A/N: Italics are flashbacks. Enjoy.
Quinn taps a fork against her champagne flute a few times, earning the attention of the room. Glancing at the faces scattered across the hall, a faint smile pulls on her lips.
"Okay, everyone. Let's settle down for a second." She says into the microphone in her hand. Smiling once the conversations end, she continues to speak.
"Before the lovely couple has their first dance, I just wanted to say a few words about how surprised I am that someone was crazy enough to marry Santana." The crowd chuckles as Quinn makes eye contact with her best friend, thinking about how beautiful she looks in her red dress with her hair in a bun. Santana smirks as she sits next to her wife at the table in front of Quinn.
"I mean honestly, I never thought I'd see the day Santana could think of anyone other than herself long enough to sustain a relationship." Quinn says playfully. Santana rolls her eyes at her friend and shouts something to her, knowing only the few people near her along with Quinn, would be able to hear. Quinn laughs at her friend then continues.
"I love you too San. But seriously, when Santana asked me to be her maid of honor I almost turned her down because of this moment right now. I'm not good at speeches and finding anything nice to say about Santana is almost impossible." Quinn hears a few chuckles but continues talking.
"I've known this insane woman for longer than I'm willing to admit and she's more than a friend or my home girl, as Santana would so eloquently put it. Santana is my sister, my family and we've been through so much together." Quinn says, smiling fondly to herself.
"Over the years, I've watched Santana grow into the woman she is today and honestly Rachel is getting a hell of a prize. A lot of people don't know this but I was actually there the day they met." Quinn says, remembering the day clearly.
Quinn turns the tomato in her hand, checking for bruising before putting it in the basket resting in the crease of her elbow. Glancing behind her, she sees Santana scrolling on Instagram and rolls her eyes.
"I didn't invite you to ignore me." Quinn says as she continue browsing the produce at the market. Quinn had invited Santana to come with her because it was a beautiful Saturday and she knew Santana wouldn't be doing anything else.
"What the hell do you want me to do? I trust you can pick your own vegetables." Santana says with an eye roll of her own.
"Uh I don't know, maybe talk to me?" Quinn says in a mocking tone.
"What the hell are you doing anyway? Get off of social media and experience the real world San." Quinn looks at Santana who huffs and puts her phone in her pocket.
"You could've at least taken me somewhere interesting." She says with a small shrug, then picks up a cucumber and glances at it with disinterest.
"Fun." She deadpans.
"If you use it right." Quinn says smirking at the look of disgust she receives.
"You need to get laid instead of abusing vegetables." Quinn chuckles as Santana sits the cucumber back where she found it.
"First of all, I don't do that, it was a joke." Santana gives her a look of disbelief as they continue walking.
"Secondly, cucumbers are fruit and lastly, I don't need to get laid." Quinn rounds a corner, continuing their stroll when she notices a short brunette a few feet away near the blueberries, shyly glancing at Santana.
"Yeah right. You're way too bitchy to deal with when you haven't had any and I'm getting major bitchy vibes from you." Santana says, following behind Quinn and glancing over the produce.
"I'm going to ignore you because that girl over there is checking you out." Quinn says casually as she picks up a head of lettuce and sets it in her basket.
"What girl?" Santana asks, lifting her head and glancing at the people around her with her eyebrows furrowed.
"Don't look so obvious." Quinn states. Santana lets her face relax and continues to scan her surroundings.
"Blonde?" She asks as Quinn puts some asparagus in her basket.
"Brunette, short, dimples." Santana's eyebrow lifts as she smirks.
"Dimples? Me gusta." Quinn rolls her eyes.
"On her face San." Santana pouts slightly.
"Gotta love back dimples though. Very underrated but hella sexy. It's like her body is telling you exactly to put your hands while you're fu-"
"San! I got it. Can you focus for like 3 seconds?" Quinn says, interrupting her friend knowing her mind wanders to sex very easily.
"Whatever, I don't see her. You sure she was checking me out? I mean duh, she probably did but maybe it was before she started looking at you?" Santana says casually shrugging as she picks up an apple. Quinn sighs and stops moving, almost causing Santana to bump into her. Once Santana looks at her, Quinn lifts her sunglasses and looks at the brunette who is still watching them, smiling shyly.
"We're going to a damn optometrist after this!" Quinn whispers harshly.
"Just follow me." Santana crosses her arms but follows as Quinn starts to walk past a few people then stops at the end of a row of carts with fruit on top of them. Quinn turns to look at the fruit then nods her head towards the brunette on the other end. Santana glances at her and is met with a small smile as the woman pushes a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Holy shit..." Santana says softly to herself. Quinn looks at her with a confused expression.
"What?" She asks.
"She's...what's better than hot? I can't think of any other words right now." Santana says, staring at the woman unable to peel her eyes away. Quinn chuckles and pats her shoulder.
"Don't freak her out weirdo. Look away." Santana looks away once Quinn's words register.
"Shit. Do you think she thinks I'm a creep now?" Santana asks with a sigh.
"No. Maybe mentally handicapped." Quinn snickers and Santana slaps her shoulder.
"Ow!" Quinn says then slaps Santana back.
"Just go talk to her!" Quinn pushes.
"Obviously I was going to do that." Santana says in an uncertain tone, nervous to approach the woman.
"Whoa, where did all that confidence go? Are you nervous?" Quinn says teasingly.
"Fuck you. I'm not nervous. I gots this." Santana says, smoothing out the bottom of her tank top and walking over towards the woman.
Quinn moves to another row of produce, close enough to hear their conversation but far enough that Santana won't see her lurking. Santana stops short of the woman, feeling her nerves getting the better of her and feigns looking over the produce. The woman notices Santana and smiles at her again before slowly stopping in front of some Kumquats.
"How many variations of an orange does the world really need?" Santana says as she picks up the small oval fruit.
"That's a Komquat." The brunette responds.
"Yeah but it's orange and round and still tastes like an orange. It's an orange." Santana says with a small shrug.
"I suppose you could look at it that way, though I don't think it really tastes like an orange. I prefer to make it into a jam instead of eating it raw." The smaller woman says.
"A jam? Never thought about doing something like that." Santana says and Quinn rolls her eyes, not understanding why they're talking about jam.
"I highly recommend it, it's very delicious." The woman says with a smile. Quinn suppresses a groan as she continues listening.
"Is it? Or is it just your recipe?"
"Could be both. I'd share it with you but I'm not in the habit of giving strangers my recipes." Santana smirks as she sits the fruit down.
"Was that your way of asking my name?" The smaller woman looks at Santana with a smirk of her own.
"Possibly." She says then extends her hand to Santana.
"Rachel Berry." Santana takes the warm hand in hers and shakes it gently.
"Santana Lopez."
"You wouldn't believe how happy I was when they finally stopped talking about jam and kumquats." Quinn says, causing some laughs around the room.
"If anyone is wondering, I can attest to the fact that Rachel makes a hell of a jam." She continues throwing a playful wink towards a giggling Rachel.
"That was only the beginning of their story and I'm glad I got to watch it unfold. Rachel is the only person I've ever seen make Santana this happy and the only person Santana has ever truly been in love with."
"Quinn?! What does love feel like?" Santana says into her headphones, calling Quinn to help her figure this out.
"What? That's what you're calling for? I'm in the middle of a lunch rush." Quinn says from the other end of the phone, wishing her emotionally stunted best friend would leave her alone when she's at work.
"Q! this is a fucking emergency. You don't pay those people to sit on their asses, make them do it!" Santana says causing Quinn to sigh. Silently telling her sous chef she's stepping out, Quinn leaves the kitchen and goes into her office.
"Okay, what did you ask?" She asks.
"What does love feel like?" Quinn frowns in confusion, not understanding how this is an emergency.
"I don't know Santana! It feels like...happiness? That's hard to put into words." Quinn says.
"Like does it feel like something physically? Because I feel like...I don't know. My boobs feel hot."
"What?" Quinn questions.
"Like...I don't know. They feel warm and fuzzy instead of filled with rage like normal. Am I dying?" Quinn can't help her chuckle.
"It's not funny! I think I'm having a heart attack or something." Santana says seriously.
"You're not having a heart attack, you're just an idiot. Nothing is happening in your boobs, it's in the area behind them where your very small heart lives. When does it feel like that? When you're with Rachel?" She asks.
"Yeah or think about her. My heart races like I'm working out. Google said it's probably an anxiety attack." Quinn laughs again.
"You fucking bitch, my well being is not a joke."
"It's actually really funny. I can't tell you what love feels like but to me, it sounds like that's what's going on with you and stop Googling things, it makes everyone paranoid. Now I gotta go."
"Wait! If I – should I tell her? Is it to soon? It's only been 2 months." Santana says.
"If you want to tell her, then do it now I gotta go." Quinn says before she ends the call.
"The next week, Santana called me and asked me for a favor so I helped her out."
"I had no idea Quinn owned this place. It's one of the best restaurants in New York!" Rachel says with amazement as Santana pulls her chair out for her. Quinn is silently watching from the kitchen, hoping tonight goes well for her friend.
"Yeah, I sometimes forget she's kinda famous." Santana says and Quinn rolls her eyes as Rachel sits down, smiling up at Santana. Santana walks over to her seat and Quinn sends her waiter over.
"She was willing to give us the entire restaurant to ourselves tonight?" Rachel asks as the waiter brings them some water and bread.
"Of course, I got connects. Plus she owes me so." Santana says with a small shrug as she sips her water.
"Well, thank you for doing this. I hope it wasn't too much trouble." Quinn hears Rachel say as she brings out a plate of loaded avocado quesadillas.
"For Quinn? She doesn't care." Santana says as Quinn approaches the table. Rachel beams at her and stands to bring her into a friendly embrace.
"Hi Rachel." Quinn says around her laugh as she sits the plate on the table.
"Hi Quinn. I haven't been here before since you're always full but the décor is stunning." Rachel says politely as she sits back in her chair.
"Thanks. Enjoy and if you ever want to come back just shoot me a text." Quinn says as she puts a hand on Santana's shoulder. Giving her a reassuring squeeze, Quinn makes her way back to the kitchen.
"I hope you don't mind but I already gave Quinn dishes to make for us." Santana says as Quinn goes back to silently watching.
"That's fine, I'm sure whatever it is will be delicious." Rachel says with a smile, taking Santana's hand in hers on top of the table. Quinn sends her waiter back out with a bottle of wine for the women as she checks on their dishes.
"So, I did have an ulterior motive to asking you out tonight." Quinn hears Santana confess as she begins to walk to the table with their dishes, stopping not wanting to ruin the moment. Quinn sits the plates down on an empty table, anxiously waiting.
"You have ulterior motives for most of our dates." Rachel says with a giggle before taking a sip of wine. Santana chuckles lightly before speaking again.
"True but it's not that. I mean...it could be but I don't want to get distracted." She clears her throat before continuing.
"I want to tell you something." Rachel sits her glass down and gives Santana her full attention.
"Yes?" She asks curiously.
"We've been...I just...fuck it. I'm just gonna say it." Santana pauses, licking her lips and inhaling deeply. Quinn continues watching, hoping Santana doesn't back out.
"I...love you." She finally says and Quinn lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she watches the smile spread across Rachel's lips.
"I love you too Santana." Santana smiles and leans over the table to kiss her girlfriend.
"Honestly, it was the sweetest moment I'd ever seen. San was so nervous, I wasn't sure she was going to go through with it but she did and it lead us to the reason we're here today. The love Rachel and Santana share isn't storybook and that's why it'll last. It's already held strong after 3 years of ups and downs and bumps in the road. These two have shown me what love really is so..." Quinn lifts her glass in the air and waits for everyone to follow her lead.
"I'm proud to say I've gained another best friend from this union so, here's to two of the most amazing women I know. I wish you too nothing but happiness. I love you guys. To the Berrys'!" The crowd cheers and glasses clink against each other as Quinn's speech comes to a close. Draining her glass of champagne, Quinn walks over to her friends, Santana standing to hug her once she's there.
"You're borderline a stalker but I'm okay with it today." Santana says as she squeezes Quinn. Quinn chuckles as they pull apart.
"If you weren't so needy, I wouldn't have been there so much." Quinn says as Rachel pulls her into a hug.
"That was beautiful Quinn." She says and Quinn shrugs admiring how beautiful the shorter woman looks in her own elegant white dress, hair in a bun like Santana.
"I tried. Now, get out there! They've been waiting to see a dance." Quinn says as she pushes Rachel towards Santana. Santana takes her wife's hand and walks over to the dance floor. Quinn takes her seat at her table and watches as her best friend dances with her wife, ecstatic for the newly wed couple.