"The night has finally arrived. All the stars have gathered around here at the Floral Ball to give back and help out all our local charities," Carly Banks, one of New York's most famous gossip reporters, said to her camera. "I am currently standing on the red carpet along with many of the stars, and might I say they all look fabulous!" He gaze shifted out to the road to all the oncoming limousines. "Oh, look, here comes New York's newest power couple, Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry. This will be their first real appearance in public and we can't wait to see how adorable the two are together."
Rachel sat inside the limo between Finn and Olivia, with Peter sitting across from them. She felt her heart starting to race as the red carpet came into view from the tinted limo windows.
"You two are going to do great," Olivia commented, mainly to calm Rachel's heightened nerves. "Hollywood is just going to fall in love with you two. I can feel it."
The limo came to a stop in front of the red carpet entrance and all the photographers lined up with their cameras ready.
Finn grabbed onto Rachel's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "You ready?"
Rachel smiled up to him, appreciating his gesture more than he knew, "As ready as I'll ever be."
The door to the limo opened up and Rachel took a deep breath before they began to scoot out of the limo. Finn stepped out first and held out his hand to help Rachel out. She stepped out of the limo and was immediately blinded by camera flashes going off in her face. Finn rested his hand on her back as they walked through the chaos together, trying to give each camera an award winning smile.
Rachel loved the feeling on his hands on her back, any touch from him really was enough to make her go weak at the knees. Her mind flickered back to the events of the day before, the events that caused her to have a restless night's sleep.
He had a girlfriend.
She was actually feeling something real towards him, but he was unavailable. Of course he did, it was absolutely just her luck. And to make things worse, she never even got a chance to talk about it with him. Just after he had received the phone call from his girlfriend, Olivia and Peter had interrupted them and they started lunch. Rachel wasn't even able to learn the name of his girlfriend. Not that she really wanted any specific details, but it'd be nice to know what she was up against.
They finished their walk, are turned to pose together for a few pictures. Finn wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and Rachel wrapped her arms around his waist. She inhaled deeply, smelling his cologne and closing her eyes momentarily in pure contentment.
As the next limo pulled up, capturing the attention of the photographers, Rachel and Finn were able to leave the spot light, and head inside.
They walked inside, hand in hand, to make their relationship seem real. It was a large room with circular tables everywhere and a large buffet section in the back. Finn and Rachel located their assigned table, and sat down, quickly noticing that the other occupants of their table had no yet arrived. They sat down, and looked around the room at all the other guests of the Floral Ball.
"So," Rachel began, not really wanting to beat around the bush, "You have a girlfriend."
Finn nodded his head and faced Rachel, "Yeah, I was wondering when you were going to ask about her."
"I'm assuming that no one really knows about her, considering the fact that half the country seems to think that you're dating me," Rachel said.
"We haven't been dating for that long," Finn said, "and she's not exactly famous, and I didn't want to bring her into the spot light so soon in our relationship, cause, you know, it can be a little overwhelming."
"What does she think about us?" Rachel asked him, taking a small sip of her water that was already on the table. "She can't be too fond of your newfound relationship with another girl."
Finn chuckled and nodded his head, "Yeah, she's not too crazy about the idea, but she knows why I'm doing it and that it won't be for long, so she's cool about it all."
"Well that's nice that she's so understanding," Rachel replied. "What's her name? How'd you meet her?"
"Her name's Quinn. Quinn Fabray," Finn told her. "And she's best friends with a girlfriend of one of the guys on the team. We met at a party not too long ago."
"That's nice," Rachel said, not meaning a word of anything that she was saying.
"What about you?" Finn asked, transferring the topic of the conversation from him to her, "Did you have anyone special in your life before you met me?"
Rachel shook her head, "Nope. I've only really had one serious relationship and we broke up shortly after college ended."
"What happened?" Finn asked her, "If you don't mind me asking."
"It's fine," Rachel told him, "and I guess we just wanted different things. I was on Broadway because I loved it. The singing and the acting was all so incredible to me. Jesse, my ex, was on Broadway because he wanted to be famous. He just wanted to be in the spotlight, it just so happened that he had the talent to get him there."
"Jesse? As in Jesse St. James?" Finn questioned, receiving a nod from Rachel. "I've heard my brother talk about him before. He's not a big fan of Jesse. It's like what you just said. Kurt said he always saw Jesse as being nothing but an arrogant rich kid who was just always going to get everything he wanted."
Rachel nodded her head, "And that's exactly who he is. I don't know what I ever saw in him."
Finn shrugged his shoulders, "Don't beat yourself up about it. We all make some bad decisions when it comes to love, don't we?"
Rachel smiled over at him, happy that he actually seemed to understand her. Not many people did, and it was a very relieving feeling when someone finally did.
The rest of the night wet by in a blur. Trips and material items were auctioned off throughout the night, and all the money made was then shipped off to all the local charities. The Floral Ball wasn't anything too exciting, but it was for a good cause, and Rachel was happy to donate. Rachel ended up purchasing a new set of silverware for the kitchen.
Closer to the end of the night Rachel ran into Thomas Landen, a costar from when she was on Funny Girl. She hadn't seen him in a while and barely recognized him with his newfound facial hair and different hairstyle.
"Rachel?" he called out to her, making her turn in his direction. She had been casually strolling around the ballroom, her hand tucked away in Finn's larger one.
She faced him, taking a moment to recognize his face, "Thomas? Is that you?" She pulled Finn over to her old friend with her, only dropping his hand to give Thomas a quick hug.
"Yep, it's me," he replied, running his thumb and index finger along is jaw. "I've been getting that reaction a lot this evening, actually."
Rachel slipped her hand back into Finn's, more based on instinct and not because she had to pretend to date him. "Finn, this is Thomas. We worked on Funny Girl together." She turned to Thomas again, "And, Thomas, this is my boyfriend, Finn."
"Ah, yes, the boyfriend. I've seen the pictures everywhere," Thomas chuckled, shaking Finn's hand, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Finn returned the handshake, "Yes, you too."
"So," Thomas said, "How did the two of you meet?"
"We actually met in a small grocery store on the edge of town," Rachel said, snuggling more into Finn's side. "The pictures that the paparazzi took of us was our first meeting, actually. After that we got to talking, and here we are. Never would have thought that the paparazzi could bring me so much happiness."
"Oh, that's such a sweet story," Thomas said. "And such a unique way to meet your significant other. I wish the two of you nothing but the best."
"Thank you, Thomas," Rachel replied. Thomas then parted ways with the couple, leaving them alone once more.
"People seem to really be buying this whole relationship thing," Finn pointed out. "I was kind of worried about that at first, but it's actually really working."
Rachel nodded, her hands reaching up to straighten his tie. "I know. Hopefully it all works out. It's been some time since Funny Girl ended, and I'm going to need to start auditioning again before my name fades away."
"Don't worry too much about that," Finn said, "You're Rachel Berry, who could ever forget about you?"
"There are certainly some people who could easily forget about me," Rachel replied sadly, her mind drifting off towards her dads.
"Hey," Finn said, making her look up into his eyes, "I don't know how much it's worth, but I'm never going to forget about you."
A small smile came to Rachel's lips and she leaned up to wrap herself in one of his hugs, "Thank you so much, Finn."
"You really didn't have to walk me all the way to my door, Finn," Rachel said at the end of the evening. She stood next to her front door of her building, glancing back at Peter and Olivia who were waiting in the car.
He shrugged his shoulders, "I wanted to. It's the least I could do for my girlfriend, right?"
She smiled, and laughed a little, reaching up to give him another hug. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the glimmer of a camera lens hidden in the bushes. She would have been extremely upset, had she not had a brilliant idea come her way.
"There's a camera man in the bushes," Rachel whispered into his ear, holding tightly onto him so he wouldn't turn to look. "Shouldn't we at least try to make this look like an ending to a real date?"
It took him a second to catch on to what she meant, but when he did, his eyebrows raised and a smile came to his face. He slowly leaned down, gently placing his lips onto hers, sending a firework show into both of their minds.
Rachel was only expecting a small peck from him, and was caught off guard when Finn suddenly deepened the kiss, not that she was complaining. After what seemed like an eternity, he pulled away, pressing his forehead against hers and kissing the tip of her nose.
"I guess I'll see you later?" Finn said as he tried to catch his breath.
Rachel nodded her head, still at a loss of words from their kiss. She felt Finn pull away from her and watched as he walked back to the waiting car.
She waved goodbye as the car drove off before she walked inside, replaying the kiss over and over in her head.
Review :)