"Have her give me a call whenever she can. We will start mapping out the album on Monday but I want to get an idea of what her overall goals are." Beca was talking to her assistant Angela. She had finished the tracks for the movie yesterday and she was getting a head start on an album she would start working on next week.
"Okay, I will give her agent a call," Angela said making a note on her blackberry. "So, did you manage to make up with Jesse?"
Beca had started reviewing some lyrics that they would be recording next week but stopped when she heard Angela's question. "What?" Beca asked looking up.
"Did you make up with Jesse? You know that hot guy who you have been working with all week. The one you were fighting with in the parking lot." Angela looked questioningly at Beca.
"Um, yeah, we resolved that." Beca said, purposely avoiding eye contact with her assistant. She didn't know if she was ready to divulge all the details of their relationship.
"You resolved that?" Angela asked with a knowing smile on her face, obviously something was going on between them that Beca didn't want to talk about; good thing Angela was so good at getting info out of Beca. "So there is nothing going on there?"
Beca gave her assistant a little shrug, "nah."
"Great!" Angela said, turning from Beca so that she could hide her laugh, "I think he is really cute, I think I might ask him out. I will go to ask Phil for his number…"
"No," said Beca falling for her assistants trap. Angela smirked at her boss, "so who is he? Your boyfriend?"
Beca internally chastised herself for being so dumb. "He's…" Beca wasn't exactly sure what she and Jesse officially were. "He was my boyfriend. My college boyfriend, and then we moved here together. And then he moved away and we broke up."
"But now he is back?" Angela asked nosily trying to get some gossip, "And you guys are together?"
Beca gave a slight smile to her assistant, and then her cell phone rang. Her smile grew as she picked up her phone and waved Angela out of the room.
Angela glared, "saved by the bell," she said and pulled her bosses door shut.
It was Chloe! "How was school?" Beca asked.
"Sometimes I regret becoming a kindergarten teacher; a boy blew a booger on me today." Chloe complained into the phone, she sounded tired; it must have been a long day. "But enough about my wonderful life, you want to come over for a barbeque tomorrow night?"
"Sure," Beca said, she was momentarily distracted by the thought of introducing Ella to Jesse.
"Hello? Beca?" Chloe practically shouted into the phone, "are you ignoring me? What's going on? Did Jesse call? Did you guys make up?
"What?" Beca asked, her attention back on her best friend, "what makes you think something happened?!"
"Something did happen!" Chloe gushed. "Did he call you? Or did you grow some balls and call him?"
"Well…" Beca began.
"Oh my God! You guys had sex! Was it amazing? Was he as good as he used to be? It was better than before wasn't it? This is so wonderful!" Chloe took a breath of air, Beca was sure it was in preparation to attack her with more questions. She spoke up before her best friend could talk again.
"It was wonderful," Beca told her friend, "And that is all I am going to say on that subject." Beca could picture the look of disappointment on Chloe's face. "And I would love to come over tomorrow night. And I am sure Jesse would love to come over tomorrow too, if that is ok."
"Of course it's ok! Beca…" Chloe started, "I am just so happy. You and Jesse were so good together and I know you aren't one to complain, and you would never have admit that you weren't happy but, well I am just so happy that you guys are back together! I love you and you deserve to be happy!"
Beca smiled, "Thanks Chloe. I love you too, but enough of the sappy stuff. I should get out of here, there is a very cute man waiting for me."
Jesse text Beca the address to his new place and told her where he had hidden a spare key. He told her to feel free to head over whenever she wanted; he would leave by five and grab dinner for them on the way.
Beca left the studio a little after four. She really didn't want to get to Jesses place before him but she was too excited to get any work done. She typed his address into her GPS and backed out of her parking spot.
Chloe had been right; Beca thought as she merged onto the freeway, she and Jesse had been good together. At least up until the last year, but they had been great for five years before that and had the job not come up in the UK the two would have probably worked all of their issues out. She hoped that they could go back to the way they were. She instantly felt silly for thinking that. They had only been talking again for what, three days. She didn't even know where they stood. Were they boyfriend and girlfriend again? Were they jumping right back to where they were when they split? Or were they going to take it slow? Well obviously they weren't going to take 'it' slow; Beca blushed at the thought of them in bed together last night. She shook her head; she needed to focus on driving.
Beca's mind started to wonder again as she slowed in traffic. She remembered having similar thoughts to these before. She had wondered these same things the night after the Bellas won their first ICCA Finals. She had celebrated their win with Jesse, in her hotel room bed. They two had woken up together, naked, excited, and a bit nervous. They had traveled back to Barden separately with their a cappella groups, never having a chance to discuss what they had done or where it left them. She had had a few boyfriends in the past, and a few one night stands, but Jesse didn't quite seem to fit into either category, Beca wasn't sure what they were or what was going to happen.
The next morning Jesse had shown up at her dorm room with coffee and the two walked together to their classes. They just sort of went with it. They hung out in their spare time, made out in the radio station, continued her moviecation, and had a lot of sex. A month had gone by and they still hadn't had a talk about what they were.
The two were lounging in the quad enjoying their last days together before summer break when Beca's Dad ran across them.
"Hey Beca, I have been trying to get a hold of you," her Dad said as he squat down to get more on her level as she lay on the grass. "Sheila really wants to do dinner before you go back to your Moms, what are you doing Friday night?"
Beca sat up and made a face, "umm, ahh, uh I think I'm busy."
"Oh come on Becs," Her Dad pleaded, "it won't kill you to spend a little time with us before you go. Hey I'll tell you what you can bring your boyfriend." He slapped Jesse on the shoulder and Beca thought she would throw up, she glanced over at Jesse, she didn't know how he would respond to what her Dad had just called him, but he had a huge smile on his face. "I would love to go Mr. Mitchell that sounds great." And like that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. If she'd had any doubt he put it to rest when she visited his parents that summer, he introduced her as his girlfriend to everyone in town.
The GPS telling her to exit on the right brought her back to the present. "I guess we will have to go with the flow again," she said to herself.
Beca drove past Whitley Heights every day on her way home. It was an affluent area, much like Hollywood Hills where she lived. They had lived in a rundown apartment when they first moved to LA and her next few hadn't been much better. As the years went on her salary went up and she had made the choice to upgrade her living standards. She had opted to rent a luxury apartment. Beca looked around her as she took another right, she had assumed Jesse had moved into an apartment too but from the look of the neighborhood he had moved into a house. As the GPS told her she had reached her destination, she realized Jesse had moved into a really nice house.
The houses on the block had been built up a hill so that they could all have access to the view of the city. Beca parked her car on the street and got out. From there she could only see a dark stucco wall covered in ivy. To her right were some steps leading to a small locked gate. She knew Jesse had left her a key under a rock on the other side. She looked through the gate to find the rock but was distracted by the beautiful house. It was Mediterranean style, one of the beautiful homes built here in LA during the 1920's. From where she stood she could see floral trees and huge palms all around the house, giant windows and a huge balcony. Beca found the key and unlocked the gate. There was a short brick walk to the front door, Beca crossed it and let herself in.
From the looks of it Jesse didn't have a lot of furniture. There was a black leather couch, recliner and coffee table positioned in front of a huge tv resting on top of a black and white rug. The walls were a crisp white and Jesse had adorned them with huge framed movie posters. She recognized the God Father and Jaws but there were many more that she didn't know. Between the framed posters were huge floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. Beca walked over to the windows and looked out in awe. On the opposite wall there were dark wood bookcases built into the walls full of film and music books and Jesses entire collection of DVD's. She looked around the room, it definitely resemble a bachelor pad, well a really expensive, empty bachelor pad.
She followed the hardwood floors through the downstairs. She saw a stairwell on the right leading to the second floor, a clean white kitchen to the left next to a dining room where Jesse had put a table and chairs and a ton of unpacked boxes. She ran her finger along the writing on one of them; she recognized it instantly as her own. 'Storage' was written across it in thick black ink. Jesse must have been storing the stuff he hadn't moved with him all these years. She wondered if they had been in an LA storage unit all these years or if they had managed to make their way to his parents house. She flicked the box and walked on towards the end of the house where huge French doors led out onto an enclosed brick patio.
There was a fancy barbeque and patio table and chairs set up. A few feet away there were two lounge chairs. Beca smile and shook her head, Jesse hand fully furnished his patio but not the inside of the house. She sat down in a chair and took it all in. What in the world was Jesse doing with such a big house. Beca hadn't finished walking through it but she guessed it had at least three bedrooms. What was he going to do with them, get roommates? She was pondering what she would do with such a large house when she heard a door slam.
"Lucy, I'm home," Jesse yelled out doint his best Ricky Ricardo impression. Beca felt her heart instantly start beating faster. She stood and walked back towards the French doors.
Jesse tossed his keys and the pizza he had picked up on the coffee table in the living room then headed down the hall. He had no idea where Beca could be but he figured the main hallway was as good a place to start looking as any. He had just finished yelling, "Come out come out wherever you are," when he saw Beca step up and onto the threshold of the back door. He knew it was a completely random fluke and would never happen again but before him was the most undeniably beautiful thing he had ever seen. Beca stood with one hand up on the huge French door steadying herself as she stepped in. The floral vines on the wall of the back patio shifted in the light breeze framing the doorway, and the evening sun shown in creating a haze of color and light all around Beca. It was like one of those scenes in a movie where the guy sees the girl for the first time. He knew it would never happen again. The sun and wind, flowers, and Beca would never all alight just right but it didn't matter. That one second of seeing Beca like that made spending his savings on this giant house totally worth it.
Jesse stared another minute as Beca walked towards him. "What?" She asked, "you look funny, are you ok?"
"And the spell is broken," Jesse thought then chuckled to himself, "Seeing you in this house, it's kind of surreal for me." Beca smiled, she slid her hands onto his chest, then leaned up and kissed him gently on the lips. Jesse wound his arms around her frame and held her to him. He deepened the kiss. His tongue slid along her bottom lip and then entered her mouth dancing with her tongue. After a minute or so they stepped back from each other, both in need of air. Jesse slid his fingers between Beca's and held her hand.
"This is some house. You must pay a fortune in rent," she said looking up at him.
"Oh, I don't pay rent," he paused for dramatic effect, "I own this baby."
"Seriously? You have to be kidding right?" She looked at Jesse for confirmation of his joke but he just smiled. "You seriously own this house? It's huge, what are you going to do with it?"
"I don't know a gym in one room, a place for guest to stay in the other. I already converted part of the upstairs into a sound room and studio," He replied nonchalantly.
Beca looked genuinely impressed. "Have your parents seen in? What do they think?"
Jesse pursed his lips, "Would it be less cool if I told you my mom picked it out?"
Beca laughed at Jesse, "it totally looks like a place your mom would like." Jesse faked a frowned, "Oh don't worry, you are still cool to me," she teased. "Honestly though, it is amazing. Good job," she said and gave him another kiss. Jesse beamed at her, her approval totally made his day.
"So pizza or the tour first?" Jesse asked. Beca picked the tour and told him the areas of the house she had already checked out. On the way to the stairs Jesse pointed out a room she had missed, "The gym," he said as they peaked in through the door. There were some loose weights on the ground and a treadmill in the middle of the room.
They made their way upstairs; the first room would be for his guests. They pushed the door open and looked inside; there was a bed, and nothing else.
"I love the way you decorated, do we call this minimalistic?" she said with a smile. Jesse laughed.
"I was living in a one room flat in London. I don't really have a lot of stuff. This was my old bed from back home," he said with a smile and pulled the door shut. To the right was a guest bathroom, to the left his sound room and studio. It was awesome.
"My Dad helped me set it up," Jesse explained. "The sale of the house went through while I was still in the UK so my parents flew here and pick up my keys. I had shipped all of my stuff so they got it and what stuff I still had in storage and moved me in. My Dad had already started on the soundproofing when I finally flew in."
Beca looked around; Jesse had converted this huge old bedroom into a modern soundproof studio. There was a lot of equipment similar to her own, used for making music and recording. One whole wall was set up as a projection screen so that Jesse could watch the movie he was working on while he was scoring. There was a desk with multiple computer screens, and a giant sound board. "This is pretty awesome Jess," Beca complimented.
"Well I figured there would be times I wanted to stay home and do work, and you know my Dad, he loves projects like these." Beca checked out the room again and then followed Jesse out to the other end of the hall. He opened the door onto the master bedroom.
Beca may have been impressed with the studio, but this room was by far her favorite in the house. It was huge, soft white and full of light. One whole wall was floor to ceiling windows that opened up onto a balcony overlooking the city. There was an old fireplace in the corner that Jesse had hung a flat screen over. There was a giant master bath that had a double sink, claw foot tub and a separate shower room. Jesse had a few pieces of bedroom furniture like a dresser and nightstand, and then there was the giant bed. It was low to the ground and covered in white sheets and a huge soft looking white down comforter. It looked very inviting.
