Disclaimer: In no way affiliated with Glee


I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but first impressions are often entirely wrong. You can look at a painting for the first time, for example, and not like it at all, but after looking at it a little longer you may find it very pleasing.

Lemony Snicket, "The Bad Beginning"


Rachel was late. This had to be the hundredth time. She was going to miss her flight to New York and it was all her editor's fault. But then again, Rachel didn't have to stop for coffee. But she definitely needed the caffeine kick.

Waiting for her little fix, she impatiently tapped her foot against the tiled floor, poking her head from behind the people ahead of her in the queue and sighed, when a gust of wind hit her back. She peeked over her shoulder and noticed a tall male with a pair of Ray-ban Wayfarer sunglasses covering his eyes, his hair all ruffled under an old-looking baseball cap.

With her hand tightly gripped onto the handle of her black luggage, she slowly wheeled it behind her as she proceeded to take a few steps forward. She had a flight to catch and here she was, waiting for coffee. She must have been insane. Caffeine was far less important than reporting back to Emma about the past week; this was the biggest opportunity in her journalistic career. Emma hadn't let Rachel leave her desk the whole time she'd been working at Maquillé , which had been almost two years.

That was what happened when an impressionable young women who had just graduated from Columbia University at the top of the Dean's list decided to jump at the first opportunity of employment. So, maybe Rachel was a bit too impulsive for her own good. She really should have considered her options, but according to her - she wasn't far from a promotion and this job was going to do it for her. She could just feel it; something good was meant to happen.

Beep!

Rachel rummaged through her brown clutch and pulled out her iPhone. It was Santana for the third time in the last fifteen minutes. With a soft clearing of her throat, she answered, "H-hello?"

"Where are you?" was all that could be heard through the ruffling on the other end, aside from the fact that Santana was screaming into the phone.

"I..." she couldn't tell Santana she stopped to grab coffee, she would have been scolded so she did the only thing she could and lied, "I rushed out the door and forgot to take my curling iron."

Somewhat relieved that her lie was believable, she shuffled forward as the line begun to slowly make some progress but turned around and came eye-to-eye with the male (and a handsome one at that) behind her who had taken off his sunglasses, revealing his mesmerizing chocolate-coloured eyes.

Knock it off, Rachel. Work is number one right now.

Momentarily letting go of her luggage, she eyed the clock on the light yellow wall behind him and sighed, looked down at her iPhone and begun typing up a message to her co-worker, who - fortunately - was already at the terminal waiting for her. She had completely forgotten she was already on the line with Santana and raised the phone to her ear, scrunching her face from all the screaming that was coming from the other end.

"Santana," she managed to sneak in, "I'll be there soon!"

Once done, she slipped her phone into the pocket of her red coat, forgetting the people behind her and immediately walked into the man who happened to be watching her with an unamused expression adoring his face.

"I'm so sorry!" Rachel apologized, frantically grabbing the handle of her luggage, turned around and pulled it with her when she finally made it to the register and ordered herself a caramel latte with soymilk.

To her dismay and the man behind her, she couldn't find her money, unintentionally holding up the queue. She gave the cashier a small smile when she finally found a twenty to hand to the girl in front of her. Almost immediately, she grabbed her wrist, her voice low and apologetic, "Could you make it quick? I have a flight to catch."

And if it couldn't have been bad enough, once she had her coffee, she managed to bump into him again as she backed up her luggage to make room to leave the store. Looking down in embarrassment, she noticed that he had luggage that was identical to hers. The clearing of his throat and the scowl on his face said it all, causing her to roll her eyes at his rudeness and made her way out of the coffee shop, relieved she was out of the awkward air filling the space between her and the rude stranger.

Hailing a cab, she slipped in, "LAX please and fast."


Finn was in a bad mood; a really bad one. He got into L.A. later than anticipated, some short woman had held up the queue when he was in dire need of caffeine and a chocolate chip muffin, and to make matters worse, they were out of chocolate chip muffins. He was going to blame that woman from earlier, she must have taken the last chocolate chip muffin. Not that he saw or anything, but it was easier to blame her because she held up the queue; that was enough reason to blame her.

Women take everything. Even muffins.

He stood at the traffic light, his luggage behind him when his phone started buzzing and ringing in his jean pocket. He let out an exasperated sigh and pulled his iPhone out of his pocket, the caller ID informing him it was Mike and answered gruffly, "What?"

"Whoa, don't get too excited," Mike replied sarcastically, car honks clear in the background.

"Sorry," he replied as he rubbed his face with his hands and cleared his throat, "what's up?"

"I need you to take me some photos," a hint of apology in the tone of his voice.

"C'mon dude," he groaned, "I just got in from Vancouver."

"Yeah, and?" He obviously wasn't picking up on Finn's frustration, "You owe me for San Fran."

Finn knew he was right and with a defeated sigh, "Fine, where do you need me?"

"Chinatown."

Shaking his head with a small smile on his lips, he put his Ray-Ban's back on and made his way towards Chinatown.


Finn often found comfort in the fact that he was good at photography, immediately volunteering to photograph his mother's wedding to his stepfather when he was in college. It was weird having a father figure in his life after going his whole childhood and adolescence without guidance from a father - who had died during the war. He was glad that his mother had found someone to make her so happy and with that came a stepbrother who was definitely the voice of reason through a lot of his relationship issues.

But then again, his stepbrother was gay, so he sure knew a lot about females and how to handle them.

"Alright," he mumbled to his self when he found a prime spot to sit down and start shooting.

He lifted up his luggage onto the space beside him on the bench, needing to get out his camera and put in his combination on the lock, reciting it in his head, 1...2...3...4..., waiting for the click, but it never came. He frowned, tugging on the lock a few times.

Why isn't it opening? I didn't change the combination.

He turned over the luggage and read the name tag attached, 'Property of Rachel Berry' was written in cursive script on the small piece of cardboard. He must have grabbed the wrong bag, but it couldn't have been, he clearly remembered taking the right one when he left the airport. Finn had mistakenly taken the luggage of someone named Rachel Berry and he had no idea when or how.

Dialling the cell phone number written below, he sighed and waited for this Rachel person to pick up but it went straight to voicemail instead. He decided to leave a message, "Is this Rachel Berry? Well, I have something that belongs to you and you might have something that belongs to me," he licked his lips, "Call me back... and my name's Finn Hudson."


Author's Notes: For the name of the magazine Rachel works at, I'm pretty sure I googled 'French word for make-up' and got that. But please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm hoping to extend the chapters as the story progresses, but for now, the updates will be short and hopefully, informative. If you're unsure about what Finn's job is, you'll find out soon. I'd also really love some comments and input before I publish the next chapter, so please, comment, subscribe and favorite!