Jax jerks awake and looks around disoriented. Her mind feels fuzzy and she can feel the beginning of a headache starting to build behind her eyes. She groans and sits up; the blanket that had been wrapped around her falls to the floor and she doesn’t bother picking it back up. She wonders what awoke her when suddenly she hears a hard knock at her front door followed by the doorbell.

“Expecting someone?” Jax turns quickly to see JC rubbing sleep from his eyes as he straightens his back and groans. He’s still dressed the same as the night before and as she looks down at herself she sees that so is she. A flash of disappointment strangely tinged with a significant amount of relief runs through her as she realises that they must have both fallen asleep last night, well early this morning, after talking and sharing another bottle of wine.

“I-uh,” she starts and clears her throat. “I didn’t think I was...until much later anyway.” She leans forward to grab her phone off the coffee table and sees that she has fourteen missed emails, six missed texts and four missed calls. She groans.

Wake up, the real world it waiting.

The banging resumes and the doorbell rings twice more. Jax growls and quickly gets up from the couch. “I’m coming!” She yells, frustrated now as she makes her way to her front door and uses her index finger to pull back the corner of a sheer curtain on the door’s side panel.

“Oh my gosh!” She exclaims and quickly unlocks the door. To her surprise there stands Beats on her front step carrying a tray with what she hopes is hot, black coffee. A paper bag is clutched in his other hand along with his keys. He doesn’t look very happy.

“What’s up with the locks?”

Taken aback at his abrupt question she sputters to answer. “They uh, they had my locks changed when they got the guard for the gate. I have a spare set of keys for you inside, you were away so…”

He nods and then his face changes to a smile. “No matter. Surprised to see me?”

She nods and is pleased to see that he doesn’t seem angry anymore. “Yes! Especially if that coffee is hot and black.”

He chuckles and steps forward to kiss her cheek. “It absolutely is. Just like me, Baby Girl.”

She laughs and grabs the tray from him and motions him inside. As he is shutting the door she says, “I thought you wouldn’t be back for another few days?”

He shuts the door and pockets his keys. “I thought I’d surprise you. I was on a layover in the airport when we spoke yesterday. I thought we should get things squared away with the execs sooner rather than later so we can move on.”

At that Jax suddenly remembers who is currently in her living room and she panics. Will Beats automatically assume the worst? Probably not, but how was she going to explain JC’s presence this early in-

“I think I’m going to head out,” JC’s voice breaks through her panicked thoughts and she turns to see him walk toward them, his suit jacket hanging over his shoulder, his bow tie still loose around his collar. The hair at the back of his head sticks up a little where he probably had been leaning back against the chair.

Her eyes flit back to Beats whose eyes glance from JC to her, his eyebrows raising in an unspoken question. She doesn’t know what to say, so she doesn’t say anything. She must look like a deer caught in headlights because it seems that JC reads her in an instant, because in no time he’s covering the few steps to where she’s standing and places his hand on her hip in a way that communicates way more intimacy than their relationship has ever had. She feels the gentle pressure of his lips in the crook of her neck before he says in a husky voice, “Text me sometime.”

She’s too shocked to react or even speak before he’s walking away from her and Beats toward the front door. “Nice to see you again, Beats,” he shoots over his shoulder before the door closes behind him.

*

Minutes later Jax is sipping her hot coffee while sitting at the kitchen island across from Beats who is eyeing her with amusement. She hasn’t spoken since JC left and she’s not sure what to say, honestly.

“So…” Beats starts as he takes a sip of his coffee and raises his eyebrows at her again over the plastic cover of his cup.

She clears her throat. “So?”

Beats chuckles and shrugs. “I don’t know. You look like you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar.”

She blushes and looks down at the marble countertop. “Something like that,” she admits.

“Out of all the guys that keep requesting your time and company, you choose him?” He chuckles again and this lights her up.

She looks up defensively. “So? What’s that have to do with anything? He’s a really nice guy.”

Beats shrugs again, his wide shoulders moving in a nonchalant way. “I’m sure he is. I’m just sayin’.”

Jax shakes her head and moodily grabs the paper bag he’d set on the island near their coffees. She pulls out a heavy muffin that smells divine but barely has the time to look at it before it gets snatched out of her hands.

“Nope. Not for you. No carbs remember? You have a photoshoot tomorrow,” Beats says before he sets the muffin in front of him and then pulls out a clear plastic cup from the bag filled with fresh fruit. “This is yours.”

She grumbles something unintelligible and snatches the fruit cup from him. Beats laughs and shakes his head. “You’d think getting laid would get you into a better mood.”

Jax rolls her eyes and pries open the fruit cup before popping a red grape into her mouth. She avoids his gaze for a few moments before she looks back up at him. “I didn’t sleep with him. He was here-”

Beats’ cell phone rings and he motions for her to wait a moment as he takes the call. She keeps quietly picking at the fruit in the cup as she listens to his side of the conversation. It doesn't take long for her to figure out that it’s someone from the record company, and then he’s telling whoever is on the line that yes, she’s there with him.

And then his face changes.

She swallows the fruit that was in her mouth and it seems to travel all the way down to her toes.

No.

She was supposed to be the one to talk to him. She was supposed to be the one that told him about what the record executives had told her.

Damn it.

Her heart squeezes tightly in her chest when he gets up from the counter and walks away from her, continuing his conversation in the hall out of earshot. She can feel the anxiety start radiating from herself as she taps a manicured nail on the countertop rhythmically.

She’s done nothing wrong here. Right? It’s just a delicate situation because of her relationship with Beats. And she’s not stupid. She’s heard the rumors. They’ve never really been made into a big deal at this point...but she knows the whispers seem to have been growing louder lately. The longer she waits to step out into the press with someone, the stronger the speculation grows that all may not be what it seems between her and Beats. That she may be “the other woman” in a marriage with a small child. It’s an absolutely ridiculous rumour, but even if it was true she wouldn’t even go down that rabbit hole of talking about her personal life in the media.

So, she’d just figured that her management would continue to downplay the rumours until the next news cycle but then something JC said to her the night before sort of clicks in her head: why were the executives having her work with other producers when what they had already presented worked just fine?

Are the grumblings getting so hard to control that they want her to work with other people to help settle things back down? Are they so scared that she’ll lose her sweetheart appeal if the rumour mill keeps spinning? After all just last month they tried to set her up with an up and coming actor that was much younger than her, asking her to have a ‘working’ lunch with him at a paparazzi ridden restaurant in the LA area. She’d declined, but what Beats said about so many men requesting the pleasure of her company is true. The requests come in all the time, and she refuses them all the time. After all, what could you expect from a relationship that gets set up by managers and image consultants sprinkled with so called candid paparazzi shots? Ask Taylor Swift; not much.

“So I guess we need to talk, Baby Girl.”

Beats’ voice brings her back and she looks up at him from her spot on at the island. He doesn’t sit back down on his previously vacated stool.

She sighs. “Yeah. I wanted to tell you...but you were away and I didn’t... I didn’t know what to say honestly.”

He nods but remains stoic in his stance, his muscled arms crossed over his chest. “I get it.”

She looks up in surprise. “You do?”

He shrugs his shoulders but his arms remain crossed. “Yeah, well I get that you would have been uncomfortable with the idea. I just really wish you would have told me right away. Even if I wasn’t around.”

Jax nods and feels a slight amount of relief start trickling through her. He doesn’t seem overly angry. More disappointed at this point. She slides off her stool and walks forward to him. She apologizes and is taken into his embrace.

”I guess I’d just hoped that what we have would have meant more to you than it apparently does.”

At those words spoken against her hair she feels the previous trickle of relief leave her body in an instant. He’s hurt. She’s not sure yet if he’s more hurt that he is essentially being asked to step aside or because she’d kept the information from him...or both. She’s willing to bet on the latter.

She pulls away. “You know that’s not true, Beats. They put me in a really tough spot and I wasn’t sure how to deal with it.” She walks aways and crosses her arms over her chest as she leans against the island. “I know what they’re doing though; the rumours are starting up again and they just want to quiet them by having me collaborate with someone else. JC says that our album is good so-”

“How would he know that our album is good?” It’s as if his hackles stand up on end and his shoulders widen suddenly. “Wait.” He seems to be at a loss for words. “Wait. Is that why he was here?”

Jax puts her hands out in front of her and tries to calm him. “Beats. Hold on. I was going to tell you.”

Beats shakes his head and makes a sound of derision out of the side of his mouth. “Why? You seem to have this all figured out already. You don’t need me anymore, you’ve got a shit ton of other producers lined up at the door begging to work with you right? Fucking ex-boy band members just waiting to grab onto you so they can get their own shot at another fifteen? And you’re just willing to put out for them, just like that? Fucking disgusting.”

His last words are said with so much disdain that she actually recoils. She’d known he’d be disappointed even a bit angry at her, but she’d figured that he’d be more angry at the execs and their machinations. She’d never dreamed that he’d flip on her so easily and so quickly.

She’s still reeling from his last words when he turns tail and starts heading toward the door without another word. She follows behind him trying to get him to stop and let her explain but before she can get more than a few words out her front door is slamming and he’s already gone.