Monday.

"Not that I don't want to be here but why isn't Jesse doing this with you?" Stacie wondered as she and Beca walked around a store.

"Because he's busy unpacking my stuff," Beca answered.

"But can't he do that later? Or better yet can't you wait until he's done and shop for your baby's nursery room together?" Stacie ran her fingers on a musical mobile.

"Jess says it bothers him to walk around the place and see boxes in different corners," Beca shrugged. "And taking off days in my job isn't exactly easy.—oh, this one looks nice." Beca stopped near a crib. "It's big and will probably fit him until he's old enough to sleep on a bed, right?"

"Yeah," Stacie nodded smiling at her friend's excitement as she took a picture of the crib and texted it to Jesse to get his opinion.

After they finished with the bedding furniture, the two decided to stop for lunch.

"What are you going to paint the nursery?" Stacie asked while eyeing her phone, as the two stepped into an Italian restaurant.

"Jess and I agreed on a shade of green," Beca informed her.

"Green. That's nice." Stacie locked her phone and looked up.

They settled on an empty table and ordered.

A waiter had just left their table when Stacie noticed a man looking at their table.

"Beca, some guy's looking at you," Stacie said.

"You sure it's not you who's looking at?" Beca deadpanned as her eyes fell on her friend's cleavage.

"Nope, he's looking at you."

Beca looked behind her recognizing the guy as the nurse that hit on her at her OB/GYN's.

"You know him?" Stacie asked.

"Yeah, he works at my OB/GYN's," Beca informed her.

"Oh, he's coming over," she told Beca.

"Neat," Beca smiled tightly.

"Hi," the man said once he reached their table.

The two women looked up. Stacie flirtatiously waving while Beca kept a stoic expression on her face.

"Ms. Mitchell, right?" he said to Beca.

"Yep," she nodded.

"I'm Rafael, we met at Dr. Robin's," he said thinking she forgot.

"I remember you," she told him.

"Cool," he smiled. "How have you been?" he asked.

"Great," she curtly answered.

"Great," he repeated after her. "I'm sitting over there with my mom and I saw and figured I'd come say hi." He gestured at his mother. Beca tilted her head and smiled at the older woman meeting her gaze.

"Rafael, nice meeting you. I'm Stacie, Beca's friend," Stacie introduced herself.

"Hi," he said finally acknowledging her presence. "Pleasure meeting you."

"You too," Stacie eyed him up and down.

"Do you always come here?" he asked. "I've never been."

"I've eaten here a few times," Beca nodded. "They make excellent Ziti," she told him.

"Oh, I will definitely keep that in mind next time I come here," he smiled at her then looked at his mother before looking back at Beca. "On a date maybe," he said suggestively. Beca looked down at her plate knowing he meant a date with her. Rafael shook his head realizing it was a pretty bad move on his part. "Um, okay, well… Happy holidays," he nervously said then left their table.

"That was pathetic," Stacie said. "His crush on you is so pathetic." Stacie followed him with her eyes.

"Shut up," Beca rolled her eyes and uncomfortably shifted in her seat.

"What's his deal?" Stacie wondered out of curiosity.

"Well, he asked me out and I said no. Whenever I go for a checkup he'd be there giving me puppy eyes," Beca said in boredom.

"Why did you turn him down?" Stacie frowned. "He's quite hot."

"Do I really have to answer that or it this a trick question?"

"Going out with him could help with your thing with Jesse."

"How exactly is that gonna happen?" Beca wondered.

"How are you supposed to know if you want to stay with Jesse if you haven't even tried seeing other people?"

Beca scoffed.

"It will definitely give you some perspective."

"How?"

"I don't know. I guess you will feel it. If it's wrong you will feel it." Stacie shrugged.

"How come you give relationship advice when you're the most single person I know?" Beca wondered after a beat as she began to warm up to her friend's suggestion.

"I observe, Beca," Stacie said making Beca chuckle.

Beca tilted her head and blew a breath seriously thinking about asking Rafael out.

"Jesse," Beca called loud enough Jesse would hear her as she and Stacie stepped into the penthouse.

She heard footsteps then saw Jesse peek his head.

"Why are you hiding behind the wall?" Beca asked as she began to walk towards the stairs.

"I'm not hiding out," he denied.

As she climbed the stairs, Jesse sighed and stepped out so that she'd see him.

He was wearing an old torn t-shirt along with a pair of beach shorts and had green paint all over him.

"What is going on in here?" she asked still climbing the stairs.

"I am painting the nursery," he slowly said. "I counted on traffic to hold you back." He scratched his head. "It's not done," he told her. "And paint smells bad, don't go in," he blocked her way so that she couldn't step foot on the second floor.

"I don't care," she mumbled pushing him to walk past him. He let her through.

"I tried to take her get a mani-padi," Stacie told him when he looked at her. (He had asked her to keep Beca out of the penthouse until he's done which she failed to do.)

"Looks awesome, Jesse," Beca dropped her bag on the floor and tilted her head when she heard him stepped into the room.

"It'll look awesom-er when it's done," he said as he walked to where she was standing, in the middle of the room.

"That's not a word," she told him. "The crib will go here…" She pointed at a spot. Jesse nodded and smiled when she went on to tell him where the rest of the furniture was going to be put.

"When are they gonna ship everything?" he asked.

"Tomorrow."

"Okay, I should finish this and hope and it dries out by tomorrow," he said. "I mean, it says on the label that it dries fast," he shrugged then looked at Beca. "I'll come over and put the furniture in place, so don't worry about that, okay?"

Beca nodded then clenched his t-shirt and pulled him to her.

"Bec, you'll get paint on your clothes," he said in amusement.

Beca took a second to think then said, "Yeah, you're right." She leaned up and kissed him while keeping some distance between them. Jesse rested a hand on her waist to keep her from getting any closer to him as they kissed. He pulled away first and smiled meeting her gaze.

"What are you doing this weekend?" He moved his hand and put it on the small of her back.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'm gonna sleep 'til noon and watch reality shows with or without Stacie," she told him. "Why?" she asked.

"I thought we'd go out on a date."

"But don't you have Sam over for the weekend?" Beca frowned.

"Not this weekend nor the next one." He paused. "They're going on a holiday trip to Canada, eh," he informed her and did an awful Canadian accent as he spoke.

Beca knew he meant his daughter, his ex-wife, and his daughter's stepdad when he said they so she nodded.

"They're gonna stay over there 'til New Year. Turns out Doug's family owns a cabin somewhere in Quebec."

"Doug's Canadian?" Beca said in surprise.

"He's born here but yeah, he's Canadian," he shrugged. "So, you think we could go on a date?" he hopefully asked.

"Sure," Beca replied and leaned up pulling him into another kiss.

Pulling away, Jesse grabbed her bag from the floor and handed it to her hearing her phone chime with a text.

"It's Bumper," Beca told Jesse as she checked it.

(Bumper was flying over to New York to sign his contract with her label.)

"He's gonna stay here, right?" Jesse walked to the paintbrush and dipped it in paint.

"Yep. He just got into an Uber." She told Bumper he's welcome to stay with her because the more people she had around the less likely Jesse would worry about her when he wasn't.

"Um, stay for dinner?" she asked looking up from her phone.

"Yeah, sure," he smiled at her before he went back to the task at hand. He felt her gaze on him and grinned. He bent to dip the paintbrush in the bucket. "Like what you see, Becs?" he took his time before standing up.

"Uh-huh, your work is decent. But you might wanna redo the bottom, Jesse," she told him. "It could definitely use some more paint."

Jesse chuckled then nodded his head. "Okay, whatever you say, boss." He bent to redo the bottom and took an awful lot of time.

"A little to left." He heard her say, grinned even harder, and did what she asked him to do.

"Good enough for ya?" he asked, tilting his head and straightening up when he heard her walk to where he was.

"Yes. Keep up the good work." She playfully slapped his butt cheek then left the room.

"I am not feeling the Christmas spirit in this home," Bumper said as he, Beca, Jesse and Stacie sat down for dinner. "Not even a tree?" He looked at Beca in disbelief.

Beca shrugged meeting his gaze. "Christmas isn't until Sunday, I'll get a tree by then."

"You know what else you could do?" Bumper paused for the dramatic effect.

Beca arched an eyebrow, "What?"

"Throw the New Year party here," he grinned.

"What's with the "the"?" Stacie wondered.

"Every year, her branch throws a New Year party celebrating the fact that they're still in business," Bumper told Stacie. "I happened to be around last year and honestly it was a dope party."

"Matt insists on throwing these parties. I have nothing to do with them. I just show my face because it's not cool according to Matt if I don't," Beca said to Stacie. "He's like a classic Trophy wife always planning pretty awesome parties."

"Oh, a New Year's party would be so great, Beca," Stacie said. "And since you can't exactly go out and party, you bring the party home."

"It'll be like a house warming party," Bumper added.

Beca looked at Jesse who was quietly eating and watching them talk.

"It could be fun," Jesse shrugged when he met her gaze.

"Yeah," Bumper hollered slapping Jesse's shoulder and causing him to get into a coughing fit.

"I'll think about it," Beca said watching Jesse bring a glass of water to his lips. "Hey, is Amy gonna come here for Christmas?" she asked Bumper.

"Yeah, probably," he nodded. "You could fly Chloe over, too, and have a Bellas reunion," he added.

"Oh, that's a great idea," Stacie said impressed with Bumper.

"I'll think about it," Beca repeated.

"The room looks great, Jesse," Beca said in a loud enough voice for Jesse who was currently showering to hear.

"Hope it dries out soon," he said back in a muffled voice.

"It better." Beca walked into the en-suite bathroom. "Jess, what are you gonna do with the clothes you wore while painting?" she asked picking them up from the floor.

"I don't know. Keep them around in case I paint again?"

"I'll put them in a bag so that you won't get paint all over your back bag then," she said.

"Thanks."

Beca grabbed a plastic bag from the kitchen and stuffed the shorts and t-shirt in it. Once she reached her bedroom, she grabbed his back bag and was about to put the bag inside it when she noticed a book. She grabbed it and flipped it in her hand before she read the title of the book that was about pregnancy related illnesses.

"You shouldn't be reading this," she held it in a way he'd see it when she heard him walk into the room. "I deliberately chose to know the bare minimum so that I don't panic," she sighed turning to look at him. Jesse was drying himself with a towel while eyeing her.

"I'd go insane not knowing how I could help. And this book's been insightful," he told her.

"There's nothing you could do. There are meds I take and just hope for the best," she deadpanned and put the book back where she found it along with the bag that had his clothes.

"Wrong." He walked to where she was standing. "This thing you have makes your blood pressure go high. Drugs could keep it stable but they can't prevent the possibility of it rising if say you get super mad. Whereas I can calm you down." He placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Get away from me, you're still wet," she said in mock annoyance. His response was to wrap his arms around her and rest his cheek against her head.

She leaned against him and closed her eyes. She chuckled feeling him take her earlobe between his teeth.

"That's not how you're supposed to react," he spoke huskily into her ear.

"Jesse, get the sex tape fantasy thing out of your head," she said, recalling a conversation they had a while ago.

"Who said anything about a sex tape?" he asked pulling his head back when she tilted hers.

"Because if you're you and you will eventually bring it up again. In fact, you've been warming me up to it."

"I am innocent of these accusations," he said while giving her puppy dog eyes.

"Jesse, you offered to help fix the very functional sink," she said in amusement. "And, now, you just painted the nursery looking all sexy in that ripped t-shirt and tight shorts to show off your ass." She turned around and placed a hand on his butt lightly digging her fingers into the towel was covering his lower half.

"Doesn't prove anything," he said after a beat of silence.

She leaned up pecking his lips before stepping away from him knowing that if she stayed near him for longer he wouldn't leave her room thus spend the night over which she was actively avoiding.

"Use the blow-dryer to dry your hair," she said as she walked out of the room.

"Okay." Jesse rubbed the back of his neck.

Jesse was dressed and out of Beca's bedroom in 15 minutes—he made sure to dry his hair like she asked him to because he knew she'd nag him about it if he caught a cold in the next few days then made his way to the living area and spotted Stacie lounging on one couch with her laptop on her lap sporting a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt while Bumper sat on the armchair facing her texting.

"Good night, guys," he said as slipped on his beanie.

"Night," Bumper said glancing up for a second.

(Beca updated him on their situation.)

"I thought you were staying over," Stacie said after checking the time and seeing that it was 10:14 pm.

"Who's gonna feed Bender if I sleep over?" he smiled tightly at her then tilted his head to look at Beca who was making her way to him with a marshmallow fluff jar in her hand and a spoon in her mouth.

She removed the spoon from her mouth and dipped it in the jar. "I'll tell you if you paint dries tomorrow," she told him. "You know, so that you wouldn't have to come all the way here for no good reason."

He nodded and leaned in and kissed her, and made sure he licked the marshmallow that was on the corner of her mouth.

"Good night, Bec," he said pulling away.

"Night," she mumbled bringing to spoon to her mouth. She eyed him as he wore his coat and could not resist zipping it all the way for him when he didn't.

"Let me grab you a scarf to wrap around your neck, it's cold and you just showered," Beca said and handed him the jar before she walked to her bedroom.

Jesse rolled his eyes but didn't object.

"I saw that," Beca said over her shoulders.

Jesse wore his back bag and leaned against a wall waiting for her until she came back holding a knitted gray scarf. She wrapped it around his neck then clenched the scarf and pulled him down, placing a kiss on his lips before she took the fluff jar from him.

The scarf smelled like her and he decided he was going to keep it. —She kept many of his t-shirts, he felt entitled to at least something of hers.

Thursday.

What am I fucking doing here?—Beca wondered to herself as she sat facing a very nervous Rafael.

Beca took Stacie's advice and asked Rafael the nurse if he was free on Thursday to go lunch with her at the restaurant they ran into each other at.

He was anxious and clearly intimidated by her. Luckily, she had dealt with many anxious interns to know how to break the ice.

"So when did you know you wanted to become a nurse?" Beca asked as she grabbed her fork once the waiter put her lunch for her.

"Um, I never thought I would ever work as a nurse," Rafael told her. "It sort of just happened," he shrugged. "What about you? How did you know you wanted to do what you do"

"Oh, I've always been drawn to music. At first, it was singing. Then I noticed that I could pick up by ear when songs have the same chord progression." Beca paused when she saw that he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Um, songs that would sound all right when you go back and forth between them. A mashup. I can make mashups," she explained.

"Oh," he nodded. "Could you sing something?" he asked. "Please?"

Beca sighed then nodded, "okay." She took a second to think. "I heard you crying loud, all the way across town. You've been searching for that someone, and it's me out on the prowl as you sit around feeling sorry for yourself," she sang the first verse from Green Day's When I come Around in a really low voice. "Yes, she caught my eye, as we walked on by. She could see from my face that I was, flying high. And I don't think that I'll see her again, but we shared a moment that will last 'til the end," she sang a verse from James Blunt's you're beautiful while lightly tapping her fingers on the table to create the tempo.

"Wow." He paused. "You have a lovely voice."

"Thanks," she thanked him.

"When did you realize you could do that?" he asked.

Beca blew a breath. "I don't know. Like 13 maybe? But I started actually doing mashups after I discovered a software on the apple store," she told him. "It was like I found my calling. I was good at mixing so I figured I'd just move to L.A. and make a living out of it."

"When did you move to L.A?" Rafael wondered very intrigued.

"Let's see." She paused. "I graduated college when I was 22. I was interning at a label then in Atlanta. Worked there for about a year then I decided it wasn't enough and moved to L.A. So 23. I packed and moved to Los Angeles when I was 23."

"So, here's a confession," Rafael started to say and Beca arched an eyebrow.

"I went through your medical file." He grimaced.

"Pardon?"

"I know it's so wrong. And I could lose my job you decide to tell my boss."

"Why?" Beca asked as she chewed slowly.

"Frankly, I was wondering why you came for check-ups regularly," he told her. "I was curious."

"Okay, creepy." Beca sucked her teeth. He invaded her privacy but at least told her. She decided to let it slide.

"I'm sorry about what you suffer from," he said when she looked up from her plate.

She smiled tightly at his words and grabbed her glass of water.

Beca had just returned to work from her lunch date. What she ate for lunch wasn't enough so she decided to eat the sandwich she brought with her from home. She walked straight to the break room and found Christina staring at her lunch.

"Hey," Beca said stepping into the room. Christina looked up from her salad.

"What's up, boss?" She leaned back against her chair.

"Nothing much," Beca shrugged as she opened the fridge. "Except the fact that I'm always hungry," she sighed pulling the tuna sandwich.

"What's up with you?" Beca asked pulling a chair and sitting on it. "Is everything okay?" she frowned noting the uneasiness in Christina's eyes when she met her gaze.

"I just have some stuff going on," she said trying to sound casual but it didn't fool Beca.

"Well, if you need the evening off you can take it." Beca brought the sandwich to her mouth and took a bite.

"Thank you but no. Work is actually helping." She stabbed the salad with her fork and brought it to her mouth.

"Work is an efficient distraction," Beca nodded.

"It really is," Christina agreed.

"I'm supposed to send reports of the work we've done here over this year before next year's budget meeting in headquarters. I always push it back 'til mid-January before I start working on them. Something tells me I'm gonna be busy complaining about how everything aches by then and I won't get the time to work on them—"

"—I'll get right on them," Christina interrupted welcoming the distraction.

"Cool," Beca mumbled and grabbed her phone when it chimed with a text. "I don't have any meeting 'till 4:15, right?" Beca asked.

"Yes," Christina answered.

"My friend is currently on his way to buy me a Christmas tree," Beca sighed. "I gonna go meet him and make sure he doesn't get too worked up about the whole Christmas spirit. Want to come with me?"

Beca saw that her PA needed to take a walk and was trying to help.

"Yeah, okay," Christina nodded.

"You okay there?" Christina asked when Beca held her head and stopped walk.

Beca nodded and inhaled deeply.

"Just a little dizzy," Beca swallowed and looked up. "Do you mind driving?" Beca reached into her pocket and pulled her car keys.

"I-I don't." Christina paused then cleared her throat. "I don't drive."

"Oh, okay. Well, then, give me a minute 'til it goes away," Beca said and held on to Christina's arm when she offered it.

"You sure you're okay to drive?" Christina hesitantly asked when Beca put the key in the ignition to get the heater working.

"Yeah, I'll feel better in a minute," Beca assured her as she leaned against her seat.

"It's not that I don't know how to drive. I just haven't gotten behind the wheel in a while," Christina hesitantly shared with Beca, who was resting her eyes, then let out a shattered breath. "I'm a little rusty."

"Don't worry, I won't run over someone," Beca assured as she tilted her head to look at the woman sitting next to her. Christina forced a smile then nodded.

AN: I hope you had an awesome time during holidays.

What do you think of the date with Rafael and how do you think that will affect the plot development? Also, got any idea on Christina's deal?

You will get answers in future chapters but I would very much like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading. Peace!