Sorry guys. This is a filler chapter, I will admit. But I promise to update soon to make up for it. The next chapter will be ALL Brittana, I swear.
Though she had intended to be productive for the night and finish some work for her upcoming deadline, Santana couldn't keep her eyes off the digital clock that was sitting on the corner of her desk.
It was a little past eight, and she knew that Quinn and Puck were graciously entertaining their guests at their apartment party.
Santana wouldn't have been so consumed by thoughts of the get-together she was missing out on if it hadn't been for the fact that she knew a certain blond and her handsome husband were hanging out with her best friends. Santana placed her elbow on the table and rested her chin in the palm of her hand.
She groaned loudly because, as much as she wanted to concentrate on her work so that Rachel wouldn't throw a fit, she couldn't ignore the constant nagging within her, telling her that there was someplace else she should be.
The computer screen in front of the Latina was blank, displaying her obvious lack of productivity over the past few hours, and unfortunately, the past week. She had tried, truly, but her mind was somewhere else.
Just as Santana was about to stand up from her chair and walk down the stairs to grab a drink from her kitchen, she heard her phone ring. The cell phone vibrated obnoxiously on the hard desk until the brunette picked it up, flipped it open, and placed it to her ear.
"Hello?" she answered.
In the background, Santana could hear music and people talking loudly. She immediately assumed it was her best friend.
"Santana!" the Latina heard Quinn yell over the loud background noise. "Hold on…" Quinn said as soon as she realized that her current location was not the best place to have a phone conversation.
When the previous noise had disappeared, Santana could tell that Quinn had moved into an empty bedroom.
"What is it Quinn?" she asked, curious as to why the blond was calling her when she was busy hosting a party.
"I wanted to tell you that you should come over…" but before she had time to finish, the Latina was interrupting her.
"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not coming, Q."
Quinn paused for a second, before she continued. "Brittany and Nathan didn't show. We're having a blast and I miss you. Please come over?" Quinn begged as her bottom lip pouted out, as if Santana could see her.
Santana contemplated the invitation. On one hand, she was really bored and wasn't doing anything useful at the moment. On the other hand, she had no way of knowing whether her best friend was telling the truth or not.
"She's really not there?" Santana asked after a long pause.
Quinn nodded and said, "Definitely not," before giggling loudly. Santana could tell that the blond was already drinking, and that somehow convinced her that she was missing out on a good distraction. She wanted to go out, get hammered, take a cab back to her apartment, and pass out on her comfortable king sized bed. The more she thought about it, the better it sounded in her head.
"I'll be there. Just give me, like, fifteen minutes," she answered before she closed her phone and got up from her chair.
More like twenty minutes later, Santana was standing outside Quinn and Puck's new apartment. It was nicer and looked much bigger from the outside. Plus, they lived much closer to Santana now, too.
She could hear the music from the other side of the door and decided it would be pointless to even bother knocking. So, she reached for the door knob and turned it, pushing forwards to open the large black wooden barrier.
As she walked forward, and through the entryway, she could see straight ahead to a large glass window, similar to the one in her apartment, only this one was smaller. There was a glass door that opened out into an over-sized patio that was looking over downtown Manhattan. Santana would never get used to the beautiful view of her favorite city.
She continued through the entrance of the apartment building until she was standing in the kitchen, looking around at the various people. Some of them she knew from various meetings, but most of them were strangers. She wondered how it was possible for Puck and Quinn to know so many people that she had never even seen before. This thought seemed to put even more distance between herself and her closest friends.
Outside, on the patio, were beautiful lantern lights that were hanging down from a rod iron canopy. There were a couple of fire pits going, as a few individuals stood around them, trying to keep warm.
Even though New York had seen snow the previous week, the air was a lot warmer now. Though it was still cool, it wasn't as cold as it usually was in mid-January. Santana thought she saw her best friend outside by the grill, so she walked through the open door.
There was some quieter jazz music playing from the speakers planted randomly around the patio. She noticed a bar that was set up in the far corner as well and immediately changed her direction to head to the alcohol.
When she arrived at the bar, a man in a tuxedo smiled at her politely. "What can I get you?" he asked.
"I'll have a Vodka tonic," she requested, relaxing at the words.
"Coming right up," the man responded as he began pouring the drinks while the Latina waited, anxiously.
When she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder, she turned to smile at her best friend.
"I'm glad you decided to show up," Quinn smiled kindly at the Latina.
"I didn't realize that you were throwing such a fancy party," Santana said as she turned back to the bartender, still anxiously waiting for him to finish her drink.
"Well, we had kind of hoped to just put together a small gathering, but as you can see, that didn't go over so well," she held up her hands.
Santana laughed quietly. "I can definitely see that. I don't think I even know this many people," she admitted.
"Well the place is a lot bigger, so we can have way more people over if we want to. Plus, I want to show off our new digs," Quinn explained, as she glanced around the patio.
"It's beautiful, Quinn," Santana assured her.
The bartender had finally finished mixing her drink, and handed it over the counter. Santana reached for it eagerly and began sipping from the glass at an extremely fast pace. Quinn gave her a questioning stare.
"I had a really horrible day," Santana explained.
Quinn laughed out loud and nodded her head in understanding.
As Santana continued to drink, she let her eyes wander around to the people at the party again. She could see Puck in the corner wearing a rather slimming tux and looking all professional as he talked to a few other guys. Santana could recognize a starving artist and band from a mile away now, and the rough-looking man standing next to Puck fit into this category.
"He's trying to get some new artist to sign with them," Quinn said into Santana's ear, noticing the Latina eyeing her boyfriend.
"Didn't he just sign a new band like a week ago?" Santana asked, confused as she turned back to face the blond.
Quinn shrugged her shoulders. "He really loves what he does, Santana," the blond admitted, sounding really impressed.
Santana smiled at the adoration sketched across Quinn's face.
"I guess I should be thanking you for everything," Quinn stared into the brown eyes of the Latina. "If you hadn't taken a chance with him, he would be miserable, I would have probably dumped his ass, and I certainly would not be able to afford to live here," the blond motioned around her with her arms.
Santana shook her head back and forth quickly. "I'm sure he would have found someone to invest. He really, truly impressed me, Q," Santana stated, honestly.
Quinn's eyes brightened up immediately. "Yeah, but it's so much better when it's in the family," Quinn said as she moved forward to wrap her arms around the beaming Latina.
Santana could feel the tears forming in her eyes at her best friend's words.
"Quinn!" someone yelled from a few feet away, and the two girls separated quickly. Santana wiped the stray tear that had fallen down her face, away.
Quinn turned around to the voice that had called her name. She immediately began rolling her eyes and turned back to face Santana.
"Looks like your midget decided to show up," Quinn faked a smile as Santana let out a laugh. Santana had always thought Quinn's friendly annoyance with Rachel was hilarious.
The small, petite girl approached the two of them and began waving energetically.
"Hello, Rachel," Santana greeted the brunette, pretending to be as excited as the smaller girl was.
"Well, hello Santana. What a lovely surprise," Rachel nodded her head. "I was under the impression that you weren't going to be attending this special occasion."
"Well…" Santana hesitated. "Circumstances change, I guess," she shrugged her shoulders.
"It's nice to see you again, Quinn," Rachel politely acknowledged the blond, who looked uninterested.
Quinn let her gaze wander over to Puck. "Nice to see you too, Rachel," she barely commented before she was leaving the other girls' sides and moving to her boyfriend.
Santana watched the blond move away and silently wished she could have the same opportunity.
"I need to talk with you Santana," Rachel's tone had clearly changed with the words she now spoke. Santana fell cold and frustrated right away.
"Is this really the best time?" Santana sort of whined at the other brunette.
"Yes," Rachel started, annoyed. "This is important, and I won't be able to see you tomorrow because I have other plans. I was going to have to cancel our appointment anyway," Rachel explained.
"Oh, darn," Santana replied, sarcastically.
"It's nice to see you so enthusiastic about your work," Rachel retorted in the same manner.
Santana didn't feel like responding to Rachel's statement because she didn't feel like explaining herself. She had already had this conversation with Quinn, and she didn't need another person breathing down her neck trying to get her to work and write until she dropped.
Rachel shifted forwards, closing the small gap between the two. Santana knew that she was going to say something she wouldn't want anyone around them to overhear.
"Santana, people are waiting," she whispered.
"Let them fucking wait, then," Santana whispered back with a sharp tongue.
"You don't understand, Santana," Rachel stepped even closer. "You were supposed to be finished this week, and I've got nothing, nothing. I have bosses too, Santana, and if they aren't getting what they want, then our little arrangement will be compromised," she moved her hand back and forth between her and Santana.
The Latina went rigid at the brunette's words. Santana knew that Rachel loved to exaggerate and blow things out of proportions, but the seriousness sketched across her face was a curve ball coming out of no where. Santana had been so sure that their arrangement would stay just that: their arrangement.
"Have they said anything?" Santana asked, her fear clearly dripping from her face.
Rachel looked around her quickly before focusing back on the Latina. "I think they are getting tired of it all," she spoke, truthfully. "I've been hiding your identity for a year now, Santana. I think they're getting too curious and too selfish for their own good."
"Selfish?" Santana said, confused.
"Yeah, selfish; do you understand how much more money they can make if the world knows who you are?" Santana bit her lip hard. It seemed like everything that could fuck up her life completely was being thrown her way.
"I can't write, Rachel," she admitted, preparing herself for the anger and annoyance that was about to spurt from the smaller girl's mouth.
The truth was that Santana hadn't been able to write a single word since Brittany had walked right back into her life. She had distracted herself with helping Quinn and making other plans so that she wouldn't have to be reminded that every time she sat down at her desk and tried to cough out even a few words, everything she wrote felt wrong.
"What?" Rachel whisper yelled at her. "I thought you were kidding when you called me."
Santana's cheeks flushed pink and she took a long sip from her almost empty glass. "I wasn't."
When her eyes met Rachel's again, she was fuming. "What's wrong? Why can't you write?"
Santana felt annoyed that Rachel had the authority and right to ask her this question. If it had been anyone else, even Quinn, she would have just told them to fuck off. The Latina hadn't thought that it was such a big deal, that's why she had been planning her vacation. She had been sure that Rachel would be okay with her leaving New York so she could clear her head and come back refreshed.
"Something's come up," she answered, feeling her cheeks blush slightly at her words. Rachel gave her a quizzical look.
"Something?" she repeated, raising her eyebrows, questioningly.
Santana hesitated, thinking of how she wanted to respond without giving too much of her personal life away.
"There's some…personal stuff that I need to figure out. That's why I was hoping you'd let me leave for a while?" Santana was praying in her head that Rachel wouldn't scream at her in front of a bunch of randoms.
Rachel took a deep breath in and watched the Latina's expression change from annoyed to worried and hurt. As much as she wanted to say that the two of them were friends, she knew that there was a lot about Santana that Rachel didn't know. Rachel knew the other Santana better than anyone else, though.
She felt a little sympathy crawl out of a deep crevice within her heart and she relaxed in her stance a little, stepping out of Santana's personal bubble. She took a deep breath as she continued to watch Santana, closely.
"I'm sorry," she said, and Santana's eyes shot open at the unexpected apology.
"What?" Santana said, surprised.
Rachel turned her eyes away from the Latina's for a moment so that she could think. After a minute or so, her eyes found the Latina again, who was still staring at her with a dumbfounded expression planted across her face.
"I shouldn't be pushing you so hard, I get it. I think I get a little carried away with…" she tilts her head to the side, as if she was motioning towards an invisible person standing next to her; Santana caught on. "But, I get that you have a life outside of my own little world, and I think I would agree that I've been pushing you a little hard for the past year or so."
Santana's jaw dropped and she smiled. "Thank you…Rachel," she quietly said, still taken aback.
Rachel brought her arm to the Latina's shoulder and placed her hand there soothingly.
"I'll talk to the boss and see if he can agree to a break. I'm not sure if it will go over well, but I have a few things I can bring up that may work in my favor."
Santana's face grew even brighter, if that was possible.
"But, there's no vacation. At least until the next issue comes out," Rachel bopped Santana's nose with her finger, and Santana immediately felt like she was five again. She had been about to wrap her arms around Rachel and give her an unexpected hug, but that wasn't going to happen now.
"Thank you, Rachel. I'll do my best, but only one more, and then I'm out…at least for a while," she trailed off as her eye caught Quinn far away, looking at her curiously.
When Quinn's expression turned grave after her eyes had drifted away and then back to Santana's, the Latina mouthed 'what' and brought her hands out to her sides.
The blond nodded in the direction that she had briefly glanced. The Latina followed the line of sight to the glass door that led out to the patio and she gasped.
Brittany was standing under the archway, looking around nervously.
"Not again," Santana shook her head back and forth and whispered a few curse words under her breath.
Two beautiful blue eyes found two equally gorgeous brown ones, and Santana watched as Brittany smiled.
Apparently Rachel hadn't missed the quiet exchanges happening around her, either. She leaned in towards the Latina's ear.
"I see that your something has just arrived," and Rachel walked away, leaving Santana dead in her tracks.
