In preparation of Jesse coming home, Lexa decided to make sure his house was spotless. Coming home to a freshly cleaned house was so much better and it gave her a great excuse to enter his home. She was a little ashamed about the fact she knew he kept an extra set of keys under a rock in the backyard, as she spotted him retrieving the keys from there once.
She casually went into the backyard, trying to make it look like she wasn't trying to break in. A big RV stood in the driveway, in front of his old muscle car. Lexa wondered what Jesse did with that RV, as he didn't seem like the camping guy, but she paid no further mind to it.
Like she expected, she found a key under one of the stones in the backyard near the door, covered in sand. With her sleeve she wiped off the sand, before unlocking the door. Lexa wasn't entirely sure if Jesse was okay with her entering his house, but she figured he probably wouldn't mind.
The kitchen was dark and gloomy and it took Lexa a while to locate the light switch. The bulb flickered a few times before fully lighting the room. Apart from the usual kitchen utensils, the room was completely empty. The cabinets were covered in a layer of dust, as a sign they weren't used in quite a while, but they were not dirty or greasy. Curious, Lexa opened the fridge, only to find it was empty as well and not even plugged in.
She followed the hallway down to the living room, which had to be the most furnished room in the entire house. On her way she had passed two empty rooms which could be used as a study or something else. Lexa figured since he had moved in only so recently, he hadn't had the time to furnish everything, although she had to admit that the empty fridge was pretty odd.
The living room was clean as well, except for the dust. Cleaning this place wouldn't take as long as she had anticipated, but that meant she had the rest of the morning off to write her stories.
She returned to her house next doors to quickly grab a cloth to gather the dust with. The kitchen and living room were done in minutes and seen as the rest of the rooms downstairs weren't even furnished, they were spotless in even less time.
Lexa continued on the second floor, dusting off each and every room, all empty again except for the master bedroom. She made a mental note to go furniture shopping with Jesse. He was the owner of a really lovely house, it would be a shame not to make it a home.
The sheets on the bed in the master bedroom still looked pretty fresh, so she decided not to change them but just make the bed. Lexa gathered all the pillows which were thrown on the ground, dusting them off with her hand before putting them on the bed. She noticed she had kicked one under the bed, so she got down on her knees to retrieve it.
Not really paying any attention when grabbing the pillow, she managed to grab something else. Instead of the pillow, she pulled a black bag from under the bed. For someone with hardly any possessions, the bag was incredibly heavy and she couldn't help herself from opening to see what was inside.
Carefully she opened the bag, trying not to damage whatever was inside. Her eyes widened upon the sight. Lexa wasn't prepared for what the bag contained. It was stuffed with money, all stacks of bills of 100 dollars. She reached out and put her arm in the bag, to see if it was just the top layer that was filled with money, but literally the whole bag was full of it.
Realizing she was not supposed to see this, Lexa quickly closed the back and shoved it under the bed, grabbing the pillow with her other hand. As if she had seen nothing, she placed the pillow on the bed, aligning it neatly with the rest.
How did Jesse come across so much money? Lexa had some money saved herself, but nowhere near as much plus she had it on her savings account, not in cash. No one kept this amount of money away from banks, unless it was earned dirty.
As desperate as she wanted to find out about the origin of the money, she decided on not telling Jesse she knew about it, as it might complicate things between them. She was clearly not supposed to know about this. I will tell him I know about it when the time is right, she told herself, wishing she had never seen the money in the first place.
Lexa waited in her car in the parking lot of the hospital for Jesse to come. Even though she wanted to come in to pick him up personally, he had told her not to. The money still on her mind, she agreed to wait in the parking lot. She had made up all kinds of scenarios which could explain the money, but she didn't want to jump to any conclusions.
She saw Jesse spotting her car in the distance after texting him what kind of vehicle she drove earlier today. Her Honda Civic was old, but it still ran perfectly fine.
It was refreshing to see him in normal clothing instead of his hospital gown. In his usual baggy sweater, he instantly looked a lot more alive and healthier than before.
Jesse put out his cigarette before throwing his bag (the same bag as the one in which he had stored the money) in the back of the car.
"Hey," he smiled, sitting down.
"Hey," she greeted back. "You sure you wanna go?"
Lexa asked just to be sure. She would probably go home as well if she was allowed to, but she still wanted to make sure Jesse was really feeling well enough to be without the doctors and nurses. Besides heavy bruising and swelling, he always suffered from a concussion.
"Yeah, I feel great," he insisted.
Lexa nodded. "Okay, let's get you home then."
She started the engine, letting it get warm for a moment as the car had the tendency to stop out of nowhere when it wasn't warm enough, before pulling up the highway next to the hospital.
"I'm so glad I'm finally out of there," Jesse said, watching the hospital grow smaller in the rearview mirror.
"Yeah, me too," Lexa said, keeping her eyes on the road. "Not having to visit you every day will safe me a lot of gas."
Jesse chuckled. "But you will visit me at home, won't you?" There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice, as if he wasn't sure if Lexa wanted to see him again.
She took her eyes off the road for a few seconds to look at him. "You can come and visit me for once," Lexa chuckled. "I wanna stay in bed all day and have you read stories to me."
"If I could write I'd totally do that," Jesse replied.
It was only a short drive from the hospital to their houses. She was a little nervous to tell Jesse about her cleaning his house, afraid he might get angry at her. Lexa still decided against telling him about the money, but she couldn't lie about the cleaning part. What was she going to say if he noticed his house was had magically cleaned itself?
"Jesse, before we go in I need to tell you something" Lexa said quickly before Jesse was able to get out of the car.
"This sounds bad," Jesse said, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, it's not that bad. It's just that I kinda cleaned your house," she continued. "I hope you don't mind? I just wanted you to come home to a clean house."
"Oh no, that's absolutely fine!" he replied, sounding relieved. "I don't clean it much myself so it probably needed it. How did you get in though?"
"You keep a set of keys under a stone."
A smirk covered his face, as if he was asking her how she knew the key was located there.
"I saw you picking it up once when I happened to look outside my window," she replied serious. "It's not like I'm stalking you, don't worry."
To her surprise, Jesse hadn't asked anything about a bag full of money. Instead, he seemed quite happy about her cleaning his house, thanking her multiple times while they made their way from the car over to the house. It was like he didn't even remember he had it.
"Wow, it does look spotless," Jesse said, upon viewing the living room. "Thank you for this!"
"Stop thanking me, Jesse," Lexa blushed. "It really was nothing."
"I do have to hide my keys better, though," Jesse laughed. "Do you want to stay for a drink?"
"Yeah, of course!" she replied before realizing Jesse had nothing in his fridge, but she didn't dare to tell him that. But to her amazement there seemed to be a built-in cabinet she had completely missed. Jesse opened it and retrieved two cans of Coke. In a swift movement he threw one at her, Lexa, surprisingly, catching it while sitting down on the only couch in the room.
"You seriously need to buy some groceries, by the way," Lexa laughed.
"Yeah, I know. I can't cook food so I mostly order pizza."
"I'll cook dinner for you once. My spaghetti Bolognese is the best."
Jesse nodded. "You know, you have been really kind to me. I don't think anyone has ever done so much for me. Not even my parents."
Lexa smiled softly. "It was absolutely no problem. You're the only friend I have here."
Sometimes she wondered if Jesse liked her because she was the only one who had shown any interest in him while being in the hospital. But then again she also wondered if she only liked Jesse because he was the only one she knew in Albuquerque.
She hadn't noticed Jesse moving closer to her, being all lost in her thoughts. But when she turned her head to look at him, she could not escape his eyes. Lexa knew she shouldn't do this, know she shouldn't get into this, but there was something about him that she just could not resist.
Jesse's head moved closer to her, a soft smile playing on his lips. When she first started to visit him, Lexa promised herself to just remain friends with him, but of course her heart had taken over. She moved her head closer as well, as there was no point in denying she didn't want this.
But fate was against them. Just when their lips were about to meet, the front door swung open. Distracted by the loud bang of the door crashing into the wall, Lexa turned her head, and when she saw who just entered Jesse's house, she quickly distanced herself from him.
She had never liked the three so called friends Jesse, and their perfect timing wasn't appreciated as well. They must have spotted them coming home.
Lexa glanced at Jesse a little awkwardly, but he focused his gaze on his friends. "Guys, what are you doing here?" he asked them a little nervously, rubbing his hands together.
"Jesse! my main man is back!" Skinny said, reaching out to Jesse, embracing him in a hug. His other friends did the same.
A strong scent of marijuana filled the room, and Lexa figured that was her cue to leave. She didn't have much of a problem with him smoking pot, as she knew many guys who did it. As long as he stayed off meth and cocaine or heroin, all was fine by her.
"Hey, Jesse? I'm gonna go," she told him, softly squeezing his arm to get his attention.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" Jesse said.
"Yeah," Lexa nodded, pushing herself up from the couch, leaving through the still open front door.
A/N: Thank you Cappiesgirl23 for your review :) I hope you liked this chapter and hopefully I'll see you next time!
