Goldenrod: Mike & Quinn
"Do you remember when I dated Brittany?"
Quinn wrinkled her brow in confusion as she looked at her boyfriend of more than a year across the table at their favorite diner. "Yeah, for like three months during sophomore year?" she asked rhetorically before reaching over to cover his hand with hers. "Mike, honey, what's this all about?"
"Sometimes I wonder why I wasted so much time trying to find this," he confessed with a small voice. He knew the answer; they both did. There had always been someone else (Brittany and Tina for him, Sam and Finn and Puck for her), but in the back of his mind, there had always been Quinn. There were some days when he still couldn't believe that he had her. "Did you ever know that I had feelings for you sophomore year? Back before Finn and you started dating and the whole thing with Puck happened, I saw you first. You were coming into school one day late and I was on my way to algebra when you came through the front door. Your hair was down in these waves around your shoulders, and I swear, it looked just like spun gold. The sun lit you from behind, and you looked just like an angel."
Of all the guys she had been with, Mike Chang was by far the most romantic and the most sentimental. They had met up with each other after college, when she had gotten an offer at a publishing house in Chicago and he had started to teach classes with the Joffrey. He had been the only person she had known in the city, so he ended up introducing her around to everyone he knew. It had only taken a couple months before he was confessing his feelings for her. That had been over a year ago, and now they shared an apartment near Lake Michigan and she knew that a ring was likely just around the corner. His parents still weren't thrilled that she wasn't Asian, but it was difficult to have too much of an issue with a successful literary editor with Yale credentials to back her up.
She contemplated for a moment what it would have been like if he would have approached her first back in high school. She had a hard time imagining what that would look like and knew she probably wouldn't have gone for him. "I'm glad that we didn't find each other until now," she finally decided aloud. "I don't think I would have appreciated you the right way. I cheated on Finn and Sam both, and Puck and I were a disaster from the start. I cared about them all, of course, but I didn't know how to love them properly like I love you now."
He reached over and tugged on one of her curls affectionately. "Such a sap," he teased her because she was anything but. "I guess you're right. Brittany and I never fell in love, but we became really good friends. And Tina was the perfect girlfriend to have in high school. I can't really regret that."
"Beth means that I don't get to regret anything," she reminded him softly. They both saw her biological daughter monthly now that Shelby had settled in Chicago to teach classes at DePaul. Puck regularly Skyped with her and came in whenever his touring schedule would allow. There had finally been enough time, distance and growth where Quinn could accept those people for the mismatched family that they'd become. Mike had been a driving force behind that. "And I wouldn't anyways because it brought me to you."
Mike leaned across the table and brushed his lips to hers. "I love you, Goldenrod."
She grinned warmly at her favorite pet name of his. "Love you too."