The blaring from Santana's phone on the opposite nightstand wakes Brittany up from sleep and she groans, rolling over and hoping that Santana will just ignore it. Of course, she doesn't and when she sits up in bed, Brittany's rest is totally disturbed. She doesn't want to complain, she knows that Santana takes her job as the assistant manager of a restaurant in Brooklyn really seriously, but for real, who is calling her at the crack of dawn on a day that she's supposed to be off?
"Bill, I can't, I'm supposed to be off today, remember?—No, I get it, I do, but—Bill seriously, Britt will kill me if I go to work—Yeah, I know you have the flu, but—I know I'm the assistant manager and it's my job—Can't you get Mary to cover it?—She can totally do front of the house, you're just making excuses—I am going to argue with you because it's my anniversary and I have plans—Fine, okay, but you owe me one—Feel better, bye."
Brittany feels a sadness course over her as Santana gets off the phone and she pretends to be asleep because she's just not ready to talk to her. She feels Santana get out of bed and a few minutes later she smells coffee and bacon coming from the kitchen. Things in her fourth year of marriage have been a little tough with Santana, with both of them getting ready to graduate from school, working jobs where they hardly see each other and trying to figure out where exactly they're going to end up once graduation hits them. Tonight was supposed to be a night to reconnect, a night where they finally got to have dinner together, to make love all night and then fall asleep in each other's arms. But now Santana has to work, now everything is ruined. She's not mad at Santana for saying yes, it was obvious that she was stuck in a hard place, but she's just disappointed.
"Happy anniversary, babe." Santana comes back into the bedroom with a tray piled high with pancakes and bacon and Brittany sits up and forces a smile as Santana leans in to kiss her.
"You didn't have to do this."
"I wanted to. And also…" She sits down on the bed, placing the tray in Brittany's lap. "You're going to be mad at me."
"I heard you on the phone." Brittany sighs.
"I'm really sorry, Britt. I tried, it's just, Bill has the flu and I'm the assistant manager for the front of the house and—"
"I know. That job pays half of our bills, you have to do what you have to do."
"You're not mad?"
"I'm just really disappointed. We haven't had dinner together in who knows how long and I thought tonight would be the night. But we'll do it another night. Maybe Bill can give you off one night that I'm off next week and we can do like, a fake anniversary."
"I swear, I'm going to make this up to you, I feel like crap about it."
"You shouldn't. I heard you trying to convince him not to make you come in. You did what you could."
"I'm still really sorry."
"Hey." Brittany smiles a little. "You're so busy being sorry that I never got to wish you a happy anniversary back."
"I really can't believe it's been four years since we got married. Everything is so different now."
"Obviously, we're living our dreams. Man, when we got married, we hadn't even gone back to school yet. We came here and we were like…floating around. Now we're graduating, we're going to figure out where we're going to live next, or if we'll stay here. It's like real life."
"I'm still really glad I get to live my real life with you."
"Me too, honey. So much."
Even though it sucks, Brittany lets Santana get out of bed so she can start getting ready to go into work. Brittany has a class in the afternoon, so she has some time before she starts getting ready for that. She eats her breakfast and then gets up to kiss Santana goodbye at the door. While she's in the shower, she starts thinking about how maybe there's a way they can still celebrate their anniversary. The restaurant closes at eight, so maybe, in some kind of dream world, Santana can be home by nine. That's not too late for dinner. Maybe it's too late to go out, and Brittany is a terrible cook, but if she can pull together ordering something and picking it up, then lighting a whole bunch of candles everywhere, their night doesn't have to be totally ruined just because stupid Bill has the flu.
All through her film class, Brittany thinks about how she can make dinner special. She doesn't just want to order Chinese and call it a day, she can definitely do something classier than that. By the time class is over, she's decided that she's going to go to Santana's favorite Italian restaurant that absolutely does not do takeout and beg them. Even if she has to sit down and pretend to eat two entire entrees so she can take them in a to go box, she'll do that. She knows Santana feels terrible about having to go to work and she just wants to do something to make this special for them. She feels like they really need it, like they're in some kind of slump in their marriage with all the stress they both have and she really doesn't ever want to end up like Kurt and Blaine. Not that she'd ever divorce Santana, but she just doesn't want them to grow apart. They got married really young and keeping things special is her top priority.
Hey babe, hope class went well. Santana texts her as she's walking toward the restaurant. I hope you're not too mad at me :(
I'm not. Hope your day's not too terrible.
Gonna try to be home by 9. Love you.
Love you too.
Brittany smiles a little at her phone and puts it back in her pocket as she keeps walking. It's really cold and she pulls her jacket a little tighter. She's nervous that it's going to be a problem at the restaurant but at least she has a backup plan. They can't not let her take her leftovers, even if her leftovers are…everything. She's really just hoping that she can get some breadsticks too, they're Santana's absolute favorite and it'll make the dinner much better. The subway is just as cold as outside and she huddles in a corner, keeping warm until she finally gets off at the stop where the restaurant is. When she walks into the restaurant, she undoes her jacket and she's glad she wore a shirt that's kind of revealing. It's totally against everything she believes in, but if she can get what she wants, it's kind of worth it.
"Hello Miss, how many?" The host asks and she gives him her best smile.
"I was hoping to speak to the manager on duty please."
"Let me get her, hold on."
While she waits, Brittany looks around the restaurant, she thinks about how nice it would have been to take Santana here for dinner. They have so many good memories in this place. She thinks about the first time they went there. Santana had been having the worst day, she failed her first exam in one of her classes and she'd come home crying. Wanting to do something to make her feel better, Brittany went on Yelp and looked up where she could get the best breadsticks in Brooklyn. She'd cajoled Santana into getting dressed, promising her lots of orgasms when they got home and as soon as they got there and had their wine poured, there was a smile on Santana's face. It became where they went whenever their was a special night, when Santana got promoted at the restaurant, when Brittany made her first short film, birthdays, anniversaries, it was their place and though Brittany didn't go quite as crazy over the food as Santana did, she loved coming there.
"How can I help you?" A middle aged woman comes up to Brittany, smile plastered on her face.
"Hey, I'm Brittany, I come here with my wife all the time. I need, like, the hugest favor in the world."
"We unfortunately don't rent out the restaurant for special events."
"No, no. That's not what I need. It's a smaller favor, but still kind of a big deal. Today is our anniversary and we were supposed to go out to dinner, but then my wife had to go into work. I know it's totally against your policy, but I'm trying to make dinner special for her when she gets home. She goes absolutely crazy over the food here and I just thought…if I could have something from here when she gets home it would make our anniversary a lot better."
"We don't do takeout."
"I know, but it's really important. I'll pay extra, I'll do whatever it takes for this. If you want me to sit down and order two meals, I will. I just really want to have dinner for her when she gets home and if I cook, you're going to hear about a massive fire that burned a building down in Cobble Hill."
"Okay, listen." The manager lowers her voice. "You can't tell anyone I did this because I could get in a lot of trouble. Just tell me what you want and I'll go in the back and make sure it gets done."
"Oh my God, you're seriously the best." Brittany gives her the most awkward hug. "I just need a chicken marsala, a veal parm, a shrimp cocktail and as many breadsticks as you can spare."
Brittany is beside herself excited as she waits for the food. She hopes she can manage to heat it up okay later, but she figures they always pack the leftovers in those metal containers so she can just put them in the oven and watch them religiously so they don't burn. She'll even take out the really nice china that Santana's aunt bought them for their wedding, get a bottle of champagne, light candles and make it romantic as hell. Once she has the food, she gets back on the subway, stops at the liquor store around the block from their apartment, goes to the bodega to get some flowers and goes home to start making everything super fancy.
She puts the food and the champagne in the fridge then she sets the table, puts the flowers in water and looks over her work. Feeling really satisfied, she leaves everything and goes to start working on some of her homework. Santana will be home in a few hours and she figures she has a little time to get her work done while she's waiting. At 8:30, she gets up from the couch and puts all of her books away and starts heating the food in the oven. While it's heating up, she finds a glass and arranges the shrimp like they do in the restaurant and sets it in the center of the table with the breadsticks. Once the candles are lit, she stands back and admires her work.
"Britt?" Santana calls out from the door. "I'm home!"
"I'm in the kitchen!"
Santana walks into the kitchen with a big bouquet of wild flowers and Brittany swoons a little. Even though Santana's hair is messy from work and she has a big stain down the front of her shirt, Brittany thinks she looks so sexy. She goes up to her and wraps her arms around her waist, pulling her close and kissing her.
"I brought you flowers, I know it's not enough to make up for today, but—Britt, what's going on in here?"
"I wanted to still celebrate our anniversary so I went to Forlini's and begged them to let me take out food. It almost didn't happen, but—"
"You are the best wife in the entire world." Santana kisses Brittany again. "I don't deserve you."
"Babe, you work so hard. You totally deserve everything. Sit, I'm about to take the food out of the oven."
Once Santana is seated, Brittany puts the food on the plates, pours the champagne and sits down across from her. Santana's face looks so beautiful in the candlelight and Brittany feels so incredibly happy that they still get to do something for their anniversary. She takes Santana's hand and she raises up her glass, clinking it with Santana's.
"Can you believe it's been four years?" She asks, taking a sip from her glass.
"I really can't. Even though so much has changed in our lives, it's all gone so fast. Britt?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry that things have been so crazy lately. I feel like I haven't been able to give you the time you deserve."
"It's been hectic for me too. Between work and school and getting ready for graduation…"
"I don't like that we haven't had the time to spend together." Santana sighs heavily and Brittany squeezes her hand.
"Neither do I. But I want you to know that I love you more than anyone else in the world and even though it's hard right now, I know it's going to get easier."
"I hope so. I mean, we don't even know where we're going to be in the next few months."
"I can make movies anywhere, you know that wherever you get a job, I'm going to go." Brittany promises.
"I just want to stay in New York. I love our apartment, I love our life here. There are so many publicity firms here, one of them has to hire me, right?"
"You know I totally believe you're going to get a job anywhere you want." Brittany smiles and kisses the back of Santana's hand. "And then we'll finally both be on day shifts and have weekends off and we can spend lots of time together."
"Does it scare you that Kurt and Blaine got divorced?"
"No, not at all. We're not them. Besides, we totally passed the bad luck onto them by letting them be part of our wedding. Now we only get good luck."
"I told you that we make our own luck." Santana laughs.
"I know, but I just needed a guarantee. Besides, we love each other way too much to ever get divorced. We're like…America's dream couple."
"Once you're a famous filmmaker, please are totally going to call us that. We're gonna look so hot walking the red carpet."
"Duh. And obviously I'm going to have the best representation."
"You'd really let me represent you?" Santana looks surprised and Brittany thinks she's the cutest thing.
"You're going to be the best publicist in the world, I'd be stupid not to hire you."
"So we're good, right?"
"Baby, I was never mad at you for having to go to work today. I know you did what you had to do, and look, we're having the same dinner we would have had if we had gone out."
"You even got shrimp."
"Of course I got shrimp, is it even a date if we don't have it?"
"I love you a lot, Brittany Pierce."
"Um, it's Brittany Pierce-Lopez."
"I know, but you'll always be Brittany Pierce, my first and only love to me."
"Well then I love you too, Santana Lopez."