The cotton pad paused midway through its trip over Rachel's face, leaving make-up covering half of her face. The pad had paused because tears had started to stream down her cheeks which made her angry with herself. There was absolutely no reason to be crying just because she saw a ghost making its way out of the theatre as soon as the house lights went up, even if that ghost had resembled someone she vowed stop making her sad. She decided that three weeks was much too long to be pining for some man, not that her heart had paid her mind any attention.

A tissue was ripped out of the box sitting on her make-up vanity so her tears could be dried before the rest of her stage make-up was removed. With a sigh, she began to put on the make-up she normally wore because she had seen the photos of celebrities who went out in public without any on and decided there was no way those types of pictures would be taken of her.

There was a knock on her door while she was putting on the finishing touches and she heard someone say, "Rachel."

"Yes?"

"Our adoring fans are waiting for us. Are you ready to meet them?"

Rachel sighed and wondered for the thousandth time what she had ever seen in the man outside her door. Superficially, he was the perfect boyfriend: handsome, a fine actor, and a wonderful vocalist. However, even before her trip to Lima she had an inkling that his personality left much to be desired. Her trip there had only confirmed what she probably already knew deep down in her heart.

If the only thing she received from her trip to Lima was clear understanding of how poor her previous relationships were, the forced vacation would have been well worth it but she had also discovered how amazing a good relationship could be and would now no longer settle for anything less. The next to constant knocking on her door only confirmed her feelings.

After grabbing her handbag and wrapping a thin scarf around her neck, she opened the door and came face to face with Jesse who didn't look all too happy at being forced to wait for her.

"Glad to see you're finally ready."

Rachel rolled her eyes, closed her dressing room door, and strode past Jesse, leaving him to catch up with her.

"Just because we're going through this charade does not mean I have to put up with your attitude," she said when he caught up with her.

"We can put an end to it tonight then."

"You know about the benefits of continuing this as well as I do."

"Ah Rachel, ever the pragmatist."

"You talk as though you aren't one as well."

Jesse chuckled. "We are very alike. It's why we work so well together."

Rachel scoffed. "We're professional, that's why we work so well together."

"Rachel." He flung his arm across her shoulders. "I'm not sure I like this new you. You're a lot less fun."

Shrugging his arm off, she stepped away from him and hurried towards the exit. She could feel him rolling his eyes at her, but she didn't care. If they weren't on stage or in the public eye, she wanted as little to do with him as possible which she had made abundantly clear. Not that he cared which, if she thought about it, was disturbingly similar to how she might have reacted two months ago. She probably would react the same way right now, but she tried not to think about that.

It was too bad they were in this charade because she hated that she was being forced to wait for him at the doors of the rear entrance. He knew she wanted to leave because he was taking his sweet time walking to the exit with a smirk on his face.

"Shall we?" he asked as he extended his arm for her to take.

She sighed and, since there was no way around it, placed her hand on top of her arm as lightly as possible. With her other hand, she prepared to open the doors and waited for Jesse to do likewise and when he did, she plastered a smile on her face and pushed the doors open with him. Waves and waves of cheers and applause washed over them from the people who had patiently waited for them and wait they did, for they were the stars of the show and were always the last ones to come out.

They bowed and waved towards the crowd before he kissed her on the cheek and they walked down to the metal barricade keeping the crowd back. Playbills and programs were thrust in their direction and they pulled out the pens they always carried with them for things like this. Jesse randomly signed things for five people as he always did. After his cursory autograph session, he kissed Rachel on the lips and smiled at her, an expression which she mirrored, before he waved to the crowd and left.

Two months ago, Rachel would have joined him, but now she took more time to sign things and talk with people after each show. She didn't sign every little thing because it wasn't as though she suddenly enjoyed doing this, but she understood that this made people happy and it didn't cost her anything so she did it. Plus, this gave her an excuse to be fashionably late to the after-parties she no longer really looked forward to with the same enthusiasm.

A familiar high-pitched voice rang out from the crowd while she was in the middle of signing things and, looking over, she saw Kurt standing next to the barricade, looking none too pleased at being pushed up against it by the crowd. She quickly finished signing the program in her hand before walking over to where Kurt was standing, which didn't help his situation at all since it just brought more people to his section.

"Kurt, what are you doing here?"

"Seeing your show, of course."

"You have told me you wanted to come, I would have gotten you tickets," she said as she grabbed someone's program to sign. "Who should I make this out to?"

"Angela," said the giddy fan.

Rachel signed the program, "To Angela Love, Rachel Berry," handed it back, and flashed a bright smile at the fan.

"I would have asked for tickets but we did forget to exchange contact information before I left."

Rachel gasped. "We should correct that mistake. Do you have time to grab a drink after this?"

Kurt looked at the man beside him who shrugged and smiled. "I'll always have time to grab a drink with the great Rachel Berry. Oh." He gestured to the same man. "This is my boyfriend, Blaine."

"Nice to meet you," she said as she shook his hand. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"It was great and you were fantastic," Blaine said.

"Thank you." She signed a Playbill for someone named Ruth. "I know this café that would be perfect."

"A café does sound perfect," Kurt said.

"Let me sign a few more things then we can go."

Rachel signed a few more programs before she asked, "Did you win the ticket lottery again?"

"No," Kurt said. "We got our very good tickets through other means."

There was something in the way that Kurt said that sentence which gave Rachel a funny feeling in the bottom of her stomach and made her glance around the crowd at well above her natural eye level.

"Looking for something?"

"No. No." She shook her head. "I just had a funny feeling."

Kurt grinned. "Careful, those can be dangerous things."

"I know." She looked down to sign something else. "I dislike getting that feeling. It always leads to…"

Rachel fell silent and her heartbeat raced away as she felt a large presence from across the barricade. It was Finn. It had to be him.

It wasn't Finn.

It was just some guy who happened to be tall and wanted an autograph for his girlfriend, which Rachel not so willingly provided. She knew it was insane to blame this random person for not being the one she actually wanted to see. Even worse was the fact that she knew she'd never see him again and yet she still hoped that it would happen. She hated this feeling.

"Not that I don't enjoy standing here watching you sign things," Kurt said. "But when are we going to that café of yours? Some of us have to wake up early tomorrow to sew things until their fingers fall off."

Rachel rolled her eyes at the dramatics but she grinned as well because that was just how Kurt was. She glanced up and saw a sea of people still waiting behind the barricade and knew there was no way she could get to them all, but a few more couldn't hurt. "Let me sign a few more then we can go."

Trying to get through as many as possible before leaving, she kept her head down and barely glanced at the people she was signing things for. She got through three more before Kurt started to click his tongue and she decided to sign a few more because she was stubborn and disliked being forced to do anything.

"Who should I make this out to?"

"Karen."

Playbill signed and given back, she grabbed another.

"Who should I make this out to?"

"Your favorite Neanderthal."

Her pen slid across the program, leaving a trail of ink, before she looked up at him. There was a look on her face that he couldn't read and her only reaction so far didn't give him very much confidence in the fact that she actually wanted to see him again. Her looking down again didn't help either.

"I— I ruined your program."

"That's okay, I bought a few extras," he said as he rummaged through his bag before handing her another one.

She looked up again. "You were here tonight?"

"Yea, watched it with Kurt and Blaine."

"That was you rushing out!"

"Thanks for the tickets by the way," Kurt said.

He nodded. "Yea, I kinda stick out and didn't want you to see me yet."

"I— Do you still want me to sign this?"

"Yea, I'd like that."

"To my favorite Neanderthal?" she asked with a small grin.

"If you don't mind."

She signed the new program with a bit of a flourish and handed both back to him. He looked down at the signature and grinned. It was exactly what he asked for.

She started to ask, "What are you—"

But he cut her off. "Can we go somewhere to talk?"

"I'm grabbing a drink with Kurt after this."

Finn looked over at his step-brother. "I'm sure he won't mind if you guys do it some other time."

She looked over at Kurt and opened her mouth to speak.

"I'll take a rain check," Kurt said as he started to pull Blaine away from the barricade. "Don't forget to have my oaf of a brother give you my information."

"So," Finn said. "Coffee?"

Silence from certain people was a good sign. From others, it was a sign of indifference. And as he had learned, silence from Rachel was a bad sign.

He didn't want to say what he had to say while walking to the café. Plus, he could barely believe how many people were walking the streets of New York at this time of night and was having a hard time making his way through the crowds. Rachel, on the other hand, easily weaved her way past people who were walking slower like it was the most natural thing in the world.

She didn't want him to say what he had to say before they received their orders because she didn't want this conversation to be interrupted. So they waited until they had their drinks in front of them, her tea and his coffee, and it was an unnerving wait with her staring through the window next to them, glancing at him every so often.

"So, um, I liked your show," he said the moment the waitress left. "I'm glad you were my first."

This finally caused her to look at him for more than a moment.

"Your first?"

"My first Broadway show."

"Oh." She looked down at her tea. "I'm glad I was your first."

"You were amazing."

She looked up and smiled. "Thank you."

"I… I just can't believe you get naked on stage every night."

Her eyes narrowed. "It's for the performance."

"Wait, I get that. I'm not saying—"

"Can we just talk about whatever it is you want to talk to me about?"

Finn looked down and sighed. "Yea, I read the letter you left me."

"Then you know I have nothing else to say."

"Yea, I know." He looked up again. "I just wanted to tell you something."

He took a sip of his coffee and she of her tea.

"Oh, first I have something for you." He rummaged through his bag and pulled out her stuffed monkey which he held out to her.

"George!" she yelled, leaping out of her seat. She paused halfway from standing up then slinked back down into her seat.

Finn grinned and asked, "George?"

She glared at him. "What else do you expect a child to name a monkey?"

Finn chuckled and shook his head. "No, that makes sense. It's perfect actually."

She reached for the stuffed animal but pulled her hand back. "I don't need him anymore."

"I know, but I want you to have him. Plus, it's been over fifteen years now, so I think he's way more used to you. Be kinda cruel to rip him away from you now."

"I—" She accepted the stuffed animal and clutched it to her chest. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said with a smile.

They sipped on their respective drinks for a bit until Rachel broke the silence.

"I need to tell you something. I'm not actually—"

"Wait, lemmie go first." And before Rachel could respond Finn pushed forward and said, "I wanted to tell you that what you said in your letter was right. I don't believe in myself, at least for the big things, but I wanna change that."

"That's good." Rachel smiled. "I'm glad."

"Um, also, I'm sorry for what I called you."

"As you should be."

Finn chuckled. "I didn't want things to change. I was stupid and selfish. You shouldn't have stayed; the world would've lost something amazing if you couldn't be on stage anymore."

She grinned. "I know."

"So, um, I'm leaving Lima. Probably gonna move out to Las Vegas or Los Angeles so I can start playing poker regularly and see how that goes."

"Why those cities?"

"They're the best poker scenes in the country."

"Oh."

"So yea…"

She looked disappointed as she said, "That's all you have to say?"

He thought back to the smile on her face after Jesse kissed her and said, "Yea."

For some reason her head dropped. Finn didn't know what to do with that or her silence, so he shifted in his seat for a bit before pulling out his wallet and dropping enough money on the table to cover their drinks and said, "So I guess—"

"What about New York?"

"What about New York?" he repeated, emphasizing a different word in the question.

"How's the poker scene in New York?"

"Um, it's not bad I guess, close to some big casinos and I'm sure there are underground games. Plus, there's always online poker."

"Maybe…" She looked up at him. "Maybe you could move out here?"

Finn gaped at her for a moment until a crooked smile appeared on his face. "Maybe I will." He reached across the table and intertwined his fingers in hers. "Wait, what about Jesse?"

"What about him?"

"Aren't you two dating again?"

"Only in public."

"Wait, what?"

"The attendance for the production has been flagging and we needed to bring more attention to it so Jesse and I agreed that appearing to date would be the best and easiest way to do it."

"You're kidding right?"

Rachel shook her head. "It's been working. Attendance has risen since our charade began."

"I don't think I'll ever understand the Broadway world."

"I have to admit it is a strange world to live and work in."

"So, you two really aren't dating?"

"No."

"What about that kiss before he left?"

"It's called acting. You don't think what we do on stage every night is real do you?"

"No." He scratched his head. "Why didn't you tell me about this first?"

"I tried, but you cut me off and then I had to listen to you go on and on about all those things."

He smiled and shook his head.

"Do you believe me about Jesse?" she asked.

"I do."

"Good." She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Then I have a very important question for you."

"Oh yea?"

"Yes. Well, now that I think of it, it's more like a statement." She squeezed his hand again and her smiled took on a more mischievous look. "You better have brought me one of your shirts to wear."

Finn laughed.

"I'm not kidding," she said with a glare.

"I know you're not and that's why I lo—" His mouth froze as his brain caught onto what it was trying to say. "Like. That's why I like you."

Rachel smiled. "I think I like you too."

A/N: So the main plot of the story is finished and I don't know if I'm happy with it.

There will be an epilogue of fluff coming in a few days as well as a longer author's note to close out the story. Thanks for reading this almost year-long (!) project.