Work Text:
It was a beautiful, bright, sunny day in Southern California. The picturesque beach day where the sun was shining high in the sky, not a cloud in sight, and people everywhere in the water and on the beach just soaking up the pleasant day at the beach with the people they love.
Beca Mitchell, self-proclaimed recluse but not-so-secret life of the party, was one of those beachgoers taking advantage of one of her precious days off from working at one of the top record labels in Los Angeles. While she would rather be at home playing, creating, and fine tuning her own music, she decided to play wingman for her hopeless romantic of a best friend, Jesse Swanson.
*Flashback, last Thursday*
“Come on Beca, I’ve been trying to go out with this girl since I first met her! You gotta help me out here dude.” Jesse begged Beca during their Thursday night hangout at her place.
Jesse had been trying to talk to this girl he had met at a cafe a few weeks ago. Early last week, he finally got her name, Aubrey Posen, and she decided she wanted to spend more time with him other than the 5-7 minute wait they had in the coffee line and eventually waiting for their order before the hustle and bustle of the work day began. She invited him out to a small get-together she was having on the beach that weekend for the Fourth of July weekend. Being the goof he knows he could be, he asked his best mate Beca to come along and help her out in case things go sideways with the girl. He really wanted it to work out and he knew if Beca was along to boost him up a little, then things couldn’t go wrong.
“I don’t know Jess. It’s my first day off in forever and I kinda had plans to spend it at home with a pizza and some beer playing around with some mixes. You know how much I want to move up at the label, I need them to take me seriously. So I need to show them I can make my own stuff and make it really well. I’m sorry dude, but I gotta work.” Beca explained.
“So you’re still working on your day off of work?” Jesse asked sarcastically with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t see how that’s considered a day off, Bec.”
“Just-ugh, can’t you go to this thing on your own? I’ve got better things I’d rather do than watch you try to get with some girl. You’re a good-looking guy, I’m sure you’ll do fine.” she tried once again to get out of the invite.
“But we both know my looks aren’t good enough!” he exclaimed exasperatedly.
“Mmmm, yea that’s true. You are kind of a dork….I can see why you need my help” she smirked. “But still, it’s a no.”
“Come on Bec. If you do this for me, I’ll…I’ll stop begging you to watch movies with me for a whole month.” Jesse offered.
Beca legitimately thought about it. She hated having to come up with a new excuse each time Jesse begged her to watch a movie with her. She eventually just told him no, but he wouldn’t budge and whined and begged some more until she caved or he got tired (which wasn’t often, so Beca has seen more movies than she cares to admit).
“Make it a year..." Beca countered. "Two months." Jesse countered back. "Six months" she said as she crossed her arms, eyebrow quirking up in challenge. "Three months..." he was not backing down. "Three months off the bat, an additional six months if you end up getting the girl?" Beca offered. If things it's a win-win situation really, Beca didn't have to watch any movie she didn't want to for at least three months, Jesse gets a new movie date, and Beca gets an additional six months movie free. No one can lose (or at least she couldn't lose).
“Deal.” Jesse stretched out his hand to her. She immediately took it with a smirk on her face. Once they let go, Jesse couldn’t hold in his excitement any longer and did a goofy little fist pump and victory dance on his way out of Beca’s living room into the kitchen for more drinks.
Beca honestly didn’t understand why she had to be there. She’s a charmer herself, having an impressive job at one of the top music labels in the country helps a lot, plus she knows she’s hot as many people have told her straight up. But she doesn’t like to flaunt it if she could help it. The “music producer” card she mostly plays if she needs to get into places she normally wouldn’t be able to score on her own (like clubs to hear a new DJ under the guise of “scouting talent” or a good table at a nice lounge with live music, again under the guise of “scouting”). Sometimes, she’ll use it to get women when she’s a bit tipsy and lonely, but that doesn’t happen often. But how other people figure it out and try to get with her is something she will never figure out (it might have something to do with her best friend trying to get an “in” with the ladies around and mentioning it for her).
*End Flashback*
At the beach party, Jesse was doing quite well with the girl on his own. The last time she saw him, he was teamed up with said blonde in a game of cornhole (bean bag toss) and giving out encouragements and high-fives as they scored.
With the knowledge that Jesse was doing just fine on his own, Beca ventured off on her own path away from the busyness of the party to spend some time alone with her thoughts. Her day off was supposed to be spent on her own, sitting at home with a good playlist or making music of her own, not out with a bunch of strangers she didn’t know trying to play wingman to a guy who clearly doesn’t need her anymore.
With her partially filled bottle of Corona beer in hand and a pair of sticks she found lying along the shore, Beca found a spot on the other side of some beach grass but still away from all the people around and started tapping out a tune on different parts of the bottle with the sticks she found. Music was always flowing out of her and she had to get it out somehow and it seems like today, Beca decided that her beer bottle was the best way to do it.
Back where the party had been, was Chloe Beale out with her favorite little guy, James aka Jamie. They had been invited to the party as well, what with Chloe being best friends with the party host, Aubrey. However, being the only one with a kid at such a function meant Chloe was busy attending to her son, Jamie, rather than socializing at the party. They had been in the water when Beca and Jesse arrived, and Chloe was just now able to get him out of the water and dried off for the time being. Beca had already gone off on her own by the time Chloe had convinced him to play on the shore for a bit as she tried to interact with the other adults present at the party.
Jamie was around playing with some of the sand toys that Chloe had brought for him while Chloe went to grab them some water to drink. She got so caught up in mingling with some of her friends at the party that when she glanced back to where she had left Jamie, he was gone.
Turns out he had heard some of the sounds Beca was making from around the grassy wall and decided to investigate for himself. She was tapping out a tune with the sticks on different parts of the bottle and she found a she was quite proud of herself for the sounds she was able to make. Beca saw the little boy sneaking up on her without a parent accompanying him and immediately stopped playing, a confused look on her face.
“Hey little dude, where’s your mommy and daddy?” Beca asked as she picked up her bottle, not wanting the boy to accidentally swipe it.
Jamie frowned when the sounds stopped and sat on the sand looking up at Beca with watery eyes. He didn’t say anything and just grabbed the sticks Beca abandoned and started waving them around and banging them on the ground like he was playing the drums.
Chloe ran up to them a few moments later, one hand on her head trying to keep her hat from blowing away and the other on her heart from fear that something bad happened to her son.
“Oh my God, Jamie! What are you doing? Don’t you ever run away from me again, young man! Do you understand?” Chloe tried her best to not to yell but the worry was clear in her voice. Jamie just looked at her with a smile on his face and showed her the sticks he had found.
She turned to Beca, “I’m so sorry about that. I hope he didn’t bother you too much.” Chloe said as she picked up her son and took her sunglasses off to thank the stranger that her son seemed enamored with. Jamie was leaning out of her hold to reach for Beca, mainly because she had the bottle and he wanted to use it to make a tune like she did.
Beca stood frozen to her spot the moment Chloe started speaking. She couldn’t believe someone this beautiful was actually talking to her. When the sunglasses came off of Chloe’s face, she seemed to have lost her breath when she met Chloe’s eyes. She reached for her own pair of sunglasses to get an unobstructed view of the bluest eyes she had ever seen.
She finally found her voice when she saw that Chloe was staring at her with a confused look on her face while also trying to wrangle her son. “Oh! He was fine. He wasn’t bothering me at all. Actually he mostly reminded me that I should get back to my friend.” She said as she pointed in the general direction of Aubrey and Jesse and their group.
“Oh, you’re with Aubrey?” Chloe asked.
“No actually. I’m here with the guy she’s talking to. I’m supposed to be playing wingman for my best friend, but he seems to be doing just fine.” Beca chuckled as they both looked to where Aubrey seemed to be laughing at something Jesse had just whispered in her ear.
“Well seeing that Aubrey’s having a good time, I’m not sure if your wingman duties are a failure or success.” Chloe said with a small chuckle. Beca seemed captured by the sound and just stared while Chloe threw her head back.
“Are you here with Aubrey too?” Beca asked. Chloe just smiled and nodded, still holding onto Jason on her hip. “I guess since it looks like our best friends might be getting along so well, we might be seeing more of each other.” Chloe said with all seriousness. “I’m Chloe, and this young gentleman here is Jamie.” She said while sticking her hand out to Beca to shake.
“Beca. Nice to meet you. And very nice to meet you, too little dude.” Beca said with a big smile as she took her hand.
They both ended up walking back to the party together. Beca throwing out her beer bottle and exchanging it for a can of sparkling water not wanting to risk the young boy getting to her drink.
It was getting a bit later in the day and the sun was slowly setting along the west coast horizon. The group had decided to start a small bonfire to keep the party going. Everyone was having a good time just hanging out, nothing too crazy.
Beca and Chloe ended up sharing a blanket to sit on in front of the bonfire. They ended up talking the rest of the evening.
Beca finding out that Chloe just moved from Atlanta and was working as a veterinarian at a clinic close to her office, and Chloe finding out that Beca was a junior producer (or more like “glorified intern”, as Beca like to call it) and now the bottle tapping from earlier made a lot more sense to her. Chloe shared that she had met Aubrey during college and how they had joined, and later led, an all-women acapella group to 3 national championships. Their love of music was something both parties were excited to talk about, with so much passion expressed with every word spoken. Their connection seemed to grow stronger as the night continued on.
As the party was starting to wind down, Jamie had fallen asleep lying on Beca’s lap while playing with the sticks and banging them on her empty sparkling water can.
“Looks like this guy is all tuckered out.” Beca chuckled when she noticed Jamie no longer squirming around.
“Oh my! So sorry about that Becs” Chloe said, the nickname coming out so naturally and causing butterflies to go crazy in Beca’s stomach. “I think it’s time we head out and get this guy ready for bed.” Chloe said with a small blush creeping on her cheeks.
“It’s fine. I think I’m gonna call it a night too. Doesn’t look like I’ll be missed much.” Beca said as she nodded slightly in Aubrey and Jesse’s direction, big smiles on their faces and whispering into each other’s ears.
“Looks like your job is done.” Chloe teased.
“I can walk you back to your car….I-If you need help with Jamie and everything.” Beca said a little flustered. She didn’t want to stop talking to Chloe, but also didn’t want to assume that Chloe was ok with her helping out with her son; she just didn’t want their time together to end.
“Yea, sure. I’d really appreciate that, only if you don’t mind.” Chloe said as she started gathering the rest of their stuff.
Beca started to get up and gathered Jamie up in her arms. “I can carry him. Doesn’t look like he’ll be letting go much anyways.” Beca laughed as she turned her back to Chloe to show the tight grip he had on the back of her shirt.
“Oh!” Chloe let out a small laugh and covered her mouth with her hands, “I’m so sorry. I hope you don’t mind.” Chloe said when she recovered.
“It’s no problem.” Beca said as they started walking toward the edge of the beach to where the cars were parked.
Once they arrived at Chloe’s car, Beca gently placed the sleeping boy into his car seat and buckled him in. As she shut the door, she turned to say goodnight to Chloe.
“I had a really great time with you today. Maybe…maybe we can do it again sometime?” Beca asked with her hand reaching to the back of her neck and her gaze down at her sand covered shoes.
“I’d really like that.” Chloe said with a big smile on her face. “I had a really great time with you too.”
Needless to say, Jesse wasn’t the only one to leave that night with a new number in their contacts.