Santana sighed.

"Another day, another set of customers whining about problems I don't care about," she muttered under her breath.

"I heard that!" Rachel yelled from across the diner.

"What are you, a freaking bat?" Santana shouted back. Aside from Gunther, their irritating manager, they were the first two people to arrive, due to Rachel's insistence that it would give them the best shot at talking to people 'in the business' who always arrived early for breakfast meetings.

Santana and Rachel busied themselves, getting the diner ready for the day; the Latina was filling ketchup bottles as the even more petite brunette swept the floors around her.

"This is NOT what New York was supposed to be like Rach," Santana grumbled.

"Pssht, you say that every day! Our time will come Santana, we've only been here for 6 months. Patti Lupone had to work as a waitress once and she's ended up winning not one, but TWO Tony awards. You've got to be more optimistic…"

Santana tuned Rachel out as she continued with her efforts. In all honesty, she didn't mind working in the diner; she got to sing every day, see lots of famous faces and make fun of tourists. Aside from the whole minimum wage and continuous smiling issues, it was as good as she was going to get for a while. She mainly complained to annoy Rachel. It never failed to brighten her day.

Gunther called them over as a few other staff members began to arrive.

"Rachel, Santana, we've got a new girl starting today, she's coming in around lunchtime. I think her name is Toni or something, I can't really remember. Just show her the ropes, you know. Don't let her screw up too much." With that, he walked off, probably to scratch around doing nothing in the back as usual.

The two girls continued working and Gunther's words faded from their minds. They got their customer's orders and chatted with the other waiters; the time was passing relatively quickly today, to Santana's pleasure.

"Whatcha doing tonight, Santana?" asked Rob, one of the dish washers, as she ventured into the back for a quick break before the lunchtime rush started.

"I'm hanging out with the Queens, we're having a movie marathon tonight."

This was a complete lie, but every time Rob spoke to her she got the vibe that he was interested. It was kind of sad really, he'd be perfect for her – he was tall, muscular, tanned, intelligent – if she wasn't so very, very gay. She had made it clear that she wasn't into him, but she hadn't made it obvious that she didn't even play for the right team. It wasn't like she was hiding anything – Lord knows that advert back in Ohio did the trick on that front – but she didn't want to make it the first thing she told people about herself either.

Rob's face fell slightly. "Oh, right. Well, have fun then."

Santana just gave an awkward half-smile half-nod and turned to go sit on the outside step for a cigarette. So what if they were 'bad' for her voice? She thought they made her sound even sexier than usual, plus she like the ritual of rolling, lighting up and inhaling. It never failed to calm her.

As she breathed in the thick, tobacco-filled fumes, she thought. Her life was pretty damn good right now compared to a year ago. She was in New York for Christ's sake! She had moved to the city of her dreams, she could pay her rent, she wasn't nearly so much of a bitch any more. The only thing she hadn't ticked off of her list was fall in love. Santana wasn't sure she even believed in love. What she had with Brittany had been amazing, but that was puppy love, more infatuation than anything else. Santana was uncertain whether the whole 'romantic dates and firework kisses and soul mates' thing even existed, let alone if they were for her.

She stamped out the last of her cigarette with the heel of her god-awful red, PVC, thigh high boots before turning and striding through the kitchen to serve more patrons of the diner. But before she could reach the entrance to the restaurant she stopped short. Rachel was talking with the hottest girl Santana had seen in… she didn't know. Santana couldn't stop her eyes from trailing down the girl's body. Her hair was dyed blonde, with dark brown roots; even though it was fake, it was perfect on her, like that's how it was supposed to look. The girl's body was curvy but toned and sexy, even in the unflatteringly high-necked uniform that suited nobody. Suddenly she turned, looking directly at Santana, who panicked and marched away, pretending she hadn't seen those chocolate brown eyes evaluating her.

As the shift wore on, the Hispanic girl couldn't help but steal glances at the newbie every chance she got. The smile never left new girl's face, even when a guy ordering milkshakes with his friends tried to hit on her.

"Rach… Rachel!" Santana hissed, desperately trying to spy on the interaction between the two. "Is he hitting on her? What did she say? Do you think she's into him?"

Rachel sharply turned her head, suddenly understanding the Latina's anxiety.

"Oh my God, you like her don't you?! You do! Oh my God Santana this is so cute, I've never seen you this nervous before!"

"Shut UP Berry, I'm not nervous! I just don't want to see new girl getting macked on by some douche on her first day is all."

"Sure. Whatever. You know, I spoke to her earlier and I found out some stuff but since you don't like her you're clearly not going to be interested…"

"Berry I swear to God –"

"Jeeesh, chill out! This is adorable, I want to film you. But to fill in the blanks for you, she's called Dani, she's gay and as I'm sure you've noticed, she's pretty damn hot."

"Eyes off my prize Berry! I called her!"

"Yeah, but have you SPOKEN to her?"

Santana narrowed her eyes at Rachel but for once, was at a loss for what to say so she huffed crossly and marched off, annoyed but also thrilled – the new waitress, Dani, possibly the most stunning girl she had ever seen, was gay! AND they worked together!

Santana couldn't wait to find out more about this beautiful, mysterious girl.

Once she'd figured out how to speak her to without drooling, of course.