It's been two weeks since Beca dislocated her elbow, which meant a checkup was in order. She knew there's no way she was getting it removed on that day but still had a tiny hope her doctor would tell her that her elbow healed and that she could finally get the sling removed.
She sat down in the waiting room given the fact that the doctor was with a patient and killed time by looking at through one of the available magazines.
Beca was flipping a page when she spotted none other than Amber and her daughter who just walked into the clinic. "Beca, hi," Amber greeted once she noticed her.
"Hey, Amber." She smiled curtly at the woman before meeting Theresa's gaze. "Hey, Theresa."
The younger girl shyly waved at her.
"Here for a checkup?" Amber was saying as she sat down on the empty chair next to Beca.
"Yeah. What about you, everything alright?"
"Tree here fell from a swing and hurt the shoulder she had broken before."
"Ouch." Beca grimaced.
"It's probably not serious but gotta be sure."
"Jesse talked you into going to a specialist instead of the ER, didn't he?" Beca guessed.
"Yeah," Amber confirmed, slightly surprised.
"He worries too much," Beca added, shaking her head.
"It's both sweet and annoying," Amber sighed.
"That's basically Jesse in a nutshell: sweet but annoying," Beca replied and heard a small chuckle from Amber.
Things should be awkward between the two given the fact that they were both seeing the same guy and knew each other. Yet somehow it didn't feel as awkward as it should be.
"Well, that's me," Beca said, placing the magazine on the coffee table, and stood up when the nurse called her name.
"It's nice seeing you," Amber smiled, meeting Beca's gaze.
"You, too," Beca smiled back before turning on her heels.
Amber was too likable and it was almost impossible to dislike her. Besides the woman was quite the badass: Beca was fond of her for how much she sacrificed for her daughter. Therefore, yeah, it wasn't that weird that meeting her wasn't awkward.
After the checkup where the doctor assured her that in two weeks her elbow should completely heal, Beca headed to the radio station where she spent most of the day daydreaming about what she was going to eat for dinner at her father's place.
Sheila made the best Lasagna and her cooking chops were the main reason Beca had dinner at their house at least once every two weeks. She didn't mind hanging out with them especially when they had conversations that weren't forced.
Things were going pretty well with her father and it was awesome.
They talked about a paper she was writing— having a professor for a father had its perks— and thanks to his advice and tips, she'd probably manage to finish the essay due in a couple of days soon.
"Dad, no," she shook her head.
"What do you mean no? I want to properly meet him." He frowned.
"It's new and it's not by any mean serious, you definitely don't have to meet him properly."
"The fact that it's new solidifies the need for us to meet. I want to know his intentions with my daughter." He shrugged.
"Dad, please." She cringed. "Don't be that guy."
"Look, I was never as present as any father must be in their child's life. I'm trying to make up for the lost years and be involved in my only daughter's life. Help me out here, Becs." He paused for a few seconds when she shook her head. "I promise that I won't scare him off. I just want to have dinner with him."
Beca blew a breath, realizing how pointless it was to postpone the inevitable. She was expecting her father to want to meet Jesse properly as he put it. She just did not expect him to want to meet Jesse as soon as she told him about the change in their relationship.
"Okay, fine," she caved. "Just promise you won't make it weird."
"I promise," he smiled, glancing up when Sheila walked into the room holding dessert. "Is he allergic to any specific food? We don't want to kill the guy," he said in amusement.
"No, he doesn't have any food allergies," Beca grumbled as she started to regret telling her father about Jesse.
Sheila was cutting a slice of the cheesecake for Beca while Dr. Mitchell gave her a recap of the conversation he and Beca just had. The step-monster didn't react like her old man, which Beca really appreciate.
Beca didn't expect to find Jesse at the Bellas house when she got home but wasn't surprised.
He was there to help Stacie with some algebra homework and had just finished when Beca arrived.
"When will your elbow heal, I hate not being able to really hug you," he mumbled hugging her hello.
"Doctor said hopefully in a couple of weeks," she answered, pulling away.
"I ran into Amber at the doctor's office," she shared with him and she made her way to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water.
She wasn't sure why she brought up meeting Amber abruptly.
"Yeah?"
"She was there with her daughter."
"Right." He nodded. "I suggested she went to that doctor." He leaned against the doorway.
"She said you did."
"Is everything alright?" he frowned, watching her drink water.
She nodded. "Dad wants to have dinner with you," she said next disliking the tone of her own voice as she talked about Amber and figuring she should change the subject.
"Okay." He crossed his arms across his chest. "I'm glad you listen to me and told him."
She held back a smile because she knew how terrified he was of her father. He convinced her that it would be good for her relationship with her father if she updated him on what was going on in her love life.
"Did he say when he'd like to meet?" he asked.
"In the near future." She shrugged. "If it's too much, you don't have to do it, you know?" She assured. "We've been doing this for what now? Two weeks?"
"No, it's good we have dinner together. Your father doesn't particularly like me and he should get to know me better."
"Step-monster promised me she'd keep him off of your back if he started to make it weird, you should be fine," she sighed.
"That's comforting," he mumbled and straightened up when she began walking towards the door he stood.
"You gonna go to bed now?" he wondered.
"No, not yet. I have an essay that I plan to finish and get it over with." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Why do you ask?"
"Nothing." He shrugged. "Just wanted to know if you wanna hangout. You have homework so you'll leave you to it."
"You can stay, Jesse. The essay is almost finished. It shouldn't take long. We can hang out."
He tucked her hair behind her ear. "Great. 'Cause I really want to."
She looked behind him and frowned. "Where are you off to?" she puzzled, noting that Fat Amy was making her way to the front door.
"Just going out for a smoothie," the blonde answered.
"A smoothie. Now at 9 pm?"
"Yup. Nothing weird about that. You're weird for limiting your smoothie consumption hours to the daytime hours of the day." She reached for the door and unlocked it.
"Is it me or is Amy being extra weird?" Jesse wondered.
"It's not you," Beca mumbled, staring at the door before it occurred to her that whenever Amy went for her night smoothies she'd spend the night out. "C'mon. I really want to finish this damn essay and send it before the deadline just to rub it in my professor's face: Dr. Mitchell's lazy daughter isn't as lazy as he thinks." She began making her way to the stairs.
"Did he say that to you?"
"Yup. He called me out in an amphitheater full of students."
"Dickhead."
"Well, in his defense, he did catch me napping in class," she informed.
Jesse gave her a foot massage while she worked on her essay.
She then gave him her laptop to proofread what she had written before she emailed it to her professor.
"What do you wanna do?" She asked while stretching after she closed her laptop.
"I don't know." He watched her climb out of bed to put her laptop on her desk.
"I just wanna hangout. We don't have to do anything really." He shrugged.
"I have pot," She mentioned before she groaned, "But I don't have rolling paper or a bong. Amy broke the one I had."
"And I don't do well with pot brownies."
"No pot then." She climbed on the bed when he reached out a hand.
"How have you been?" he asked, wrapping her in his arms as he leaned against the headboard.
"Okay," she replied. "School is a bit of a pain in the ass but I'm managing."
"You're smart as hell. Just don't half-ass as much as you do and you'll do exceptionally well in school."
"Thanks, man."
He placed a peck on her head in response.
"I started writing and I don't think it's half as bad," he shared with her.
"Can you play me some of it?" She requested, tilting her head to look at him.
"Oh, it's not that kind." He chuckled a little. "I'm working on a play."
"A play?" She arched an eyebrow.
"Uh-huh." He smiled. "It's a musical. But haven't started on the musical parts yet. I got a few books on playwriting and I'm having fun with it."
"Okay." She was a bit surprised.
"I'm feeling it, you know? I want to try it and if it doesn't go anywhere it's fine. I'm doing it for fun."
"I'm glad you're doing this." She leaned up and kissed him.
"I have an idea," she told him, breaking the kiss. "I have a test coming up in a few days that I was planned to prep for the night before, how about I do that now and you help me out."
"Sure. What's the test about?" he wondered, sitting up when she climbed out of the bed and went to retrieve some of her notes from her desk.
"Irish lit," she shared with him.
"Tell me again why you majored in comparative literature and not something related to music?"
"The only music relate major is all theoretical and it's extremely boring. I like literature, the subjects aren't that hard, and dad made it sound less boring than it actually is." She shrugged, placing the notes on the bed. "I made these flashcards the other day to avoid falling asleep in class. I was planning to use them the night before the test to study for it, you're gonna quiz me."
"Got it." He picked up the cards to go through them. "Did you make these during the professor that called you out for falling asleep's class?" She nodded in response. "He counts attendance and I really don't want to give him any reason to fail me."
"Out of spite not because you care about his class, of course," he figured.
"Duh," she retorted. "So, I just need to go through my notes one time then you quiz me."
He nodded his head, still reading the flashcards.
"And, here's this: if I get let's say three answers right in a row, you take something off."
He arched an eyebrow, looking up. "And if I answer wrong three times in a row, I take off something." She got up and quickly locked the door to avoid any of the girls walking in on them.
"How much time do you need to go over your notes?" he wanted to know.
"Half an hour." She shrugged.
"You sure it's enough?"
"Dude, you should want me to do badly on this quiz."
"Yes. That I do. But I want you to do well on your test."
He entertained himself by playing a game on his iPhone until 30 minutes went by and it was time for the quiz.
Beca put her notes away and cracked her knuckles, "bring it on, nerd."
He sat up and cleared his throat before he launched into the questions he was holding.
Clothes came off, from both parties throughout the quiz. And as he read the last question, they were both in their underwear.
If she answered right, he'd take off his boxer shorts.
"You're gonna ace your test, Beca," he said as he began removing his underwear.
"Thanks." She watched him toss his underwear on the floor.
"Now what?" he wanted to know, aware that she was checking him out.
"Now, I thank you for helping me prepare for a test that should have been extremely boring to study for," she answered and moved closer to him.
"I'm glad I helped," he mumbled as she leaned in to kiss him.
Things got steamy quite fast and it wasn't much of a surprise: they were taking it slow and as a result, they hadn't slept together yet.
"Bet it's a lot of work to maintain all this," she mumbled as she felt his torso, pulling away to catch her breath.
"Yeah. It's not just for show, working out feels good. We should work out together sometime."
"Hard pass. It's great to look at the results of your hard work, though."
He chuckled and slipped his hand under the hook of her bra but didn't try to unhook it, he just rested his hand there as she leaned in to kiss him.
She reached and unhooked herself, breaking the kiss they were sharing to take it off then tossed it on the floor.
"Jess?" She called and he had to tear his eyes away from her chest that he couldn't wait to touch.
"Yeah."
"I want you," she mumbled while maintaining eye contact.
"You, too, Becs." He held his hand up for a high five. "Up top."
She rolled her eyes and high fived him, fully aware that he was trying to make her feel less awkward with his high five.
"We can stop if you change your mind," he let her know as he flipped them so he was on top of her. "At any time."
She nodded in response.
"Dude," she called, trying to catch her breath after she came from oral. "That was awesome," she mumbled the last word because his mouth covered hers.
She frowned but didn't mind that his tongue reached her throat.
He was a man on a mission; she thought it was just talk when he whispered in her ear all dirty things he planned to do to her.
However, he clearly meant it and she couldn't complain. She planned to reciprocate of course.
It was around 1 am when they finished.
Sex never lasted that long before: the sex marathon they once did earlier on in their friends-with-benefits relations doesn't count.
Another that never happened before did: She came from intercourse.
"I need to change the sheets," she said once she caught her breath. "I also need to shower but I don't think I can do either of those things."
Jesse pulled her into his side. "You need to sleep." He placed a peck on her temple.
She used his sweaty chest as a pillow and could feel herself falling asleep in no time.
The next day, Beca couldn't wake up on her own if she tried. She felt like she had the longest and hardest workout session. If it were to her, she'd spend the whole day in bed.
Jesse woke her up an hour before she had classes and she really wanted to hate him for it but couldn't.
He changed the bed sheets then started on breakfast while she got ready for the day.
"Just in time for breakfast," Jesse said when Beca stepped into the kitchen.
He placed a batch of pancakes on the counter.
"You left your phone upstairs." She handed him his cellphone and he shoved it in his pocket without looking at it.
"Why are we the only ones up?" he wondered, noting the quietness of the house.
"None of the girls have morning classes today." She shrugged.
"Amy didn't come home last night," he noted. "Did you check up on her?"
"She's fine," she assured him and didn't fight the smile that crept on her face when he placed a kiss on her cheek.
"I'm really glad you stayed over last night." She played with his t-shirt.
"Me, too." He rubbed her arm. "Thank you for last night."
"No, thank you." She poked his chest. "You're responsible for a lot of my firsts. I hope you're happy about that."
"I mean, it doesn't hurt to know." He grinned and watched her walk past him. "But if we're being real, it's not really me that made it happen. We did," he pointed out as he pulled the maple syrup from the fridge while she grabbed a couple of mugs from the cupboard.
"I'm glad it happened with me, though," he added. "It's nice."
"It really is," she agreed.
They both tilted their heads when they heard someone get into the house.
"Good morning, Amy," Jesse greeted.
"Hello, Swanson," she said in response. "Fellow roommate." She nodded in Beca's direction before she began making her way in the direction of the stairs.
"Wanna follow her next time she goes out for a night smoothie?" Jesse wondered, taking a sip of coffee.
"Yeah." She nodded. "I really do."
"Call me, we'll go together."
"I will." She sat down to eat some of the pancakes he made.
He pulled his phone from his pocket to go through his unanswered emails and text messages and replied to some of them. Seeing that Amber texted him the night before reminded him of how something seemed off with Beca when she mentioned running into Amber.
"Hey, Beca," he called breaking the comfortable silence they got in as they had breakfast. "You're cool with me seeing Amber, right?"
"We've been through this. Yes, Jesse. It's fine." She shrugged, her eyes never leaving the pancakes in front of her.
It wasn't fine, not really. She just said it was because it should be fine. "Not because we're giving this." She gestured between them. "A shot, you have to end your thing with Amber," she said. "If it gets serious between us things would be different but for now I don't see why you should stop seeing her… unless you want to."
"I just figured I'd check with you again. Because you sounded weird yesterday when you mentioned how you two met at the doctor's office."
He didn't want to end things with Amber and it was okay. She knew how much he liked Amber. He told her himself how much he liked her.
She didn't want him to choose between them. She meant what she said: they weren't serious and it's not worth ending things with Amber.
It didn't mean she was okay with it or that it didn't suck. However, she couldn't bring herself to tell him how she truly felt about the fact that he was seeing someone else because having strong feelings for each other didn't mean they'd work as a couple.
"It's weird but it's also fine. Weird is fine." She shrugged.
"Okay." He smiled at her and she was both glad and bummed out that he believed her.
AN: I go AWOL on you for months then update this twice in a week. Let me know what you think of this chapter and what you want to see happen in forthcoming chapters.