celebrity singer. That is Beca Mitchell, former girlfriend, former acapella world champion, his list could go on. "That's Beca Mitchell," his brain utters.
Marty, who was sitting next to him, turns. Oh, that last part clearly wasn't in his head. "Yes, that's Beca Mitchell. Where have you been Jesse?" The look of confusion that was directed Jesse's way made him not bother to reply and instead snap his head back forward.
What was she doing? She was famous? When did this happen? When did they lose touch so much? Surely this was something he should have heard about? Weren't they still Facebook friends? And the biggest question swirling in his head - Beca Mitchell had a daughter?!
By the time Jesse had managed to pull his focus out of his head and back onto his actual surroundings, the screen now had Beca's daughter(!) slightly blocking a mature Beca Mitchell from view, Beca hoisting her tights up as she continued to talk to the camera,"-second chord would be better. The sequence would shift to be a gradual flow, especially if it was layered with the previous bars and that underlay. Are those comfy?" The last bit is clearly directed at her daughter.
The rest of the studio seems to have been engrossed in Beca's suggestions since she started talking about them as there is a low hum of noise as notes are scribbled, pages are shuffled and grunts of agreement ring out. Not that Jesse was surprised by that. Beca Mitchell was amazing with music. She just took something good and made it unforgettable. And everyone in the studio had known that the song had not been perfect, part of it just felt off, or missing. And here was Beca Mitchell herself just fixing it.
The little girl, Bella was it? Wait? Bella? As in Barden Bellas? That was very sentimental, but did not surprise Jesse. Underneath the hard, bad-ass exterior, Beca had always been quite sentimental. Who else would think to serenade him in the Lincoln Center with his favorite movie song? Although the Beca Mitchell currently onscreen did not seem to be particularly bad-ass. She had a toddler wrapped round her; long, slightly curled hair; light make up; a soft grey & green top on; it also looked like she just had a pair of simple earrings in. It was a big difference from the ear spike, heavy eye makeup, boots and plaid combo that she sported as a freshman. Not that Jesse hadn't been there for a lot of those changes. The ear spike had disappeared from her ear over the summer between freshman and sophomore year, being replaced with a ear bar. The dark eye shadow once the Bellas moved in together and began to become more and more responsible for each other's make up and clothing. 'The perks of living together' Beca used to say, 'it's only weird if you don't embrace it.'
Wait? How long had Jesse zoned out for? How long had he been distracted by college Beca? That video had now finished and everyone was discussing particular sections around the table. "Can you play that again, from progression 4?" Albert was asking.
A melody filled the room, slightly tinny from the laptop speakers but recognisable as the one he had helped Albert with for the last month. Only, despite the quality of the sound, this melody was better. There was really no other way to say it. And Beca's voice was just as breath-taking as when he had first heard her singing with a plastic cup all those years ago.
The door to the studio opened and a blur of gold ran in, Ishbel, who was holding the door, looking star struck.
"Don't just burst in!" A voice called from outside the studio as the gold blur jumped onto Theo's lap.
And then she appeared.
So part of his brain must have acknowledged that she would be here in person. But the rest of his brain had been in sensory overload from just Beca onscreen.
Beca in real life was just so much… more.
Jesse had no clue how much time had passed as he processed her appearance. She was still as short as ever. Even though Ishbel herself was not particularly tall, next to Beca she appeared huge and gangly. And that was with Beca wearing heels. Purple heels to be exact. She was in the same outfit as she had been in the video but with a cream leather jacket on top and sunglasses perched on the top of her head. Of course. Celebrities did not go anywhere without sunglasses. She had a black handbag dangling from her shoulder, a laptop bag and a child's backpack gripped in her right hand while her left held a disposable cup dispenser with 3 Starbucks cups in it. She looked laden down clutching bags and coffees, her face exasperated as she looked at the gold blur (her daughter, Jesse's brain very helpfully pointed out to him), and Jesse was reminded of how she would always have to deal with props, equipment, laundry, trash when the Bellas were distracted by 'immature hijinks' that Beca refused to get involved in.
She was so, so beautiful. He had always been struck by Beca's beauty, even though every time he told her anything about her appearance she laughed it off and responded sarcastically, but this time just felt more. He had not seen her in person for over four years. The last time at a Barden graduate acapella get together around three months after they had officially broken up, deciding that the distance between LA and New York was just too much with no sign of change. She had been gorgeous. They had both been polite. He had spent the whole night wondering why he wasn't in New York with her. They had laughed, danced and sung with their friends. Amy had made several comments about dingoes. Chloe tried to start a game of strip riff off (Beca made her change to water at that point). They had left separately, Jesse wondering why he hadn't just asked her to come back to his hotel room. Neither had ever spoken of their intense make out outside the bar that was interrupted by yells that Lily had just made a firebomb. Beca had reluctantly stepped out of his arms, rolled her eyes and then walked back inside to deal with her quietly psychotic sister. Jesse too late in reacting to pull her back and refuse to let her go and fix the Bellas' insanity. He should have known to react. The Bellas had been constantly cock-blocking him and Beca throughout college with their large personalities and schemes.
Okay, the Trebles were sometimes just as bad. But he never had to leave his girlfriend in the middle of sex to force one of them to remove a coyote from the house.
Following the get together they exchanged brief messages. Silly things that reminded them of each other, or interesting life updates. His sister had a new boyfriend who drove a motorcycle, that sort of thing. It tapered off quickly when he met Sarah and began to feel guilty that his brain still prioritized Beca so he compensated by withdrawing. He had heard from the aca-grapevine that she had been fired and every part of him had to stop himself from phoning up. While he felt sympathy and wanted to make sure she was okay, such a large part of Jesse was elated. Elated that maybe she didn't have any ties to New York anymore and so could start over.
In LA. With him. For good.
Which was ridiculous. He had Sarah. At that point they even had small kitten that they had co-adopted almost as an in-joke between them, although the cat stayed at his as Sarah's landlord did not allow pets.
So he didn't phone.
And then his Facebook feed was full of the Bellas on holiday in Europe. And photos of Beca smiling. Relaxed.
"Jesse!" A sharp nudge disrupted his reminiscing.
"What?" He replied, annoyed to be distracted from his past. Wait? Where was he? He was at work. Oh shoot.
"You've been staring into space for the past ten minutes," Marty replied in a hushed whisper, "didn't want Albert to catch you!"
Jesse refocused. Oh. Beca was no longer in the studio but in the recording booth, "-try quieting that symphony and I'm going to layer a voice progression in that should harmonize with the melody," she really did have such a raw talent for this.
"Mumma. Snack," mini-Beca was now lying on her front on the floor surrounded by toys and scribbling in a book with a fat crayon. However she had looked up at Beca's voice and was now clearly wanting attention. Who brought their daughter to work? Beca Mitchell apparently.
Rachel, one of the senior editors, heard her, "Mommy's busy right now but would you like something to eat?" After all, Beca was in a soundproof booth and could only hear Albert when he spoke into the microphone.
"Chip!" Bella exclaimed, clearly having spotted some of the snacks on the table.
Rachel smiled nicely and moved the bowl to lift it to the floor only to be interrupted by Theo, "No, don't give her those."
Rachel froze. Jesse felt sorry for her, she had only been trying to be nice, but now looked as if she would like to run.
Bella too did not seem impressed that her chips had not reached her yet, "Chip, chip!" She called.
Rachel was still frozen, bowl of chips in hand.
The lack of response clearly irritated the toddler, and the next second a loud wail was released.
"Bella, calm down," Theo instructed. And was ignored. Her cries only getting louder. All the adults in the studio were now frozen, looking at Theo for what to do.
With a sigh, Theo leant over to the microphone and pressed intercom. Jesse looked at how Beca, in the booth, reacted without him having to say anything. The headphones were off and she was out the door in a second.
"Bella, Bella, Bella," Beca said as she marched over and picked up her daughter who was sobbing and kicking on the floor. Despite being tiny, Beca made it look easy as she picked up the struggling girl and manipulated her into her arms. Bella's arms around her neck, face buried in her shoulder and bottom supported by her arms, Beca began to bounce her up and down slightly, her own face tilted into her daughter's ear.
The studio was silenced as over Bella's whimpers, Beca began to sing a soft melody, "lavender blue dilly dilly, lavender's green. When I am king dilly dilly, you shall be queen…"
Jesse had never heard a more beautiful lullaby. He was sure of it. Although he could barely pry his eyes off Beca, a quick glance around the studio told him that everyone else agreed.
Bella had quietened during the song, joining in quietly with the dilly dillys towards the end. Beca had a tight hold on her daughter as she turned to Theo and raised an eyebrow. Jesse knew that look. That was Beca's what happened.
"She wanted chips for snack," Theo shrugged, the only one in the room seemingly unsurprised by these events.
Beca nodded slowly then, still holding her daughter, shrugged, "She's not allowed chips. She'll get enough junk later, and her stomach's still sensitive from the past few days," then lowering her voice and speaking to Bella, "Bella, if you want a snack we've got grapes or teddy bread."
Jesse happened a look at Albert and found his boss looking confused at the turn of events but with an undercurrent of irritation that they were not running on schedule. Beca seemed to pick up on it too, "Sorry about this. She's not been well the past few days," Beca glanced down at the toddler again as if checking something, "She'll just come into the booth with me while I finish off."
She moved back into the booth before Albert could protest. Jeremy, a sound engineer, turned to Theo with despair, "excuse me but we won't get a clean recording with the little girl making noise."
Theo actually laughed at that, "Beca's had Bella in recording booths with her since she's been tiny. If Beca thinks she's calmed down enough then she won't make a peep."
And he was proven correct. Beca put the headphones back on, kept a tight grip of Bella, and proceeded to blow the entire studio away with not only how amazing she was at singing, but also at producing an epic song out of a good arrangement.
Jesse could not help the traitorous thoughts of that's my girl that kept appearing in his head.
Upon the final thumbs up from Albert, Beca exited the booth, Bella now skipped beside her. Beca swept her into her arms as they approached the table, and sat down with her on her lap. "Before we do anything else, Bella has something she'd like to say about earlier…" Beca said, adopting what Jesse could only refer to as a firm mom voice.
"Sorry," Bella said, rewarded by Beca pressing a firm kiss to her hair and pulling out a tupperware container from one of her bags on the floor.
Jesse knew that Beca was often unaware of her surroundings. She was singularly focused and did not have time for unnecessary distractions. However, a part of him wanted her to still be in tune with him that she noticed him. But she didn't.
The meeting involved another half hour of layering talks until Albert changed the topic, clearly having been building up the courage. "We have been requested to include a bedtime lullaby in the film. Would you be willing to renegotiate to do two songs?"
Beca and Theo exchanged a look, then Beca spoke "Depending on my schedule then I don't see a problem. Obviously my two base terms remain the same, and Theo can handle the rest."
"Base terms?" Albert asked confused.
Beca frowned, "Yes, my base terms." She turned to stare at Theo.
"Obviously it was the film directors who we negotiated with for Beca's original contract as they were desperate for her to do the film hook song. As you are aware Beca is very much in demand professionally so a lesser song would not prioritise but if Beca is willing and able to fit in it then we can negotiate a second contract." Theo stated, sounding, Jesse thought, for maybe the first time that day, actually like a music executive, "Beca's two base terms are that she will have artistic control over the song and any final version must have her approval before usage, and that, as she is a working mom, all feasible accommodations are made to allow her daughter to be present at the working location and flexibility is provided."
Jesse suddenly realised why it made sense that the studio themselves were clueless of the appearance of the toddler and Beca editing the song, but Beca had not batted an eye at it. They clearly had not been told about it. Someone in production was going to get an earful later. Imagine if someone had actually had the courage to speak up about Beca's input, that would have been disastrous. Not that anyone should, anyone with ears could immediately tell how much better the song was.
An alarm interrupted any reply.
"Oh, that's me!" Beca exclaimed, digging around in her bag for her phone. "We've got to go," she closed up the tupperware snack box and put it back in the back, "Bella, please go pick up your toys."
"We're nearly finished," Albert stuttered out a reply.
Beca turned on him, levelling him with a sharp look that Jesse was familiar with. But had it gotten more intense? "We are finished. I apologise for being 30 minutes late. However, this appointment was only scheduled until 12. It is now after 1. Therefore I have more than kept my time with you. If you would like me onboard for another project then you need to negotiate a contract with my agent first. I am leaving."
Albert had turned a bright red during this and could only mutter apologies.
Rachel stepped up to offer her hand, "It was lovely to meet you and thank you so much for coming in today. That was fantastic work."
The hand was ignored in favor of clearing up everything that had been emptied on the table. Beca nodded distractedly. "Yes.. Bella, do you have your bag?"
"Mumma. Sup!" Bella said in reply, tugging at Beca's hand.
"It's in the car," Beca replied, gathering up her handbag, laptop bag and Bella's backpack. Once she had the three bags on one arm, she picked up her daughter and balanced her on the opposite hip. Turning back to address the rest of the room, "It was great to meet everyone. Good work. Just email with any suggested changes so I can approve."
Before she could leave, Theo spoke up, "You alright for tonight Becs?"
"Yes, we're going out for dinner first, and then we're going straight home after the reception." Beca said, making her way to the door.
Jesse bit back the rise of jealousy, who was she going for dinner with? Wait, were Beca and Theo a thing? How long had that been going on?
Before more questions could come pouring into his head, Theo had replied, "You can't take Bella tonight Beca, you're expected at the after party…"
Once again, Beca proved how much she did not appreciate males telling her how to run her life. "That's not happening. Shirley's looking forward to it. And I will make it a PR nightmare if I have to go to an after party."
A raised eyebrow suggesting that Theo even try to challenge her ended the conversation as Beca swept out the door leaving him behind without waiting for a response.
Theo gathered his own papers up, "Please contact the office if you need to negotiate anything new. As Beca said, email any suggested changes through. She'll be at the final studio check but should not have to appear in person for anything before that." Clearly the disagreement between him and Beca was not something that was meant to be public.
Although, Jesse thought, surely some of that earlier video call would have been better private too.
Bending down to straighten his laces, Jesse caught sight of something on the floor under the table that made him yelp. "Snake!"
"What?" Several exclaimed, looking around nervously.
"There's a snake under the table!"
Everyone at the table simultaneously pushed backwards, raising their feet from the ground. Albert let out a chuckle, "False alarm, it's fake." A beat. "Wait, who brought a toy snake into the studio? What kind of stupid prank is that?"
Theo swore under his breath, "That's Wayne. He's Bella's. Oh she'll throw a fit when she realises it's missing."
Jesse jumped at his chance, "I can run after her…" was it a good idea? Maybe the fact that Beca had not noticed him once over the past 3 hours should have been a sign. But, he had offered now.
With Albert's nod of agreement, and Theo's shrug, "it's worth a try, otherwise I'll take it." Jesse found himself running after Beca Mitchell.
After bursting out the studio doors Jesse looked left and right on the sunny street. She was a short distance down. Jogging after her, after all, he didn't want to run and shout and scare her. Slowing once he'd approached her he took a second to gaze at her back. She had stopped in front of a small black Audi SUV, and was now juggling child and bags to presumably find keys.
"Can I help?" He offered, trying to stay at an appropriate distance despite all of him wanting to immediately sweep her into a tight hug.
Beca's body tightened slightly, and Jesse could see her grip on Bella harden. "No thank you," she said without turning round, although she was clearly trying to angle Bella away from him.
Bella clearly was not playing ball with her mother though, and her face peered at him from around Beca's arm. She took no notice of him, but immediately spotted the snake, "Wayne!" she screeched happily.
"Once you're in the car," Beca replied, having managed to wrestle her keys out her handbag single handedly. Jesse was impressed.
"Emm," he cleared his throat, please just turn round Becs, "I think I have Wayne?"
Beca whirled round on the spot, clearly ready to tell him where to go. He was not close enough to her. He would never be close enough to her.
Words seemed to die on her lips, slightly parted, as she stared at him. Pushing her sunglasses onto her head she frowned, "Jesse?"
Bella was having none of her mother's distraction, "Wayne, Wayne!"
Jesse reached out with the snake and Bella snatched it off him, shoving it in Beca's face. Apparently that shook her out of her stupor. "No, Bella, we don't do that. I can't see. And say thank you for getting Wayne back."
Bella reluctantly pulled Wayne away, Jesse watching Beca's nose wrinkle in irritation as the toy moved, before turning back to him, "Tank you!"
That small interaction over, Beca and Jesse returned to staring at each other. Jesse, having had time to process, was slightly amused by Beca's surprise. "It's nice to see you Becs." He tried.
Beca blushed slightly, or was it just wishful thinking on his part, "Yes, wow. I can't believe we ran into you! Wait. What, Wayne?" She seemed to be struggling to put words together, "How did you have Wayne?"
Jesse smiled, "Beca, I must say, I'm offended. Did you not notice me over the past three hours?"
He loved watching Beca's eyes widen. Getting a reaction out of her was one of his favourite things to do. "Wait. What? You work for them?"
Bella was clearly not amused by her mom's distraction and started to squirm in protest at being held for so long. Beca sighed, pulling open the rear passenger door to reveal a car seat, clearly Bella's car seat. Bella jumped forward and Beca winced slightly as she kept hold of her as she manoeuvred her daughter into position. Once Bella was sitting, Beca fastened the straps, looking completely at ease with the multiple fasteners. The bags that Beca had been holding were all dumped on the seat next to Bella before Beca turned back to face Jesse.
"Yes, I'm an assistant composer," Jesse explained, answering her previous question, "not quite scored the new Star Wars yet but I'm getting there."
Beca smiled at that. "I'm sure you will." She still seemed slightly struck by his appearance.
"What about you Beca?" He asked, eager to get something, anything, out of her.
Before Beca could answer another alarm sounded. "Shoot," Beca exclaimed, reaching over a wriggling Bella to dig through her bags for her phone. "Look, I'm really sorry, but I just have somewhere to be."
Jesse's disappointment must have been evident.
"Bella's got a dentist appointment," Beca hurried to explain, "and with traffic…"
He had to smile at her rushed explanation, "Becs, I understand." She turned to go, "Can we get coffee sometime and catch up? You're in Hollywood now, I expect you to now be obsessed with the film industry."
That received an eye roll, "you're such a weirdo." Jesse's heart gave a jolt at the familiar term of affection that it had been missing for the past few years. "That sounds good. Here, put your number in," she passed over her phone.
Jesse smiled at the background of Bella smiling next to a sloth, "celebrities have the weirdest pets," he joked as he entered his number and pressed call. There was no way he was taking the risk that Beca would forget to get in touch with him. At her face of confusion Jesse gestured at the phone, "the sloth?"
"Oh, we went to a petting zoo a few weeks ago," Beca waved off the explanation.
He handed the phone back slowly, reluctant to end this. Jesse did not want to see Beca leave.
"Thanks," Beca turned to get into the car, "see you soon then?"
He nodded slowly in reply, watching as she turned in her seat to check on Bella and pass her something. Beca was so small that turning in her seat actually meant kneeling on it and bending round, providing Jesse an excellent view on her behind in those tight jeans. She really was something.
Once both were settled, Beca closed the car door, winding down the window to speak to Jesse, "see you later weirdo?"
Jesse could only smile in reply as Beca drove off.
Beca Mitchell.
Wow.