Great alms

(Quinn)

My grandfather, who already passed away, was a fine and bankrupt old money. When I was younger, my parents brought Frannie and I to Cincinnati to visit him. He lived on a nice middle class house because it was all that's left him from a fortune one day he had. My father, of course, inherited more name and pride than money, but he knew how to win in life: working your ass off. Our visit to my grandfather had one end of the classroom teaching of what happens when you make bad decisions in life. Of course, my father and my grandfather weren't best friends and we did those trips to as an annual obligation.

But I actually liked to spend some time with the older Fabray. He was just a lonely man with a lot of regrets. Now I understand that. But at that time, all I knew was he was a bitter man who had a lot of sayings on the tip of his tongue. He used to say: "When the alms are great, the poor man distrust" every time my father did something nice to him. Just to charge the favor after. Do you know what? This is true. Life taught me that: nothing is for free or unintended, even when the big alms come from my own girlfriend.

Rachel has been acting great since Valentine's Day. She was extra-loving, always calling me to sleep at her house, dinner together, do something after hours. And sex was a marvel. If I suggested eating her in the middle of Times Square, she would open her legs to me and do it right there, I swear. It may seem somewhat chauvinistic of me to think so, but I was overjoyed because she was doing all the things I liked in bed but she not so much, including some of my fantasies. Like that day she sucked my clit while I was driving.

So, there was Rachel Berry-Lopez, the diva, on her fours while I fucked her from behind with the help of my little friend. It wasn't anal sex, because Rachel was afraid to do it, and I also would never force such since my experience with Sam wasn't the best one. But yes, she was on all fours in a submissive position while I was doing it hard and fast like a big bad lion. That was the part I enjoyed the alms. I retired my little friend when I came after heard her scream my name over and over. Rachel looked exhausted after that sex session, but fine.

"That was..." She was panting when I fell down the side of the bed.

"It was great, but we not finished yet." She looked incredulously at me as I freed myself from my buddy and then got on the bed pointing to my own sex. "I need some cleaning if you don't mind."

Rachel nodded and I soon felt her hot mouth in place where I needed. Again she was eating me good, working on my third orgasm of the night. My thoughts flew to a place far away and all I was focused on the waves of pleasure she was giving me. Rachel has a very talented tongue, I must say, and a breath to envy. I was thrusting my hips against her face, holding the back of her hair with one hand while I played with my breast with the other. I was feeling incredible, hotter and hotter, until my brain blew up and I kind of passed out for a moment.

"Any more wish, my Greek goddess?" She said in a small voice, and still tried to be suggestive.

"Come here." I pulled her into a loving kiss and we cuddled in a way she could sleep in my arms.

A good thing of do the final semester is that I didn't need to go to NYU every day, despite having to study hard to complete my thesis. Rachel also didn't need to wake up early because she didn't have a commitment for those days but the play. I cradled my girlfriend in my arms and we slept in peace.

When I woke up, Rachel was still dead to the world. Perhaps our activities have been a little more intense than I planned and so I wouldn't wake her. I didn't bother to cover myself when I got out the bed to take a quick shower. If my core was a little sore, Rachel's could be more and it concerned me. It always concerned me every time we go rougher. She was still asleep when I finished and went out to her bathroom. I wore my underwear and borrowed her robe to eat some breakfast. It was almost nine in the morning of a Tuesday, after all. Santana apparently had already left to Columbia judging by the remnants of breakfast on the table and no other sigh of her in the place. So, I organized Santana's little mess and made some fresh coffee and French toasters to my lady. Speaking of her, Rachel came to the kitchen without shower and just with her hobby on. Her hair was that post sex way that I loved, and she was still sleepy.

"Good morning, my lady." I gave her a peck.

"Morning. What time is it?"

"Half past nine."

"It's late. Why didn't you wake me?"

"You were so heavily sleep that I didn't want to bother you" I kissed her again, and then Rachel put her hand to her mouth to yawn.

"Hmmm." She stretched again before sit to eat her breakfast with me. "I need to work out today..."

"Haven't we worked out enough last night? And you're in great shape, Rach." It was true. She got some nice and discrete abs, although I loved the little tummy she used to have. "Don't you think you can take a break today? I don't have to go work until lunch."

"Maybe..."

While I serve her coffee (it was nice to be in a house in which the options were not restricted to the package of waffles with butter and Oreo), Rachel's mind was far way, I could tell by the way she was eating the piece of bread.

"Where do you buy this bread? It's good."

"In the Arab emporium. It's near the market I like to buy my organic groceries."

"Do you have to work today?" She just nodded. "And do you have plans for the weekend?"

"Nothing in mind. Maybe you can take care of it." She smiled in a suggestive way.

"You can call you understudy on Sunday, so we can spend an day at the museum. What do you think?"

"It would be great!" She said without hesitation, and that's when the alms reached the limit. While Rachel may even go into a museum, even thought she didn't like any other that's not music or Broadway related, call her understudy for something banal is something she never ever would do. Something was wrong.

"Well, after the museum, we could have sex outdoors in Central Park while you sing Let's Get It On. What do you say?"

"Sure..." She answered automatically and I had enough.

"What's going on, Rach?"

"What's going on what?"

"When the alms are great, the poor man distrust" I quoted my grandfather. "Not that I'm distrusting you, Rachel, but you are overly affectionate with me. And last night was..."

"Don't you Like it?" She was concerned.

"I loved... you realized little fantasies of mine... but Rachel, the more I want to think this is a giant Valentine's Day, I am still a person down to the ground. Something tells me this is the kiss before the slap. Then, slap me, please."

Rachel stared at me and blinked a few times, and then she sighed.

"Slings and Arrows is going to be shot in Los Angeles this year." She shot and I couldn't process the information.

"What?"

"Slings and Arrows…" She repeated more slowly. "… is going to be shot in Los Angeles this year."

"That means..."

"That means I'm going to live in Los Angeles for six months. I'll move out in mid-April, and I'll come back to New York in October because I also have a movie to do in my agenda. In the meantime, I'll come to New York every time a can, but we'll have to run a long distance relationship this year."

"How long have you known that?" My heart was racing. The news fell like a concrete block on my head.

"Since January."

"And you spent all this time knowing it and didn't have the courage to tell me sooner?" My chest was filling up with rage. "Why?"

"Because our relationship ever goes through a delicate phase, Quinn, and I fear for our future. I love you, but I'm afraid, so I thought it was better postpone telling you because..."

"Did you think what, Rachel?" I hit the table. "That If you fool me with sex it would make me accept anything after? Do you think I'm a moron d-bag who can't be rational, like a man who only thinks with his penis? Do you thing I'm not mature enough to handle a temporary long distance relationship? Go to hell, Rachel. Go to hell!"

I got up from the table, wore my clothes, picked my stuffs and walked out of that apartment. Life was crazy. Crazy! How could she? Rachel could move to China, to Japan or to hell. But she must have told me as soon as she heard the news. This is what I called respect and consideration.

I took the subway towards my house. I was possessed with rage when my phone rang. It was Santana. I didn't answer. I wasn't in the mood and I was sure I would tell something negligible to her. Of course Santana's calling must be a coincidence because one thing she didn't do is taking Rachel's side when her sister screwed up. Anyway, I wouldn't want to fight with Santana just because I was mad at something she wasn't to blame, so, I turn off my phone.

I got home and found Santiago drawing anything. Probably this movie project he's producing for months. I wasn't in the mood or spirit even to talk with my friend. I just went to my room and slammed the door behind me. I threw my bag on the floor and threw myself on my bed. The advantage of living with my male bestfriend instead with my girlfriend was that I could have my own room and shut myself in my own world and not talking about it. Santiago wasn't a guy to vent on issues of dating, and he wouldn't knock at my door to ask if I was okay when I clearly wasn't. It was great living with a man in that sense.

I didn't lunch too. I was just rolling on my bed to take the time to go to Bad Things with Santiago. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, brushed my hair and made a perfect ponytail, put fresh clothes and went to work.

"I heard rumors about Victoria's Secret." Santiago said casually on the bus. "It seems that Bad Things made a deal with the company for its new advertising campaign, but it can't yet be announced officially. Imagine we're working with those supermodels? Make the catalog and all of that shit? Imagine we're banging one?"

"You're incorrigible."

"A guy can dream. And I know those femme models are totally your type. I saw you checking out that model ass that day."

"I wasn't…"

"Of course you were!"

"Checking out is not cheating."

"Who talked about cheating, Fabray? That girl was hot and a beauty like that was made to be appreciated."

"Ok…"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. That guy next to me who had a girlfriend, was already dreaming of supermodels. On the other hand, it was great to have that kind of lightness and fun talk. When we got to work, Santiago went straight to the art department: the best one in that company. There is where I can find chocolate cookies once I felt hungry and wasn't able to leave to buy a snack. Rose, the art manager, said that you should drink one can of beer to help creating something, drink some coffee to focus on the project, and eat sugar to keep the energy. Crazy hum? Those guys from the art department were the only ones that could drink a can beer while working every time they're making some brainstorm for a new campaign. But me, well, I got the chocolate cookies. Because I didn't lunch that day, I invade the art department, took some cookies, went to the coffee machine and started working. I entered the photography department room and I found a small staff meeting.

"What's going on?" I asked my boss.

"We are forming the team to work on the VS new commercials." He smiled.

"So… is it official? Bad Things got this account?"

"Yes." Terry Python, my boss started to talk with everybody again while I was sitting on a chair. "As I was saying, the big guys won't hire outside famous names. Our team is great enough to handle VS. Dave and Richards will be working exclusively on it."

That wasn't a surprise. Dave is one of the minor partners of the company. He's indeed a fine director. Not as good as the big guys, who we called the major partners, but Dave is the one who directs most of the main commercials produced by Bad Things and he, sometimes, direct some episodes of the TV shows produced on New Rochelle's studios. And Marian Richards, another minor partner, is the best photographer around.

"This project is very important." She continued explaining. "VS gave us all the campaign, which means we will do everything this time: commercials, catalogs, internet advertising and all of this shit. Brody and I will manage all of it and we expect from all of you no less than perfection. And Fabray… you will be my main assistant on it, so prepare yourself because we have a lot of shit to do."

"What?" I was surprised. Interns weren't supposed to assume this kind of job inside the company. We were… interns who deal with the boring part of the job and plus almost all manual labor.

"You're great, girl!" Marian Richards smiled at me. "You've doing a great job with the camera and the grip. So be ready!"

"There is another thing I want to discuss with you later, Fabray." My boss said. "But we need to work right now, guys. Come on, let's move our asses."

Terry Python, my boss, is the general coordinator of the photography department. He is not a partner, but people say his salary is one of the highest in the company. Terry organizes all the teams in all the productions that pass through Bad Things. It's a lot and he does it like a fine conductor. It's impressive. Really. I don't know why, but he kind of protect me. Maybe because I do my best on all the jobs he orders me to do. Still, talk in private always makes my spike shiver because Bad Things has a very dynamic and competitive environment. There is a large turnover of people, particularly of interns. Some of them can't stand the pace and ask to leave. Others are summarily fired. There's a lot of pressure to work for a company that demands excellence even in the details.

"Fabray?" Terry asked me to go to his office.

"Yes, boss?" Everybody calls him: boss.

"Come here, please."

I sat on the chair and he didn't bother of close the door, which was a good sigh. A closed door means a dismissal or something really serious.

"What's up, boss?"

"How long have you been working as intern?"

"A year and five months."

"And I heard you're going to graduate this year."

"Yes, I am."

"Do you have any plans after your graduation?"

"I just want to keep working and get some money to produce a short film project I have with Santiago."

"Santiago from the art department?" I nodded. "He is a good guy. So… do you have any other job in view after graduation?"

"No, I don't. My contract as an intern with Bad Things is over in May, but I didn't have time to looking for another job."

"Would you like to remain with us?"

"Are you serious?" He nodded and kind of smiled. "Of course! Yes!"

"Great. I'll arrange a new contract with a new salary: a bigger one, of course. There's no reason to make you wait until May to be effective as an employee."

"Thank you sir, but what about my college? I'm not really doing any classes, still, I need to write my final thesis and I can't finish it working full time."

"I get it. Well, we can make a deal: you can work part time until you finish writing your thesis. I don't think this is a problem since we don't really have a fixed schedule to begin working. But I need you doing jobs involving more responsibilities. We are producing a comedy pilot for NBC. There is already a crew for the pilot, Liam is on this project, and I'm sure we will need someone like you working as cameraman in New Rochelle. Maybe you can do some cinematographer job here and there. But we will talk about it later. For now, I really want you to work on VS project."

"Thank you sir."

"Welcome on board again, Fabray. You were a great intern and have earned this new contract. We will discuss you new salary later, ok?"

To see how things are: in the morning I was devastated because my girlfriend, the love of my life, doesn't seem to trust me to say that she will spend six months living across the country. It's not that I say that things are simple: they aren't. I know that both she and I will suffer with distance. But trust is fundamental to our relationship surviving this. It's just one more rock in the path of all many others we already overcome or we are still working on it.

Then, in the afternoon, my mood changed thanks to my sweat. If I deserved this new contract in Bad Things, it's because I've always been a good professional and grabbed this opportunity to learn about my job in hard practice everyday, even if it was pure hell to work and study at the same time. I wish Rachel had the same confidence in me that my bosses showed have.

"Quinn Fabray?" A delivery boy came to our department with a gorgeous bouquet of red roses. "Delivery for you, ma'am." He asked me to sign a receipt and left. The looks of my colleagues fell on me and I was almost as red as the roses.

"Hum... Who is the Cupid?" Asked a female colleague.

"My girlfriend." I replied in the most neutral way.

I took the card and read the little note.

"Please, come to the Public today, so we can go out for a dinner and talk. I love you more than anything." - Rachel B. Berry-Lopez

And it had a drawing of a star, a heart and a crown, plus a "4ever". It means: Rachel loves Quinn forever. I sighed.

"I bet you'll get laid tonight, Fabray." Another guy said mischievously.

My cell phone rang at the end of my shift. It was Rachel. She knew I hated answer particular calls while working, unless it was an emergency.

"Hey" I said when I saw her picture on my monitor.

"You're out of work?"

"Almost. My shift ends in ten minutes."

"I'm here at the Public... I was wondering if I could see you when I get out of here."

"I don't know, Rachel. I'm too tired to come to the theater."

"So, can I go to your place?"

"Of course. Not that I will knock the door on your face if you appears."

"I know I messed up, Quinn. I made a terrible mistake. A thousand pardons, but I've been unsure of so many things to the point of not thinking straight."

"We'll talk later, okay?"

"Okay. I love you."

I sighed and finished doing the few things and called my day.

"I was hired" I said Santiago on the way home.

"What?" He was confused.

"I was hired. I'm no longer an intern."

"That's... wow, Fabray. That is impressive. We need to celebrate that you will inject more money back home!"

"Pizza pepperoni with plenty of onions."

"Are you seeing Rachel today?" I nodded. "Poor your girl!" And he pointed to the bouquet of roses. "Did you guys solve your problems?"

"Not yet."

One of the good things about living with Santiago is that he's never complicated. Never, ever. Instead of possible vibrations of jealousy because I was hired, Santiago asks a pizza. But I knew that hiring him was only a matter of time. The Bad Things would be crazy to miss out on a talent like him. Our meal arrived half an hour after the request. We celebrate ith pizza and beer, even though I don't like drinking beer, but wine is more expensive. The important thing is that we celebrate talking nonsense about girls and life.

I was anxious when the clock struck ten at night because I knew that was the time that Rachel used to come out of the theater. Half an hour later, the intercom rang. Rachel came up and caught me in pajamas. Yes, I did it on purpose. Santiago was in our small kitchen/living room watching the news just in his boxes that I knew Rachel always felt upset about it because of her sense of decency, but it no longer bother me. He waved to Rachel and went to his room.

"Improper time?"

"Why are you saying that?"

"You are in your pajamas and your disgusting friend was only in his boxes."

"I should be glad that Tiago doesn't walk naked at home. His boxes are fine."

Rachel sat on the couch.

"You're cold on me because of that, don't you?"

"Just because you haven't told me sooner that we will spend half of the year apart? No sense!" I crossed my arms.

"Sorry, Quinn. Please, forgive me. I know I messed up. I should have told you from the beginning instead of trying to soften you first with..."

"Sex. You can say it loud, Rachel."

"Yes, this…"

"I'm not complaining about the sex part, because we had a great time on these last two weeks. But you did hurt me, Rachel. You hurt me because you didn't trust me. Because you judged me immature or unable to deal with this sort of thing. It hurts like hell, don't you know it? And you're a hypocrite."

"What!" She responded to my offense.

"Because you come with all the talk of building trust between us, but you are the first to break it. Trust isn't just about fidelity. The concept is much broader. And if you don't trust and don't have enough respect for me to tell something really important early on, if I think you need tricks to shoot the news, then all our effort into making it work will be in vain."

"It won't happen again." She said lowering the tone.

"Thank you!" I answered yet exalted and sat beside her.

We spent a few minutes in silence, until I tried to smooth things with the good news.

"Bad Things hired me. I'm no longer just an intern."

"That's wonderful, Quinn." Rachel stared at me. Her features were smoothed over.

"Yes it is."

"We need to celebrate."

"I've already celebrated it." I pointed to the box of pizza and the cans of beer.

"This is ..."

"It was just a pizza, Rach."

"What about us?"

"We can think about something to the weekend, but truth be told: I can't be with you today. I'm still too mad at you and you won't buy me with sex this time." She nodded and stood up from the couch.

"I'll call you then." She said going to the door.

"Yeah."

"I love you, Quinn. For real."

"I love you too. I just…"

"Need some space… I get it."

She kissed on my lips and got out. It' was better that way. I wasn't about to share my bed with her in those conditions. So, I locked the door, went to my room and couldn't sleep. This crisis on my relationship with Rachel was killing me.