Chapter Two
Jesse, having dropped off Beca at the restaurant, is walking into his workplace, a movie rental shop called Back to the Future, when he suddenly doubles over in an uncontrollable coughing fit. Many concerned people walk by and ask if he's alright. He nods and waves them off politely, insisting that it's fine. One of his coworkers and best friends, Chance Hawthorne, came rushing over to see what was wrong.
"Hey, dude, what's wrong?" Chance asked, thumping Jesse's back with his fist, gently enough to not hurt him.
Jesse coughed a bit more and slowly began to slow down. After he was able to breathe properly, Chance handed him a bottle of water that Jesse gratefully accepted and gulped down.
"Hey, thanks, man. I don't know what went on right then, but I'm fine now." Jesse said, although he felt a sharp pain in his chest that wouldn't go away, he reassured Chance again that he was fine and pulled out his phone.
He texted Beca a short text saying, "i cant wai again. i miss u already. just thinking about u takes my breath away. love u so much. xo" He texted her on most weekday mornings when they were both working. It just became one of the sweet routines of their relationship.
After Jesse put his phone away, he and Chance walked into the store together, Chance seemingly having already forgotten about the earlier episode, chatting carelessly about their life and relationships.
Beca, meanwhile, is taking a small break from her waitressing during one of the less busy times at the restaurant and she's very much looking forward to checking her phone.
She grabs her phone, flipping it on quickly and smiling at the icon that tells her she has one new message. She reads it slowly and then reads it again and again, taking in those words like Jesse was right there beside her.
"i love u 2. xoxo" Beca replies. She wasn't the type of person to text anything to long, unlike Jesse, who loved that kind of thing. It was one of the dorky things that Beca loved about him.
"Mitchell! There are customers!" Beca hears from her boss. She quickly sets down her phone and runs out into the restaurant.
Jesse's working behind the counter, helping out a customer when the sharp pain in his chest came back, worse this time. He doubled over, holding his chest in pain and he gestures to one of his coworkers to take his spot behind the counter, who rushed over quickly. As he walked toward the break room, still hunched over in pain, he hears the customer call out in concern. He waves and holds up a thumbs up, motioning that he was fine.
As he stumbles into the break room and sits down on a chair, Chance rushes in after him.
"Hey, man, chest pains?"
Jesse nods helplessly. Chance passes him the bottle of water from before and Jesse finishes it in a few gulps. He sits up, the apex of the pain having passed.
"Wow, dude, maybe you should go see a doctor. You might've hurt yourself sometime. Do you go to the gym?" Chance asks with sincere concern.
"Yeah, actually, I do." Jesse replies, his brow furrowing.
He gets quite worried but he finds his mind wandering back to Beca. Chance reminds him to get to a doctor soon and goes back to his shift.
Jesse's manager walks in a few minutes later and tells Jesse sympathetically to take the rest of the day off. Jesse thanks him politely and reassures him that he'll be back on his regular shifts tomorrow.
He walks out of the store, worried as ever. He wonders if he should go to the clinic and make an appointment, or perhaps visit Beca. He decides on the latter, partially because he figures it was probably just an injury and it could wait and particularly because he just really wanted to see Beca.
He drives over to the restaurant and checks his watch. It should be about time that Bec gets let off her shift, he's thinking, just as Beca walks out of the restaurant.
Jesse grins and climbs out of his car quietly. He sneaks up behind Beca as she's opening her car door and engulfs her in a hug from behind. Beca screams and whirls around before laughing in relief, but then her face changes into one of pretend anger.
"That's the second time today. I'm gonna get you, Swanson!" Beca says, tackling Jesse and pulling him onto the hood of her car before sitting on top of him and kissing him. They stop and smile at each other for the fact that they're in a parking lot, but they both shrug and keep going.
After a while, Beca pulls back and contemplates Jesse. "So, what're you doing here?" she asks, lying back onto Jesse's chest.