The first time Rachel saw her, she could barely place her drink order.

She knows she ordered a Long Island, but one look into those hazel eyes and she had trouble forming words. The blonde bartender hadn't noticed. The bar was busy; Rachel was just another customer she needed to get out of the way so she could get to the next one.

If only Rachel knew the trouble she was getting herself into.


The second time Rachel saw her, she was a bit more prepared. As she walked into the bar, head held high, she saw a flash of blonde walk past her carrying a tray of drinks. She sat down, and almost refused to order when a tall, muscular blonde man with larger than normal lips asked her what she wanted to drink.

Rachel was equally frustrated when the male bartender asked her if she wanted a refill, as the realization dawned on her that the stunning blonde with the beautiful eyes would not be serving her tonight.

Rachel just grunted and waited for another mojito to down.


Third time would be a charm, at least that's what Rachel thought. She made sure to sit at the very end of the bar, where she was about 90% sure was the area that the blonde served.

She was right.

Rachel was too ecstatic to bother trying to talk to her. She was brave enough to ask the blonde to make her a drink as she pointed to the Absolut Raspberry vodka, but besides that, she just settled for watching the blonde when she wasn't looking.

When Rachel got the check, she held in her joy as she finally figured out the name of her mystery bartender. On the receipt in electronic print was: "Server: Quinn."

'What a lovely name,' Rachel thought.


Fourth time, fifth time...a few other times passed, actually. Rachel came pretty much every week and taken to alternating between sitting at the bar in Quinn's area, or sitting away at a table so she could secretly watch Quinn from afar. Months had passed since the first time Rachel decided this Quinn person would have her babies. Obviously, it was a little creepy, but Rachel didn't care at this point..

Rachel was still planning her move, of course. Or trying to gather up the courage to speak more than "A cosmo, please," to Quinn.

So, Rachel finally spoke to Quinn.

Rachel was sitting at a table away from the bar. She was with Kurt, who had accompanied her on every prior trip to the bar before. Kurt complained every time, especially because Rachel insisted it just be him and not him and Blaine who came with her. But, the drinks were strong, it was near their apartment, and the male bartender with the killer abs was cute. He had introduced himself one night to find out the ab-ulous Sam was his bartender and still found him adorable despite Sam's attempt at a Sean Connery accent. And, of course, Kurt was highly amused at Rachel's antics and curious where it would end up.

Two empty glasses sat on the table, when Quinn came by to pick them up. As Quinn lifted up the glasses, Rachel leaned in, the alcohol making her bolder.

"Quinn, how are you?"

Quinn flashed a smile.

"I'm good, how are you?"

"Great!" Rachel was beaming.

The three-second conversation was over as Quinn walked away quickly, off to tend to another patron.

"Oh. My. Barbra. She smiled at me!" Rachel gushed as she leaned towards Kurt.

"I can't believe you called her by her name!" Kurt was astounded that Rachel did it, considering that Rachel had never formally introduced herself to Quinn. It was sort of creepy.

"I don't even care right now. She SMILED at me, Kurt. We're going to get married," Rachel stated surely.

Kurt just nodded and smiled. It was far easier to just let Rachel ride out her craziness than get involved.


'Oh, god,' Kurt thought as he wished he had gotten involved. Maybe then things would have turned out differently. You know, so he wouldn't have been woken up at 8 in the morning by Rachel storming into his room yelling about the previous night.

The not-so-conversation with Quinn had sent Rachel over the edge, and they had both consumed way more alcohol than they should have. Needless to say, Kurt woke up with a horrible headache that was further exacerbated by a certain Broadway diva.

"Kurt! What happened? You left me!" Rachel yelled as she jumped on Kurt's bed.

Kurt remembered. He had started to feel sick and begged Rachel to go home, but Rachel was insistent on staying. Now, normally, Kurt would never leave Rachel at a bar by herself. But he was drunk, feeling sick, and two blocks from their apartment so he had left. He semi-recalled arguing with Rachel about going home and Rachel refusing to go home. So he had left her.

He was regretting that now.

"I don't know! I wanted to go home, you didn't...we fought I think. So I went home without you." Kurt's pillow was over his head. Seeing any type of light at this point would just make him throw up.

"I think I yelled at her!"

"What?"

"At the end of the night, stupid man bartender wouldn't let me pay for my drinks, so I tried to get Quinn to make him charge me but she made me go home! I was mean!...I think. I definitely yelled!" Rachel was similarly laid on the bed with the pillow over her head. Luckily, they had been through many a drunken night where they had to recount the details they recalled the next morning, so they understood each other perfectly.

"What did you say to her?" Kurt mumbled. A headache was starting to creep up on him, and though he wanted Rachel to get the hell out of his room, he couldn't resist getting every detail out of her. Or at least what she could remember.

"I don't know! I just remember getting mad, leaving, then trying to go back but the door was locked! What if I told her I was in love with her? What if I told her I was completely gay for her? She probably thinks I'm trying to buy her with all the tips we keep leaving!"

"Is that not what you were doing?" Kurt was well-aware that when Rachel got some drinks in her, she tended to leave large tips behind. But even Kurt had to reign in Rachel the past couple of times and keep her from spending all her money on a girl who most likely had no idea she existed.

"Kurt Hummel, I cannot let her think that I am a neanderthal who just drinks until she cannot think anymore!" Rachel was indignant. Rarely did she ever "black out" from drinking, and curse her luck that one of the few times she did, it happened to involve one beautiful bartender named Quinn.

"I'm never drinking again," Rachel sighed. She could never show her face again.

"Oh my god, Rachel. What do you want to do, apologize to her?" Kurt realized later that he never should have spoken, let alone let the brunette into his room.

"That's BRILLIANT, Kurt! I will apologize to her immediately when the bar opens today! Quinn Bartender will NOT think of Rachel Barbra Berry as just another drunk!" Rachel bounded out of Kurt's room.

"Do you think she'll come back?" Blaine asked sleepily. He had actually walked Kurt home after the other boy had asked him to come get him, considering the sheer drunkeness that Kurt was in the previous night. Blaine was curled up on the edge of the bed, his hair a curly mess threatening to turn into an afro.

"No, love, just go back to sleep..." Kurt mumbled as he snuggled into the smaller boy's back. He knew that Rachel's craziness was far from over, but he was determined to sleep at least a little bit in this morning if he had any say in it.


"I'm very sorry. Obviously, my friend and I had just a little too much too drink. I hope you will not judge us on last night, as I hope you can recall,we have been quite tolerable in previous weeks, quite friendly actually. Kurt often engages in conversation with Sam, and though we, and I mean you, me, Sam, and Kurt, haven't been able to talk extensively or get to know each other in the most appropriate way, that we have a sort of camaraderie, seeing as Kurt and I have been quite lovely, in my opinion, thus far..."

Quinn had stopped listening halfway through, and tried really hard to listen. Sure, the short brunette and gay brunette had confessed their love to her and Sam in a drunken fit the previous night, but that wasn't exactly out of the norm for them. Honestly, as a bartender for the past year, Quinn was used to drunken antics and would have quickly forgiven Rachel, had Rachel stopped talking and let her.

"...and I really feel that considering our regular patronage of this bar, as well as the large tip we leave, I hope that you will consider forgiving us and letting us continue to patron this establishment, again considering the proximity to our apartment and the frequency in which we partake..."

Quinn knew them. She knew they came in almost every week. That the taller brunette boy would usually order a cosmo, but the shorter, louder, brunette with the bangs...she was a mystery. Every week, she ordered a different drink. One week a beer, another week a cosmo, another week a mojito...it was a bit frustrating. This Rachel person, as Quinn figured out from the receipts Rachel left, was quite an enigma. Quinn never really knew what Rachel would want to drink, and that sort of annoyed the shaggy blonde bartender. Quinn prided herself on getting to know her regulars, but for some reason, Rachel and Kurt just seemed to fall outside her radar. Kurt always made a point to talk to Sam, but for the most part, they had never spoken to Quinn, nor really tried to make eye contact.

This was all about to change, though, tonight.

"...and again, I'm really sorry, I hope you won't think of us lightly, and again, so sorry about how I behaved."

Quinn registered in her head that the brunette named Rachel had finished talking. She smiled as she cleaned the area around them.

"It's okay. It happens," Quinn said, the smile still on her face. She was highly amused that Rachel had taken it upon herself to come in first thing the next morning to apologize.

"No, Quinn, I must insist that I make amends-" Rachel began until she was interrupted.

"How did you know my name?" Quinn asked, her left eyebrow raised in curiosity. A blush creeped itself across Rachel's face, until it was obvious she was beet red.

"Um...well, it was on our receipts. I assumed since he was Sam," Rachel pointed at the blonde male bartender, "that you would be Quinn. I'm sorry, it's incredibly rude not to introduce myself. I'm Rachel Barbra Berry," Rachel smiled as she extended her hand out to Quinn.

"It's nice to meet you," Quinn smiled, completely captivated by the pair of brown eyes in front of her. Why hadn't she ever noticed the pair of stunning eyes on a bar regular?

"I'm Quinn Fabray."

"It's lovely to meet you, Quinn Fabray."

Rachel was ecstatic. Mystery blonde, beautiful bartender was speaking to her.

And like that, Rachel withdrew her vow to never drink again. If anything, she would be drinking a lot more now as she attempted to gain the friendship of one Quinn Bartender Fabray...while wooing her, of course.