AUTHOR'S NOTE: I, firstly and foremost, want to apologize for the awfully long wait on this story. I haven't abandoned it, I promise. Life happens and I couldn't write and I'm sorry. Things has settled a bit calmly in my personal life so now I have the time and energy to give this story the effort it needs. Thank you for reading if you continued to follow this story. Please, let me know what you think so far. I promise to try and update as soon as I can. Thanks again! :D
Chapter 2- Pretense
"They look so friendly." Britney commented as she watch the two girls in Rachel's office talk and laugh like they're old friends.
"50 bucks they've slept together." Santana replied with a smirk.
"Just cause they're friendly doesn't mean they've slept together S." Quinn told the brunette calmly.
"Jealous Q?" Santana redirected her focus.
"Why would I be?" Quinn looked up from her computer. "I have a boyfriend." She added as a matter-of-fact.
"Uh, huh." Santana uttered not believing the blonde. Little did Quinn know, Santana is more observant than people give her credit for. She has come to figure out that when Quinn is acting extremely calm is when she has the most to hide. She could tell that the blonde is struggling with some newfound feelings she might of developed for the new boss and doesn't know how to deal with it. Quinn will eventually open up to her; she just has to let Q do it on her own terms. If she's brave enough.
"Quinn?" They all pretended as if they weren't spying on the new boss. Rachel gave them a weird look before continuing. "You ready?" The blonde nodded as she took her notebook and headed back into Rachel's office. She was not looking forward to it whatsoever.
"Shay, this is Quinn Fabray. Quinn, this is..."
"Shay Mitchell." Quinn said before Rachel was able to finish. The blonde extended her hand to politely greet the tall girl. "Pleasure to meet you." She said with a pleasant smile.
"Nice to meet you as well." Shay said cheerfully as she took the shorter girl's hand.
"Shay here was one of my clients when I was still working in Los Angeles." Rachel cuts in. "So, our job today Quinn is to persuade Ms. Mitchell here to consider HQ as her new primary PR team." Rachel was all about business now. Quinn took a quick glance at Rachel and she couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated by how professional and 'boss' like Rachel can be.
"Right." Quinn accepted the challenge. However, she still wanted to know more about the two's personal relation. Giving her attention back the taller brunette in the room, Quinn was ready to sell her company. "Ms. Mitchell..." She started.
"You can call me Shay." The model told her.
"Alright, Shay..." Quinn corrected, not faltered by the interruption. "Here at HQ, we hold our clients at the utmost importance. Our priority is to make sure you're well represented and richly portrayed." Quinn stated.
"How do you mean?" Shay asked.
"Here at HQ, we make sure that your name represents something important not just what you do. The public likes to see good things and we show them that. However, unlike other PR firms, whom only focus on the positive things, we allow the public to see the human side of you." Quinn replied confidently. "We show them that you're someone whom they can relate to. We don't just show the good and cover the bad. We present the good and accept the bad because we're all just human." Quinn finished.
"I like her." Shay commented which earn a shocked looked from Rachel. "I'm in."
"What?" Rachel answered, surprised as she was still daze by Quinn's speech. "Oh, really?" Great, she chooses now to act all unprofessional.
"You don't want me as a client?" Shay asked amused. Both her and Quinn were now staring at Rachel, confused.
"What? No. I mean yes. Yes of course I do!" Rachel stammered. She felt her cheeks heating up ever so slowly.
"Is she always like this?" Shay turned to ask Quinn.
"I don't know. You've known her longer." Quinn commented back not sure why she pointed that fact out.
"True." Shay gave her a nod and smile before looking at Rachel. "I'll have my manager contact you to start the paperwork. It'll be great to work with you again Rachel." Shay said as she got up readying herself to leave. Rachel got up as well and walked her to the door.
"You'll be working more with Quinn here but I'll be around." Rachel corrected her.
"Even better." Shay replied, looking first at Quinn before giving Rachel a cheek kiss. "I'll see you. Let's do lunch soon. I'll call you." Shay waved her goodbye and left leaving Rachel just blushing where she stood.
"That was easy. If you don't need me for anything else, I'm going to go start the paper works." Quinn spoke up.
"Yeah, ok." Rachel didn't know what else to say.
It's been a couple of weeks now and things in the office went back to normal. Well, as normal as one's office can be. After the meeting with Shay, things between Quinn and Rachel seem to be strictly professional. Where Rachel could be seen joking with Britney, Kurt or the rare occasion, Santana. However, whenever Quinn and Rachel spoke it was merely to update one another on what's going on with clients.
"Rachel?" Kurt called during their lunch meeting. "Rachel, you okay?" He asked.
"What? Why?" Rachel snapped out of her thoughts.
"You seem so distracted. Is everything okay?" Kurt asked, concerned.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I'm fine Kurt. Just lots of things to do." Rachel replied as her eyes found hazel ones across the hall. Kurt noticed her distraction and followed her line of sight and found Quinn at the other end. Quinn looked away as soon as she saw Kurt looking at her. And just like that, she was gone.
"She likes you, you know." Kurt told her as she went back to his salad.
"Who?" Rachel snapped her head back to look at Kurt, confused.
"Quinn." He said simply.
"What? No. She has a boyfriend, plus she's straight." Rachel defended the blonde, not sure why she was doing so.
"We both know, just because she has a boyfriend, that doesn't mean she's straight." Kurt corrected.
"Even if she's not straight, she still has a boyfriend." Rachel pointed out.
"Yeah. Seasons change." Was all Kurt said as he packed up and usher Rachel to do the same for their upcoming meeting. Rachel didn't want to think about the possibilities but it's too late, Kurt had planted something inevitable.
Across the way, Santana and Quinn were about to have a similar conversation. Santana too, noticed the subtle glances Quinn was having with Rachel.
"Can I ask you something?" San heard the blonde.
"You know you can." She replied, the mocking tone she usually carried was now gone. She can feel the nervousness from her friend and Santana may never admit it out loud but she cared for her blonde friend. They are best friends and as crazy as she portrayed herself, she knows when to be a friend for Quinn. "What's going on?" She asked, noticing the blonde's hesitation. "You know you can talk to me about anything." She confirmed.
"I know." Quinn smiled her reply, "It's just...I don't know how to say it." Quinn had trouble putting her thoughts into words.
"Is this about Rachel?" Santana ran with it. She saw the shock on Quinn's face and knew she was right. "It's okay." She comforted her friend.
"Is it?" Quinn was confused. "Every time she's around I feel a bit light headed. Is it weird to have a crush on her?" Quinn finally had the nerves to ask.
"It's not weird. The girl is hot." Santana pointed out in which she got a mean look from Quinn. "Don't throw daggers this way, she is." Santana confirmed with a chuckle. "And there's nothing wrong with a little crush." San pointed out.
"But I'm straight!" Quinn exclaimed a bit too loudly causing people around them to look up curiously. "And I have a boyfriend." Quinn added.
"Funny how the boyfriend wasn't your first reason." San smirked. "And can you relax? Like you said, it's a crush, and unless you act on it, I don't see the problem with having eye candy at work." Santana explained. "Do you plan on doing something about your crush?" San asked to where Quinn shook her head. "There you go. Stop stressing yourself out over a crush. Enjoy the hottie..." Santana said as she nodded towards someone. That someone happened to be Rachel, whom was walking pass them. The shorter girl gave them a smile as she passed and Quinn's face flushed a bit. "Oh boy. Calm yourself." San said as she poked Quinn's cheek.
"Shut up." Quinn smacked the brunette's hand away and gathered her stuff to leave. "Don't tell Brittney." Quinn told San firmly.
"What makes you believe she doesn't already know? She knows everything that goes on here." Santana replied as got up and walked away.
"Everything?" Quinn questioned curiously. "I'll be back later." Quinn said as she took off the other way. She needed to find Britney. She needed to know more about this Shay Mitchell girl and her past relation with Rachel. She's just curious. It's her job. Or is it?