Cooper got to the restaurant just 5 minutes later after Kurt and Blaine left. He didn’t have time to go back home and change, so he’d have to stay on the business suit he already had on. He went into the restaurant and scanned the room, trying to find his little brother sitting somewhere. He couldn’t find him but he did notice a little brunette girl sitting alone in a table, chewing on a stick of bread. “That’s that Rachel girl” he thought, he wanted to approach her but he made a promise “a hard promise indeed,” to his little brother not to flirt with the girl. He was about to walk out when Rachel spotted him and called his name: “Shit, even her voice is as sexy as she looks.” He turned around and walked to the table
“You are Blaine’s brother, Cooper. Right?” she asked him.
“Wait. You’re way prettier than I remember, Kurt...”
“Oh... Mmmm. Thank you, I guess” the brunette girl said, looking slightly blushed.
“I'm Cooper Anderson; I’m the better looking brother. Now, where is that hobbit of mine?”
It took Rachel a couple of seconds to get a straight though in her head and said “I'm Rachel Berry. Ah, he left his phone back at your house. So, they're gonna be here in about 15 minutes. They asked me to get the table.”
He couldn’t stop staring at her eyes; he was a bit mesmerized by them. He regained his speech “Oh. Well good. Rachel Berry. I wasn't aware he was setting me up on the date. I don't need that much help, you know?” he gave directed a slight wink her way.
She hesitated for a second and said “Date...? I'm sorry, this is not a date. I have a boyfriend.”
“Oh, rats.” he said, sounding rather annoyed and disappointed “I should have noticed, but I thought that was a promise ring or something” he pointed at her ring finger. “Certainly not what an engagement ring would look like.”
Rachel looked clearly offended and strongly answered “I think it's very rude of you to mention that. I am getting married and the price of the ring is not important!”
Cooper was taken aback by her response; he didn’t think this girl was that feisty. “Wow, touched a soft spot there, sorry” he excused himself.
Rachel jumped in her seat and pulled up her phone from her bag. She scrolled through whatever she was seeing and put the phone away. ”They're going to be late. Flat tire, apparently” she told Cooper, trying not to look directly at him. “Kurt said we should just order and they'll try to get here as soon as possible.” Cooper jumped as well, he had not noticed he put his phone on vibrate and took it from his pocket; he looked at a text from his little brother that read “Might as well not try to do something stupid Cooper. I mean it.” He tried to ignore it, but he knew his brother had his best intention in mind, and, it seemed, Rachel’s as well.
“Anyway. What would you be having, honey” he said, looking back at the brunette. She was staring intently at the menu, seemed like she was trying to ignore him, so he gave it his best shot and tried to get her attention, just as he normally would; “Well. Cat got your tongue before I did.” He saw her blush, clearly confirming that she was actually aware he was still there, but still ignored the comment. She cleared her throat and said “Sorry, it takes me a while to decide.” He looked up from the menu and he was able to fully appreciate her, she had placed her menu down on the table and was looking nervously around. He could not help himself and said “Take your time princess, I can look at you all day” and he laid back into his chair and kept staring at her.
It took a couple of minutes but she finally spoke “I'm going to have Iced Tea and Pasta al Pesto.” Funny thing, he was actually thinking about getting the same thing. He let her know that exact thing by giving the waiter the menu and said “good choice, I’d have what she's having.” He wasn’t sure about having tea, this whole situation was creating a great amount of angst in him, so he decided to cool off and stopped the waiter “can we have a bottle of your best white wine; thanks.” The girl sitting across from him look slightly uncomfortable as the waiter left and said “I don't think I should drink; I'm not really used to drink a lot.”
Cooper leaned against the table and remembered that once he heard Blaine mention her name, almost over a year ago. “Wait, you're Rachel,” he said, while pointing at her. She looked puzzled and answered “Yes, that's my name” as she backed off from the table, like Cooper was about to pounce on her. Then, he connected the dots: “Oooh, I know who you are” he said as he laughed and leaned back onto his chair. She blushed again (what’s with this girl and all the blushing?) and she curiously asked him “What's that supposed to mean?” He started to reminisce what his little brother told him: “last year he called me because he had gotten a major hangover and made out with a Rachel girl. YOU are that Rachel, aren’t you?” Cooper raised one eyebrow and crossed his hands, not leaving his spot. She wasn’t able to say a word and blushed even more.

He started probing her even more, trying to get her innocent fa�ade “Interesting. So you made my baby bro doubt his sexuality” he said as he scanned her whole frame “I can see where he's coming from.” He sees she’s about to react, and she strongly says “We were both drunk, we we're playing spin the bottle and... that doesn't count…” He laughed at this statement. Both Rachel and Cooper stay quiet for a second and Cooper takes out his phone to check some things, Rachel gets impatient because of this and asks “So... Cooper, what do you do for a living?” Cooper puts his phone away and leans against the table again, sipping a bit of his wine and answers “I'm a doctor, pediatrician.” He sees that Rachel is still nervous and goes through his usual playbook and decides to pour a glass of wine for Rachel. He takes a big gulp of his glass and pours himself some more. “Oh... We all thought you were an architect or something along that line” she continues, while taking a sip of her wine. Cooper is pleasantly surprised by this statement: “Who is all? You have been talking about me?” She quickly retorts his advance and says “You did show up in our closed rehearsal and well, everyone wanted to know about you.”
He grins at her and Cooper raises his glass and says “Here’s to our not really a date,” she retorts with “It’s not” and they both take a sip of wine at the same time. He notices that she is very quiet and tries to break the ice “Are you ok, sweetheart?” She coughs, clearly uncomfortable and says “I’m fine; I’m not used to wine. I… I think I should stop, Kurt and Blaine might be here any minute now” Cooper senses his phone vibrating and pulls it out, and then looks back at Rachel “Well, seems that is not gonna happen.” She gives him a puzzled look and he shows her a text from Blaine, saying they are on their way to Burt’s tire shop, she sighs and says “Oh no! Kurt promised… and I told Finn I was out with them.” He is slightly puzzled at her reaction, besides, he didn’t remember hearing that name before. “Finn?” he asked. “My boyfriend, Kurt’s step-brother” Cooper laughs, he clearly forgot Blaine mentioned that Kurt had a sibling. “Oh, that guy that looks like a tree,” “He does not” she answers, visibly upset. Cooper laughs it off, but Rachel does not even smile. They both finish eating and soon enough, he looks up at Rachel and asks her “Are you in for dessert honey? We can split a chocolate souffl�.” She nods her head and gives a tiny smile at him. Cooper orders the souffl� and it comes to the table rather quickly, he notices that Rachel isn’t even looking at him, he is not used to this, and he always got girls’ attention everywhere he went. “You know” he looks up at Rachel and grabs one of the cherries on top of the dessert “I can tie the stem of this cherry with my tongue. You ever tried that?” he placed the cherry inside his mouth and maneuvers it until he gets it out and shows Rachel the knot he managed to create. She blushes and tries to come up with a response, instead of creating the reaction he wanted; he just made her feel more uncomfortable. “Shit, what the hell am I doing? She’s just a kid” he thinks to himself, and takes a spoon full of the dessert.

Cooper noticed that the tension on the table had risen up incredibly and both of them decided to take a gulp of what was left of the wine. He notices that Rachel has a bit of chocolate sauce near her upper lip, which he finds incredibly cute, and he closes in on her, pointing at her mouth “Umm, you got a little something. Right there” she tries to clean herself with a napkin but fails, so he touches her upper lip with his thumb and cleans it off for her, licking his finger afterwards. She gives a low squeal mixed with a sigh and blushes “Thank you.”

Once they’re done they start walking up the front door and he asks her “so, I guess you need a ride back to Lima?” She fumbles with her purse looking for her phone “I can call my dads” she says as she opens her phone, but seconds after she closes it “Oh, no, wait, they are not home.” “Guess you are stuck with me now” he says as he opens the restaurant door for her and they almost stumble with a couple on their way in. Rachel looks up to apologize and her eyes open further, totally shocked “Burt… Carole.” They look at her and back to Cooper and smile “Nice to see you Rachel” the woman, Carole, he notes, tells Rachel. Cooper backs up and looks at Rachel, who is almost incredibly pale now. “I’m Cooper” he extends his hand to Burt and shakes it strongly. Rachel quickly spits out “This is… Mmm. Blaine’s brother. We were supposed to be out with Blaine and Kurt and then they had a flat tire, so we stayed and had dinner anyway. Such a waste not to, right?” she laughs nervously. Burt hesitates and says “Ah, yeah, Kurt called and told me about it. Anyways” he nodded inside “nice to see you, Rachel.” The couple heads inside and Cooper takes Rachel out and guides her to his car; all of the sudden she starts crying. He looks back at her, surprised at her reaction “Um. Are you ok Rachel?” “No” she sobs “I just. They are Kurt and Finn’s parents…” Cooper starts to connect the dots “Oh, wait. Fred, your boyfriend” but he still doesn’t understand why she turned into a fountain. “Finn, yes, they just saw me with someone else, this is so wrong. They will misunderstand” she starts crying even louder now. Cooper hesitates a second and thinks about what he’ll say next. He’s not used to girls crying so much “Don’t let this bother you, Rachel. You explained this to them, Kurt probably will too.” He tries to comfort her and pads her back “it’s just a friendly dinner” he continues and hugs her awkwardly. “You don’t know Finn, he’ll take it the wrong way” she sobs but the tears start to fade. “Well” he lets her go “if you have any problems either me or Blainers can fix this for you. He isn’t that uptight for an 18 year old, is he?” Cooper sighs and thinks “well, I’d probably keep my guard up to if I had someone like her.” She interrupts this thought “and we just had a huge fight the other day…” He is confused now, why did she open up to him all of the sudden, she barely knows him. He opens the passenger door for her and she sits down, but continues to sob “I’m sorry for crying so much. Can you just take me home Cooper, please?” He liked the way his name rolled out of her lips, innocently but yet a bit seductive, even if she didn’t notice she had done it. “Sure, that’s what I’m here for” he says as he goes around to the drivers’ side and gets inside. He starts driving and all he can hear are Rachel’s light sobs, which depresses him a little. He couldn’t stand seeing her like this, even if he had known her for mere hours. He turns on the radio to a random station, see if maybe he can get a different reaction from her. A Britney Spears song comes on and Cooper thinks “I am so gonna make a fool out of myself right now” and starts singing along to the song in a very feminine way, mocking Britney’s dance moves and looking back at Rachel from time to time, trying to get her attention. She vaguely looks at Cooper with the corner of her eye and sees what he’s doing, a shy smile growing on her face. He notices her reaction and starts singing louder; he poker her in her side and says “Come on, I know you know this song” and turns up the volume of the radio and continues singing along, with a goofy grin. Finally, she laughs and starts singing with him; he sighs in relief. He looks at her for a second and, even though she had tear tracks running down her face, he notices how beautiful she looks when she smiles.

Rachel notices that they are already on her street and motions Cooper to her house. He parks his car in front and turns the car off and gets off to go around and open the door for her; she smiles and blushes a little at this gesture and, even if she is a little tipsy, she gracefully slides herself out of the car. Cooper smiles back and walks her to the steps up her house, “So, this was the best non date I ever had Ms. Berry. We should do this again sometime.” “Thanks so much for bringing me here and, I’m sorry, for the crying, you know.” He pats her on the back softly and puts his hands in his pockets; he leans into Rachel and gives her a peck in her cheek, a bit too close to the edge of her mouth “Have a good night. And remember, it will all be alright, ok?” She looks down “I hope so” and looks back at him “I actually had a great time with you, Cooper.” He smiles, happy that he said his name again. “I did too, of course, I had great company” and winks as he closes in and hugs her tightly now.

Cooper takes a step back and rubs her shoulders gently. The only thing he wants to do now is kiss her, but he knows how much shit it can get him and her into; Blaine’s voice started ringing in his head, warning him about what he was about to do, but decides to disregard it “the hell, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He leans over her and takes her face in his hands and kisses her softly, tasting, what seems to be, blueberry lip gloss; both of them take a step back, Cooper surprised by how good it had felt. He takes a step forward to her again and kisses her, a bit more passionately before, noticing also that she is kissing him back; but now Blaine’s voice is basically screaming in his head and it does not help at all. He lets her go softly, Rachel looking back at Cooper, still surprised, her hand over her mouth, grazing her lips. He can’t think straight right now but manages to come up with a few parting words as he starts walking to his car “well, um, I… I have to head off. Umm, take care, beautiful.”
He has mixed feelings about what just happened a few moments ago. In just those few seconds he had her close to him he learned to love her taste; he took in the sweet smell of her blueberry perfume; but he knew that it wasn’t the right thing to do. “What about Blaine? What about her stupid, jerk boyfriend? Besides, she’s jailbait idiot!” he thought to himself, but he wanted to do it again and again. He looked back at her house, but she had already gone in; he sighed and got into his car and started driving in direction to Westerville, he couldn’t stop thinking about Rachel. He hit his forehead with the palm of his hand and said “What the hell did I do?”