A/N- And we continue. Thank you all for the kind words and support. It means so much to me that you are enjoying this. This chapter was a blast. It ended up taking a little bit of a different turn than I expected, but it was a fun one. One of my favorite lines ever is in this chapter. I hope you get a kick out of it. As always, special thanks to Erica and RedAmbition.

Disclaimer- I do not own Glee or its characters. To my knowledge, The perfect Key and Crescendo do not exist outside of this fic. This is purely for fun.

Finn was pleased that Rachel seemed to remember who he was, even if she was on a date. He smiled as she continued to look at him in shock, the alfredo sauce that once coated her pasta, now on her lips. "Hello. I would like to thank you for joining us at Crescendo this afternoon. I'm Finn Hudson, the owner and head chef. How does everything taste?"

Jesse watched as Rachel basically lost all of her wits right there in front of him. She was staring blankly at the chef. She had no idea that there was white sauce on her lips, he thought about telling her, but chose not to in hopes that she would figure it out before too long. He wasn't sure what was going on with her, Rachel Berry was usually very composed, but apparently he was going to have to be the one to carry the conversation today. "It's delicious, as always, chef. I'm Jesse St. James and my silent companion over there is Rachel Berry. I'm sure if she was able to speak she would tell you her food is delicious as well." He looked pointedly at Rachel, who was still staring blankly at the chef, and discretely kicked her under the table. "Right, Rachel?"

Finn turned his attention to the brunette beauty. He noticed her flinch then blink rapidly before her eyes seemed to actually see him standing at her table. "Yes. It's Rachel, I'm delicious." Jesse raised an eyebrow in amusement. She was clearly flustered, something he was enjoying but also very much wanted to understand. Her face reddened and she tried again. "I mean. My name is Rachel and the food is delicious."

Rachel couldn't believe what was happening. There he was, standing at her table. She found herself staring at the way the white coat fit his torso. He was even taller than she remembered, maybe because she was sitting and he was standing. Either way, he was tall. She didn't have time at the coffee shop to admire him as much as she would have liked, but looking at him now, she was impressed. She was happy that her random kissing had at least brought her someone as attractive as he was.

"I'm glad you are enjoying it." Finn chuckled at her obvious word jumble; he could see that Rachel was not herself. In the coffee shop she was completely composed and collected, even in her anger. He enjoyed this side of her too; pasta sauce included. "Please let Wendy know if you need anything else. It was great to meet you and I hope you will join us again soon." Finn would never describe himself as suave, in fact he was pretty sure nobody would, but today he was proud of the way he kept his cool. Especially around Rachel. He still wanted to kiss her again but at least he was able to keep himself from doing so in his restaurant in front of a guy who could possibly be her boyfriend.

Jesse watched as Rachel once again sat there in silence staring at the chef. "Thank you chef. We will definitely be returning."

"Enjoy the rest of your meal." Finn bowed slightly as a way to politely remove himself from the table. He took a step back and then turned to begin his short journey back to the kitchen.

Rachel watched as Finn made his way back to the kitchen. It was then, that her mouth finally caught up with her brain, mostly. "Thank you!" She practically shouted. Finn turned over his shoulder and gave her a heart melting smile just as he disappeared into the kitchen.

"What the hell was that? I've never seen you act like that." The end of his sentence was punctuated with thud as Rachel's forehead hit the table. "Rachel?"

Rachel groaned. "I can't believe that just happened." She refused to lift her head while she spoke to the table. "I'm such an idiot." He was just as good looking as she remembered and she had just made a huge fool out of herself. She was impressed with his professionalism and obviously his food and now she felt as if there was no way she would ever have a chance with him.

"He was cute, huh?" Jesse mused. He folded his arms and a chuckle escaped his when he heard Rachel groan into the table again. "You didn't think so?"

She lifted her head up swiftly and looked incredulously at Jesse. "He's not cute, Jesse. He is extremely handsome and I just made a huge fool out of myself."

"Do you know him? When he first came to the table you said 'it's you.'"

Rachel rubbed her forehead where it had come into contact with the table. "Remember the guy I kissed to teach Brody a lesson?"

"Wait. That's him?" Jesse turned around to steal a glance at the kitchen then turned back to Rachel. "That's the guy you kissed?"

Rachel groaned again. "I have no idea how I'm going to fix this. I'm not even sure I can ever come back in here." She leaned over the table looking at Jesse imploringly. "How bad was I?"

"It wasn't that bad. We can fix it."

She visibly relaxed as she sat back in her seat. "Are you sure?"

"I am." He saw her smile and looked at the door where Finn had disappeared into before. "Oh, Rachel?" She turned her attention to him and he held his napkin out to her. "You have some sauce on your face."

She took the napkin and wiped off her mouth frantically. It is official; Rachel had zero chance with Finn now. Her brief glimmer of hope from before snuffed out as her forehead once again made contact with the table.

Jesse couldn't help but tease her just a bit. The damage, if that's even what you could call it, was already done. On the outside, Finn was calm and professional, but his eyes told a different story. His eyes gave away his attraction for Rachel. Whenever he would look at her, he could see the attraction and the hope. It was clear that he remembered who she was, even if he didn't explicitly say so. Jesse could tease Rachel about it now, though, because he had a plan.

"How about we just finish our food Rachel? I'm sure it will be just fine."

Finn entered the kitchen and immediately went to wash his hands so he could go back to work. His heart was beating loudly as the warm water ran over his hands and he lathered them up. Overall, he thought that he had done a pretty good job at not making a fool of himself. He was pleased that he was able to refrain from embarrassing himself in front of her, like he was known to do. He rinsed the soap off and dried his hands, returning to his work station.

"Glad you made it back. How'd it go out there?"

Finn smiled at Mike and set to work on the next order. "Good, I think. I don't think I said anything too embarrassing."

"That's new."

Finn gave him a look that suggested that he was calling him a name and chopped the vegetables in front of him. "Did Kurt leave?"

"Yeah. He stepped out when he saw that you went out there." Mike set the plate he was working on on the shelf. "Table seven."

"He can be such a pain."

Mike retrieved the steak he would need for his next plate and began preparation as he continued to hassle Finn. "How about you stop stalling and tell me what happened out there."

"Nothing really. I just gave them the usual spill. Thanks for coming. Hope it tastes good. I'm Finn. Come back again." Finn smiled as his hands continued with the food. "She seemed flustered."

"Yeah? Do you think that was a good thing?"

Finn whisked the sauce he was preparing in the pan. "I think so. I mean, she didn't really talk much and she had alfredo sauce on her face the whole time, but Jesse acted like it wasn't normal for her."

"Jesse?"

He poured the sauce over his dish and placed it on the shelf for the waitress. "Table two. Yeah. Jesse. The guy she was with. Kurt may be onto something with him. He didn't really act like her boyfriend. I think he even kicked her once trying to get her to snap out of it."

"He kicked her?"

"Not like that. He was trying to get her to talk to me. I don't think a boyfriend would do that."

Mike went back to his dish. "There is hope for you yet."

Wendy thanked the couple that had become regulars over the last few weeks as they got up to leave. The woman stood and made her way to the door while the man hung back at the table a while longer while he finished up with the bill.

"Wendy. As usual, excellent service and food today. Might I ask you to do a favor for us?" He smiled sweetly and handed her black folder. Wendy didn't verbalize her willingness to help, but her expression told him that he could continue. "I am Jesse St. James and that lovely young lady over there is my costar Rachel Berry. We are going to be opening an original Broadway play in a couple weeks, but before it opens to the public, we like to do a private showing for friends, family, and important people in the community." Jesse looked over at Rachel then tapped on the black folder Wendy was now holding. "In here there are two tickets to that private showing. Could you possibly see that our chef, Finn, gets these?" She looked down at the folder with interest. "For your troubles, I have raised the amount of your tip."

Wendy discretely opened the folder and saw that he did add to her normal tip and she was not complaining. "Of course sir."

"One more thing, could you also tell him the she's not usually like that?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Sure. Yeah. I'll tell him."

"Thanks Wendy. We'll see you next time."

"Thanks for coming in." She told him. She also waved politely at Rachel, who was waiting near the door for Jesse to finish up. Wendy stopped by the cash register and removed the tickets, leaving behind Jesse's signed receipt and the black folder before going into the kitchen. "Finn."

Finn turned to see Wendy trying to get his attention from her side of the kitchen. "What's up Wendy?"

"Table twenty five left these for you." She passed a couple small pieces of paper through. "He said that they were in it and they would love to repay you for coming out to greet them today. He also said…" She looked up to the ceiling trying to recall the exact words that were used before she looked back to Finn. "'She's not usually like that'. Whatever that means. Anyway, here you go."

Finn took the tickets and looked at them closer. "Thanks Wendy."

"What are they?" Mike asked.

"Tickets." He turned them over, checking the back for more information. There wasn't any other info on the back; they were just standard show tickets, except for where it had 'private showing' printed on it. "For a show called The Perfect Key ever heard of it?"

"Nope. Are you gonna go?"

Finn placed the tickets in his wallet and smiled. "You know what? I think I will."

A/N- It's not often that Finn is the suave one. I really liked Rachel being the less than smooth here. Can you guess the favorite line? Thanks again for everything. See you for the next chapter.