Author's Note: Deleted scene from Chapter Six of Lifelong Love Letter.

And Even Better

I am underprepared,
but I am willing,
and even better -
I get to be the other half of you.
~I Choose You, Sara Bareilles

Sarah was right about her night being filled with bad pop music and Broadway ballads, although she has to say that Quinn's musical preferences are getting at least equal play by the band—familiar oldies slipping in between more modern songs—and while Rachel has only taken over the microphone once so far, there's still more than enough time for her to sneak in another performance or two. Sarah does have to admit that her serenade of Quinn was sweet.

She also has to admit that Santana Lopez has a decent voice, as evidenced by her unexpected performance. Sarah kind of wonders how much she's had to drink.

She's met a few more of Quinn's friends from high school, and her opinion that they're all a little crazy is still standing pretty firm. Mostly, she's been spending her time dancing with Josie or chatting with Jason and his wife about the remodeling project that they're planning for their house. But right now, she's waiting for the bartender to pour her two glasses of wine—one for herself and the other for Jo.

"Sarah. Hello. It's nice to see you again," comes a pleasant voice that she doesn't quite recognize, so she turns to look at the smiling man who's now standing next to her at the bar, and it takes her a few seconds for his familiar face to register.

"Oh, hi. Peter," she adds after a tiny hesitation.

He chuckles, nodding in confirmation that she's gotten his name right. "It's been a few years."

Probably six at least, and aside from one long ago dinner that they'd shared with Quinn, Rachel, Santana, and Kurt, they'd only met briefly one other time. Honestly, Sarah probably wouldn't even remember his name if she didn't have him irrevocably associated with Rachel in her mind.

The bartender places Sarah's glasses of wine in front of her, and Peter orders a scotch on the rocks. She's just about to excuse herself when he kindly asks her, "How have you been?"

"Good. I've been good. Working," she supplies. "What about you? Are you...um...still doing Shakespeare, or…?"

"When I can," he answers with a smile. "Right now, I'm doing The Dark Heart at the Shoenfeld."

Sarah offers him a polite smile, because he might as well be speaking Russian. "That's...nice."

"It's an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, so nice is probably not the best adjective to describe it," he tells her with a wry grin, and his description tickles against her awareness. She's fairly certain that Josie has mentioned wanting to see some new play based on that novel. "But I know you're not much into theater," he adds.

"Not really," she admits. "I'm actually surprised you remembered that, to be honest."

Peter laughs. "Are you kidding me? I dated Rachel. I had to listen to many a rant about your mission to crush Quinn's artistic spirit," he relays as he picks up his scotch.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Sarah shrugs. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be. I have a feeling that you probably had to hear my name a time or two as well," he says knowingly.

Sarah smiles slightly. "I might have. But to be fair, Quinn never really ranted. She just had this...tone."

"Ah, the tone," he repeats with a nod. "I remember it well. Except Rachel used the tone to call you Sasha for the first two months."

Sarah laughs a little at that. "I remember." It had pissed her off the first time they'd met. Quinn had insisted at the time that Rachel just had selective hearing and didn't really assimilate names until she'd met the person—unless they were a famous performer, and then she had a photographic memory.

"You know, I've always wondered," Sarah begins hesitantly after a moment. "Did you know? Or suspect? About them?" she clarifies unnecessarily. "I mean, we were kind of in the same boat for a while." And she's always wondered if Peter had picked up on Rachel's latent feelings for Quinn in the same way Sarah had with Quinn's for Rachel.

Peter hums and takes a sip of his scotch before he answers. "I can't say that I was enlightened enough to figure it out when Rachel and I were dating. Looking back, I probably should have," he confesses with a shrug. "I can't even tell you how many dates she cancelled every time Quinn so much as mentioned that she might be coming for a visit."

Sarah nods in understanding. "Probably as many as Quinn cancelled to visit her or go see one of her shows."

"And yet here we are," Peter points out with an easygoing smile, gesturing around them to wedding festivities.

"Yeah, here we are," Sarah echoes, still kind of wondering how all of this had happened.

"Better for the experience?" Peter asks.

Sarah glances away from him, unerringly finding her girlfriend and noticing that Josie is on her way over here, and she smiles softly. "Definitely better," she murmurs, knowing it to be true with everything in her as Josie quickly closes the distance between them.

Peter lifts his glass in a toast. "Then here's to us, Sarah Cartwright."

She returns her gaze to him and picks up one of the glasses of wine from the bar, gently touching it to the rim of Peter's scotch. "Here's to us."

"Hey, what are we toasting?" Josie questions with a smile as she slips her arm around Sarah's waist.

"Our mutual amazingness," Peter supplies.

Sarah laughs as she passes the second glass of wine to Josie. "Well, I can certainly drink to that. At least to two-thirds of it," Josie amends with a playful smile as she lifts her glass and takes a sip. "I'm Josie Deveraux, by the way," she introduces herself, releasing her light hold on Sarah's waist to offer her hand to Peter. "I don't think we've ever officially met."

Peter transfers his glass to his other hand and takes her hand in a firm shake. "Peter Kendrick."

"I know," she admits, pulling back. "Quinn pointed you out to me back when you were doing A Comedy of Errors at the Delacorte. I've read good things about your new show. I can't wait to see it."

Peter's smile widens in delight at the revelation. "Ah, so you are a fan of the theater."

"Very much so," Josie acknowledges.

"We've learned to compromise," Sarah explains with a smile meant for Josie that's immediately returned.

"The cornerstone of every good relationship," Peter murmurs with a nod. "If you're serious about wanting to see my show, just tell Rachel to call me with whatever day you're thinking of attending, and I'll see what I can do about getting you VIP seats," he offers.

"We will absolutely do that," Josie agrees quickly. "Thank you."

Sarah silently groans, but she knows that Josie is thrilled, so, "Yeah, thanks."

Peter bows his head in acknowledgment before he excuses himself to find his date, and Josie slips her hand inside of Sarah's as they watch him walk away. "So that was the infamous Peter," she muses.

Sarah laughs a little as they start to walk back to their table. "About as infamous as I am, I guess," she quips, although it seems to her that Peter and Quinn genuinely get along much better these days than Sarah thinks she ever will with Rachel. Being happy for her today doesn't mean that she suddenly wants to start planning spa days with her—or whatever Rachel does for fun.

"It was nice of him to offer us tickets," Josie mentions with an air of hopefulness in her voice when they sit down.

Sarah still finds theater incredibly boring for the most part, and Josie knows not to expect her to attend any musicals because people breaking into song in the middle of a conversation still feels incredibly ridiculous to her, but Josie does occasionally mention a play that she'd like to see in the hope that Sarah will go with her. It's not really a regular occurrence, so Sarah will usually consider it, depending on the play.

"You should tell Rachel to call him," Sarah indulges with a smile, watching Josie's eyes twinkle with pleasure before she leans in to capture Sarah's lips.

"You're the best," she whispers, and Sarah sighs in pleasure. When the band transitions into another slow song, Josie glances out at the dance floor. "Do you mind if I collect on my dance with the brides?" she asks.

Sarah follows her line of sight, seeing that Quinn and Rachel are beginning to walk back to the bridal table hand in hand. They'd been pretty much monopolized all evening by the other guests, and she and Josie had kept themselves fairly occupied with one another. "You should probably grab one of them before someone else does," Sarah tells her.

"You mean we should," Josie corrects with a sly grin.

Sarah shakes her head. "I'm not dancing with Rachel."

"You hugged her earlier."

"She hugged me," Sarah argues stubbornly.

Josie shrugs. "Semantics."

"You're a lawyer. You know that isn't a strong argument," Sarah challenges knowingly.

Josie chuckles. "I know. But I still thought I'd give it a try."

Sarah pats Josie's leg, nodding toward the couple. "Just go dance with Quinn."

Josie smiles and brushes her lips over Sarah's cheek before she stands and walks away, and Sarah takes a sip of her wine as she watches her girlfriend chat with Quinn and Rachel for a few moments before she takes Quinn's hand and leads her out for a dance. Rachel watches them with a grin from her vantage point before she starts to walk in Sarah's direction. Exactly in Sarah's direction—right for her table.

"Damn it, Jo," Sarah curses under her breath, setting her wine glass back on the table just as Rachel tucks the skirt of her dress beneath her and slides into the chair that Josie had abandoned.

"I've been sent to keep you company," she explains with a polite smile.

"You really don't need to do that," Sarah promises. "I'm content to entertain myself, and I'm sure there are a dozen other people here that haven't had a chance to personally congratulate you yet."

"Possibly," Rachel acknowledges with a nod. "But I was also instructed to stay here and not wander off so that Josie can dance with me next."

Sarah laughs, because that sounds exactly like something Josie would say. "So I'm actually supposed to keep you company."

Rachel purses her lips, biting back a grin. "That was general the idea, yes."

They sit in awkward silence for a moment while they watch their significant others dance before Sarah caves in and asks, "Should we attempt to make small talk?"

"That's never really worked for us in the past," Rachel points out honestly.

"No. It hasn't," Sarah agrees.

Another awkward silence passes before Rachel suggests, "We could always dance," with an inquisitive glance in Sarah's direction. Sarah is surprised by the suggestion, and she knows her eyebrows are somewhere in her hairline. "Or not," Rachel amends with a frown.

"Not would probably be better," Sarah confirms.

Rachel nods slowly as she worries her lower lip. "We're never going to be friends, are we?" she finally asks, and Sarah almost thinks she sounds a little sorry about that, but it's probably just her imagination.

"Probably not. But I think we're kind of stuck with each other at this point," Sarah muses with a small smile. Josie and Quinn are friends, and Sarah and Quinn are friends, and Josie and Rachel are friends, and Sarah is completely in love with Josie—she doesn't see any of those things changing anytime soon.

"There are worse things," Rachel points out with a smile of her own.

Sarah nods in agreement. "Yeah. There are."

After that, they're both content to sit in companionable silence while they watch their someones better share a dance, knowing that they both get to share their lives with the women they love.