Jesse slowly pulls up in his long driveway, happy to see his home after another very long and excruciating day at work.

There was always too much to be done, too many deadlines to meet. It was impossible to stay on top of the current tasks while keeping up with future projects.

The last thing he wants to do is talk with his fiancé. Sit down with her and break it down to her as gently as he could that their relationship was over, that it had been over for a while and it was time to move on.

He hated this part. Avoided it all the time. Which was exactly why he was in the current predicament he was in - a dead end relationship working a job he hated. He didn't want to disappoint anybody or want to let anyone down, didn't want to quit too easily.

He hated giving up.

He takes the keys out of the engine of his four door, walking up the brick walkway and into the front door of their house.

His house.

It would be his house when he through with this conversation. Which was what he wanted to happen, of course, it was just weird to think about. They'd been living here together for three years. The deed might be in his name, but this was their house.

He takes his work shoes off on the carpet in the entryway, his barefoot hitting the hardwood floor. "Sadie, are you home?"

"In the kitchen," she shouts back at his question, but not loudly, just loud enough for him to hear her voice echoing through the halls. He makes his appearance then, Sadie looking through their refrigerator for something to eat. "How was your day?"

"It was alright," he says. "Busy."

"What do you want to do for dinner?"

"Actually," he pauses, unable to continue.

"What?"

Here goes nothing, he thinks.

"I think we need to talk, Sadie."


The first thing Chloe's eyes find in her apartment is the dozen roses set on the kitchen counter in their crystal clear, sparkling in the sunlight vase.

"Whoa." Chloe's so much more girly when it comes to these things, for lack of a better way of putting it. She got excited and giddy over these little gifts, whether for her or for someone else. It's just how she was, how she always was, and how she probably always would be. "These are gorgeous. Who's the lucky guy? You didn't tell me you were seeing anyone."

"I'm not." Beca shrugs it off, barely paying any attention to the red head in her apartment gawking at the bouquet of flowers. "They were just on my desk at work one day. Secret admirer, I guess."

"A secret admirer bought you a dozen roses?" Cue the excitement from her very loud, very overly excited friend. "Beca, this is a huge deal. This guy must really like you."

"Right? That's exactly what I thought, too, Chlo."

"You have got to find out who this guy is."

"Oh, I've got a pretty good idea who it was."

Chloe doesn't notice the tone of her voice, hardly ever does, but for once she's glad she didn't pick up on the sarcasm. "Ask him out!"

"Chloe, relax. I can handle my own love life," she says. "Why are you even here anyway? Shouldn't you be with your mom? Isn't she in town?"

"Oh my god!" Chloe dives forward towards her, reaching for the diamond treble clef necklace resting against her neck. Her tone changes when she speaks next. Not as excited, not as unknowing. "Wow. Beca. That's…that's really pretty."

"Thanks," Beca mutters quietly.

"Who's that from?" Chloe holds the treble clef pendant in her palm, letting it rest softly against her light skin. "I mean, I'm assuming you didn't buy it, cause that must have cost a fortune. Those are real diamonds aren't they?"

"You know, I found this on my desk, too." She tries to play dumb, honestly she does. She doesn't know how convincing she comes across to Chloe though. She was easier to fool than Amy, but she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach about lying to her. This friend she's had since she's been in Los Angeles. It almost didn't feel right. "Must have been the secret admirer, too"

"Wow, you're a lucky girl," she giggles. Almost humorlessly. For a moment, she feels like she's been caught. Something sinister took place in Chloe's vocal reflections. In her eyes. Something that wasn't there moments ago."All these gifts."

"What can I say? I'm irresistible."

"He's buying you gifts now," Chloe states. Not a question. No curiosity in her tone. It's a statement - she's confident in what she's saying

The comment wipes the small smile clean off her pale face.

"What?"

"The flowers, the necklace." Chloe gestures to both of them as she speaks with her hands, looking behind her at the flowers, and dropping the pendant against Beca's neck once more.

"I just told you they were from a secret admirer."

"Beca, cut the bullshit. I know they're from Jesse."

She gives her best what are you talking about voice. She's had a lot of practice at it through the years - she was quite the skilled liar as a child if she does say so herself. "Jesse?"

"I've been friends with him for years. If you don't think I know he's a hopeless romantic, you've got another thing coming."

"I don't know what you're talking about. They're not from Jesse."

"I don't believe you."

"You can believe what you want," she rebuts back. Chloe's found her way back to the flowers, pacing on her apartment floors. Something catches her eye, she stays focused on the flowers, reaching closer to pull at them. Just at it occurs to Beca exactly what she's reaching for, she's already snatched it up in her hands. "Chloe."

"We'll make this work, I promise. Not from Jesse, huh?" Chloes shoves the small card back in the bouquet of red. "Wow, I can't even believe you right now."

"Chloe, look…"

"No! You look." Her tone is sharp and hard. Loud. Beca's never heard Chloe talk to her like this before. To anyone. Chloe. Sweet, bubbly, energetic Chloe. She hardly gets angry, hardly gets mad at anyone. "He's engaged."

"And he's incredibly unhappy!"

"Do you think I don't know that? I've known for a long while their relationship has been on its tail end. I've know since before I got you that job with him! But that doesn't make what you're doing right! That doesn't excuse the fact that you're having an affair with him!"

"It's not…it's not an affair."

"Is that how you're calming your guilty conscious over this all? By telling yourself it's not exactly what it is?" Chloe restlessly wanders back and forth from the front door to the couch Beca's sitting on. "God, I can't even believe you. You have the nerve, the audacity to this. Not even just to them, no. But to yourself."

"Look, this isn't some silly little affair, okay? I love him!" She pauses. She hasn't admitted this to herself yet. She knew it was true, but to face it and say it aloud? That was a whole different bridge to cross. She inhales deeply for four seconds, exhales for six. "I'm in love with him."

"You're in love with him, huh?"

"Yes." Beca says it so softly she barely hears the word herself.

"Oh, God. This is like Luke all over again."

"No, it's not." It's not like Luke, she tells herself. It's not. But that little voice in her head screams over her thoughts with it is, it is, it is.

"You know what, Luke was an asshole. And he didn't deserve you. And I'm sorry he screwed you over. But this?" She gestures with her hands around her. To nothing specific, nothing in particular, just in general. The situation. "This one's on you."

"Chloe, c'mon."

"No, you know what," she says quietly, almost inaudible. She grabs her things she came with and motions to the door. "I'm out of here. I can't listen to you defend this situation any longer."

"Chloe!"

"Don't expect me to come picking up the pieces when this doesn't work out the way you want it to."


"Alright," Sadie says. She closes the fridges and sits at once of the bar stools on the side of their island. "Talk about what?"

"Us."

"Okay," she drags the word out slowly, confusing dangling in her eyes. "What about us?"

"I don't think this isn't working anymore."

"What's not working anymore?"

"Us," he repeats, slower this time.

Her eyebrows furrow against her face. "What are you talking about?"

"Sadie, this relationship hasn't been working for a while."

"Okay…."

"We've been on different paths. We're different people than we were in college. It's just….this isn't working."

"Okay, so what exactly are you saying?"

"I want to call of the wedding."

"So, do you just want to wait until next year or something? Is that what you're saying?"

"No," he sighs, frustrated she doesn't seem to be getting it. He thinks he's being as clear as he can get, and maybe he is. Maybe she just doesn't want to believe what she's hearing. Maybe she wants to convince herself it's not as bad as it is. "I want to call of the engagement. Completely. I think it's time for us to move on."

"Wait." Sadie's hands cover her eyes. She's stressed, he can tell by her subtle movements, the way the lines on her face seem to crease. "Where is this coming from?"

"If we're being honest, I think this has been a long time coming." She doesn't respond, just keeps her eyes on him with a blank expression. "I wanted to talk to you about this last time we sat down and had a talk. But you seemed so….set in your way that you wanted to figure this out. I didn't know how to tell you then."

"I still do want to figure this out," she argues. "That hasn't changed."

"I know it hasn't," Jesse says softly.

"So, what has changed?" Jesse doesn't know how to reply to her question. He's already let her down today, he doesn't want to dig the knife in deeper by telling her about Beca yet. That could come at another time. "You know, it's like you never even try in this relationship anymore."

The anger starts to spill out of her now, he sees the fury in her eyes begin to build. "Excuse me?"

"You're never even here! You're always at the office, or off at some stupid meeting or on some stupid business trip in God knows what city!"

"Are you serious?" His voice rises a little, he doesn't want to yell at her, but he isn't going to sit there without defending himself. "I'm here more than you are. You're always off at some fashion thing. London, Paris, Milan. Seriously, Sadie. You care more about that stuff and your appearance more than you do about me."

"That isn't true." Her tone is softer, but still hard. It cracks just slightly, she tries to cover it up, he he heard it. They'd known each other too long for him to miss a small detail like that.

He swears he sees a single tear fall from the corner of her left eye, but she turns her back to him quickly for him to really catch a glimpse at her. Sadie? Crying? He knew they'd been together a while, but they'd been so distance from each other for so long. He didn't think she'd be so hurt over it, it's not like she'd shown so much emotion over the last so many years they were together.

"You know, Jesse," she starts. "You were the one person I thought who wouldn't hurt me. The one person who I thought wasn't going to leave once we started dating. Turns out I was wrong."

The venom laced in her voice is enough to bother him, but he still can't see to figure out where all the hurt it coming from. They'd been coming to this point for a while, hadn't they?

"I've put so much effort into this relationship. So much hard work and dedication to make sure we stayed as strong as we could. So much more than you have."

"Strong?" He can't help but laugh at that. They'd been anything but strong lately. "Please, explain to me what you've done to help this relationship recently. What have you done?"

"What does that even matter? It's done, isn't it? You've made up your mind, which means mine has to be made up too, doesn't it?"

"Sadie, I'm not hearing any solutions, I'm just hearing you be defensive over the situation."

"I'm not getting down on my hands and knees to beg you to stay with me. I don't need you, Jesse," she spits at him. "You know what? Just go. Just leave."

"This is my house, Sadie."

"Then I'll go," she says. She rushes to the front door. "Don't come chasing after me, it won't do you any good once you've finally realized what a mistake you're making."

The door slams shut and his eyes close upon the impact. It went about as well as he thought it would - not good at all. Jesse just stands there for a moment, replaying the last few moments in his head. The words, the anger, the realization.

They were ending their relationship, so he could begin a new one.

It's weird, he just had her leave their house (his house, technically, but it was their's in a sense,) and now he finds that he doesn't want to be alone with their exchange replaying over and over in his head.

He grabs his keys and heads to one place he know he can turn to.


"So, Chloe knows."

"Chloe?" Amy's eyes widen upon hearing the statement. "How'd that weasel figure it out?"

Beca shrugs. "She saw the flowers and the necklace."

"And she pieced it together from that?" She pauses, a deep look of thought etched on her face. "That doesn't sound like my little airhead."

"No, Ames," Beca sighs. "She read the damn card he sent with the roses."

"You mean to tell me you left that out for everyone to read?" Amy's head shakes back and forth, left to right left to right. "You're not very good at having a secret affair, are you?"

"It's not…" Beca can't even finish the sentence before Amy's eyes send her that are you kidding me? look. "Okay, maybe it is."

"Uh-huh, yeah. It is," Amy says. "So, what did little miss ginger have to say about it all?"

"She freaked out." Beca pulls a pillow up from beside her and holds it against her. "What else would you expect from her? She's dramatic. She'd freak out if they stopped selling pumpkin spiced latte's from Starbucks in the fall."

"Chloe does have a flare for the dramatics, yes."

"She yelled a lot," Beca decides to elaborate for her friend. "Basically, she told me I've learned nothing from the situation with Luke. Then she said not to call her when things don't work out. And then she stormed out."

"Well…"

"Oh, God." Beca's head falls into her hands. "You agree with her, don't you?"

"Beca, you are having an affair with an engaged man. I mean, you think you would have learned from last time to not put yourself in that place again. And yet, here we are. Again," she responds. "And you knew this time. You knew there was someone else and it didn't stop you."

"I know, okay?! I know," she agrees. She really can't disagree, it'd be hypocritical of her and she knows it. Still, it's a sucky situation. She just hates that it all comes back on her shoulders. "It's just…"

"You love him." Beca just nods in response, head down, hands folded in her lap. "I know. I can tell. I see it in your eyes. You're happier than you've been in a while."

Beca's eyes find Amy's in the room, just a small amount of light dancing in the room from the sunset outside.

"And while I'm not thrilled about the situation…," she starts. "I am happy to see my friend excited about her life again."

"Thanks, Amy."

A knock interrupts them. She wasn't expecting company at this time. Or anytime really. She never expected company. Unless…unless it was Chloe - coming back to talk to her more calmly and rationally this time.

"Do you think Chloe's come back to apologize for yelling at me?"

"Doubt it." Amy's shoulders rise and fall as she gets up from the sofa to answers Beca's door. "Let's see, shall we?"

Beca leans back against her couch lazily, gazing out of the corner of her eye to peak around and get a good look at her doorway - she wanted to see who was gonna appear when Amy opened the door. When the door swings open though, it's the last person she expected to see.

It's Jesse.

She sits up, tidying her shirt and hair and trying to look half way presentable.

"Oh, it's lover boy." Beca does not like the amusement dangling in Amy's voice. Nope, things were about to get weird. "I don't believe we've properly met there, hot stuff. I'm Amy, Beca's much more attractive, blonde, Australian, friend."

"Amy, give it a rest."

"Now, look. I hear you've got a thing for dating two girls at once, but could I interest you in trying to date three girls at once?" Amy winks. She actually winks at Jesse.

"Okay, Amy, that's enough." Beca pulls on Amy's shirt, tugging her back and allowing Jesse into her home. "Seriously, do you ever take a day off?"

Amy finds her way to the kitchen, grabbing a snack before settling back on Beca's sofa and making herself completely at home, flicking through the channels with the remote to find something on TV to watch.

"Amy?"

Amy looks up at the sound of Beca's small voice, munching on the chips she brought in for herself. "What's up, kid?"

Beca rolls her eyes. "Do you think we could…have some time to ourselves?"

"You want me to leave?" Beca's head tilts downwards just once - a slight nod. "Alright, I see how it is." She gets up, keys and phone in hand as she walks past the pair of them. "Jesse, if you get bored with this one…"

"Bye, Amy."

"Alright, alright I'm going."

Beca swings the door shut quietly behind her friend as she finally exits the apartment. "Sorry about her, she's….crazy."

"No worries," he mutters. "It was nice to meet one of your friends."

Beca nods. "So, what brings you out here? Is everything okay?"

"I talked to Sadie."

That is….not what she expected to hear. Don't get her wrong, it's what she wanted to hear, it's what she's wanted to hear for a while now, but if he was here? Was that a good sign or a bad sign?

"And?"

"I told her I wanted to call the engagement off," he says. Jesse reaches for her hands between them, pulling her over to her sofa and sitting down with her, still holding firm on her tiny hands. "And that it was time for us to go our separate ways."

"How'd she take it?" She's anxious about the reply he's going to give her.

"You know it's weird. At first - she was really calm about it all," he says quietly. "And then…it just turned to anger in a split second. Like this switched was turned on."

"Maybe she didn't know how to respond," or how to act."

"Yeah, maybe." His thumb gently rubs of the back of her hand as he nods. "You know, she tried to tell me I was never home. Me. When she's out in who knows what city every week."

"Jess…"

"She also tried to kick me out of my own house." He laughs, it's humorless, but it's a nice departure from his seriousness just a moment ago.

"Did she?"

"Oh yeah," he says.

"What did you do?"

"I had to reminder her that the deed to the house was actually in my name, not hers."

"So, what does this mean for us? Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know, Bec."

"I mean, is it over?" She pulls her hands back from his. "Are we free to be together?"

"Bec, look…"

She hates the way his tone sounds, the way he seems to be thinking hard to put together his thoughts without hurting her. But his phone rings, interrupting him from whichever direction he might have been headed in. Maybe she was just overreacting, her anxiety getting the better of her. That wasn't uncommon. She always assumed the worst about everything.

"I don't know the number," he mutters, pressing the green circular key on his phone to accept the call anyways. "Hello?" His face turns serious. "Is she okay? Alright. Sure. I'll be right there."

"What? What is it?"

"Sadie was in accident.""

She kind of hates the irony. He ends things, they're free, or supposedly free, to be together, and he's already off rushing to save Sadie again. But, it's an accident, she tells herself. He was with her for six years, he is probably still her emergency contact, and of course he'd be worried.

But there's this sinking feeling in her stomach.

You're just overreacting, Beca, she tells herself - over and over and over again - and she'll keep saying it until she actually starts to believe it.

"Go," she says, loud and strong.

"What?"

"Go, Jesse. It's okay. Go see if she's okay."

Jesse leans forward, pressing his lips gently against her forehead leaving a lingering kiss.

"I'll call you, okay?"

She just nods, Jesse getting up and exiting her apartment without so much as another word.

You're just overreacting, you're just overreacting, you're just overreacting.

She still doesn't believe it.


We're winding down to the end here, dear readers.

Thanks for reading/reviewing and all that. I really do appreciate it.