AN/ Right another chapter (: I'm loving all this feedback, honestly it blows me away and makes me super excited to keep this up (: Thank you so much x


"Free?" She enunciates nodding, "Okay in that case…"

Rachel makes her way back to the pet store carrying in two bags of vegetables and as soon as she steps in, Kurt and Brittany accost her.

"Okay, spill it. Who is she? What does she do? And how do you know her?" Brittany asks while brushing a cute little puppy dog.

Taken aback Rachel questions, "Who?"

Brittany grins, "Quinn, from the farmers market. She's called like twice already."

Unbelieving and shaking her head, "I'm gonna kill Santana."

The blonde shakes her head, "Oh no you don't. I love my San and you don't get to kill her."

Kurt hops down from a ladder where he was placing kitty litter, "Is she a farmer? Because that's not okay."

Shrugging while helping Brittany, "No, well…she makes…cheese."

Walking closer he asks incredulously, "She's a pilgrim?"

Brittany suddenly turns to Rachel and says, "Oh and Santana called again and said that her feta was incredible." Turning back to Kurt she says, "That makes so much more sense now."

Kurt stops her from moving on, "Wait so who is she?"

The brunette shrugs, "She's nobody, just some woman." She says as she walks away and tries to get away from all the questions.

Brittany smirks, "Are you blushing? She's blushing!"

Kurt nods, "You're totally blushing."

Turning back around to face them Rachel smiles sweetly at them ,"Can we just calm down and get ready for the book signing?"

Both Brittany and Kurt unanimously say, "No."

The blonde adds, "This, is exciting."

Rachel stands in front of the door that says 'Restricted Area' with a hand on the handle and speaks to the both of them pointedly, "Look, she's nobody. And even if she was somebody it doesn't matter cuz I don't wanna be with anybody. Okay? So let's just" she waves a hand in the air, "get back to work." She smiles at them before walking into the room.

Brittany speaks up after a beat, "Finding a relationship is work."

From inside the room as she's closing the door, Rachel quickly interjects, "I don't want a relationship."

Xoxo

That night Hudson's Pets is opened and there's a book signing going on. The author of the book 'Cesar's Way', Cesar Millan is talking about the owners and their pets and how to integrate leadership between the two, showing your pet dog, who is in fact the actual leader, making sure your pet knows that you are the leader and not it.

Rachel is standing in the back of the room, behind all the customers, with Santana Brittany and Kurt all listening to him speak.

The brunette is somewhat listening, and the other half of her is just standing there going off in thought, while Brittany and Santana cuddle against the wall. The blonde wrapping her arms around the Latina who's standing in front of her.

Suddenly there's someone standing beside her and Rachel looks and then does a double take upon seeing the blonde, "Okay now this is getting weird."

Quinn smiles, "I know right, we keep running into each other. It's crazy."

Rachel smirks and rolls her eyes, "Oh so you being here is just another coincidence?"

Turning her attention back to the author up front, Quinn nods her head in his direction, "Oh I love this guy."

Santana nudges Brittany, who nudges Kurt to take a look at Rachel and the blonde, smirking and looking knowingly at them.

Rachel turns to Quinn, not quite believing that this is coincidence, "Don't you have someplace to be tonight?"

The blonde shakes her head, keeping most of her attention up front, "Not till later."

"Do you even have a dog?"

Keeping her eyes trained on the speaker, Quinn turns her head slightly towards Rachel and leans in just a bit, "No, but I might get one now that I can 'bee the packh leader.'" She says smiling as Rachel giggles at her impersonation.

Just then the whole room erupts in laughter at something Cesar said, and when Quinn and Rachel turn their full attention back, he's impersonating the dogs wanting to play again, hopping up and down happily.

Rachel then turns towards Quinn and says seriously, "I'm really busy here."

Quinn turns her whole attention towards Rachel and folds her arms, "Oh so you have a boyfriend or, or something? You can tell me I can take it."

The brunette shakes her head, "No."

Getting into her act Quinn nods, "Oh so you know you're just not interested in me. You're making a big mistake, I'm very interesting." She tries really hard to keep her face serious but there's a hint of a smile coming through in both her words and on her face.

She whispers back, "I'm just not interested in men…anyone, right now."

Quinn nods her head once, "Uh huh I see. So you're gay?"

Rachel takes in a deep intake of breath and let's out a rather loud, "Huh?" Not quite believing where this conversation has gone.

Just then the entire room turns back and shushes them. All except the three in the back, watching them in rapt attention, with smiles on their faces.

Cesar speaks up, "Hey you two, would you please take it outside."

Rachel smiles, slightly embarrassed, "Sorry, yea, so sorry."

Quinn has the decency to smile and apologize as well, "Yeah, we'll go now."

Rachel grabs her hand and pulls her outside as Quinn whispers to her, "Well that was awkward."

Once outside Rachel lets go of her hand as they start walking slowly, "Look this is really not a good time for me okay? I'm going through some changes." She says the last bit with finality as she raises her shoulders as if to say 'and there's nothing you can do about it'.

Confused Quinn shakes her head and asks with what Rachel will later describe as her 'adorable confuzzled face.', "Menopause?"

Standing dead in front of the blonde, Rachel looks up into her eyes and repeats again, not quite believing that the blonde actually said that, "Menopause? Seriously? How old do you think I am."

Obviously realizing that she just put her foot in her mouth, Quinn takes a defensive stance and folds her arms in front of her and scrunches up her face slightly, still confused and unhappy with herself as well, "Okay you know what, let's start over because the more I think about it, we'd never make it as a couple anyway. You're way too skeptical. We should be friends."

Despite the initial shock of hearing the blonde utter the word 'menopause', Rachel smiles as she nods, "I have enough friends."

The blonde shakes her head, an air of confidence surrounding her, "You can never have too many friends. What're you doing tonight?"

Immediately Rachel replies with, "Getting take out and going home to bed."

Shrugging Quinn smiles at her and lightly jabs, "Clearly you don't have any friends."

A beat of silence surrounds them where Rachel actually really smiles at her and Quinn chuckles to herself at having been able to make that happen, "Okay here's my proposition. And don't freak out because it requires very little commitment."

She stops for a second ensuring the brunette's attention.

"I'm getting take out too," She uses her hands to indicate to herself, "let's walk together to the same place, order and pay for our own meals, and then we'll say goodbye."

Unbeknownst to them both, Santana and Brittany had pushed over the large sign in the window and moved over in front of it so that they could see them clearly from their place inside the pet store.

Quinn pauses again, looking Rachel in the eyes, smiling slightly, "Where do you want to go?"

The brunette smiles, and as she does Quinn tilts her head slightly to one side, seeming to will her to engage, with the smile on her face growing larger as she sees her nod.

They walk over to Gray's Papaya Hot Dogs, and walk inside.

Quinn pouts, "That's not fair, you chose this place because it takes like two seconds."

Rachel laughs and shakes her head, "No. I chose this place because it's the best."

The blonde smiles behind her, picking up their bags of food.

"Alright, well I wanna see you take a bite of that, I don't know if you're gonna eat it."

They make their way to the table top counter, and Rachel smiles at her, "Fine." She unwraps the bag as Quinn smiles back at her and leans against the counter, watching her pull out a hot dog and take a bite out of it, "There, happy now?" She swallows, "You have no idea how good this is. I cant believe you've lived in New York your whole life and you've never been to Gray's Papaya. What's wrong with you?" she asks teasingly.

Quinn grins, "Actually, I haven't lived here my whole life. We moved out to the city when my parents bought the farm."

Rachel takes a sip of her drink and her eyes immediately soften, shaking her head, seeming to ask what happened.

Quinn is quick to reassure her, "Oh no, not died, they actually bought a farm and we moved up state."

She pauses and then continues, "My dad died five years ago and I run the place now. What about your family?"

Rachel looks down at her food and then back up at Quinn with a small smile on her face, "Actually my parents died when I was young."

Quinn shuts her eyes, a look of utter disbelief and apology on her face.

Rachel continues, "It's just me and my grandmother now. She lives in a retirement home up in Queens. My dad's mother. My daddy's mother lives in Ohio."

Opening her eyes to look at Rachel, she leans in closer, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Rachel shakes her head and smiles up at the blonde, "It's okay. It was a long time ago."

After a beat the brunette continues, "I really have to go."

The blonde stands up straight and says, "Alright, but uh I can't let you walk home alone, because…this is a very dangerous neighborhood." She says with, as straight a face as she can manage, quickly taking a drink from her Pepsi to stop anymore words coming out of her mouth. She raises an eyebrow as she takes her sip.

Rachel looks at her for a second and then chuckles, grabbing her bag and pepsi, shaking her head at the blonde's tactics, and makes her way out the door.

The blonde is quick to follow, with a smile of her own.

Making their way down Perry Street, Rachel chuckles at her, "Okay so what school did you go to?"

Running a hand through her blonde tresses Quinn uses her hands to illustrate, "Well I kinda dropped out. I met this Swedish girl on my semester abroad and…" She trails off and Rachel jumps in with a smile, "Let me guess. You fell in love and got married."

Quinn grins as she looks over at the brunette, "And started an inn in Vermont."

Rachel's eyes widen and she lets out an, "Oh, of course."

Quinn nods, "Yeah, it lasted like three seconds. I didn't know how to run an inn, and she didn't know how to not sleep with everyone who worked there, so."

Rachel gives her an apologetic look at that part, "Ouch."

Quinn shrugs as she continues, "We got divorced, yea, she took everything, I had to move back in with my parents. Work myself out of debt, and try to figure out how to not blame every woman on the planet for Anna's whorish ways."

She takes a sip of her Pepsi and Rachel grins at her, "How's that going?"

Taking a breath Quinn turns to Rachel with a small smile, "Not so good." She replies teasingly.

Continuing down the street Quinn turns to Rachel, "Okay I wanna know everything."

The brunette laughs and the blonde nods encouragingly, "First kiss?"

"Uhm, some jerk with a dirt bike and chapped lips."

Quinn 'oh's, Rachel grins, "You?"

The blonde smiles, "Seventh grade, he wore braces and head gears. It was terrifying."

Rachel giggles, "Ouch."

Stopping suddenly, Quinn bends down once she sees a penny, "Hey, look. Here's one for you."

Rachel, still smiling, "That's weird."

Quinn grins up at her and turns it over so it's facing the right way, as she does so Rachel bends down and picks it up.

While still crouching the blonde asks, "Okay. Best kiss?"

The brunette stops and thinks about it, "Oh, mm that's a tough one."

Quinn has a serene smile on her face as she says, "Cuz you know, if we weren't just friends, I'd kiss you right now. Then I'd be your best kiss."

Rachel smiles back at her, loving the fact that the blonde used just the right amount of confidence in her last statement of fact so she didn't come off as cocky, "How do you know?"

Quinn smiles slightly and shrugs, "I know."

She looks deep into her eyes as she says that and Rachel feels a pull towards her but she isn't quite giving in, until she sees hazel eyes dip lower towards her lips and then back again.

They stay like that for a beat just gazing into each other's eyes, both trying to gauge what the other is thinking, when suddenly Quinn's phone rings, breaking the connection. Both parties seemingly sorry that it had interrupted whatever it was that was going on.

Quinn looks back up at Rachel and smiles apologetically, and Rachel smiles back, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes completely, "Someone looking for you?"

The blonde looks away and nods slightly, letting out a quiet, "Yeah."

They both stand back up, Quinn giving Rachel a helping hand, just as they do, the blonde's phone rings again, "I have to go."

Rachel nods, "Okay."

The blonde nods, somewhat defeated, "Okay." She smiles at the shorter brunette though as she begins to walk away.

"Bye." Rachel calls after her.

"Bye. I'll call you." She says distracted as she walks away, pulling out her cell phone and dialing.

Rachel sighs as she watches her leave, then looks at the penny in her hands, smiling but not quite allowing herself to dwell on it.


AN/ Reviews please? *puppy dog look*