Summary: "Rachel followed her friend with her gaze and then moved back to the blonde girl sitting on her own. To her surprise - not really - the seat across from her was now occupied by someone else.
Gosh, she hated when Tina was right."
A/N: Joining the "Faberry Month" challenge, this is my take for the Prompt #2 "Coffee Date"
Let there be love
"You should ask her out." Tina nudged her in the ribs and she almost spilled her coffee onto the music theory book on her lap. Her hand-eye coordination was as poor as when she was in high school and benched during the dodgeball games.
"Who?" Rachel looked around the coffee shop, but she had already set her eyes on someone. Someone who was sitting in the further corner, by the window, and was going through a big book. One with too many historical references for her liking.
"Don't play dumb with me." The other brunette haired girl rolled her eyes at her. "We both know you've been secretly following her with your eyes since you discovered this coffee shop."
"Fine. I don't entirely disagree with your statement, but nothing is going to happen." Rachel watched the blonde take a sip from her porcelain mug. It was such an elegant movement that she swooned. She was also envious. Envious of a mug. "There's no way someone looking that could ever be interested in girls, let alone me."
"Firstly, my gaydar is definitely detecting something here." She nodded towards the blonde.
"You don't have a gaydar, Tina." It was Rachel's turn to roll her eyes at her.
"But I have a great sixth sense for these things." The brunette sipped from her paper cup. "Remember Barbara?"
"She threw my clothes out of the window when we broke up." Rachel shook her head.
"Okay, she kind of lost it. What about Claire?" Tina tapped her chin. "You went out together for months."
"If only she hadn't cheated on me with three other women behind my back." Rachel moved her eyes back to the blonde woman.
"Santana? She was hot." She said with a big grin.
"And crazy. She had razor blades in her hair, Tina. She threatened me." Rachel sighed. "I appreciate your help, but no thanks."
"Fine. Do it your way, but I would approach her and say hi before someone else catches her attention." Tina patted her shoulder and stood from her seat, gathering her bag and jacket that she carried folded over her arm.
Rachel followed her friend with her gaze and then moved back to the blonde girl sitting on her own. To her surprise - not really - the seat across from her was now occupied by someone else.
Gosh, she hated when Tina was right.
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She knew when she was being stared at. She had a sixth sense about these things. And even if she wasn't new to getting someone's attention, she rarely acted on it.
She kept her eyes on the textbook in her lap and never steered away from it. The last time she had let her curiosity get the best out of her, she had ended up turning down the advances of a 40 years old skater who lived with his mom and five cats. Not only she had to turn him down with a good excuse, but also her self-esteem had taken a toll.
Was that all the best she could get?
She was mildly attractive - she could tell herself but it was all people told her as she grew up and out of her pre-teen chubby self - and she could hold a conversation about pretty much everything. How could she be so ridiculously unlucky?
"There you are." She had to look up from the book when someone breezed past her and dropped in the booth across from hers. Someone that she had known all her life. "I knew I should have come here first, it's your favorite spot nowadays."
"You want a treat for having found me, Sam?" She rolled her eyes at her best friend of over 15 years.
"Don't be mean." He leaned over the table to get to the half eaten muffin left there. He was starving.
"You're welcome." She shut the book closed and leaned back staring longingly at the muffin she had put aside, but had all the intentions to finish. She just wanted to save it for later.
"You're coming tonight, are you?" He patted his sternum. He did it again and when he couldn't push his food down, he just took a sip from her mug to help himself. "Ew, how can you drink this stuff? You're not British."
"But you know I don't drink coffee past 3 PM, so why do you bother to steal my tea every single time?" She took her mug back.
"Because I keep forgetting you're weird, Quinn." He grinned at her.
"Pot and kettle, Sam." She leaned back in her seat with a soft sigh. Then, it happened. She let her eyes roam to the side and noticed her. She noticed the familiar brunette girl sitting two tables away from her, but looking her way. The moment their eyes met, the brunette just looked away and blushed. She blushed so hard that Quinn couldn't help the smile.
"Oh! I know that smile!" Sam slapped his hands on the table. "Where is she?" He looked around the room to find the object of his friend's affection.
"Shut it, Sam." She leaned over to slap the back of his head. "You're causing a scene."
"I am not." He rubbed the spot she had hit and pouted at her. "So, you're coming?"
"To the open mic night? Yes." She nodded and looked away from him to find the brunette girl. But she was gone. "Yes, I'll be there."
"Good. I gotta run, thanks for the sweet treat." He jumped out of his seat and dropped a kiss on her cheek, that ended on her hair, on his way out.
"You're welcome." She muttered to herself.
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When Rachel walked inside the club, she easily located Tina sitting at one of the many rounded tables, with her arms wrapped around one of Mike's - her boyfriend - biceps.
They really looked like a cute couple. One of those couples she really wanted to see herself in, with the right partner.
"Hey guys." She dropped in the empty chair at Tina's side and waved at Mike, who winked back at her in a friendly way.
"They just started. A girl from Connecticut is next." Tina nodded to the stage where an Afro-American girl stood. A blonde guy slipped on her side, with a guitar draped over his shoulders and with a smile that was all for her.
That's another kind of love Rachel was longing for.
She sat back and watched. She sat back and listened to the two of them singing to them as much as singing to each other. She sat back and let the love dripping from their duet fill her soul.
When the song came to an end, it was so easy to just clap her hands loudly. She clapped them so hard that her palms hurt. But there was no better way for her to appreciate what she had just witnessed.
"You're next." Tina grinned at her.
"Tina…" Rachel shook her head. "There's no way I can go there after that."
"Well, you better find the courage because they're coming to pick you up." She smirked and nodded to the stage. "Go kick asses, tiger!"
"I hate you." She huffed and walked up to the stage, stomping her feet in the process.
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"You brought me to tears, 'Cedes." Quinn greeted the other girl with a hug that felt like home. Like the home she was welcomed into, when she got kicked out for being herself. For loving someone with her heart and not out of convenience.
"You're too kind, Fabray." Mercedes nuzzled into her friend's shoulder and looked back at the blonde guy standing there with a knowing smirk. "You're such a guy."
"What?! What did I do?" Sam feigned innocence and looked between the two girls. "Who wants a double bacon cheeseburger? There is a place just around the corner."
"Sounds great. I'm starving." Mercedes nodded and looked at the blonde. "You're coming, Q?"
"Yeah." Quinn nodded and went to gather her things when something caught her eyes. It was actually someone who had just walked on stage and was adjusting herself on the stool.
"Do you know her?" Mercedes looked back over to the stage and then back at her best friend, who was simply captivated by the girl on stage. Like a siren luring sailors into a shipwreck, Quinn felt like she was free falling. It was like a long and endless fall into the void.
"Not as much as she would like to." Sam slipped his arms around her from behind and rested his chin atop of Mercedes' head. He held her tightly, gently swaying them from side to side to the slow music coming from the stage.
"Oh…" Mercedes grinned knowingly and let herself go in her boyfriend's arms. They both followed Quinn across the room with their gaze.
They both watched her fall more and more without even knowing it.
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The moment she stepped in the familiar bistro, it was almost like a natural reaction to look for her. She raised her head and looked around the room, scanning every table until she spotted her. Until she saw her, sitting in the booth she usually occupied with her back to her.
"The usual, Quinn?" Brittany was nice. She was her favorite barista and she always managed to sneak a Hershey's kiss on the side whenever she served her.
"Thank you, Britt." She nodded and walked to the familiar booth until she hovered around the table, wanting to be noticed. "Is this seat taken?"
"Sorry, I-" When Rachel raised her head from her book, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Hi."
"Hi." Quinn rewarded her with a mega watt smile that she barely let anyone see on her. She rewarded her with a smile that filled Rachel's stomach with imaginary butterflies. "May I?"
"Of course." Rachel nodded with a shy smile. Once the blonde sat across from her, she shut her book closed and folded her hands in her lap.
"Music theory, huh? Sounds interesting." She had read the title on the side. "You're studying at Juilliard?"
"NYADA." Rachel corrected her.
"Tough. I know a couple of friends going there." She thanked the tall blonde serving her hot beverage and slipped her a twenty. "For the both of us."
"You didn't have to." She tried to protest.
"I know but I wanted to." She cut any further protest from her.
"Well, thank you…" She trailed off. She wanted a name. She needed a name.
"Quinn." The blonde held her hand out. "I'm Quinn."
"That's a very pretty and unique name." The brunette shook her hand. She shook it and held onto it, a little longer than needed.
"My Dad wanted a boy, but he had to settle for me." She dropped their hands and wrapped both of hers around the fuming mug."What about yours?"
"My Dad? Which one?" She chuckled.
"You have more than one?" Raising her eyebrow in a perfect bow, she looked pretty puzzled.
"I got two Daddies. I was adopted by them who had me with a surrogate mother." She cleared her throat. "Do you have a problem with it?"
"Of course not." She smiled comfortably. "I actually talked about your name, but I don't have anything against it. Don't worry."
"Oh." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "Rachel. My name is Rachel."
"Rachel." Quinn rolled it on her mouth. She did it again and the more she did, the better it sounded coming from her lips. "The singer."
"What makes you think I sing?" It was her turn to raise her eyebrow.
"Lucky guess." Quinn smirked over the rim of her mug. "Or maybe I just happened to be there when you sang, last night."
"You were there?" Rachel's eyes almost came out of her sockets and her cheeks tinted in a way that made Quinn feel special. It was all for her.
"My friend sang before you did and when you walked on stage, I couldn't walk away." Quinn sat her mug down. "You're born to sing."
"That's all I have ever dreamt of when I was a kid." Rachel looked away. "Naïve, huh?"
"Absolutely not. You have a talent, Rachel, and it'd be such a shame if you didn't follow your dreams." Quinn reached for her hand on the table. covering it with one of hers. "You're talented."
"Thank you." Looking down at their hands on the table, she felt suddenly at peace. She felt like they had known each other for more than just 45 minutes. She felt like they were more than two strangers colliding together.
"You're welcome." She pulled her hand back and wrapped it back around the warm porcelain. "Look do you maybe-"
"God, what time is it?" Rachel checked the time on her phone and almost sent everything to the floor, in the haste of getting her stuff together.
"You have to go?" Quinn leaned over to try and help, but stopped before she caused even a bigger mess.
"My music theory lecture starts in 30 minutes and I can't be late again." Rachel stood from her seat.
"Look, do you maybe want to do this again?" Quinn stood with her, without blocking her path.
"Sure. When and where?" Rachel tied her scarf around her neck and looked at the blonde.
"Say tomorrow morning here?" Quinn nodded to the table they had just vacated.
"It's a date." Rachel leaned in to drop a soft kiss against the corner of her lips and then rushed past her.
She rushed past her not to show the way her cheeks had tinted, once again, in embarrassment.
She rushed past Quinn, missing the way the blonde blushed equally hard.
It was a date.
The end
