chapter twelve: so casually cruel in the name of being honest
The sunlight filled the room, casting warm beams across the bed and the occupants in it. But the light only served to compound the headache that felt akin a glass breaking over and over again behind Quinn's eyelids. She groaned. Rolling over, Quinn's arm wrapped around the person in bed next to her, instinctively snuggling closer.
"Quinn," a voice broke through her sleepy haze.
"Too loud," Quinn mumbled, nuzzling Rachel's throat. She was warm and the bed was warm and Rachel smelled good.
"Quinn," this time Rachel sounded frosty.
Lifting her head, Quinn looked at her, running a hand throw her messy bangs before rolling over again onto her back, "Did we…?"
"No," Rachel snorted, getting out of bed, "You were super drunk last night, do you even remember anything? No, don't answer that, I don't want to know."
Pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes, Quinn ignored Rachel's argumentative barbs. She didn't want to talk about the night before anyway, and she doubted Rachel did either, not really.
"We need to be on set in two hours," said Rachel, "I'm going to shower."
Quinn watched her disappear into the bathroom out of the corner of her eye. She lay in bed a few minutes longer, waiting until her heard the shower start, then she got up and followed Rachel into the bathroom.
…
Getting Quinn home the night before had been relatively easy. She let Rachel lead her, let her undress her, let her get into bed with her. Rachel then lay in the dark, watching as Quinn drifted off to sleep. She brushed away a stay price of hair from Quinn's forehead and kissed her temple. Why is it always like this? Rachel thought as she had fallen asleep, why can't we both be okay together?
Now Rachel left the door to the bathroom open, stripping before turning on the shower. Standing in the hot stream of water she listened for Quinn in the other room.
Reaching for Quinn's fancy shampoo, she wondered if she wasn't going to be showering alone, an idea she wasn't opposed to. The shampoo smelled like coconuts and sugar and Quinn. She lathered it into her hair, turning around and tipping her head back to rinse it out.
Once she'd opened her eyes again, Rachel could see someone moving outside the frosted glass of the shower. She turned back around to face the stream of water as Quinn joined her. Rachel sighed, relaxing her shoulders as she felt Quinn move her hair aside and kiss the base of her neck. She turned, kissing Quinn just left of the scar above her lip.
Quinn didn't apologize. She did, however, kneel on the cold, hard tile floor of the shower. Rachel pressed back into the wall, out the stream of water, bracing herself on the slick tile. Quinn kissed her way down Rachel's navel. A moan escaped Rachel's lips as Quinn lifted Rachel's leg over her shoulder and kissed the inside of her thigh.
Rachel bit her lip, feeling her face flush at just how fast Quinn could reduce her to a trembling, moaning mess. One hand dropped to rest on Quinn's other shoulder for balance as Quinn's tongue hit home, dipping inside her before moving to circle Rachel's clit. The world dissolved into the sound of the shower and Quinn's teeth and tongue. Her breath came in sharp gasps, and Rachel orgasmed embarrassingly fast.
Getting back up to her feet, Quinn flashed Rachel the closest thing to a rueful look that Quinn was capable of before gently kissing her. Rachel sighed against Quinn's mouth, tasting herself on her lips. Quinn stretched up and whispered, "Thank you, for taking care of me last night."
As Quinn pulled away, Rachel held her gaze for a moment longer before stepping out of the shower, wrapping herself in a towel, and walking back into the bedroom.
…
"And ACTION!" Quinn called over the walkie talkies, standing in the middle of the bustling control room.
"Camera A, zoom in on Graham," she heard Rachel say over the walkies, as Quinn watched the crew follow the direction on the monitor. It was the first shot of they day, one where Vanessa would pick one person to go on a date.
"Welcome to Everlasting," Graham said to the camera, "Where true love knows no gender."
Quinn rolled her eyes.
"Today Vanessa will pick one lucky person to go on a one on one date with and tonight, after saying goodbye to two of our contestants, Vanessa will pick someone for an overnight date," Graham walked over to place a hand on Vanessa's forearm.
"What about me?" A very familiar voice said, "Don't I get to toss my hat in the ring?"
"What the fuck?" Rachel said in Quinn's ear, "Quinn how could you-"
The cameras panned around to settle on August Walker, the Australian hunk of Quinn's nightmares. She didn't even wait to call cut, storming out of the control room and into the mansion at full speed.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded, blowing past an annoyed and upset looking Rachel.
"Whoa," August held both his hands up, "I was invited here, Quinn. Didn't you know?"
"Invited? By who?" Quinn spun to face Rachel who shook her head.
"Surprise!" Chet said, stepping out from the shadows. He rubbed his hands together, looking to Quinn like a rat who'd just gotten some cheese.
"Isn't it great?" Chet continued, "August here is a fan favorite from last season so I thought that throwing him into the mix would liven things up."
Quinn couldn't believe what she was hearing, "You thought?!"
"Excuse me," Vanessa said, "What's going on?"
"Vanessa, this is August, he's going to be joining the other contestants contesting for your heart," said Chet in a singsongy voice.
"No," Quinn said to Vanessa, then turned to Chet, "No, he's not."
"Uh wasn't he the one who assaulted someone last season?" Vanessa asked.
"He already signed the contract Quinny, he's here to stay," Chet said.
Quinn's face flushed with anger.
"You in my office right now," Quinn pointed at Chet, "you too Goldberg."
"We haven't cut yet," Rachel pointed out.
"Cut!" Quinn yelled into her walkie. As she stalked off to her office, she could still hear her own voice reverberate through the crew's earpieces.
…
"August Walker?" Quinn said as soon as her office door was closed, "Are you for real?"
Rachel rubbed her hands on the front of her jeans. Seeing August again made her blood pressure rise, but not in the way seeing an attractive man usually did. Now Quinn was fired up and all Rachel could think about was Quinn and August, and August and Quinn, and her own jealous fantasies that played behind her eyelids when she tired to sleep.
"It's already done Quinn," Said Chet, "Contracts have been signed. August is here and Vanessa is going to pick him for the hometown date."
"What? The hometown date?" Quinn cried, "No. This is unacceptable."
"He gets views."
"We have views."
"He gets more views!"
"This has been our best season yet!"
"Well I'm making it better!"
"Vanessa doesn't trust him," Rachel said, breaking through the noise.
"What?" Chet and Quinn said in near unison.
"Vanessa doesn't trust him," repeated Rachel, "She watched last season and she saw August with the Park ranger."
"Yeah, he told me about that, said you set him up," Said Chet, turning his attention to Rachel.
Rachel shrugged, "It doesn't matter if I did or not, what matters is Vanessa and the viewers think he assaulted a woman last season and now he's back."
"So you'll make it look like he's reformed," Said Chet, "Since you're so good at that, the best, right Quinn?"
Quinn didn't answer that,and instead rubbed her eyes. "I am so tired of fighting everyone," she said, "Look, we are both executive producers, you can't just go over my head like that. It makes us look weak to the crew when we're supposed to be partners."
Rachel felt sick watching Chet's face soften as he turned back to Quinn. It was the same hurt gnawing in the pit of her stomach that she got when Quinn and Chet were still together, when they'd look at each other lustfully or slip away to Quinn's office for an extended lunch break. She felt small and invisible.
"I thought you'd like the surprise," Chet said to Quinn, stepping closer, "It was dramatic at least."
"You should have run it by me first," Said Quinn.
"I'm sorry kiddo," he touched Quinn's arm and Rachel couldn't breathe. But she was rooted to the spot, unable to move or run away, just watch.
"I want to see the contract you had him sign," said Quinn, walking behind her desk, "And I guess we're stuck with him until at least after the hometown date. Goldberg, go get Vanessa and August and bring them in here."
"Hey why did you set up August last season, weirdo?" Chet asked as Rachel opened the door.
"Why don't you ask Quinn."
…
Vanessa wasn't happy. Everyone and everything around he had been upended into chaos as soon as that August guy walked in, smiling like he owned the place.
She recognized him from her research into Everlasting. He'd been a fan favorite until the incident with the park ranger, then this popularity had only slightly dropped because, and Vanessa had rolled her eyes when realizing this, some women could forgive anything, provided the man involved was handsome. But considering the things she'd been told, and had read about, the show, she wondered if everything was as black and white as that episode had made it seem.
Kara was talking to her, suggesting ideas as to what was happening but Vanessa wasn't listening. Instead, she was watching as one of the producers, Jay, approached August.
August sighed, "I shouldn't have come back to this hell hole, no offense man."
"None taken," Jay replied, "We don't get a lot of rebounds."
"I believe that," August said, "I should have known better, I shouldn't have beloved Chet when he said Quinn was fine with this."
"Oh she had no clue, none of us did," said Jay.
It was then that Rachel walked it, looking like someone had just drown her favorite kitten, "August and Vanessa? Can you both come with me please?"
"I'm August, by the way," August said as he fell into step beside Vanessa, "It's nice to meet you."
"You too," she said.
"I think we're getting taken to Quinn's office," he said as they followed Rachel across set. It did feel remarkably like being marched to the principal's office, or how she'd imagined that would feel like at least.
"Have you been called to her office often?" Vanessa asked and August flushed.
"Uh no," He stammered, "I mean once or twice but not like a lot."
"Once or twice?" Rachel asked as she paused by the closed door. She shot a very annoyed look at August. Vanessa realized she was missing some piece of information.
Rachel opened the door, letting them in walk in a head of her before following and shutting the door. Quinn stood in front of her desk, staring seriously at them while Chet lounged in an armchair.
Vanessa bit lip as Quinn's stern gaze settled on her for a moment. It had to have been that stupid show, that stupid place, that was getting to her but she couldn't help but be ridiculously attracted to Quinn King.
She shook her head, whatever was happening, developing a kind of crush on her kind of boss wouldn't help. It would just interfere with her and Mike's plan.
"Vanessa," Quinn said, "August is going to be joining the others in composting for your heart."
She said it with only the slightest touch of sarcasm, something that added to Vanessa's respect for her, oddly enough.
"In his contract, it was included that he will be your pick for the hometown date," Quinn continued, "So in a week we'll be going to-"
She paused and looked at August. "Melbourne, Australia," he supplied.
"Melbourne. If you decide you want to cut him, you'll have to wait until after that," said Quinn.
"I don't get to pick the hometown date?" Vanessa said, "So are you just going to announce that to everyone?"
"No," Chet said, "We're still going to go through the whole thing of people pitching you their boring life story but you're going to say that August's was the most interesting so you want to pick him."
"You mean lie."
"You seemed to have no problem doing that during the Olympics," said Quinn.
"Yes, but this is reformed Vanessa, if the others find out I'm faking it, that won't help my reputation," Vanessa made an appropriately outraged face. She knew Quinn could probably see through her facade but there was still Chet, Rachel, and August to think of.
"Please, every woman fakes it," Quinn snorted, "the only people who know that August is getting the hometown date are the people in this room and that knowledge will stay in this room. Understood?"
"But didn't he assault someone last season," Vanessa said, "I don't know if I'm comfortable with this."
"I didn't attack anyone," Said August, "it was a set up to make me look bad."
"What?" Vanessa looked from Quinn to Rachel, "Why?"
"Serena, last seasons suitress, wanted him gone," Quinn said, "She thought he had a wandering eye or something."
August rolled his eyes, "I wonder where she got that idea," he muttered.
"Don't worry," Said Chet, "The little weirdo over there is going to make sure August looks great so everyone forgets about last season's scandal."
"You want me to be his producer?" Rachel said at the same time August said, "I don't want Rachel producing me."
"Is there an echo in here? Yes, Rachel is now August's producer so both of you suck it up and deal with it," snapped Quinn, "Now get out of my office and go shoot August's surprise return!"
…
"Rachel!" Quinn called from the control room, "Get in here!"
Rachel had been passing by the open door on her way to her car. In a surprising turn of events, Vanessa picked Kara for the overnight date. First she had a horrible one on one date with Zion, who she cut along with Jillian during the elimination ceremony. Rachel blamed it on everything with August.
"Close the door!" Said Quinn as Rachel walked in, "I put cameras in the overnight suite. Come watch with me."
"Quinn I'm really tired," Rachel protested as Quinn pulled out a chair for her.
"You don't want to see Vanessa pop your girlfriend's lady cherry?"
"None of what you said makes sense," said Rachel, sitting down, "Wouldn't you rather do this with Chet?"
Quinn rolled her eyes, pulling Rachel's rolling chair closer to her own, "Don't be ridiculous," she said, and didn't elaborate as to why.
Sullenly, Rachel slumped down in her chair. On the monitors Vanessa and Kara were kissing on the bed, clothes still mostly on. She tried to continue sulking and acting like she didn't care, but out of the corner of her eye she kept sneaking glances at Quinn.
"So, Australia," Quinn said after a moment.
"Yeah," Rachel forced herself not to look over and instead kept her eyes on the monitors where finally something was happening. Vanessa had pulled off her shirt and was playing with top of Kara's skirt.
"At least we'll be able to get some good shots," said Quinn, "I don't like that August is back though."
"Oh really? I thought you'd like that your little play thing is back, just in case you get tired of me," the words were out of Rachel's mouth before she could think. She was too tired, too annoyed, and her biting tone was more of a reflex than anything else. Fighting with Quinn was so much easier than facing anything real.
Quinn looked surprised for a split second before a guarded mask fell over her face, "Need I remind you that he threatened to sue me? Now we have that to worry about on top of everything else, all because you didn't do a good enough job getting rid of him last time."
"So this is my fault now?" Rachel said as the sound of moaning came from the speakers. Vanessa and Kara were really getting hot and heavy, something she'd normally appreciate. Now it just served to amplify her annoyance.
"Well it certainly isn't mine!"
Rachel rolled her eyes, pushing herself out of her chair, "Whatever Quinn," and with that, she let the door slam behind her.