A/N: Here's a quick chapter to thank those of you who reviewed or added this to your favourites or story alerts! You don't know how happy you make me. By the way, if you'd like to see what Rachel was practising, search on YouTube for "music and the mirror elizabeth earley". The first video, from 3:18 to about 3:45, is pretty much what you should visualise. ;)
She took a deep breath as she stood, back facing the wall of mirrors. Softly, she sang the line before her dance solo.
"All I ever needed was the music and the mirror, and the chance to dance…"
Quickly, she spun around to face the mirror, counting the beat as the music played in her head. She moved, graceful yet determined, entering the mind of Cassie. I need this. I need to get in the chorus. She spun again, and after a high kick, continued with the spins. And it was in the middle of one of these spins that she stopped abruptly, distracted.
Or, more accurately, she teetered to an awkward stop mid-spin, as she noticed Cooper leaning against a wall. His arms were crossed, as he stared straight at her with a smirk that she wanted to smack off his face. Distracting me! she thought huffily.
Rachel was about to return to her practice, when the man leaned down to pick up two Starbucks cups, and walked towards her.
"You dance well," he said, coming to a stop in front of her.
"Is that all you wanted to say?" she returned, carefully rearranging her untied hair, slightly messed from all the turns she had been doing. "I'm busy here."
Cooper laughed, eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. "I also wanted to say, this is your coffee, and we need to talk."
She couldn't deny that they did have to talk, and work their lines together. Pursing her lips, she asked, "How do you know what coffee I drink?"
He laughed again. Her neck was starting to get a little tired, because of how much taller he was, and she had to tilt her head up to look him in the eye when he stood so close. "Apparently, you're a regular at this Starbucks store, and the staff knows what Miss Rachel Berry drinks. Latte with soy milk, take it." He held out one of the cups, and nodded at it. When she took it warily, he pointed at a corner of the room, where her bag was. "Let's sit down."
Cooper was a lot of things. People had called him an arrogant, dick-headed son of a bitch, among many other names. He couldn't disagree with most of them, but he knew if there was one thing he wasn't, it was ignorant.
He had noticed that if he stayed in the rehearsal space during lunch, Rachel would go out with a couple of the girls, or sometimes alone. If he went for lunch, she would stay in. Well, with the mandate from Mr. Director that they had to improve – fast – from whatever they had produced last evening, this wouldn't do.
So he had made a big show of going out for lunch alone, ensuring that Rachel knew he wasn't going to be anywhere near the room during lunch break. But all he had done was to go across the street to grab coffee for both of them. On the way, he had stopped Lisa, who played Val and had lunched at least five times with Rachel.
"What coffee does Rachel drink?"
"Latte with soy… wait. Why are you asking?"
"Uh, well. Don't tell her I asked. Latte with soy milk?"
"Yeah…"
She had looked at him suspiciously. Probably being protective of her friend and aware of her blatant dislike of him, he guessed. He repeated his request for Lisa to keep mum about this conversation, before quickly heading off to buy the damn coffee.
And as of now, his plan had been quite a success. They were both sitting down in a corner of the room, where both their bags were. As he reached into his bag to replace his wallet, Rachel suddenly demanded, "When did your bag get here?"
Oh, right. That had been another problem. She would usually put her bag as far from his as possible. Too bad he also had friends in the show, and he had asked them to try to move his bag to where hers was before he returned.
"It walked over from the other side of the room."
She looked at him, eyebrows raised and unimpressed. He cleared his throat, unaccustomed to facing unimpressed women he wasn't auditioning for. "So, uh, as you know, we are expected to work spectacularly together."
"Yes." Her answer was short, her tone clipped, and she immediately returned to drinking her latte.
Well, given this blatant show of hostility, she was probably going to spit her latte in his face when he said what he had to say.
"I think we need to spend time together."
What the. She stared at him in disbelief, nearly spitting her latte out. "What did you say?"
He shifted a little, almost looking uncomfortable. Who would have thought, cocky Cooper feeling uncomfortable? "I think we need to spend time together. Like, off work."
Rachel hadn't expected that sort of request. She had thought he would ask for something like practising their lines now, which she could gladly agree to. "So you want to be friends?" Somehow the incredulity she was feeling slipped out. She flushed a little, but she wasn't going to apologise.
He was silent for a couple of seconds, and when he spoke there seemed to be some anger simmering underneath the surface. "As an actress, I'm sure you know it's not easy to fake chemistry with someone you hate. What I am proposing is that we should get to know each other better, so acting together will be easier." He stared at her coolly, returning to silence as she tried to formulate a response.
Well. She couldn't argue with what he had said. And she wanted to be a wonderful Cassie, if not the best. So there really was only one answer, wasn't there?