Chapter 25

"Beca? What are you doing here?"

Of all people to bump into at this time and place, Aubrey Posen was not expecting Beca Mitchell. They had spent a year working together all hours at RUNWAY. Aubrey liked her. She thought the tiny brunette was tough, clever and passionate. Very few people managed to keep up in the demanding role as Cassandra Harris' PA and Beca was one of them. Aubrey also knew some details of Beca's personal life. She definitely knew Beca did not live anywhere near here.

Beca had whipped off her sunglasses and looked equally surprised to see her her. "Hey Aubrey! Fancy seeing you here."

Aubrey did not missed the way Beca's eyes was darting a little wildly.

"Yes, just getting some coffee," she replied, raising the takeaway holder in her hand.

Beca nodded quickly. "Yep, me too. Coffee. I'm here for some coffee."

It took Aubrey precisely four second to give Beca a once-over. Messy hair? Check. Slightly dishevelled clothes? Check. Hickeys on the neck? Check. That slight look of shame? Check. Aubrey leaned forward, smirking conspiratorially.

"Did you have a hook up last night, Beca?" she whispered. "Because you looked..."

"What? No!" Beca shot back, her hand patting down her hair consciously.

"It's ok. You can tell me," Aubrey said, still with a smirk on her face. "Was it with that blonde guy I saw you with at the restaurant? He's pretty cute."

"Who? Mark?" Beca responded. She shook her head, looking distracted. "No, not Mark."

So it was a hook up- Aubrey thought.

"What are you doing around here, Bree?" Beca asked, fumbling into her bag for her phone and her wallet.

"Oh, just meeting Jesse," Aubrey answered lightly. "You remember Jesse, right? Cassie's boyfriend? His place is near here."

"Huh? Really? I had no idea," Beca said, pretending to be absorbed in digging round her bag. She looked up and gestured to the coffees in Aubrey's hands. "Hey, you better get going or those gonna get cold."

Aubrey was scrutinising her closely but seemed to rouse herself at Beca's remark.

"Yes, I should. See you at work, Beca."

"Yeah. See you, Bree."

Without a backward glance, Beca joined the queue for the coffee. Aubrey took one last appraising look at the brunette, left the cafe and walked the two minutes to Jesse's building. She waved at the doorman, who let her in with a smile.

"Apartment 3342 please? Jesse Swanson," Aubrey said, once he let her into the lobby.

"Sure thing, miss. I'll buzz you up."

Aubrey was about to turn towards the elevators when she acted on a hunch. She reached into her LV bag and pulled out a pair of sunglasses.

"Umm... Hal?" Aubrey said, peering at the doorman's badge. "Did a small brunette lady came out of here just now? It's just I think she dropped her sunglasses just outside and I don't know whether she lives here."

"Brunette?"

"Yes, about five feet two? Curly brown hair? She was wearing a light brown coat and jeans, had a blue backpack. I just passed her about five minutes ago and she dropped her glasses." Aubrey waved the sunglasses she had in her hand. "I picked it up but she went straight into a taxi before I could return them."

Hal's face was creased with thought.

"No." he finally said.

"Oh." Aubrey replied, a little disappointed. She was sure she was onto something. "Never mind.'

"...but if you hand those sunglasses to me, I'll be happy to give it to her next time she comes," Hal continued helpfully. "In fact, you can give it to Mr. Swanson. She always visit Mr. Swanson."

Monday morning, H&H Staff canteen

Beca read the last grovelling text from Jesse and impatiently dropped her phone face down onto the table. She was still pissed about yesterday. She was definitely not in any mood to forgive him any time soon. Let him stew. Beca picked up her fork and savagely stabbed the sausage in front of her.

"Whoa. Calm down, Beca. That thing's already dead."

Beca jerked her head upwards to find Stacie looking at her. The tall brunette picked up a forkful of salad leaves and tomatoes, chewing them carefully but her eyes never left Beca.

"Ok, what did Monsieur Dick did time round?" Stacie remarked.

Beca just huffed in annoyance. "Why do you think it's about Jesse?"

"I didn't mention any names. I could've been talking about anyone," Stacie replied laconically. "But I'm guessing it's Jesse because he's the only one that can get you all riled up like this."

That confirmed it. She was fucking transparent; Beca decided.

"Stace, what do you think about this business?" Beca asked. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing?" Stacie pretended to be busy drinking her Evian. "Stace, come on. Be honest."

Stacie put that bottle of Evian and leant forward on the table. "Does he make you happy, Bec?"

"Yes," Beca replied immediately. At Stacie's pointed stare, she added reluctantly. "Well...most of the time."

It was Stacie's turn to scoff impatiently.

"The girls are not too thrilled with how things are," Stacie replied. "You deserve better, Bec. You should be in a healthy relationship with someone whose proud to call you his girlfriend. What is this thing he has with CH?"

Beca took a sip of her hot tea before replying.

"They are best friends. He's helping her with something. I don't know what but it's important."

"You don't know?" Stacie spoke up, her eyebrows lifting in surprise.

Beca shook her head. "I don't want to know."

"Can you trust him?" Stacie asked.

"Should I?"

"I can't answer that question. You should know the answer by now," Stacie replied back. At Beca's frown, Stacie said,"We all can see you are happy-ish, Bec, and despite his faults, we can tell Jesse's crazy about you. We just don't like this whole secrecy thing. Daniel was a pencil dick fuckboy coward but at least your relationship was out in the open."

Beca absently stirred her tea, deep in thought and then lifted her eyes to meet Stacie's.

"What should do you think I should do?" she asked.

"I think you should figure things out," Stacie replied. "Have some time out and figure what's good for you. Are you still going on that retreat thing with Mercy Galloway?"

Beca nodded. That invite from Mercy Galloway had came out of the blue. Despite Decibel possibly folding in a matter of weeks, Beca has managed to score an exclusive interview with the former star. Mercy Galloway was a ten times Grammy and Oscar winner and everyone was still curious why she disappeared at the height of her fame. She was a recluse, ripe for a comeback and would be giving Beca her first interview in years. It was an epic scoop. The only request made was Mercy Galloway was not comfortable with a typical interview and insisted that Beca joined her in a two week wilderness retreat. No phones, no internet, no casual contact with the outside world. It was a tall order but scoops like this didn't come often.

"Perfect. You both can take some time off and think about things," Stacie smirked. "-, without both of you getting distracted, wanting to fuck each other brains out."

Perhaps Stacie was right. Maybe her mind would be clearer after some time apart.

Beca's phone buzzed again and seething slightly with irritation, Beca picked it up, intent to switch her phone off. She stopped when she saw the message and Beca furrowed her brow, reading the text.

"Jesse again?" Stacie said knowingly.

"No," Beca reply. She slowly slid her phone over to Stacie. "It's Daniel. He wants to meet up. He said it's urgent."

In Cassie's car, on the way to H& H

She's mad. She is so, so mad.

She should be. You are an idiot.

Jesse scrolled through his messages, debating whether he should send Beca another one. So far she had not replied to his last six nor did she picked up his calls the whole of last night. He fucked up yet again and for the umpteenth time, Jesse wondered how he could redeem himself this time round.

He didn't mean to panic and hustle Beca out of there so fast. She didn't deserve to be treated like that. It was just everything happened so fast and she was mad and just when he thought the coast was clear, Aubrey had came up to the apartment and casually said she ran into Beca at the Starbucks round the corner. Her eyes had swept over to Jesse as she mentioned it and he had kept a careful poker face on.

Jesse sighed, checking his phone again. No reply from Beca still

"What's eating you?"

Cassie was sitting on the other side of car seat. She was on a call with Tom Ford just now, making notes on the folder on her lap throughout the conversation. Jesse didn't realised she had finished her telephone call and had spent the last few minutes observing him. Jesse casually slid his phone back into his jacket.

"Nothing. Just thinking of work," he blandly replied.

"Complete and utter lie," Cassie shot back. "I've been watching you when I was talking to Tom. Something's bothering you. What gives?"

"Really. It's work. Lots of things happening, you know," Jesse lied. He smoothly changed the subject. "How are you bearing up? Willie giving you grief still?"

Cassie nodded. "Hopefully, not for long," she replied. "As soon as Uncle George signs over H&H Holdings over to me, Wilhelmina Slater will be history."

Jesse thought about it. Yes, that had always been the plan. This whole big rigmarole with him and Cassie had been to appease George Harris Senior. Despite Cassie being a kick ass EIC and would be a formidable CEO helming H&H Holdings, George Harris Senior had been a little reluctant to hand it solely over to her. Jesse knew George Harris Senior was old fashioned. In that respect and in other things.

"Cass, are we really going through with this?" Jesse spoke up.

Cassie turned towards him. "What do you mean? That's the plan, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Jesse answered. He looked down and fiddled with his cufflink. "Yesterday, Uncle George asked why we haven't move in together yet."

Cassie's head whipped up in alert.

"And he's also dropping heavy hints about me asking the question," Jesse continued, fingers still playing nervously with his cufflink.

Cassie let out a deep breath. "What did you say?"

"I said we are not ready yet. What do you think?" Jesse answered.

"Did he buy that?

"For the time being. But you'll know he's going to ask again," Jesse replied, his forehead creasing. "I don't know, Cass. Maybe we should call the whole thing off."

"You are not backing out of this, are you?" Cassie's voice was a trifle shocked. "We had a deal, Jesse. You've promised."

"I know. But -"

"But why?" Cassie questioned.

"I..." Jesse faltered. "I don't know..."

Jesse looked away, feeling frustrated. God, why did he chickened out? He knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to say everything had changed. He met a girl he was head over heels in love with and things had changed. But seeing the look in Cassie's eyes and thinking about what her family had done for her, Jesse had struggled over the words.

Cassie reached over and squeezed his hand.

"Come on, we talked about this already. It's a big deal for me and Aubrey, ok? I only ask you because I trust you, Jesse," Cassie said softly. "Look, it's only until Uncle George signs over and you'll get half of everything, Jess. That is a tonne of money. Imagine what you can do with that. You can buy anything you want. Anything."

Anything he wanted.

That was true.

With all the money from the deal, he could buy anything he wanted for Beca.

"Jess?"

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Cassie questioned. The car had came to a stop outside H&H and the chauffeur was already opening the door on Cassie's side. She was still on her seat, ignoring the opened door. Her eyes were fixed on Jesse. He stifled that deep, heavy sigh and fixed another smile on his face.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Everything's just fine."

The next evening

"Hey, you've made it."

Daniel rose up from his seat. Beca stood in front of him, regarding the man she once thought was the love of her life. The Italian restaurant they were meeting at was once her favourite; their favourite. They had quite a few dinners there when they were together and standing here, by the usual booth Daniel always booked, Beca had a flashback to her past with Daniel. The times they were snuggled in close in that booth, laughing, teasing, drinking wine until they were slightly tipsy before heading home to long nights in bed. She had avoided this place ever since their break-up.

Daniel waited for Beca to be seated before calling the waiter over.

"Do you mind me ordering?" he asked with a charming smile. At Beca's nod, he placed the order, choosing the exact starter and pasta she loved. A bottle of her favourite Chablis was already being poured. Noting her glance at the bottle of wine, Daniel smiled, "You always like that one."

"I'm surprised you even remembered," Beca said drily, picking her glass up.

"Why wouldn't I?" Daniel replied. "You are not easily forgettable, Beca."

"Funny. I thought you did a pretty good job of that," she snarked back.

Daniel's eyes softened with what looked like regret.

"I was stupid, OK?" he said softly. "I threw away what could have been the best thing that happened to me. I'm really sorry, Beca. We did have a good time when we were together, right?"

Beca took a sip of the Chablis. It was cool, dry and delicious. Just as she remembered it.

"We are not here to talk about that, Daniel," she remonstrated, her eyes chilly. "You said you have something urgent to talk about."

The waiter came back with their bread and Daniel waited until they were left alone before speaking up. "I wanted to talk about Decibel."

"What about Decibel?"

"H&H is closing it down. You are going to lose your job."

"Don't you think I know that by now?"

"Yes, I thought you might," he answered. Daniel drummed his fingers, carefully looking at Beca across the table. "It's being offered for sale but there's no takers so far."

"And?"

"I think it will make a great addition to Meade Holdings. My mother had been looking for other titles to diversify in."

"Then why are you talking to me?" Beca replied, spearing an antipasto and popping into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed. "You should talk to your mom."

"I will," Daniel shrugged. "But I need a little incentive."

Beca carefully put down the fork. Just in case, the next words that were to spew from his mouth was what she suspected. She didn't want to stab Daniel with it and spend a night in jail.

"What is this little incentive?" Beca said coldly.

Daniel wiped his mouth slowly with his napkin.

"Did you enjoy that?" he asked about the starter. "I remember how much you like it. You made me come all the way here from across town once just to have it. It was raining so hard and we both got so wet."

"Quit beating about the bush, Daniel and tell me what this is about," Beca snapped out impatiently.

Daniel was smirking indulgently at her and shook his head slowly.

"Man, I miss that," he said, gazing at Beca. The scowl on her face did not deter him one bit. "I really miss all that fire in you, Beca."

It took all of Beca's control to stay civil. The waiter materialised, asking whether they were finished. At their nod, the plates were whisked away and their main course were served.

"Get to the point." Beca said.

"I'm going to persuade my mother to buy over Decibel," Daniel said, picking up his fork and whirling it in the pasta.

"Yes, you've told me," Beca said sounding a little bored. "Who's going to run it? Noah had already quit." She then gave Daniel an appraising look. "Don't tell me you're going to quit MODE to run Decibel? A bit of a demotion for you, Mr. Meade. What's the matter? Can't run with the big girls?"

For the first time since she sat down, she finally saw Daniel looking uncomfortable. She had poked a raw nerve. Beca knew that. Daniel had never really stepped out of his older brother's shadow, Alex Meade was a phenomenal editor and would have been a kick-ass Editor-in-chief of MODE or future CEO of Meade Holdings. If he hadn't passed away in that tragic skiing incident.

It was all very remembered the fallout from that. Alex Meade left on Friday by private jet for a skiing holiday in Switzerland and by Monday, the newspapers were full of news of the tragedy. He went off piste along a dangerous black run. Search efforts were hampered due to the weather. His body was never recovered.

"That is a low blow, Beca," Daniel remarked.

For a moment, she felt a pinch of guilt. She knew Daniel always thought that Alex was the preferred son, the one groomed to take over. Daniel had always been the second son that partied too hard and got into trouble.

"Then stop playing games."Beca snarked back.

Daniel had begun to eat in earnest, all the while avoiding Beca's penetrating gaze. That plate of ravioli in front of her was indeed her favourite but she didn't have any appetite for it. She just want to get out of here now. Beca wondered why she even agreed to this meeting. She heard Daniel's fork clattered down and looked up to see him staring at her earnestly.

"I just want another chance with you, Beca," Daniel said. "I know how much that rag meant to you so here's the deal. Meade Holdings buy Decibel. Everyone keeps their jobs."

"You think I'm for sale, Daniel?" Beca snapped. "I rather work elsewhere."

"I know you can easily get another job, Beca," Daniel replied. "But what about Tina? And Jim? And some of the older editors with mortgages to pay and kids in school? What about them? I'm giving everyone a chance to keep their jobs."

Beca toyed with her food. All he said was true. Times were not exactly good now. She could probably tide over with some freelance work until something more concrete comes along but Beca knew some of the other staff had been working for Decibel for years and that magazine was the only workplace they knew.

"What do you want exactly, Daniel?" she spoke through clenched teeth. She knew she was dancing with the devil. Daniel wouldn't be Daniel if he did not have an ulterior motive.

"I buy over Decibel. You give us another try," Daniel said, his eyes bright like a predator. He knew he got her attention. "That's not even the best part."

Beca raised her eyes to meet his.

"I want you to be Editor-in-Chief, Beca."

At an exclusive surgery outside Manhattan

Wilhelmina Slater leaned back into her chair and crossed her legs elegantly. She had been waiting for some time but shoe could afford to be patient. After all, they had spent months... so many months on this little plan; what was another twenty minutes? The waiting room was comfortable enough. It should be with the prices the clinic was charging. She had been summoned to the clinic in the usual fashion. A call to her cellphone from that number and Wilhelmina wasted no time ordering Marc to change her diary to fit this appointment. She didn't care she had to cancel a major photo shoot and a meeting with two potential big advertisers.

This was more important.

Wilhelmina had been primed for this moment ever since she got the news. It was to be a life changing moment. It will be the zenith of their carefully orchestrated plans and if it all went well, that stupid Daniel Meade will be out on his ass in the streets while she, Wilhelmina Slater, will be the new Editor-in-Chief of MODE magazine.

And when she becomes the EIC of MODE, well... that bitch Cassandra Harris and that fake boyfriend of hers just better watch out.

Hmm. Shame.

He was quite pretty. She wouldn't mind using him once or twice.

There was a slight knock on the door and Wilhelmina straightened up in her chair. The caller did not wait for her to give permission to enter. She could hear the doorknob being turned and Wilhelmina leaned forward in her chair in anticipation. Nothing fazed her much but what came through the door made her gasped. She rose to her five inch heels slowly, only to aware that she was gaping openly.

A tall, blonde, curvaceous woman was standing by the door, smiling at her. She was wrapped in the luxurious dressing gown provided by the clinic but Wilhelmina could still make out the fantastic breast job done on her chest. The waist was tinier, probably by removing a rib and no doubt, if the blonde turned around, Wilhelmina would see the fabulous ass augmentation job the clinic did. The blonde's face was still slightly blotchy with surgery. Once the swelling goes down, she will have the perfect face with the perfect nose.

But still recognisable.

The face would still be recognisable. The family chin and cheekbones were still there. The face just looked a lot more... prettier.

"Alex," Wilhelmina breathed out, still spinning with surprise.

The blonde laughed, tipping her head back. The voice was slightly higher from the hormones and the surgery to shave off the Adam's apple was an unqualified success.

"Alexis," she answered. "I'm Alexis now, Wilhelmina. Alexis Meade."

AN : Hi all, thank you for all your lovely reviews. Shit is going to hit the fan soon. Aubrey knows about Jesse and Beca but will she tell Cassie? Things are not smooth sailing with our OTP because what kind of relationship is it if it is shrouded in secrecy? Daniel Meade had moved in, dangling a proposition to Beca to save her beloved magazine AND offer her a coveted role.

I also used a little of Ugly Betty plotline here and Ugly Betty is a soap opera. Daniel's brother, Alex Meade, did not die from a skiing incident. He faked his own death to turn into a woman!