Jesse?" Beca asked in surprise, her eyes burning into his.
"Hey Beca." Jesse flashed her his most dazzling smile.
"I..how…what the hell," stammered Beca moving from behind her desk and walking towards the two men.
Phil looked between Beca and Jesse with a bemused look upon his face, "I take it you two know each other? Well great!" he said enthusiastically, "No need to waste time with introductions, you two get to work. We have a short deadline on this thing Beca…" Phil checked his two companions out again and realized the two were not listening. He chuckled to himself, "I will just see myself out then. " He walked past Jesse who was clearly lost in Beca's eyes. Angela, Beca's assistant had popped her head into the office to watch the exchange; she too had a bemused look upon her face. Clearly there was something going on between these two. She pulled the door shut behind Phil and gave him a wink.
The sound of the door shutting pulled them both out of their daze. Beca blinked a few times and shook her head, "Uh, alright then," she smiled up at Jesse and then headed over to her desk chair. She motioned for him to take a seat in her spare chair across the desk from her. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into her seat, a smile across her face. "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in London." She riffled through the papers on her desk, the ones that had been sent to her from the scoring company, she was looking for the company logo. "Are you not with Cutting Edge anymore?"
Jesse smiled; he always enjoyed a flustered Beca, "I left the company. I thought it was time to start my own business so about two months ago I packed up and moved back here. And what about you? The last time I talked to you, you said you were a lifer with SoundBox, I was kind of shocked to hear you weren't there anymore."
Beca reached for her coffee and took a sip. "Yeah, I was. I, I still love them, but as the company grew they started going in a different direction. It just didn't feel right anymore so I took a job here. I still work with them though, whenever a project allows me to. But…" Beca stopped talking and just looked at Jesse for a second, "you're back," she didn't phrase it as a question, just a statement.
"I'm back," Jesse confirmed. The two stared at each other for another few seconds and then both smiled. "So what do you think about this movie?" And like that the reunion was over and they stated to work. They worked through the next nine hours reviewing his tracks and discussing why he chose them. Beca played him the song she had found and of course he loved it. The two searched through music Beca and the rest of the studio had already recorded. They picked three pieces with popular artists doing the vocals, they would definitely get radio play if they were in the film.
"I will have Angela get in touch with their representation. We will have to get their permission to use these tracks in the movie, hopefully it won't take too long but there is no guarantee," Beca explained as she wrote the artists names and song information down for her assistant. She called her assistant in and got up to discuss the task she needed her to accomplish.
Jesse took the opportunity to check out Beca. She looked great; the years had been really good to her. Her hair was up in its usual braided fashion, that was still the same, but her makeup was different. She still had her eyes lined but it was less, lighter. She had on long earrings and was wearing a long tunic like shirt with tight pants and heeled ankle boots. All these years in LA had definitely taught her how to dress. She was stylish but not overly so, and there was still an edge to her. She looked grown up. Jesse smiled to himself; he liked the way she looked.
He had been surprised by the emotions she made him feel when he first saw her. He had been excited and a little nervous, those emotions he had expected. What he hadn't expected was the white hot desire. One look at her and everything had come back; the softness of her skin under his hands, the taste of her beneath his lips. He was overwhelmed by memories of her; it shocked him how after all this time he still wanted her.
"So give everyone a call and then you can head home. I am sure we will have lots to do tomorrow so get some rest," Beca handed the list to her assistant and smiled.
"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Angela asked faking insult. "Could this have anything to do with the really hot man you have had locked away inside your office all day?"
"Just call and go," Beca said.
"Who is he? The way he is staring at you right now makes me think some kind of lover. No, there is something deeper there, were you in a cult, did he worship you as some kind of goddess?" Angela laughed at the look on Beca's face.
"Shut up! None of your business. Go make these calls and go home." Beca rolled her eyes at her assistant and turned to walk back in her office door. Beca looked over at Jesse, his eyes darted to the papers on her desk and he began unceremoniously stacking them up. Had he been staring at her? She looked at him.
He still looked good. He had shown up wearing his 'uniform' at least that is what she had called it while they were together, jeans, a button down and blazer on top. After an hour or so working he had shed the blazer and rolled up his sleeves, his arms were toned. She couldn't see the rest of his body but she knew what it would look like, smooth and toned, muscles in all the right places. Jesse had taken to the gym after college, he always joked that he had to keep looking good to keep her attention, he clearly still worked out.
She was surprised that after all this time she notice the little changes. There was a dusting of gray around his temples, so faint most people wouldn't notice, and there were soft lines by his eyes. She knew the lines were from smiling, he smiled all the time and it was bound to leave a mark on him. She exhaled loudly and then smiled.
"I guess we should call it a night," she said to him as she sat down at her desk.
"Yeah, we got a lot of work done," Jesse said back. He hesitated a second and then, "do you want to grab dinner?" He looked at her across the desk not sure how she would respond. They had worked well together all day, there had been some light bantering but for the most part they were all business.
"Sure," Beca leaned back in her chair, "where are you living?"
"Oh, I found a little place in Whitley Heights," Jesse replied.
"Ok, my place is out in Hollywood Heights, they are right next to each other." She sat thinking for a second, a wicked grin spread across her face, "I know the perfect place."
Jesse looked at her, he couldn't help but laugh at the smile that was spreading across her face, "should I be afraid?" he asked.
"You will love it!" Beca grabbed her jacket and bag, pulling out her keys and motioned for him to follow her out the door.
Beca hit end on her cell and checked her rearview mirror. Jesse was still behind her. Jesse. 'What the hell' she thought to herself. This is all so crazy. For years she had made a point of not thinking about him and now she couldn't think of anything else. Over the years people would casually bring him up, he was always mentioned in stories about the good old days. And occasionally their mutual friends would give her updates on what he was doing, she would always say to pass on her well wishes and then quickly change the subject. Chloe would bring him up not so causally, "Maybe you should get back together with Jesse," she would say every time she ended a relationship. "Chloe I haven't seen Jesse in years. There is nothing between us! You seriously need to get over this!" Beca would respond.
She thought back to the day she told Chloe that she and Jesse were breaking up. "No! You can't," Chloe had cried, "you guys are great together, you are just going through a rough patch, you guys will work through it and it will be ok."
"It's not a rough patch Chloe, we have grown apart, the spark just isn't there anymore. We both have these new lives that need all of our attention and, well, this is just the right thing for us to do," Beca responded lamely.
"Beca relationships take work, there are times when things aren't great but when you love someone you deal, I know you guys love each other. Look at me, I have been married for four years, he totally annoys the hell out of me but we make it work," Chloe said while offering her friend a sympathetic smile.
Beca had smiled at her best friend, "the love will lesson as time goes by, this is the right thing to do." But Beca had been wrong because the love hadn't lessoned over time, she had figured that out the hard way after on Donald and Lilly's wedding.
They had been so caught up in each other that they didn't take the time to think about what they were doing. The next morning when she woke up in Jesses arms she had known it had been a mistake. She loved him and in his arms is where she belonged, but she couldn't feel that way. So she had pushed it down, put on a brave face and played it off like their night of passionate love making had just been a fun romp, nothing at all. She had hugged him goodbye and said a few jokes as she watched him get on the plane, then she sat down at her terminal and silently cried. After that she had cut off all communication. She knew if she called him, if she heard his voice, she would beg him to come home. She would tell him that she loved him and that she couldn't live without him. But she knew she couldn't do that, she couldn't interfere with his dreams. So she pushed it all away and as time went by she thought of him less and she figured she had been right, time would lessen the love.
But here she was, years later and she knew she still loved him.
Jesse followed Beca's car into the Casa Vega parking lot. He shook his head and laughed to himself as he stepped out of the car. "You are kidding me right?" he laughed, "or are you showing off?"
Beca walked toward Jesse, "I don't know what you are talking about," she said with a smile. The two turned towards the restaurant and walked in. The restaurant was dark giving it an air of privacy, a lanky brunet dressed all in black looked at them and said, "May I help you?"
"Beca Mitchell," Beca said to the woman, then turned to Jesse and winked.
"Oh yes," the brunet said, "right this way. Ms. Vega just called; we have a table for you in the back." She escorted the two through the restaurant until they reached a secluded table, she handed them menus as they sat down and then left them.
"I am impressed," Jesse said with a smile.
Beca beamed, "It was nothing."
"No clearly it's something, I would know, I tried for weeks to get a reservation here and nothing. We decided to eat dinner, what, twenty minutes ago, and we have a private room in the back. You are a celebrity." He bowed his head and placed his hands over his heart, then looked up at her from under his lashes and laughed.
They had been living in LA for a few months, it seemed like everyone was obsessed with celebrities, where they are, where they shopped, what they were doing. Beca thought it was all pretty lame but she had heard of a restaurant they liked to frequent, Casa Vega. It was dark and private and played great music-just what a celebrity would want. Their anniversary was coming up and she thought it might be a fun place to go eat. She mentioned it to Jesse and he said he would take care of it. Unfortunately that was easier said than done. He called to make a reservation and they said they were booked solid. He tried back multiple times hoping for a cancelation, he drove to the restaurant and slipped the maitre d' some cash-still nothing. Finally he broke down and made a reservation somewhere else. The night of their anniversary Beca was a little disappointed but he managed to distracter with a promise for a future reservation and some passionate kisses. They had never made it out there.
But here they were all these years later. Jesse shook off the memories and smiled at Beca. "So this is what life is like for Beca Mitchell now? First class all the way," he teased.
"Not really, I played some music at a party for the owner once and she said she would get me in whenever I wanted. I didn't actually know if I could get a hold of her, how embarrassing would that have been if I made us drive over here and couldn't get us in." They both laughed at the thought, the waiter came back and they realized they hadn't even checked out the menu. After some time they placed their orders and were enjoying a complimentary bottle of wine sent over from the owner, Jesse smiled and shook his head when it arrived, Beca blushed.
