This was such an awful idea. As Quinn struggles to stay awake at her desk, she regrets letting Rachel to convince her to stay up all night watching movies on what they still deem as "school nights".
But she can't bring herself to take a single moment back. In fact, it was probably the most fun she had had in quite some time. She had surprised Rachel with a vegan pizza she ordered from across town and Rachel had surprised her with a behind the scenes DVD of the making of her favorite movie, Casablanca.
They had stayed up going back and forth choosing a movie, something they hadn't done in years. Things had gotten hectic for the both of them both during and after college, it seemed. But last night had reminded Quinn how much she loved the simplicity of being with Rachel.
And contrary to what Quinn predicted, Rachel had managed to stay awake until about 12:40. In Quinn's defense, Rachel put Funny Girl in around 11 which guaranteed her at least two hours of being wide awake reciting lines and dancing around singing.
But Quinn is not a sore loser, so when the clock struck midnight she had given Rachel a congratulatory kiss and told her she should expect her mozzarella Panini time sometime in the nearby future.
Rachel, on the other hand, is not a humble woman so she had done an entire interpretive dance about what it felt like to beat Quinn at her own challenge. And Quinn had laughed and laughed throughout the whole thing, however, she is certainly not amused now.
She is sitting at her desk, chin in her hand, staring at her computer screen. She and three other junior level employees have been put on a rather large project and her portion is nearly done, but even still she doesn't want to come across as a slacker. One of her group members, Josh Reynolds, has been particularly on her case while working together, questioning everything she says and does. She wonders if he has a problem with women in general or if it's against her personally.
Everyone here is very well aware of who she is and some of them have been kind to her, finding her very capable. But of course, there have also been many, like Josh, who have labelled her as an incompetent rich girl riding on her father's coattails.
This is her opportunity to show him first hand that she earned this job, just like him, so she runs her hand across her face, and puts her focus back on the numbers on her screen.
"Hey Quinn?" Quinn looks up at Roger, grateful for a distraction, even after committing to getting back to work.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"I've got the Advance Market graph up, but I can't get it to segregate by market share, only profit. Do you know how to fix it?"
Quinn squints, trying to think back on her experiences with market tables in Excel, before nodding.
"Yeah, bring me your laptop. I'll do it." He breathes a sigh of relief and both he and Josh, who are partnering for their portion of the project, come over to her cubicle and stand behind her watching on as she fixes their table.
"Okay, so if you want to segregate by share, you need to first organize the companies by industry, that way you can make them easier to identify. If you do share first, then industry, it's much more complicated, you know?"
She turns around to look at them and finds only Roger to be listening. Josh is staring up looking at something else entirely, which doesn't surprise her at all.
It's like he purposely ignores anything that may prove my worth here.
"Yeah yeah, that makes total sense," Roger speaks for both of them.
"Yeah, okay, well, just hit control then click organize by—-"
"Ho-ly shit," Josh interrupts.
They both turn their heads around to him, concerned by his unprofessional and unusual outburst.
"What? Have you really never seen this before?" Quinn asks, not understanding what his statement is about.
"No, I mean holy shit!" He nods his head to something off in the distance that Quinn can't see while sitting, but when Roger turns his head to look at whatever Josh is seeing, he too looks shocked.
A smile slowly starts to grow on both of their faces. "Please tell me we're hiring. Please tell me we've just hired her and she's going to be working on our floor."
Josh shakes his head adamantly. "No way. There's no way she works here, she's waaay too hot. No offense or anything Quinn."
Quinn scoffs and rolls her eyes at that sexist comment and decides she needs to see whatever it is that has left them so unable to think properly.
"What the hell are you guys talking ab—", but she never finishes that statement. Because what she sees causes her brain to lose its ability to function as well.
Standing on the other side of the glass window that separates all of the offices from the lobby and the receptionists' desk is Rachel Berry. But not the Rachel that Quinn is familiar with. No this Rachel is…
Fucking hot, Quinn thinks.
Rachel is wearing a pair of gray and black linen shorts with a thin black shirt. The shirt is so thin, in fact, that she's pretty sure that she can see Rachel's bra underneath.
She's undecided about how she feels about that, but she knows what her body thinks as her heartbeat increases and her face flushes.
As she moves around the desk a bit, Quinn can see that she is also wearing a pair of knee high black boots that in any other setting would be seen as slutty, but Rachel makes them look quite classy.
"Rachel?!" Quinn certainly didn't say it loud enough for her to hear it, but in that same moment both she and the receptionist turn and look her way.
Rachel smiles broadly and waves as she prepares to walk through the glass doors.
"I'm sorry, you know her?!" Josh asks disbelievingly.
But Quinn doesn't even respond. She's too surprised to see Rachel to say much more. She scoots away from her desk and meets Rachel just in front of Roger's cubicle on the other side.
"Rachel, what are you doing here? And…what are you wearing?!"
"Hi, baby!" She whispers conspiratorially. "I'm sorry to bother you, I know you're busy, but I just wanted to come say hi! And I wanted to have lunch together!"
Quinn shakes her head because even though her first question was about Rachel's presence, the most important question is about her appearance.
"Rachel," she tries again, "What…are you wearing?"
Rachel looks down at herself nervously and attempts to pull the shorts down a little more, to no avail.
"I…Blaine kind of…made me over. Do you-I mean, I know it's not my usual look but…"
She's looking for Quinn's approval. She's looking for Quinn to say that she doesn't look as ridiculous as she feels. Oddly enough, she's worn a few skirts shorter than this, but somehow this is different. Those skirts were never intended to be sexy. The goal was never for someone to look at her. But this outfit and hair and makeup all scream 'Look at me!' and that makes her self-conscious in every possible way.
Her nervousness continues to grow as Quinn says nothing. Just stares down at her, taking it all in.
"Honestly, I don't like it much either," she lies. "I think I'm going to tell Blaine that I would prefer to go back to my—"
"Rachel this is going to probably sound awful, but I didn't even know you could look this good. The whole outfit is so so… sexy."
Rachel's hair is tousled in that perfect way that makes it seem fixed but messy. Like someone ran their hands through it recklessly but it still works.
Her make up is dark and smoky around her eyes and Quinn realizes that though it's a terrible time, she's growing wet just looking at her. Fortunately Rachel speaks up taking her mind off of how turned on she's becoming.
"Well, seeing as I know exactly what you mean, I will allow that comment to slide." She blushes. And looks away shyly to find two gentlemen staring at her in awe.
She looks back at Quinn to whisper again, "Are you going to introduce me to your coworkers?"
Quinn shakes her head. "I am in no mood to share you right now. You wanna go grab lunch?"
Rachel flushes at the compliment. "Actually," she lifts a bag Quinn hadn't seen until now, "I know that I won the bet, but I thought I would do something nice and bring you your pita and hummus anyway. You did endure that interpretive dance rather gracefully." They both laugh lowly, trying not to draw attention to themselves. But as Quinn looks around for a place to eat lunch, she notices that despite trying to be low-key, they have attracted an audience of about 10 men shamelessly staring their way.
She grabs Rachel's free hand and leads her to the conference room which is in full view of the entire office. The walls are made of glass much like the rest of the walls in the building, but fortunately, these windows frost and with the touch of a button, the rest of the office becomes a muted blur to them.
"Oooh, we should get these for at home. I love having glass walls in the shower, but sometimes there's this creeper that I think watches me as she brushes her teeth. It was cute at first, but now it's just gotten weird." Rachel's face looks disgusted as Quinn turns scarlet as she realizes that she has been caught.
I thought for sure I was being conspicuous.
Quinn attempts to divert the attention from her back onto Rachel. "Well," she steps into Rachel's personal space, "A few months ago, I might have struck down that idea, but if you're going to be walking around looking this good 24/7, I myself may need a little more…privacy as well when I shower."
She leans down to kiss Rachel and the moment their lips find each other's, Rachel's tongue peeks out to caress Quinn's. They kiss heatedly for a few minutes before Quinn loses her self-control for a moment and leans down slightly to hook her hands behind Rachel's thighs. She grips them tightly and lifts. Rachel lets out a small shriek and laughs into her neck, where she burrows and buries her in kisses.
Quinn places her on top of the glass conference table and is more than ready to get on top of her when Rachel places a hand between them, effectively stopping her.
"Baby, I am starving."
"I've got something you can eat." Quinn says in a haste and she immediately regrets it. "Oh my god, can we please pretend I did not just say that?! It sounds like a line from a terrible dubious consent porno!"
Rachel starts laughing out loud and is already pushing her body away. "I'm not going to ask about how you know what that sort of pornography is like. I'm just going to consider the mood officially ruined, so are you ready to eat now?"
Before Quinn even responds, Rachel takes the food out of the small paper bag. Rachel remains on the table with Quinn standing between her legs as she feeds her a piece of pita with the hummus.
"Mmmm, thank you Lord for Pita Passion." Quinn smiles up at the heavens as she chews. She kicks off her heels and the feeling of food in her mouth and solid ground beneath her feet is almost orgasmic.
"How's work going?" Rachel asks as she dips the remainder of the piece of bread and eats it herself.
"It's fine. It's work."
Rachel nods, accepting the same generic response as always. She tried once to ask Quinn more in-depth questions about work but found that she had no clue what any of the terms meant. And then Quinn was so into it that she had gone on a 30 minute rant about something called an investment model. So Rachel knows better than to press anymore. But she is curious about one thing.
"Sooo, you're hot coworkers?"
"Oh my gosh, right?! I have to say, Josh-the tall guy in the silver suit- Josh has never been speechless. That's how beautiful you look, Rachel."
That is not exactly what Rachel meant when she asked the question. She was more trying to gauge if Quinn was attracted to either of them because she's sure that before this contract, Quinn would've gone out with someone tall, intelligent, and handsome like either of those men. But knowing that Quinn's mind didn't even go there brings her more pleasure than it probably should.
Rachel smiles down at the new piece of hummus in her hands that's waiting in the wings to be eaten.
"Thanks Quinn."
She doesn't see it, but Quinn nods lightly. "Just being honest." She mumbles.
Rachel in a move that is uncharacteristic for her, wraps her legs around Quinn's waist to draw her closer so that their bodies are as close as they can be in this position.
"And to think…I'm all yours." She says playfully but really for Quinn it's the thing that keeps playing in her mind. That Rachel is all hers. So to hear Rachel confirm it makes her heart soar.
"Lucky me." She is fed another piece of pita and she chews it carefully before continuing. "Speaking of 'lucky me'," she says sarcastically, "I need a favor."
Rachel perks right up. "Sure what's up?"
"I have a few admirers out there. Roger, the guy next to silver suit douche. He's the one I was telling you about. Super nice, he just doesn't know I'm seeing someone. I was hoping you could just…" She trails off, gesturing ambiguously, not knowing exactly what she wants her to do.
"Intimidate him?" Rachel finishes for her. "Or just be cool and friendly?"
"Eh, little bit of both maybe? Like scare him enough so he gets the hint and backs off but still be nice and friendly. Can you do that?"
Rachel scoffs, offended. "Quinn, you should know by now that my skill range is wide and my abilities are in the multitudes. I can certainly do that. I know just what you're looking for."
Quinn gives her a quick peck to show her thanks and they finish lunch quickly.
"Thanks for bring me lunch by the way. This was really nice."
"Yeah, of course! It was mainly for my benefit more than anything. I wanted to see you." Rachel says shyly, throwing their trash away.
"Well, I'm glad you stopped by. This was super thoughtful."
They stare at each other, forgetting about the world momentarily before Rachel breaks the silence.
"Hand holding or no hand holding?" she asks holding her hand out and moving it out to Quinn and then back to herself to illustrate her point.
"Hmm, no hand holding, but I'm going to put my hand on your back. Effective while being less in your face." Rachel laughs and nods.
"You are ridiculously precise."
"Do you like that?" Quinn says unsure of whether 'precise' is a positive or negative.
"Oh," Rachel leans in one last time to kiss her and when she pulls back, she whispers on her lips, "I absolutely love it."
They share a quick smile before Quinn defrosts the windows and they leave the conference room.
Once they're back in the general office, with several eyes on them, Rachel grows nervous and Quinn can suddenly feel her tense next to her.
"Rachel, you look so hot right now. You could speak baby talk to them and they would love you. Don't worry."
Rachel nods imperceptibly as they approach where Roger and Josh are sitting.
"Hey guys?" They both look up from their quiet conversation and upon seeing Rachel they stand immediately and straighten their ties.
"Hey, Quinn, what's-uh, what's up?" Josh says quickly. He has never once been this kind to her. In fact, she's pretty sure he has never even called her by her first name. To see him like this is amusing to her, but at the same time, she doesn't like it. She doesn't like the thought of him being so into Rachel, but she reminds herself that she's with Rachel and that's all that matters.
"I just wanted you to meet Rachel." She turns towards Rachel and places her hand on her back as discussed, while slightly urging her forward.
Rachel smiles broadly and extends her hand to Josh first.
"Hello!" She says cheerfully.
"I uh…I'm Josh Reynolds." He stutters, but reaches out to shake her hand and squeezes gently.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Joshua." Quinn watches on as he just smiles wider, as opposed to correcting her.
"I assure you, the pleasure is all mine." Quinn rolls her eyes as he attempts to flirt with her shamelessly.
Rachel giggles charmingly and bats her long dark eyelashes at him before pulling her hand away.
She turns towards Roger and looks him firmly in the eyes and smirks like she knows a secret that he is not aware of.
"Roger Alexander….I've heard so much about you." She slowly reaches her hand forward to shake his hand and he tentatively reaches out to shake her hand.
"Have you now?" He chuckles, turning on his own charm.
"That I have. Quinn mentions you often."
Roger looks over to Quinn and smirks at her. She's not exactly sure what the smirk is for, whether it's for her talking about him outside of work or Rachel knowing his name already.
"All good things I hope?" He says looking back at Rachel.
But Rachel just smiles wider and squeezes his hand a little tighter, refusing to let go.
"Well, let's see…if you were engaged to Quinn and found out one of her coworkers was constantly flirting with her, would you consider that a 'good thing'?"
It takes a moment for the word 'engaged' to sink in but when it does Roger flounders for a second, looking to Josh for help, but he looks just as lost.
"Uhh, no-I-no."
"Well then no Roger, I haven't heard all good things." She says with mock sadness and a smirk on her face.
Quinn can barely keep herself from laughing out loud before Rachel turns her way and asks where the restroom is located.
"Just over there, by the conference room." Rachel gently runs her hand down Quinn's arm before heading towards the bathroom. The moment it seems she's out of earshot, Roger speaks up.
"Oh my God, Quinn I am so sorry, I had no idea you were engaged! I had no way of knowing! You don't have any pictures up and you-you never mention her!"
He's clearly apologetic and Quinn almost feels bad because in a way she did sort of lead him on.
"It's really not a big deal, Rog. I'm just a private person."
"No, seriously Quinn," He tries again, "I want you to know that I'm really not that kind of guy."
Quinn nods, completely buying it. He's never struck her as the kind of guy to flirt with an obviously taken woman. But she does not know exactly what else to say to assuage his guilt.
Josh finally manages to find his voice amongst the silence a moment later.
"I'm sorry, but am I the only that is super confused?"
"Yes you are, but that doesn't surprise me one bit," Quinn quips, but for once he just ignores her.
"No really. Like, you're engaged to her and yet you have no pictures up? Never mentioned her once? Never even alluded to the fact that you're into women?"
"I don't see how any of that's anyone's business but my own." Quinn is growing defense because she can't tell where he's going with this and she can't decide what would be worse: him not believing that she and Rachel are together or him judging her for being with a woman.
But either way, she's prepared for whatever he throws her way.
"Forget about that, are you seriously telling me you've got a girl like that waiting for you at home, yet you have no photos on your desk? I mean, no ring on either of your fingers?!"
"So what, Joshua?!" She mocks. "What difference does it make? We know we're together. I don't need to plaster it all over the office or put on a ring so someone can validate my relationship with Rachel!"
Quinn is being a little louder than she should be in a professional, office setting, which causes a few people to look their way. And so Josh puts up his hands in surrender.
"Look, I'm not judging your relationship at all Quinn. All I'm saying is that if I had a girl like that, a girl as beautiful and sexy as her, I would be sending photos to everyone in the office. I would wear a ring just so people would ask me who the lucky lady is, just so I could pull out a picture of her and tell them that I'm the lucky one. That's all. I'm just saying is that I had a girl like yours, I would show her off every chance I got."
Quinn wants to tell him that, in her defense, Rachel hasn't always looked this good, but she's certain that will make her sound worse than she already looks.
Sure, Quinn has always found her to be beautiful, but she's always had a unique style that, while playfully cute, no one would ever call sexy. But there is no time to say anything to him because a few moments later, Rachel is approaching Quinn again, placing her hand on her back.
"Hey, love. I gotta get going. I'm supposed to meet Britt soon for yoga."
Quinn doesn't speak, she merely nods which makes Rachel wonder exactly what happened in the two minutes that she was gone. But she knows that she won't get any answers while in front of her coworkers.
"Walk me to the elevator?"
"Sure."
Rachel looks towards the two men. "Joshua, it was a pleasure to meet you. And Roger," she smiles lightly so that he knows she is being facetious when she says, "I hope to hear only good things from now on."
Roger nods emphatically and reaches out one more time to shake her hand, before she laces her fingers with Quinn's and they walk to the elevator hand and hand. Rachel ignores any questioning looks thrown their way and Quinn doesn't even notice, far too lost in her own head.
"Are you okay? Did I do a good job? They weren't judgmental about it right? Because seriously Quinn, I could have my dad's on the phone with the ACLU in no time at—"
Quinn interrupts her with a hearty laugh. It has been awhile since Rachel has threatened to contact the ACLU.
"No, you were perfect. They loved you."
"Then what's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong. I'm fine." But Rachel can tell that's not true. She knows what Quinn looks like when she's perfectly fine and though she can't exactly figure out what state she's in, Rachel knows she's far from 'fine'.
"Quiiiin. What's wrong?"
"Nothiiiing," she sighs out. "You just…you look absolutely, ridiculously, drop dead gorgeous and I just…it's just taking some getting used to. My brain hasn't quite caught up with the rest of me yet."
Rachel blushes profusely, but nods. "I know exactly what you mean. I looked in the mirror and just…stared at myself. I'm so done up and made over that I feel like Cinderella going to the ball."
"Cinderella huh?" Quinn smirks while pulling her in for a hug. "Does that make me Prince Charming then?"
"I don't know Quinn." She says skeptically. "It's an awfully big responsibility. Giving me the night of my life and making me fall in love with you, all before midnight? I don't think you're ready for all that."
"Let me prove you wrong. Let me take you out this weekend?" Quinn whispers into her neck.
Rachel pulls away slowly and hesitantly asks, "Like a…like a date?"
"Like a greet you with flowers, dressing to the nines, going to dinner, evening walk in the park, dancing in the rain with no music in the background date."
Any nervousness Quinn feels subsides immediately upon seeing the smile on Rachel's face, the light in her eyes being indescribable.
"Well, with a cliché night like that ahead of me, how can I say no?"
Rachel leans in lightly to peck her lips and hardly wants to pull away. She wishes more than anything that they were both back in the conference room, with the windows frosted. She wants Quinn so badly, and has for the last few months but Quinn hasn't approached her to have the sex talk and she refuses to be the first to bring it up, so for now they're in limbo, caught somewhere between making out furiously and lightly grinding on each other for even the smallest ounce of relief.
But she reminds herself that they have other, more important things to work out before they jump into something as heavy as sex.
But a first date sounds like an excellent place to start.
"I'm excited." Quinn's says, pulling her back into reality. "I cannot wait to show you off. Promise me you'll wear something new? Something super sexy?"
Rachel blushes again at Quinn's assertiveness and decides to try some of her own on for size. "Of course. But if I squeeze into a tight dress just for you," she leans in a little wanting this to be for Quinn's ears only. "Promise me you'll be there to help me take it off at the end of the night?"
Quinn involuntarily closes her eyes as she hears the insinuation in Rachel's voice, but she manages a barely there nod. She immediately wants to drag Rachel back to the conference room and throw her back on the long, oval-shaped table.
But just then, the elevator dings and opens slowly for Rachel to enter.
"I'll call you then to decide on a time." Quinn says as she reaches her arm out to hold the door for her.
Rachel nods and bats her eyelashes subconsciously, not knowing how to respond to this charming, chivalrous side to Quinn.
"I'll see you later Quinn. And thank you for sharing lunch with me."
The doors begin to close just as Quinn responds. "The pleasure was all mine, princess."
There's isn't much time left after Quinn speaks but she just barely manages to catch Rachel bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling uncontrollably and just like that, she's back to counting down the moments until she can see Rachel again.
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I know there may seem like there's not much here, but it was an important chapter that really gets the ball rolling for the future chapters. :) Just a heads up, finals is next week so it may take a few extra days to update, but then I'll have a lot more time on my hands and so I'm hoping to update weekly! Also, I have a new fic out called Bed of Lies! It's much different from this one so feel free to check that out! And thank you guys so much for just being patient with me as I try balance writing and life! As always, thank you for all the follows, favorites and reviews! You guys seriously motivate me to get these chapters out sooner!
Lastly, I'm such a visual person so this link will show you the outfit Rachel is wearing.
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Until next time! :)
Title by Dan & Shay