grandiosely | (no subject)

Jesse St. James

Rachel Berry

WHERE New York City, NY • Rachel & Jesse's Apartment
Jesse gets home to find Rachel buried in bills that show just how much debt she is in. WARNINGS None.

all these bills pile up my desk

While it had theoretically been one of Jesse's days off, he'd felt like he'd been busy from the time he woke up until the moment he had gotten back into his car to go home. It had been appointments and interviews and meeting with his agent and one thing after another. Usually he enjoyed the time to relax, to get to actually spend the day with Rachel when they were usually so quickly in and out of the apartment that sometimes it felt like they barely even got to say hello to one another until they went to bed. He had warned her it might be another day like that unfortunately, but by some miracle, he'd actually managed to finish everything he'd needed to by dinner. At least one person had cancelled on him and few others had been faster than he'd expected them to be.

Rather than texting her to let her know, Jesse had decided to surprise Rachel by coming home early. He'd picked up some food, making sure to get the dish she loved most and a few drinks. He was sure they could rent a few movies, settle in on the couch, and make a night of it together after all. He still had another day away from the stage, so he knew they wouldn't even have to worry about getting to bed early, or about not having more time tomorrow to lie around with one another as well.

In hindsight, surprising her probably hadn't been the best idea, given how Rachel hated having her plans interrupted, but he figured a simple and nice surprise like this one wouldn't have been that big of a deal. Pushing open the door, he went to hang up his keys and jacket as he called out to her. "So apparently my agent actually knows how to cut a meeting short instead of just running over," he started as he headed towards the dining room, holding up the bag as he got closer. "I picked up some Thai. I got you one of their teas, the ones they mix with coconut milk? I figured we could eat noodles, watch some movies..."

He trailed off as he saw the papers on the table in front of her, forehead wrinkling a little. He was pretty sure she took all her notes electronically and most of them looked like letters. He put the bag down on the table as he picked one of them up curiously to look it over, not thinking that maybe she wouldn't have wanted to share. His brows raised as he saw the numbers on the page, figuring out fairly quickly what it was he was looking.

"Rachel, are these all bills?"

CODING

Threaded | Flat

Jesse coming home early from all his work and his appointments was what she had secretly hoped for upon waking up to an empty bed and a scribbled note by the bedside table. It was a day off and she'd spent the morning indulging in a hot bath and spa like treatment, before lunch, some reality tv show she and Kurt had been binge watching and then straightening up the apartment.

As the afternoon wore on, she'd decided to go get the mail. It was still a little new to have letters addressed to her shipped mixed in with ones with his name on them, but she liked it. When she'd gotten the stack of mail back up to the apartment, she'd cringed to see that everything with her name on it was a bill. There were notices, her actor's union bill, medical bills, and worse, credit card bills. In most situations Rachel was on top of everything to a level of perfection that few strove for. The bills though had started to pile when she'd moved back to NYC and learned that standing on her own two feet was not as easy as she'd thought.

Never before had Rachel been an adult completely on her own, and there were expenses that she'd been hit by that she hadn't expected, and a few that she had. Her dads had done a great job of raising her in many ways, but she suffered heavily from spoiled only child syndrome and it showed. The coffee and lunch breaks, the dress in the window that she just had to have, the pair of shoes that matched it, were all expenses that she hadn't thought of as she handed over her credit card. She paid off the bills as best she could, but when it came to the end of the month and things had to be paid, some things were left to the side because she needed that roof over her head. It had caused things to pile up a bit before she'd moved in with Jesse.

Moving in with him had taken off some of the pressure, but she'd gotten herself into a hole and she was only able to very slowly crawl out of it, especially when treating herself was so tempting. It had become to easy to ignore because school got in the way, but at least one had gone into default and she'd begun to feel really overwhelmed. Part of her had wanted to tell her boyfriend, but she was convinced he'd be furious with her, and she didn't want him to snap at her for this obvious epic failure on her part. Finances were one of the leading causes of couples breaking up, and she didn't want to be one of those statistics because she wasn't off to a good start with adult money managing.

She'd sat down at the table to try and figure out what to pay off this month, but the interest was racking up and she could was barely causing a dent in it. Every month she'd been trying to cover it up, but suddenly he's there and looking at one of them and her heart stops.

"Yes, but..." She tries to reach out to grab the letter, but when he holds it out of reach, she begins instead to try and gather up the rest of them. Her tone is laced with guilt, concern, and even a hint of nerves. "Don't worry, I'm on top of it," she tried to lie, and turn the topic to something else. "Thai sounds really good though. I like the idea of renting a movie and having a relaxing evening with you."