A/N: Day 21! In which Rachel bakes I'm Sorry cookies for Quinn after an argument.
Day 21: Cooking/Baking
If there's one thing Rachel knows how to do in the kitchen, it is to bake. Not many things, mind you, but she has perfected one specific recipe over the years: her I'm Sorry cookies.
It's a simple, vegan sugar cookie recipe that she found when she was nine, and she hasn't stopped making them since. And, both fortunately and unfortunately, this acquired skill of hers still continues to come in handy.
Like today, as she's standing in the Whole Foods near her apartment, getting together her ingredients for said cookies. Rachel has most of the essentials at home, like vegan butter, salt, and soy milk, but she needs to pick up a few of her vegan substitute ingredients that she doesn't typically have buried in her cabinets, especially considering her lack of cooking talent and how often she eats out rather than cooking for herself.
Though, recently, she has been eating more homemade meals, all thanks to Quinn. Unlike Rachel, Quinn is quite skilled in the kitchen. She often claims it is due to her traditional upbringing, always helping her mom in the kitchen while her dad sat on the couch and watched TV, but Rachel doesn't let her brush off her skills so easily. She's always complimenting Quinn on her cooking abilities, especially with her willingness to try new vegan recipes and find vegan substitutes for her favorite recipes. Rachel knows she's lucky, the luckiest, to have such a kind, thoughtful girlfriend.
Which is why making these cookies stings just a little bit more than usual this time around.
They have been dating for just under three months, and, while this isn't their first argument, it certainly has been their biggest so far, ending with Quinn leaving Rachel's apartment last night in a rush. Rachel can't even remember what they had been arguing over in the first place, but it had escalated quickly, and they had both said some not great things to each other.
Needless to say, Rachel regrets the incident. Hence her shopping for vegan cookie ingredients.
She turns the aisle, letting out a little noise of triumph when she finds the organic sugar she needs. Mentally crossing it off of her list, Rachel continues walking through the store to find the rest of her ingredients. She finds the pumpkin purée next, putting it in her basket, and backtracks to grab an extra stick of vegan butter, just in case. As she's heading to check out, her phone starts to ring in her pocket, and Rachel stops, pulls it out, and accepts the call.
"Hello?" She asks into her phone.
"Are you at the store right now? " She hears Kurt's voice coming through the speaker.
"Yeah, why?"
Voice quieter than before, he says, "Can you pick up a bottle of my moisturizer? "
"Kurt, really?" Rachel huffs. "That stuff is expensive!"
"Rachel, please, I need it to get ready for my date tonight. I'll give you the money when you get back home," Kurt explains. "Wait, why are you even at the store? Didn't you just go shopping a few days ago? "
Rachel sighs into her phone. "Yeah, I, um, needed stuff for cookies."
"I'm sorry cookies? Did something happen with Quinn? Is everything alright? "
"Everything's fine," She insists. "Or, at least, it will be. I've got to go. You better be waiting with my money when I get back."
Hearing his confirmation, Rachel ends the call and walks to go get Kurt's (ridiculously expensive) special moisturizer. She's reading the label as she walks to check out, and a part of her moral conscience dies when she reads that the product is tested on animals. Kurt owes her big time.
When she gets back to their apartment, Rachel is greeted by Kurt (and the money for the moisturizer). She hands him the bottle, and he rushes off to the bathroom. Shaking her head in mild amusement, Rachel heads into the kitchen and starts taking out all of her ingredients and the bowls she needs. She begins to mix her butter into a cream as she thinks about yesterday's debacle with Quinn.
Quinn had come over after work to have dinner with Rachel as they often do during the week. Rachel is workshopping a show right now, so her schedule happens to currently align with her girlfriend's, and she is so glad for that. They had been sitting at the table, eating food Rachel had picked up on her way home, when Quinn had mentioned potentially going out this weekend with some friends.
"Oh, with who?" Rachel had asked curiously.
"Just some coworkers," Quinn had said. "Jackson, Katie, Carter, and, uh, Naomi."
Rachel's ears had perked up at the final name. "Naomi?" She had asked. "The girl who has a raging crush on you?"
"I guess, yeah," Quinn had said nonchalantly.
Rachel's mind began to wander, remembering the times Quinn had mentioned her coworker, Naomi, in passing and how she had made her interest in Quinn blatantly obvious and had even asked her out once. Quinn had declined politely, and this had happened before she and Rachel had even gotten together. Then, a thought had occurred to Rachel.
"Does she know we're together?" Rachel had asked. "Have you mentioned it at all?"
Quinn had shrugged. "Um, I think so."
"You think so?" She had retorted before she could stop herself.
From there, Rachel's jealousy had spun a bit out of control, making Quinn grow defensive, and, quickly, the conversation had devolved into a full-blown argument. Rachel's insecurities had run rampant, and Quinn had responded in kind; insults and scathing remarks had been hurled, leaving them both upset and in tears, and Quinn had stormed out of the apartment rapidly, leaving her barely touched plate of food sitting at the table.
Rachel had cried for a long while, an hour at least, until Kurt had gotten home, and Rachel had quickly attempted to wipe her tears away to avoid any questions from Kurt. She'd retreated to her room, a plan formulating in her head.
A plan that currently has her mixing ingredients together to make cookies to bring to her girlfriend's house in a few hours when she is off of work and (presumably) back at her apartment. When she finishes mixing everything together into a nice, soft dough, Rachel puts the bowl into the freezer, setting a timer on her phone for fifteen minutes. She goes to sit down at the table, taking out her phone and going to her texts.
She clicks on her thread with Quinn, reading through their most recent messages. They haven't spoken since yesterday, and Rachel isn't gonna lie and say that she doesn't already miss her. She's been known to be a bit needy at times, so it isn't a big surprise that she finds herself missing Quinn after not even twenty-four hours of not speaking to her. Still, she does, and she can't stop herself from smiling at their texts from yesterday. It had just been a few sporadic messages throughout the day, ending with a text from Quinn saying she was leaving work and couldn't wait to see her.
Rachel sighs, closing her texts and opening her photos. She's scrolling through the pictures of her and Quinn on her phone when the timer goes off, and she gets up to take her dough out of the freezer. Satisfied with the consistency, she places the bowl on the counter, grabs the rolling pin and her star-shaped cookie cutters, and gets to work. About two minutes in, she hears Kurt leave his room and head towards the door.
"Kurt? Are you going somewhere?" Rachel turns and asks him.
"Huh?" He says, "Oh, yeah, I'm heading out for a bit."
"For your date?"
Kurt pauses his motions, eyeing her with confusion. "My what?"
Rachel raises an eyebrow carefully. "Your date? The one you insisted that I just had to buy your moisturizer for?"
His face lights up with recognition. "Right, my date! Yeah, that's where I'm going. See you later, Rachel!"
He quickly slips his shoes on and bolts out the door. Shaking her head, Rachel turns back to her cookies and continues cutting the dough into star shapes. For a moment, she thinks she hears someone talking outside of the apartment door, and then she hears the door open back up.
Rachel turns around again to face the door to the apartment. "Kurt, did you forget some—"
She cuts herself off at the sight of Quinn, standing in the entryway to the apartment. She's holding flowers in one hand, a container in another, and looking at Rachel with a desperate gleam in her eyes.
"Quinn?"
Quinn takes a deep breath, kicking her shoes off, before she slowly paces towards Rachel. Rachel meets her halfway, and Quinn wordlessly offers her the flowers, a bouquet of white tulips, she can now recognize up close, and she accepts them easily.
Quinn licks her lips nervously. "Rach, I…" She trails off, taking another deep breath before continuing, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the things I said yesterday, and for not considering your point of view more, and for not trying to understand your feelings better, and for how I just left, and I'm just… I'm really sorry, Rachel."
Her head drops to face the ground, and Rachel is left speechless. "I thought you didn't get off of work for a few hours?" She asks, unable to find any other words.
"I took off today. Called in last night."
Rachel gasps with the realization that this has probably been tearing Quinn up just as much as it has been tearing her up. "You… why?"
Quinn shrugs. "I didn't want to have to deal with seeing everyone today."
Rachel brings her spare hand to lift Quinn's chin up to meet her eyes, saying, "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have said what I said, and I shouldn't have overreacted as much as I did. I let my insecurities get the best of me, and I should have trusted you when you said it didn't matter about Naomi because you're with me, but I just… I just can't believe it sometimes."
"Can't believe what?" Quinn asks.
"That you're with me, and you chose to be with me." Rachel admits with a frown. "There's just so many other girls out there, and finding out that you hadn't told your coworkers about us yet just made me feel very insecure."
Quinn sighs, grabbing Rachel's hand and squeezing it tightly. "Rach, that was my mistake, and I'm sorry for that. I haven't told anyone at work yet mostly because this thing between us is so new, and I've been worried that you were gonna think this was a mistake, and—"
"Baby, no," Rachel interrupts, "I love… being with you and having you as my girlfriend. This isn't a mistake."
"I love being with you, too," Quinn says shyly. "And, Rach, it didn't really occur to me because, well, there's no other girls for me. It's just you."
Rachel's heart flutters in her chest at Quinn's admission, and she blushes intensely, squeezing her hand tightly in her own. It's then that she notices the container in Quinn's other hand and asks, "What's that?"
Quinn glances down with a blush. "Oh, it's nothing. I just… here."
She hands Rachel the container, and Rachel sets the flowers down on the table to take it, releasing Quinn's hand in the process. She opens the container, a plastic, Tupperware one, and gasps at what she sees.
"You made me I'm Sorry cookies?"
Quinn nods, cheeks turning red. "It's kind of dumb, but I know how you used to make them, so I thought it would be a nice gesture."
A wide grin grows on Rachel's face. "God, I love you," She blurts out before she realizes what she's just said. She looks up at Quinn, her mouth agape and her eyes wide, and Rachel clears her throat. "I mean, I, uh…"
"You love me?" Quinn asks softly, reverently, almost. Rachel nods shyly in response, and Quinn's face lights up with a smile. "I love you, too." She says.
Rachel's elated, and she sets the cookies down on the table before stepping forward and pressing her lips to her girlfriend's. Quinn smiles into the kiss as she wraps her arms around Rachel's lower back and pulls their bodies tightly together.
After a few seconds, Quinn tilts her head back and nods to the kitchen behind Rachel. "What's going on in there?"
"Oh, I, um," Rachel starts, growing embarrassed. "I was making I'm Sorry cookies, too."
Quinn lets out a loose laugh. "God, I really love you." She kisses her again, and Rachel is happy to comply.
She's here, with her girlfriend, who she loves and who loves her, and, if they spend the rest of the evening finishing up Rachel's cookies, snacking on leftovers from last night's meals, and professing their love for each other, Rachel isn't going to complain.