Chapter Eleven
"I hate wedding planning," Beca groaned as she fell face down on to her bed. "It's the worst thing ever."
"You look a little tense." Jesse said as he sat down next to her. "Wanna talk about it?"
"What are you, a therapist now?"
"Just trying to be the ever-loving fiancé I am," he said with a smirk. "The Bellas making you insane?"
"Amy says we should have a destination wedding in Tasmania, Stacie wants to wear the sluttiest bridesmaid dress I've ever seen, Chloe is driving me up a wall with all the colors she keeps showing me," Beca said as she rolled over so she could look at Jesse. "Then it's not just the ones who are here. Aubrey's a fucking drill sergeant over Skype. Noelle doesn't stop bitching at how depressed Laci's been, so her and Chloe decided that our wedding should be when Benji and Laci confront their feelings for each other and have it out."
"Have you figured out who your bridesmaids are yet?"
"Cynthia Rose and Denise can't make it to the wedding. Lily, Jessica, and Ashley can though but they don't want to be in the bridal party. I asked."
"So that leaves who?"
"Jesse," she said, not wanting to continue the wedding talk since that's all they ever seemed to talk about lately.
"I have to figure out who's my groomsmen."
"Fine," she sighed. "Maxie and Chloe are my maids of honor, then the rest are Stacie, Aubrey, Amy, Noelle, Cassie, and Laci. That's eight."
"Okay," he nodded. "Do I know eight guys?"
"Braden, Shane, Miller, Josh, Donald, Uni, Chris, and Benji."
"What about Bumper?"
"He counts?" she said and Jesse gave her a look. "Everyone's going to asking why we had one of the seven dwarfs in our wedding. Plus he makes it uneven."
"Why don't you ask Tara to be in the bridal party?" Jesse suggested.
"That's weird. I haven't really kept in touch with her."
"But you two grew up together, so it wouldn't be that weird."
"I guess I'll talk to her later then," she said, sitting up and moving away from him.
"Where are you going?"
"Jess, sweetheart," she said sweetly. "It's been a month since we had sex. I'm a tad on the frustrated side, and if I have to lay this close to you in this bed without going to sleep, I'm going to rip the piercing out."
"Right, got it," he said, standing up and covering himself. "Two more weeks, Bec."
"Awesome," she said dryly as she walked away.
"I can't believe you actually let me design your wedding dress," Cassie said as she went into the guest bedroom at Chloe's house with Beca. "You're going to love it. I finished it the other night and it matches all of your measurements, but try it on and I'll do whatever adjustments are needed and you'll be all set."
"Cas, it's beautiful," Beca said as she looked at the gown on the hanger. "I love it."
"It's simple, but not too simple, and it's classy. I know you don't like anything big and poofy and all that stuff," she said as she carefully handed it to Beca. "I really hope you like it."
"It's great, Cassie," Beca said as she put the dress on and looked at her reflection in the mirror while Cassie zipped the gown.
"You look amazing," Cassie said as she stepped back and admired her handy work. "You like all the lace?"
"Yeah, surprisingly I do," she said as she turned around to look at the open back of the dress.
"I wanna see!" Chloe said as she opened the door and froze in her spot. "Beca, you look gorgeous."
"Your boobs look great," Stacie agreed. "Nice work, Cassie. Now when you become a famous designer, Beca can say she had an original."
"Thanks," Cassie said, blushing a bit. "It looks like it fits perfectly, thank God. I thought your boobs were going to bust out the top."
"Yeah, no, it fits," Beca said as she admired herself in the mirror. "At least I know my wedding dress is set. Only thing about this wedding that's ready."
"What do you mean?"
"This genius," Chloe said, rolling her eyes. "Hasn't picked out invitations yet, hasn't picked out a color scheme yet. There's no bridesmaid dresses, no cake, no nothing!"
"Isn't the wedding in a couple of months?"
"Nine months!"
"Hey," Beca said defensively. "I've been busy, alright?"
"If you don't pick a color by tomorrow night, your wedding is going to look like a Barbie wedding," Chloe threatened.
"You wouldn't dare," Beca gasped.
"Try me."
"Fine! Blue," Beca said. "But a dark blue. I don't want my wedding to look like a Tiffany box, got it?"
"Got it," Chloe nodded happily.
"Have sex with Jesse yet?" Stacie asked.
"No," Beca grumbled. "Two more weeks."
"Did you at least try?"
"I teased the shit out of him the first two weeks and then when I realized I wasn't getting as much satisfaction as I wanted to out of it, I stopped and now we're just miserable," Beca sighed. "Let's not talk about it."
"What else needs to get done?" Cassie asked, changing the subject.
"I have to call the reception hall to confirm the date, call the church and make sure everything went through from last week," Beca said. "Cake tasting, dress picking, invitations need to go out."
"Good thing I took it upon myself to get your invitations printed once you told me the date, which you were supposed to confirm last month but because I'm your best friend and I'm a genius, I did that for you," Chloe said as she dropped a pile of boxes in front of Beca. "You're welcome. And you owe me $600."
"Thanks," Beca said as she opened the boxes and looked at the invitations. "Looks like I know what I'll be doing tonight."
"Go home and get started," Chloe said as she put the boxes on the bed. "Take the dress off, we'll keep it here so Jesse doesn't see it. Maxie texted me and said she found some nice bridesmaid dresses so I'll see what comes in blue and go from there."
"I know a really good bakery to get the wedding cake from. My boss uses it all the time when she has her charity events," Stacie said. "Cassie's gonna come cake tasting."
"I love cake," she nodded excitedly.
"I seriously don't know what I'd do without you guys," Beca said, feeling a bit emotional.
"You're home late," Beca said when Jesse walked in the door later in the evening. "Chloe got us invitations, we owe her money."
"She did good," Jesse nodded as he looked at the invitations that were in the boxes. "Trying to figure out the guest list?"
"Your family is huge, so it's a majority of the people," she said. "My family is like five people, and then there's the Bellas and the Trebles. Plus Chloe's parents."
"How many people are we looking at then?"
"150 maybe," she shrugged. "200 tops."
"Not bad," he said as he looked over the list.
"How come you came home so late? It's been like that all week."
"The movie I've been assisting on the composition with," he sighed. "It's a pain in the ass and everything's on location and the producers are a piece of work. I've been in the studio with Jimmy every night trying to come up with something, but it's hard since they're not sending over full scenes."
"Why not?"
"Apparently the producer wants to use local musicians, which is fine but he's under contract with us and his co-producers know that we're the best."
"You're the best," Beca corrected with a smile. "It'll all get sorted out and you'll be one step closer to being the next Hans Zimmer."
"I'm just exhausted from arguing with this guy all day," he sighed as he sat down next to her.
"Go to bed. I'll do this. I'm just doing the people we know who are definitely getting invited. I have to talk to your mom about your family and who you guys want there."
"Make sure you put Asher, Gabi, and Dylan down."
"Already there," she nodded. "Bree's down too."
"Really now?" Jesse said in surprise.
"I obviously beat her, might as well rub it in her face a bit more by inviting her to the wedding," Beca said with a smirk. "That reminds me, any idea what Kristin's address is?"
"Haha," he said sarcastically. "Let me help you."
"Seriously, nerd. Go to sleep, you look shot."
"No, no," he shook his head. "We're a team. We're supposed to do this wedding stuff together, right?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "Let's get this over with, I've got an early day tomorrow filled with dresses."
"Sounds exciting."
"You know it."
"You'll seriously be one of my bridesmaids," Beca asked into the phone. She had finally gotten around to calling Tara three months after Jesse told her she should.
"Are you kidding me? Of course!" she said excitedly. "It's not too late to get a dress right? I know the wedding is in like six months."
"I had one ordered in your size if you said yes. I meant to call you earlier, just things got so hectic all of a sudden with work and this wedding shit."
"At least you have Jesse around helping you. I'm so happy for the two of you."
"Yeah, he's great," Beca said with a smile. "Listen, I have to go. I have to get changed and see if Jesse's home so we can finish the potential seating charts for everyone."
"Have fun with that," she laughed before hanging up.
Beca walked into their apartment and saw Jesse sitting on the couch with his head in his hands and a beer on the coffee table.
"Rough day?" she asked as she dropped her stuff on the floor.
"A little bit," he said, sounding tense. "I don't know how to tell you this, Becs."
"Tell me what?"
"You know the movie I've been helping with?" he said and she nodded. "Well, they need me to go to London so I can finish."
"Okay," she said. They've both taken little business trips for a couple of days to finalize some projects; it was never a big deal. "For how long? Like a week?"
"More like six," he said and winced when he looked at her.
"Six weeks? That's a month and a half."
"I know," he said. "I have to go though. Plus, if they like me then I can definitely move up in my career."
"We're getting married, Jesse," she said, standing up in front of him. "In six months. There's so much shit to do. I need you here."
"I know," he said again. "I tried telling them that, and Jimmy tried telling them that, but I have to go."
"What am I going to do without you for six weeks?"
"We'll Skype and plan stuff that way and you have Chloe and Stacie to help. Amy's not much help so I won't mention her."
"I guess," she sighed. "When do you leave?"
"In two days," he said and braced himself for her reaction.
"Two days," she said calmly. "Well, that's just great. I can't do this without you, Jess. I sound like such a girl right now and I want to punch myself for it, but I can't. I need you here with me."
"We promised not to fight over our careers and let it interfere with our relationship."
"I'm not fighting with you," she said, trying to hold back the tears.
"It'll be over before you know it," he said, moving to hug her but she took a step back. "Beca, the last place I want to be right now is London, especially without you."
"So don't go."
"I have to."
"Fine," she nodded.
"It'll be like when we had summer break at school," he tried but she shook her head.
"I really hate how much you made me need you over the years," she said, walking away from him and into their bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
After letting a few hours past, Jesse walked into the bedroom and saw Beca curled up in a ball in bed, her face red and her cheeks tearstained. He hated how he had to leave her for so long, especially when they were supposed to planning for their wedding.
"I'm so sorry, baby," he whispered as he climbed into bed and pulled her close. "I love you so much, I hate seeing you so upset."
"I already hate this movie more than I usually would just because they're taking you away from me," she mumbled. "And turning me into a girl who actually cares."
"We made it through six weeks of my healing dick," he joked. "If we can make it through that, we can make it through anything."
"I guess," she said, smiling a little. "I'm going to miss you way too much, nerd."
"I'm not gone yet," he said as he rolled her onto her back and moved on top of her.
"Make it memorable," she said with a smirk. "Gonna be alone for six weeks, might need my imagination."
"I think that's the hottest thing you've ever said."
I tried writing in Beca teasing Jesse, but it was just not working out at all. Couldn't do it justice this time :( Which is unfortunate too because I love putting Jesse in uncomfortable situations lol.
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter (especially since it's another new one - YAY). Let me know what you thought about it, and anything you'd like to see. Some of you have given me some good ideas that I'm definitely going to try to put into the story. Thanks everyone :)