Rachel's p.o.v.
Timothy takes Sarah to go with him to visit his mother. Rachel wonders why Quinn doesn't go along. Quinn explains that Tim's mother isn't very fond of her. Apparently, she is 'too pretty' and his mom thinks she is only with him for the money.
"Well, it does explain the wardrobe." Rachel jokes. Quinn responds with one of her signature glares.
"That really wasn't funny. I cannot help it if people shower me with gifts because of who I am."
Rachel cannot believe what just came out of Quinn Fabray's mouth. She opens her mouth to voice her opinion on Quinn's sudden ego trip, but she's countered with a burst of laughter from her friend.
"Oh my goodness, you should see your face right now. Ha-ha." Rachel watches on as Quinn doubles over in her fit of laughter. Rachel begins to feel her own laughter bubble up and release itself in a mild chuckle. She has to admit, Quinn's giggling is quite adorable. Everything Quinn is pretty adorable right now.
Later in the afternoon, while reading in an armchair, Rachel is startled by Quinn tapping her on the shoulder.
"What is it Quinn?" Rachel asks confusedly.
"Um, I'm bored, do you want to maybe start your swim lessons today? I know we were supposed to start a while ago."
"Oh, sure if you're ready. I was just reading anyway." Rachel says as she gets up and puts her reader away.
Rachel sees this as the perfect opportunity to get Quinn back for before. She puts on her string bikini with the barely there triangles for the ultimate exposure of skin. If Quinn is even remotely attracted to her, this will get a rise out of her. She walks down wrapped in a towel so that Quinn cannot see until they get outside. When she sees Quinn, she almost loses her cool by tripping down the stairs. Luckily, she catches herself and hopes that Quinn did not notice. Quinn's bikini is a lot like hers, leaving nothing to the imagination. Rachel can feel her nipples begin to stiffen as she leers at Quinn. She licks her lips and averts her eyes. 'I'm supposed to be doing the seducing,' she tells herself.
Quinn gets into the pool first and looks up at Rachel as she stands at the edge. She smiles down at Quinn and slowly removes her towel to reveal her body. Her nipples get even stiffer when the air hits them. She cannot read Quinn's expression as she squints up at her from the pool.
"Could you get in already, the sun is burning my eyes." Well, that was disappointing, maybe she could be sexier in the pool. Then she thinks about it, why was Quinn worried about the sun burning her eyes? She smirks to herself as she carefully walks down the steps into the water allowing Quinn to guide her into the pool by the arm.
"Careful," Quinn warns.
"Whoa, the water feels really cold." Quinn nods in agreement.
"Yeah, so first things first, water safety. It is better to breathe air through your mouth only as you swim and if you ever find yourself down at the bottom of a pool I want you to do something called 'bobbing'."
"What's that?"
"It's when you are at the bottom of the pool and you jump as hard as you can to propel yourself upwards to get air as soon as possible."
"Okay,"
"I'll show you how another day. Today, I want to show you how to float and how to move your arms and legs in the water."
"Alright," She watches as Quinn shows her how to float on her stomach and she gets how to do it right away. "Well, that was easy." Rachel says proudly.
"Oh really? I'll bet you'll have a harder time floating on your back."
"How do you do that?" Quinn tells her to lie back and relax.
"You keep your legs straight, toes pointed and slightly arch your back."
She tries, but she almost goes under. Quinn catches her by placing her hands under her back for support. Rachel tenses because she didn't expect to feel Quinn's gentle, yet firm hands on her body.
"I told you it was hard. Would you relax? Let me guide you." Rachel swallows hard and tries to allow herself to relax. She lets Quinn have complete control of her body. She feels weightless as she floats on her back with her eyes closed, facing the sun. After a few minutes, Quinn abruptly removes her hands and Rachel has to catch herself by standing up.
"Hey, why'd you let me go?" she frowns at Quinn, who dips her head under water, comes up and then splashes Rachel with water.
"We need to move on if you want to learn how to glide today."
"Alright, let's do it." Rachel does not buy that excuse, but she allows Quinn to slide this time. She still misses the feeling of Quinn's hands on her body. She contemplates doing something so that Quinn will have to grab her again. Then she remembers that she is supposed to be learning how to swim. Quinn shows her how to position her hands in front of her and then she pushes off the wall and shoots off. Rachel watches Quinn do it before trying it herself.
"She's like a freaking mermaid, damn." Rachel mumbles to herself.
After practicing the glide a few times, Quinn shows Rachel how to move her arms as she kicks to propel herself forward. Rachel begins to get it after a while, and then Quinn tells her that they should go inside so that she could start dinner.
Rachel showers and then decides to see how Quinn handles seeing her in one of her sleep tanks, braless of course. She kind of feels bad for teasing Quinn, knowing full well that she's married. Tim is never home, and hardly spends any time with Quinn and she pretended not to notice the separate bedrooms, but that is definitely a sign of trouble in her book. Boosted with a little confidence sends her down to dinner, after a last minute change into something a bit classier of course. She went with her loose fitting cream top with tiny black shorts. She styled her hair in big waves quickly so that it would have a messy look and made sure to put on eye makeup and a little concealer and lip gloss.
The extra effort was worth it when she makes it into the kitchen receiving a double take from Quinn.
"You look...pretty." Quinn tells her.
"Thanks, I only showered and threw myself together as fast as I could, so that I could come and help you. What can I do?" she is hopeful at the fact that Quinn has not looked at her again since her complement. 'It has to mean something,' she thinks.
"Um, you can chop up those carrots I guess. Diced." Quinn throws over her shoulder, not making eye contact once. Rachel decides to up her game.
"Quinn?"
"Yes,"
"Did I do something wrong?" Quinn drops her knife.
"No, why would you think something like that?" Quinn asks her.
"I don't know, you've been acting weird and avoiding eye contact with me ever since I came down." Rachel bites her lip to keep from smiling.
"Oh, no, it's me. I'm just a little...tired, that's all." Quinn says as she resumes her chopping.
Rachel is impressed by her composure, aside from that pause before she chose the word tired as her excuse. This dinner is going to be fun.
They set the smaller dinner table for two before bringing out the meal that Quinn prepared for them.
"Tim's eating at his mother's so we have this all to ourselves." Quinn says quickly before bowing her head to pray. Rachel surprises Quinn by grabbing both of her hands in an attempt to join her.
"What? I want to join you in your pre dinner prayer tonight." Quinn looks up at her then, with the softest expression. Rachel feels faint.
"Really? You don't have to. I'm used to doing it alone."
"Quinn, you shouldn't have to do anything alone. I mean, you're married and you have a beautiful daughter…I don't know about Tim, but if had someone like you by my side, I'd support them in whatever they chose to do." Rachel cringes slightly. She did not want to come on too strong there. She makes a mental note to work on her subtlety.
"I'm glad you want to join me, but I don't believe in forcing my beliefs and practices onto those around me." Quinn says with a pleasant smile.
"Does it make you happier knowing that you're not forcing me to do it? I'm joining you in prayer out of pure support of your beliefs, even if they slightly differ from my own." Rachel quirks an eyebrow and gives Quinn a smile back.
"Well I guess I cannot argue with such an intelligent response. So let's start shall we." Quinn bows her head and Rachel follows suit. "You know, since you're being so nice, why don't you say grace?"
Rachel can feel her eyes bulge. She had not thought of that. Quinn Fabray plays the game better than she had expected. She swallows nervously.
"Um, God?" Of course it would be God, but she thinks she should start with something else. "Bless this amazing meal that…we are about to enjoy tonight. Thank you God," She looks up unsurely at Quinn who still has her eyes closed, except now she looks as if she were suppressing laughter. "a-and also Jesus as well. Oh and Amen, right?" She takes a deep breath to try and calm herself. She could feel sweat beginning to form on her forehead. She lets out a nervous giggle and that sends Quinn over the edge.
"Hahahaha, wow. I…" Quinn trails off into even more laughter. Rachel is not amused.
"It wasn't that bad Quinn. For never having said grace, I'd say I did a pretty decent job. Thank you very much." Rachel says with a huff. Quinn stops laughing and looks up at Rachel and clears her throat.
"You're right. I apologize, it was very sweet of you to even want to participate. Thank you Rachel." Rachel stares at Quinn blankly, she cannot believe some of the things Quinn says nowadays.
"No, thank you Quinn, you've been extremely hospitable towards me ever since I arrived and I just wanted to show you how much I appreciate it. You've become such an amazing woman, and I, I really admire you Quinn."
Rachel immediately feels burning in her cheeks with the way Quinn is looking at her right now. There had always been so many emotions behind a look from Quinn, and Rachel does not even want to think about the one that she sees in her eyes tonight. It would explain so many things that have happened lately, the subtle flirting, the blushing, the not so subtle pool activities...could Quinn feel the same way that she feels? What does it mean if she does?