Chapter Two
Hello I love you
Won't you tell me your name
Hello I love you
Let me jump in your game
She's walking down the street
Blind to every eye she meets
Do you think you'll be the guy
to make the Queen of the angels sigh?
For the next two weeks, Jesse Swanson moved round the H&H building and just as Benji predicted, he got his head round the place quick enough. Getting his head round the H&H business, however, was something else. The number of titles H&H had under its belt was mind-boggling enough; let alone the various other enterprises that came under H&H Corp.
Jesse ran his eyes down the report in front of him, digesting its contents. The numbers were beginning to morph in front of his eyes and he had to stop staring at them for a second. He was used to this. He did this for a living and he would find what was wrong with this picture. Nothing thrilled Jesse Swanson more than to work through a challenge.
Like trying to find out where that sexy brunette worked.
She had to work somewhere in H&H. He knew that. It was more than a coincidence that he saw that cat, that coffee stained Sex Pistols tshirt and bumping into her for the second time that day. He had tried to work out where. He had not seen her around either in the staff canteen or any of the common areas H&H staff used.
No. That was a lie.
He did saw her once.
He was on the mezzanine looking down on the building's main reception and there she was, hair flicked back, all attitude, all swagger, striding across the marble floor towards the exit. She cut a swathe through the usual throng of people at the busy reception and seemed to be immune to the admiring looks thrown by 90% of the males in that space. By the time he reached the ground floor and out of the exit doors, she was already gone.
He did discreetly popped round to both MODE and RUNWAY to find her. Well, with the way she was dressed in Valentino, that kick-ass fuck me boots and that runway walk, she should be in the fashion rags, right?
Nope. Not even a ghost of a shadow.
The only thing he got with his forays into MODE was an overenthusiastic, flirtatious welcome from a man-eater named Amanda. He could spot them a mile away. She looked so disappointed when he said he was looking for a short girl with dark hair and actually scowled before buzzing for someone. Jesse had thought he found the mysterious brunette, only to find a perky girl with black hair and braces by the name of Betty asking what she could help him with.
And at RUNWAY, of course, there was Aubrey. He couldn't quite say he was looking for a particular girl with Aubrey around. She would be suspicious.
"Well, Jesse, what do you think?"
He quickly snapped back into the room. Benji was looking at him expectantly. Jesse busied himself by doodling a little on his pad, like he was in deep thought. He could ask Benji, of course. Benji would know. But Jesse Swanson was supposed to be on his best behaviour. He could not let his guard down and slide into his old habits.
"There is so much to learn," Jesse said slowly, his mind racing ahead.
"Yes, you can see by the figures, H&H is in good shape. But both MODE and RUNWAY are haemorrhaging money - " Benji continued.
"Yes. I can see that. What about the circulation figures and advertising revenue for the last twelve months?"
"I'll get Bumper to send those through to you." Benji said, making a note.
"I need a breakdown on all operating costs as well."
"OK." Benji made another note. "Are you alright with all the other aspects?"
"I need to see more than just figures, Benji. I think I need to be on the ground more. Perhaps spend a few days at each department?" Jesse mused.
"That's not a bad idea," Benji replied. "That'll give you an overview of the place."
Jesse looked at the sheaf of papers in front of him, running a finger down the list of shared functions in the corporation and found a likely contender. "Everyone use the same Post Room?"
"Yes, that's in-house. One of the cost-saving we did some years back."
"Let's start there."
"You want to work in the post room?"
"Yes. Why not?"
In Decibel's office, a few days later
Bieber's music can only be described as a cross between an angry cockatoo on steroids and a flatulent bulldog.
Beca re-read what she typed. There was no way Noah would let her print that but she felt a little satisfaction typing it. She loved her job; she really did. Noah let her get away with most things but if she were to post that online under the Decibel account, the amount of Beliebers who would trash them will probably break the internet.
Hmm... maybe I should start a parody account - Beca grinned a little at that thought.
"What are you up to?"
Jim's voice intruded into her pleasant thoughts
"What? Nothing," Beca said, quickly wiping her grin off and concentrating on her Mac screen. Jim was still looking at her. Suspicious fucker – Beca thought, her hand already moving to her phone to open her Twitter account. Setting up a new parody one took only minutes.
"These came for Noah," Jim said, dropping a large envelope. "But since you did the dirty copy this time round - "
Beca nodded, sliding a letter opener into the envelope and extracting the document. Her eyes ran quickly through it and Beca frowned deeply. What the fuck is this? Beca picked up the phone receiver and started to punch a number she knew by heart. "CR, it's me. Yeah. I got the copy. What the hell is this? This was not what I sent off the other day."
Beca hated to be so bitchy to one of her oldest mate but the copy she just received was all wrong. She was sure she posted the ones with all the dirty edits done by Noah and a bunch of other editors. She had been very careful about that. None of the edits were present in the final proof she had in front of her.
"That's the lastest one I've got, sugar," CR said from the other line. "I did thought it was a little weird there were not that many changes."
This was a disaster. A freaking disaster. They would be running late to print. Her first ever doing the main edit; she could NOT fuck this up.
"Are you sure you didn't get the latest one I sent?" Beca bleated, running her hand through her hair in frustration.
"Nope. That's the only one," said CR.
Beca's hand scrambled round her desk and closed triumphantly on a slip of paper.
"It's ok, CR," Beca said, smiling a little evilly now. "Looks like Post room cocked up. Guess what I'm going to do next?"
He heard the commotion first before Bob, the post room supervisor, ran into the annex, sweating profusely. Jesse looked up at Bob frantically running through the records in the system before thumbing through the dead letters. Dead because they could not read the address or the address does not exist or incomplete.
"You OK, Bob?" Jesse said, coming over to offer some help. Bob's face was deathly pale. Jesse had only spend about three days there and although Bob sometimes suffered from B.O, he was nice and Jesse did like him. Bob looked like he needed oxygen at this stage.
"No time to explain. Help me find this one!" Bob hissed, passing the receipt slip to Jesse. He took one look and remembered the envelope. The scrawl was so bad they could not make out whom it was for or from which department the envelope was from. He drew the envelope out from the pile.
"Oh thank god," Bob muttered, grabbing the envelope.
"Hey..let me take the blame for this." Jesse said magnanimously, trying to take the envelope back. He felt a little bad at how distressed Bob looked.
"No. You don't understand who this is from." Bob said weakly, his hands already making sweat stains on the envelope.
"It's fine," Jesse said cheerily taking the envelope from him and stepping out of the annex to the main post area.
Only to be met with a 110 pounds of pure fury, with brown hair and blue eyes.
They stared at each other in silence.
Beca was first to drew a breath.
Because she wanted to scream in frustration.
But instead she breathed in deeply and said slowly, "Why am I not surprised?"
Jesse finally found his voice back. "Hey, we meet again."
Beca just closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
"Are you the idiot who messed up my proofs?"
Her voice was hard like diamonds.
"Umm.. we couldn't read the handwriting," Jesse said, showing the front of the envelope to her. "And I don't know who to check the address with."
Seeing Beca silently looking at the untidy scrawl in front of the envelope, Jesse spoke up again. "Is that your handwriting? You should really use Block Capitals, you know. This envelope could end up anywhere. Better still, you should use pre-made labels. And add a return label. So if anything like this happened, we could trace it back to sender - "
"Shut. The. Fuck. Up."
Jesse stopped his verbal diarrhoea.
"Have you ever thought about tracing the receipt slip, you moron? You could see that envelope was from Decibel. You could come up and ask us."
Her reasoning was faultless and Jesse felt a little foolish now.
"I supposed we could have done that." he conceded. "I hope this is not urgent?"
Beca sighed. She took a pen on the counter and wrote down the address, very clearly and in block capitals this time. She waved the slip in front of Jesse.
"Now listen here. This envelope is super urgent and needs to be delivered to this address yesterday," she said, frighteningly calm. "So get off your ass and stop playing Mario Kart with Bob in that annex over there and get this delivered by bike in the next five minutes. Do you understand?"
There was something incredibly chilling in the way she spoke.
"Now I am going upstairs and I am going to call the printers in the next half hour," she continued still in that chilling tone. "And if this envelope is not there in front of Cynthia-Rose, I am going to come down and have your balls for breakfast. Is that clear?"
"Yes ma'am."
Beca just gave him one final stare before stalking away.
It was quiet for a moment and Bob peeped through the crack at the doorway. Oh god – Bob thought – the new boy had gone mental. That scary Beca Mitchell had broke him. He was just standing there smiling. What am I going to tell Benji?
"Jesse?" Bob squeaked worriedly. "You ok?"
Jesse turned, smiling at him, his hands turning the envelope repeatedly "Yeah. Couldn't be better."
H&H Staff canteen
"It's like some sort of joke, Amy," Beca groused, carrying her tray through the line. Amy was munching on a breadstick. "He popped up so many times into the office yesterday; it's not even funny. I had to stay out of the office all day to avoid him. I swear he is like some sort of bad luck cloud."
"A hot bad luck cloud." Amy said, mouth full with breadstick.
"Who are we talking about?" Stacie chimed in. She cut the queue shamelessly and stood next to Beca. No one dared to say anything.
"That hot VLEP dude, Jesse Swanson," Amy replied. "He's hanging round Decibel like a bad luck cloud."
"A hot bad luck cloud," Stacie agreed. Amy shot Beca a triumphant look.
Beca just muttered under her breath. She had a chicken salad on her tray but felt like chomping on a full burger at the moment. Ah what the heck? Beca ordered the burger and walked to the nearest empty table with Stacie and Amy following suit.
"He's so hot, though, Beca," Stacie said, continuing their conversation. She popped some Tater Tots into her mouth. "I don't see a ring. He smells single. And everyone was saying how nice he is."
"Eh." Beca answered, sinking her teeth into the juicy burger. "Not interested."
"Even Chloe approves," Amy said, slurping a spoonful of tomato soup and munching on some hard cheddar cheese.
Beca nearly choked on her next bite. "Chloe? What does Chloe have to do with this?"
"We have to send her pics. Ummm.. for research purposes," Amy said, not meeting Beca's eyes.
"Don't even think of it." Beca said sharply.
"What?" Both Stacie and Amy said innocently.
"Not going to happen," Beca said, knowing that they were thinking about. She waved at a girl standing by the pasta station, looking a little lost. "Andrea! Andy! Come sit with us."
Andrea Sachs gratefully made her way over and joined their table. "Thanks," she said, smiling a little nervously in relief. "No one seems to eat proper food here. Thanks for asking me to sit with you."
Beca just shook her head and said, "You know everyone right? Amy and Stacie. Guys, Andy just started as the newest PA to Cassandra Harris at Runway. Can we all raise a glass in commiseration?"
Andrea laughed as the girls clinked glasses and looked at her with mock sadness. "Thank you for that. It's not been that bad, really."
"The six a.m. calls have not started yet," Stacie said sagely and Beca nodded in agreement. "So how's Aubrey?"
"She's ok," Andrea said, fiddling with her fork. "She's very.. umm... protective of Cassandra."
"That's one way of putting it," Beca said. She put her burger down. "Aubrey's been Cassandra's 1st assistant for as long as I can remember. She could have gone off to any other titles by now."
The girls nodded in agreement.
"So which department is Jesse in by the way?" Stacie then asked Amy. "I thought he was in the Post room but then he was in Circulation with Bumper and then Accounts. And I thought I saw up him up in Editorial at RUNWAY."
Amy shrugged her shoulders. "He's anywhere and everywhere. Ask Benji. He'll know."
Stacie was about to pop another Tater Tot into her mouth when her phone rang loudly. Stacie quickly opened the message and the Tater Tot dropped onto the tray. "Shit. Fuck. Bell end!"
"What is it?" The girls were all now looking at the normally unflappable Stacie.
"Andy, we've got to go," Stacie said, quickly getting up. "Cassandra just moved the runthrough half an hour early. Which means we are already fifteen minutes late. What are you doing? Just leave those there! Ames and Beca can clear it for us."
The two girls hurried off to the elevator. Amy just nonchalantly picked up the Tater Tots from Stacie's tray and ate it. "Fashion girls. So highly strung," she muttered, shaking her head. Beca just nodded in agreement.
She holds her head so high
Like a statue in the sky
Her arms are wicked and her legs are long
When she moves my brain screams out this song
Sidewalk crouches at her feet
Like a dog that begs for something sweet
Do you hope to make her see you, fool?
Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel
Elevator going up
She shouldn't have eaten that burger. It tasted heavenly but she was feeling so full now. And this stupid heavy ass box was not helping. Beca shifted the box in her arms. Noah had asked her to retrieve some past copies of Decibel as well as some old finance reports. Something about an audit. Why they did not already digitise all these Beca did not know. It would have saved her a trip down to the bowels of the building and having to haul this heavy box up all those floors.
The elevator pinged loudly and stopped at the next floor. The few people in the elevator surged forward to the exit, talking loudly amongst themselves. One jostled into Beca as she exit and she nearly snapped at her. Beca bit down her rude retort at the last minute and just gave that rude woman a baleful glare.
The door was about to close when a hand came round stopping the door.
And Jesse Swanson walked in.
"Hey."
Great. Just great. Just when she was feeling gross and fat, she had to run into Jesse Swanson. And damn, does he looked good in that suit.
Beca was hoping that if she ignore him, he would not speak to her. No such luck. He was smiling at her and leant across to press the button for his floor. He leant in too close and pressed into the box she was holding. Beca had to shift the box a little as it threatened to slip from her grasp.
"Oh sorry," he was saying now. "That looks heavy. Can I help you with it?"
He was a little too close. And smiling so prettily. It must be illegal for guys to have such a pretty smile. Wait. What?
Beca cleared her throat. "I got it."
He stood close, still looking at her. "Umm.. so I didn't make a good impression. Shall we start again? I'm Jesse, by the way."
Beca was looking up at the rising number on the display panel. Can this lift move any slower?
"I know," she replied, trying to sound dismissive. Like he was sooooo insignificant and not worth her time.
Hah! Burn!
Hang on. That didn't sound right. It sounded that she made it her business to find out who he was. Damn it! And he caught on because he was chuckling lowly now. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
They rode in silence for a moment before he spoke up again.
"I don't know whether you know this," he started. "But you've got a ketchup smear on your cheek."
What? She had what?
Beca turned her head to look at her reflection on the elevator's stainless steel wall and nearly groaned out loud. He was right. There was a dried up ketchup smear ran right across her right cheek. Must be from that burger she scoffed down just now. Beca tried letting go of the box with her right hand to wipe that smear away but the box wobbled dangerously and she nearly dropped it. She had to clutch it again with both hands.
He was laughing now. "Here, let me help."
He stepped closer and brushed his fingers against her cheek. Beca gave him the stare of death. The one that would have made even The Rock think twice about approaching. But Jesse Swanson was a made of sterner stuff.
"Stop being so stubborn and let me help."
He was still standing close to her. Beca nodded irately. He brought his thumb up to his mouth, licked it and rubbed the smear away.
"There. All gone," his voice a husky whisper.
He was standing far too close. Why was he standing so close? In his well fitting suit and tie, the jacket hanging perfectly from his wide shoulders, his muscly chest evident under that shirt. And goddamnit, Amy was right. His voice was like ear porn.
The elevator pinged loudly again The door opened and Mr. Harris Senior, CEO and owner of Harris & Harris Corp. walked in. Beca stepped back quickly. "Good afternoon Mr. Harris," she mumbled.
Mr. Harris Senior raised his eyes to look at Beca and nodded in recognition. He then looked at Jesse and smiled widely, "Jesse! Good to see you, son."
"Good afternoon, Mr. Harris."
"How are you finding H&H, son?"
"It's great, sir," Jesse replied. He threw a sidealong glance before smiling. "Everyone's been really friendly."
"Good. Good." Mr. Harris Snr. replied. "Where have you been so far?"
Jesse rattled off the departments he had spent some time with. Beca pretended to be interested in the elevator buttons but she was eavesdropping shamelessly. Hmm. Who would have thought that idiot was so well connected? Here he was chatting with Mr. Harris Snr. like a long lost son. They were sharing a joke now, laughing in between them.
"Sounds like you are getting a handle on H&H, son," Mr Harris Snr was saying. He then chortled a little before lifting an eyebrow. "I;m surprised you are not spending most of your time up at RUNWAY."
"I try not to, sir. Don't want to get distracted."
At that precise moment, that stupid, heavy box gave way. Beca yelped a little in surprise as all the contents of the box fell all over the elevator floor. Oh god, can this get any MORE embarrassing?
She was on her knees scrambling to put everything back in the box. And another pair of were now busy helping her. The door pinged on her floor just as Beca quickly stuffed the last of the papers into the box.
"Let me carry this for you."
His voice was like velvet next to her ear. Beca just huffed and picked up the box. She stood up, grasping the box tight, praying it would not give way again.
"I said I got it."
With that, Beca tossed her hair back and strode away from the elevator. And for the second time, Jesse Swanson watched her walked away yet again.
Hello. I want you. I need my baby
AN : Hello I love you by The Doors. There's a version sung by Finn (the late Cory Monteith) but I prefer the original.
