No, this is not a dream, I'm actually updating this story. I swear that the two month wait was unintentional, writer's block was terrible and school had me super busy this whole quarter. Good thing is that I've been on spring break this week so I was able to churn out this chapter, it's not the best and i'm not completely happy with it but I think it'll do. Thank you to everyone that keeps on reviewing this story and adding it to their Favorites and Story Alerts, it really means a lot and keeps me motivated to continue writing.

Enjoy. :)

"Oh my god!" Rachel said as soon as she stepped foot in to the apartment. Blaine sat in a chair eating a bowl of soup at the kitchen table, startled at her upbeat entrance. Rachel put her keys in the bowl next to the door, hung her jacket up on to the coat hanger and quickly walked over to him while still saying "Oh my god" over and over until she sat right on his lap and grabbed his shirt collar in excitement.

"Guess who has an interview at a major publishing company? And when I say interview I don't mean another to add to the list, I mean a simple formality because I, Rachel Barbra Berry, finally have a job!" She squeals.

"Oh my god, Rachel! Congratulations!" Blaine wraps his arms around his best friend and squeezes her tightly, so happy that she's finally been given a chance. "I'm so freaking happy for you! What company hired you? When do you start? What's the job? Oh! We should celebrate! Let's go out for a fancy dinner, my treat! Anywhere you want in the city, ANYWHERE! We'll invite Tina and Santana and Mercedes too!"

Rachel giggles and places her hands on both sides of his face.

"Breathe, Blaine, breathe. One question at a time and we can save the celebrating for the weekend, it's only Tuesday." She pinches his cheeks slightly as he finally releases her from his hug.

"Sorry, I got a little carried away. This is just so exciting! It's been nearly six months of you struggling and being sad, I can't help but freak out for my best friend."

Her eyes begin to fill with tears and she leans over and kisses him on the cheek, so thankful that she has people like him in her life.

"Well I do owe it all to you. Seriously, not just because you've been helping me out financially for the past few months but literally, I got this job because of you and your connections." She grinned and played with his loosened tie.

He tilts his head a bit and looks at her questioningly.

"What do you mean me and my 'connections'?"

She flashes her thousand watt smile and pokes his nose.

"Remember the lovely, dapper young man from the restaurant last month that you flirted endlessly with? The one whose step-family owns the great Hudson Publishing company?"

Blaine nods and his eyes widened.

"Wait, Kurt? He really got you a job there? I thought he was just being nice and said that to make you feel better. I never really thought he meant it."

"I know! That's what I thought too! After three weeks passed and I hadn't heard anything back I thought he had forgotten or something but no! He called me this afternoon but since I was in my yoga session I wasn't able to answer. He left a voicemail though and I called him back as soon as I could." Rachel hopped off Blaine's lap and stood proudly with her hands on her hips.

"Hold on to your hat because you are now looking at the new assistant of the one and only C.E.O. of Hudson Publishing!" She beamed from head to toe with a smile that spanned from cheek to cheek.

Blaine leaped up from his chair, eyes wide as saucers.

"Assistant to the C.E.O.? Are you serious? That's incredible, Rachie! Wow, Kurt really did you a solid!" He wraps her up in another quick hug then goes over to his phone and instantly starts to send out texts and emails to their friends to let them know of the great news. Rachel bursts into laughter at his actions.

"Can you really not wait more than five minutes after I tell you my big news before you have to text half of New York City about my little accomplishment?"

"Little accomplishment? Sweetie, this is huge. I mean HP is one of the biggest, most successful publishing companies in the country and you're not only going to be working there, you will be assisting the person who is essentially the head of it. I haven't even met the guy and I'm one of their lawyers."

Her eyebrows rise slightly.

"Really? You haven't met him? But I thought you went to board meetings there and stuff, doesn't the C.E.O. have to go to those?"

Blaine finishes typing out another text message and sits back down in his seat.

"Yeah, but they had a change up in positions a month or two ago so I haven't met the new one. That's how I met Kurt actually. He was kind of filling in for him at the meeting just to take some notes. No idea who the new guy is though. Did Kurt tell you his name?"

Rachel shakes her head.

"No. He just told me I'd be the assistant to this apparent mystery man. Oh well, I'll find out soon enough!" She jumps a little on her feet, cheeks flushed with excitement. "I'm going in for the interview on Monday morning. So you know what that means!"

Blaine throws his head back and groans. "Not another shopping trip."

"YESSS!" She yells out. "But don't worry, I won't put you through that torture. I'm gonna go call up the girls and schedule something for this weekend. I. Am. So. Excited!"

She runs down the hallway while dialing Santana's number and shuts the door as soon as she enters her bedroom. Blaine chuckles to himself as he hears the muffled laughter and bursts of joy coming from the very lively phone call. Hopefully this is only the first of many good things to come.

Before she knows it, it's already Monday morning and Rachel finds herself sitting in a leather chair playing with the buttons on her jacket, waiting to be called into the conference room. The receptionist glances up at her every few minutes and gives her a soft smile.

"You nervous?"

Rachel smiles back and wrings her hands together.

"Yeah, a little bit. Not too much though, just nervous about meeting my boss, being that I'm going to be his assistant and all."

The other young woman jumps up a little from behind her enormous desk.

"Oh! You're Mr. Hudson's new assistant?" She walks on over to Rachel and holds out her hand. "I'm Sugar Motta, the receptionist, obviously." She giggles.

Rachel smiles at the bubbly young woman and shakes her hand.

"I'm Rachel. Rachel Berry. Nice to meet you." She freezes suddenly when a realization hits her. "Wait, did you say Mr. Hudson? But I thought he died a long time ago? Is it his brother or something?"

Sugar shakes her head and replies, "No, not his brother, his son. He's the new C.E.O. now."

Rachel's eyes widen and slowly sits back down in her seat.

"Oh. His son. Mr. Hudson. The one's whose last name is engraved at the front of the building. I'm going to be his assistant." She lets out a shaky breath. "Okay, I'm really nervous now."

Sugar laughs and walks back to her desk and sits down in front of her computer, picking up a file and starts shaping her delicate finger nails.

"No need to be nervous. Mr. Hudson is real nice, plus a total fox if I do say so myself. You're so lucky; all the girls around here would kill to have your job. Being in the same space as him, talking to him and have him order you around for eight hours a day? mm-mm-mm", she hums, "I'm jealous."

Rachel chuckles quietly.

"What, is he like New York's George Clooney or something? The handsome, charming, older man that has all the girls swooning?"

Sugar grins at her and leans back a bit in her chair.

"Oh, he's not –"She is quickly interrupted when Kurt strides into the room and waves at Rachel, walking up to her and greeting her with a friendly kiss on the cheek.

"Hi! Glad you could make it! Come on, follow me."

Rachel gathers her things and waves goodbye to Sugar, who gives her a wink.

They make their way down a long hallway, passing offices full of bustling people, ringing phones, clacking keyboards, and lively chatter. Kurt opens a door leading into a small conference room and she sets her stuff down as he pours them a couple glasses of water.

"Now we just have to wait for my step-brother to get here, he's always running late, and he's supposed to be bringing me my coffee which I really need right now. He can be really irritating sometimes but I'm I think you two will get along fine, just ignore whatever idiotic things come out of his mouth every so often."

She giggles at the sibling rivalry they must share.

"Sounds like such a catch that brother of yours. Does he work here too?"

Kurt throws his head back and laughs, "Oh Rachel, I forgot to tell you, my brother is-"

Before he can finish his sentence a man comes bursting into the room, one hand holding a tray of coffees and a paper bag of pastries, the other clutching a cellphone and a messenger bag. Rachel was nearly mesmerized by him, maybe because she hadn't been in a relationship or had any kind of romantic altercation with a man in what seemed like forever, but this guy was just drop dead gorgeous. And that wasn't even a term she used often, at all.

"Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know I'm late but traffic was a bitch and the coffee shop took forever, I don't know why you insist on getting your coffee from there when there's a perfectly good Starbucks right down the block." He suddenly seemed to notice that Rachel is in the room and froze for a moment. "Oh, ummm, sorry, I didn't realize you guys had started already. Hi, I'm Finn." He reaches across the table and shakes her hand, a charming grin splayed across his face.

"Hello, I'm Rachel." Her cheeks reddened a bit, for some reason she felt like a teenage girl all of a sudden. This has never happened to her before. But now she was shy and nervous in the presence of an attractive man, a very attractive man in a fitted suit who had thick, dark disheveled hair that she inexplicably wanted to run her fingers through, and indented in both cheeks were the cutest dimples she'd ever seen. Rachel quickly took a mental note to ask Kurt about Finn later, in a subtle way of course, she hoped maybe they'd run into each other often around the building because she definitely wouldn't mind seeing that face around. She really doubted that Mr. Hudson, the one, who according to Sugar, all the girls are drooling over, can even hold a candle to Kurt's brother.

"Sorry, Rachel, I didn't get to properly introduce you two. This is my brother, Finn Hudson. Finn, this is your new assistant, Rachel Berry."

Her mouth hung open, eyebrows raised in shock. "Wait, you are Mr. Hudson?"

He chuckles a bit and sits down across from her, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "Umm, yeah, were you expecting someone else?"

She blushes in embarrassment and shakes her head. "No, well, it's just, I thought you would be older. A lot older in fact. And you're…not. At all. You look so young. Not TOO young though! No offense, I was just surprised. I'm really sorry; I didn't mean any disrespect Mr. Hudson. I probably have given the worst first impression, which is just terrible because first impressions are really important and I just ruined it after spending hours last night practicing my etiquette and conversation skills. I mean, you're my boss, my first real employer and you probably think I'm a terrible assistant already and I've made such a fool of myself now and I haven't even been able to show you my impressive secretarial skills and-"

"RACHEL!" Kurt yells. She jumps in her chair, startled by the interruption.

"Oh my god," She hides her face with her hands and sinks a bit in her seat, "I'm sorry. I ramble when I get nervous."

She receives a smile from both young men and decides to just shut up and sit there while biting her lip to keep from talking. She hears Kurt begin to talk but she can't seem to pay attention to anything he says because her eyes seem to gravitate towards Finn, who seems to be looking in her direction as well. Rachel averts her eyes as much as she can but something about this man seemed to make her heart beat a little faster and to make her brain turn into mush.

Kurt clears his throat, meaning to grab her attention.

"Like I was saying this interview is pretty much just a meeting to welcome you here to our company and to introduce you to Finn. As I told you before, I don't actually work here so I won't be around except for the occasional lunches. But related to the job, there's not much to it really. You'll be keeping track of Finn's meetings and sitting in on them and taking notes, answering phones, and filing paperwork. If for some reason Finn gets backed up and has to stay late you'd stay and help, you'll also do any other generic assistant duties that he asks you to do like coffee runs, lunch runs, dry cleaning pickups, things like that. What do you think?"

Rachel sits up straight and tries to act like she hasn't reverted to a sixteen year old girl who has never seen a cute boy before.

"Y-Yes. I mean, I think it sounds great. I think I can handle all that. I'll do anything Mr. Hudson wants me to do." Her face turns a deep crimson as she realizes what she said unintentionally sounds inappropriate. "I-I mean, I follow directions really well and I'm not a complainer. I am an extremely hard worker and very organized, I won't disappoint, I swear." She takes a sip of water hoping that will calm her nerves and the butterflies that seem to have taken up shop in her stomach.

Kurt grins knowingly at Rachel.

"Ok, perfect then. You'll start Wednesday at 9 AM; feel free to bring any plants or knickknacks to decorate your desk area with. Also, we have a strict business dress code which I'm sure you'll have no problem following. You also get an hour long lunch break during the day and a ten minute break every two hours. Oh and one last thing, your starting pay will be thirteen dollars an hour, after two months you'll be up for a raise." He hands her a folder full of papers and a booklet. "All the information concerning your benefits like health insurance and vacation time will be in that booklet, the papers are to be filled out and given to Patty, our head of HR, by Friday. That sound good?"

Rachel skims through the booklet and nearly bursts with excitement. She never expected this job to pay so well and to have such generous perks judging from what she's read from leafing through the pages.

"Oh my goodness, I get a company credit card? And discount dry cleaning? AND a discount at Barney's? Oh wow, this is beyond what I expected."

"Yeah, anyone who works on this floor gets a company card; you get a discount at our dry cleaning place since you'll be making several trips there every month, might as well make it worthwhile and use it for your benefit. Also, the Barney's discount, that's partly my doing. I worked there for three years during college so I have a long standing relationship with a lot of people there; also Finn's mom has a personal shopper at the store who she uses ALL the time so they give all HP employees a discount." He glances down, taking in the outfit she is wearing at the moment. A burgundy cardigan with buttons in the shapes of bows and a gray hounds-tooth skirt that hits a few inches above the knee, paired with black patent leather pumps that look like they were bought from a Forever 21. He squints his eyes almost as is if he's looked directly at the sun and adds, "Which I insist you take full advantage of. No offense."

Rachel's face reddens a bit but nods her head in agreement.

"Absolutely! Thank you so much Kurt, I owe you so much for this opportunity, I'll never forget this. If you ever need anything from me feel free to ask, I'll do anything to repay you. Anything!" She grasps the folder and booklet in her hands tightly out of eagerness.

Kurt takes a drink from his coffee and gets up from his chair, eyebrows furrowing as he notices that this whole time Finn has been completely engrossed in some kind of game on his phone.

"Finn! Come on! This meeting has barely even taken ten minutes and you can't even bother to pay attention!"

Rachel giggles when Finn is frightened by Kurt's yelling, and nearly drops his phone.

"Sorry dude, Puck and I are on our eighty EIGHTH turn in Draw Something and I'm trying to figure out what the fuck he drew. I don't know if it's an alien, a robot, or some kind of mutant zombie. To make things worse, I ran out of bombs and I don't have enough coins! I won't pass though, we're at a record high turn and I won't fuck this up just because Puck can't draw for shit." He runs his fingers through his unruly hair, deep in thought, trying to figure out the word. Rachel couldn't help but think that he was the most adorable thing to exist. She's never seen anyone so determined and invested in a silly drawing game. But apparently she was the only one who thought his actions were adorable because Kurt let out a frustrated breath and began to collect his things.

"You and your Neanderthal best friend are the bane of my existence. Well, this meeting is done and I need to head to the theater early today since Elphaba's costume was torn in some freakish way thanks to an idiotic intern and no one else is capable of fixing it. I swear to God, if it was torn because that intern tried it on and was playing around in it, pretending to re-enact some scene, blood will be shed. Mark my words."

He walks around the table to where Rachel is sitting and reaches out for a hug and kisses her on the cheek.

"Sorry about my little rage outburst but I really am glad you made it and I'm happy you're going to be working here. I just know you'll be doing wonders around here and will be keeping Bozo over there in check."

"Hey! I heard that! I'm not deaf!"

They both laugh and Rachel gives Kurt one more hug.

"Once again, I know you're probably tired of hearing this, but thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me. I'll do everything in my power to not disappoint and be the most professional, driven assistant you've ever seen."

"You're welcome and I know you will be. Well, I really got to go. You're free to leave too, it wasn't meant to be a long meeting." He starts walking towards the door and turns around once more before leaving. "Oh and we should get together sometime soon for drinks or something! It's time we get to know each other more and hang out. I'll text you later this week!"

"Ok! Bye!"

After Kurt left Rachel felt a bit awkward still standing in the middle of the conference room with Finn Hudson, her new boss, no, her new drop dead gorgeous boss, sitting in one of the leather chairs, still fiddling with his phone. She tried thinking of what to say to break the silence, maybe asking what his morning routines were or maybe if he preferred email alerts opposed to post-it notes (her personal favorite). She was about to open her mouth when suddenly the tall man jumped out of his seat, hollering in celebration, his fist pumping in the air.

"YEEEAAAAAHHHHH! Woooooohhh! Turn EIGHTY NINE! Damn, took me forever to guess Lady Gaga." He must have forgotten where he was for a moment because when he looked up and saw Rachel his eyes widened and looked around.

"Oh shit, is the meeting over? Did Kurt leave?"

Rachel giggles.

"Yeah, it's over. And Kurt left a couple minutes ago, saying something about you being the bane of his existence and needing to be at the theatre."

He visibly flinches a little and checks his watch.

"Damnit. He's gonna kill me. Thank God we don't live in the same apartment anymore or else I'd be afraid to go home. Anyways, I know we didn't really get to properly talk and stuff given that you are going to be my assistant but um, thanks for coming in and taking the job. I'm kind of in over my head here and if someone doesn't help me I might get fired from my own company. Then my dad would roll over in his grave." He laughs.

"That's what I'm here for." She says cheerily. "I've been known to be very organized and focused and over achieving which will be very beneficial to you and your work. I'm ready to dive in to this head first and will do anything that is asked of me, anything in the professional realm that is. I am also open to learning new things, I don't know much about some computer programs and technologically advanced machines but I am a quick learner. I hardly ever get sick due to my highly efficient vitamin regimen so I'll never miss work and I don't live too far away so I'll probably never be late. I'm good under pressure and determined to be the best in almost everything, and like I told your brother, I will do everything I can to live up to your expectations and not disappoint you guys."

She breathed hard, not realizing she had been speaking so quickly.

Finn stood in front of her stunned.

"Whoa. You said a lot…and very fast."

Rachel blushes once again for what seemed to be like the millionth time that day.

"Sorry, like I said before, I ramble when I'm nervous. And in this case I nearly recited my whole resume."

She tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear and looks up at the whiskey colored eyes she had taken almost instantly to.

"Hey, you don't gotta be nervous. Especially around me. As you can tell, I'm pretty easy going and I'm not going to be a hard ass about pretty much anything as long as whatever needs to get done gets done. From your little ramble speech there it seems like you're gonna kick ass at this and probably even freak me out every once in a while cause you seem to be the type to have color coded binders and post its and lists for every imaginable occasion." She looks down at her shoes because he is almost dead on. Except about the binders, she had color coded folders. "But that's what I need here and I'm glad Kurt called you in. Also, the way I see it, if we're going to be around each other for at least forty hours a week, we ought to comfortable around each other, right?

Rachel smiles up at him and gives him a little nod in agreement.

"You're right, Mr. Hudson."

He chuckles and puts his hand up.

"No. First rule of being my assistant, call me Finn. Everyone else here calls me 'Mr. Hudson' and it's weird but I go with it. But you will not. Ok?"

She playfully salutes him with two fingers.

"Yes, sir."

"Ok, cool. I gotta go now and head to a shop where I can buy an apology gift for Kurt for being completely distracted during the meeting. Sorry, for that by the way, now that I think about it that was totally rude. Oh! And before I forget, I am going to be one of those bosses and ask that you get me a coffee in the morning, I take it with some cream and three sugars. It'll be the only demanding thing I ask for, I swear. I don't care where you get it, any coffee shop is good."

Rachel grabs her bag and jacket and starts walking out of the room.

"Ok, no problem! Cream and three sugars, got it."

"Awesome. I'll see you Wednesday morning then. You ready to help me take this company by storm, Rachel?" He says with a grin.

She doesn't even bother hiding her excitement.

"I can't wait."

Happy about how they met? Yes? No? You'll see how it goes during their first day of working together and what Finn thinks of Rachel in the next chapter and see if the attraction is mutual.

Remember, reviews are love! :)

Also, on a slightly different note, i've been working on a different finchel fic that is also A/U but it's very different and a bit darker. I've got a lot written for it already and I might post some sort of sneak peek to see if anyone likes it. So let me know if you're interested.