Chapter 14

To say Kurt was freaking out would have been and understatement. He knew Rachel was just ‘someone’s plus one’ and people wouldn’t pay much attention to what she was wearing. But it was still a chance to put a design somewhere that was completely out of his league. Just to measure up to the standard and not have her looking ridiculous was a huge deal. So he worked on her gown as if his life depended on it, because probably at least his career did.

The day of the event Rachel was extremely excited, more talkative and enthusiast than she had ever been, which with her were scary levels. Kurt tried to calm her down but he was freaking out too, so he didn’t succeed.

Allyson, Blaine’s manager, got to their place to pick her up quite early, as Blaine had asked her to take care of getting Rachel ready. She didn’t look exactly thrilled with the task in hand. As Allyson left with a giddy Rachel and a wave in Kurt’s direction, the boy was a bit afraid his over-enthusiastic best friend was ruining his little chance of getting Blaine’s manager, who was also his friend, to like him.

He did his best to distract himself during the day, trying to read a book, going out for coffee, texting his friend Eli, planing outfits for the week. But nothing really worked. It added to the mess that were his feeling that he didn’t know if he would actually get to see or hear anything about how it had gone until Rach made it home. He was nervous about his garment on the red carpet, but he was also worried about the whole ‘fake-not-date’ thing they were putting on.

Eventually, and after what he would swear had been a 30 hours long day, it was almost time for the red carpet. He put on his pyjamas and made himself a cup of tea (clear indicator of his levels of stress). He texted ‘Break a leg!’ to both his boyfriend and his friend and settled with his laptop on his bed.

His plan of action was clear, he was going to try to find a live stream and repeatedly refresh Blaine’s name on Google news, but he was not adventuring to the very heart of Blaine’s fandom. He knew enough about fandoms to be scared shitless of that kind of places.

He found a live stream that still hadn’t started but seemed legit and waited, entertaining himself on Twitter. When the live stream started he was extremely anxious. It was from a Broadway related website so he wasn’t even sure they were going to try to talk to Blaine but it was the best he had found, it would have to do.

After about twenty minutes he was actually more calm and enjoying the interviews. Some really cool people was invited and the interviewer wasn’t actually bad.

And then he saw him, just a glimpse of a perfectly tailored Calvin Klein tuxedo with a bow tie and a shinny black head of hair on the corner of his screen. But he knew it was Blaine. A few days before, while having his suit fitted, Blaine had texted him a photo of himself in the tux. He had said it was in case Kurt needed to check he and Rachel matched but he was obviously teasing; his tuxedo was black. Kurt almost called him out on that. But looking at the picture of his gorgeous boyfriend in an amazing suit, he just had to let it go.

Less than half of Blaine’s figure was visible because he was leaning forward the barrier separating him from the press, joking with whoever was interviewing him. He couldn’t see Rachel yet, as she was probably staying a little behind with Allyson. He felt the knots tying in his stomach as more of Blaine came into view.

Allyson appeared from behind Blaine and gave him a small gesture towards the girl on Kurt’s screen. Kurt squealed. Then Rachel was standing next to Allyson, talking friendly with her. Kurt took in his friend dressed in the ink-blue gown with a draped shoulder he had created for her. She looked good, older than usually but still youthful, sexy without showing much skin, elegant. He was proud, he really thought he had done a good job.

The interviewer was catching up with Blaine on his new film and general plans for after it (‘There’s always something on the making but nothing sure as for yet.’ Blaine had answered and Kurt couldn’t tell if it was his go to answer or there was something he hadn’t heard about).

Then she asked, ‘You brought a date, didn’t you? Anything you want to tell us about?’

Blaine smiled. ‘Rachel is a great friend of mine and probably the biggest Barbra fan I’ve ever encountered, I just had to bring her along.’ He leaned closer to the girl and stage whispered, ‘It was also her birthday a couple of weeks ago and this saved me from having to come up with an actual gift.’

The girl laughed softly. ‘I’m going to let it go but I’m still calling we knew it first when you introduce her officially in a month.’ The girl joked.

‘Just because I sort of did that once does not mean it’s my modus operandi. I may go a complete different way next time.’ He answered playfully.

From what the press knew Blaine had been in two relationships. Sarah, the girl who dragged him to the audition to the show he ended up starring in; they had broken up before ‘A & C’ started airing.  And Bailey, who was part of the crew on that same show. Before Blaine had confessed she was his girlfriend she usually tagged along with him to events and was introduced as just a friend who worked on the show. They had been together for over a year and had broken up just a few months before the show was over. Kurt knew about one more. Sebastian, a boy Blaine had dated in high school and with whom things had ended quite bad when he moved to Paris out of the blue.

Both Blaine and the interviewer laughed and said their goodbyes as Allyson gave Blaine new indications, a smiling Rachel behind them.

That was it, Kurt thought with a blank look on his screen. He hadn’t got a mention about the dress but they were buying the date thing. He was happy with how Rachel looked and she seemed blissful if her huge smile was something to go by. And Blaine sounded and looked comfortable, which was something he had gotten used to pay attention to when seeing Blaine around the press. He was a natural and he always came across as charming and smart, but Kurt had learned to see the difference between the times he was being himself and when he was acting like it. He had seen his goofy dapper boyfriend on the screen and that was always a good sign.

Kurt refreshed Blaine’s name on Google and got himself some red carpet pics. Blaine looked so good in red carpet pictures, or Kurt just really had a thing for guys in suits. Probably both. One article said Blaine had taken a friend who was a Barbra fan to the event, adding a quote from the actor himself ‘It was easier than buying her a birthday gift’. Another one had a picture of both of them on the red carpet, one of Blaine’s hand on Rachel’s waist, it said ‘Teen heartthrob, Blaine Anderson, brings along a ‘friend’to Barbra Streisand honoring event’. Well, they had certainly deluded this one into their trap. He clicked on another photo that included Rachel, this one from a fashion site, his heart skipped a bit as he scrolled down. ‘Always handsome and smart in a Calvin Klein tuxedo and his customary bow tie, Blaine Anderson brought an equally well dressed date to the event. ‘She’s just a friend’ he made sure to clarify. The most intersting fact: The girl, whose name was Rachel Berry, told us her best friend had made her gown. The best friend’s name is Kurt Hummel and we have a feeling this is not the last time we’re going to hear from him.’

Kurt didn’t supress the little scream of joy that left his throat. He had gotten a good critic. With a smile plastered on his face he saved the article and turned his laptop off. From what he could tell the night had gone smoothly. He had actually gotten his name out there, Rach looked very happy, and their cover seemed to be working.

He fell asleep easily, still smiling.

When Rachel shook him up at almost 2 a.m. to tell him everything about her night, he woke up, kissed her cheek, and went to make both of them some tea before happily listening to every little thing she had to say.