"She wasn't kidding," Santana mumbled as she took a 'vegan lobster' out of Rachel's damp hands. Whatever they were, they barely resembled crustaceans. Santana thought they looked a lot like tofu spider nightmares. "This is disgusting."

"I didn't even know these were a thing…" Brittany commented as she stared at the abomination in Santana's pinched fingers. "Like…what does it even taste like?"

Santana dry heaved. Hopefully, Brittany hadn't noticed. "I hope to never find out."

"Rachel!" Quinn yelled.

"Shh!" Rachel yelled back.

Brittany and Santana had walked back in on the party just in time to present the cake they had gotten. The maple bacon creation had gone over famously with the party crowd but the flurry of hungry guests meant that Brittany and Santana couldn't escape and talk like they had wanted. Instead, they were designated cake-servers and Rachel-wranglers. It was not until most of the guests had left for the night that Brittany realized just how drunk Rachel and Quinn had gotten. Again.

"I like when you bring food…but not that food. I'm scared of it. Them. What are they…?" Quinn slurred. She eyed the 'lobster' that Santana had carefully placed in the trash.

"I'm beginning to sense a trend here," Brittany thought aloud. "We can't leave them alone together. Well, we can but just not in the presence of alcohol."

Santana nodded and swatted Quinn's hand away where she had begun to poke at the vegan 'lobster' in the trash. "Q, ew. Stop."

Meanwhile, Rachel Berry had just taken another shot of birthday cake vodka.

Santana winced. "Brittany! Grab that from her."

"C'mon, Rachel," Brittany said as she seized Rachel's arm and led her away from the vodka. "Quinn wants me to show you her…" Brittany paused, looking around Quinn's apartment for something with which she could distract Rachel. "Her view!"

"My view is so good, Rachel!" Quinn exclaimed.

Santana threw a paper towel at her best friend. "Wipe your hands off. You just touched garbage."

"Vegan lobsters aren't garbage!" Rachel argued, even as Brittany was guiding her away.

"Look at my view!" Quinn said, ignoring the paper towel and making Santana cringe. Quinn trailed after Rachel and Brittany.

Brittany was momentarily able to distract both Rachel and Quinn by giving them both a very rudimentary tour of the city from Quinn's window.

Santana used the precious time to hide the vodka, tie the garbage closed, and put away anything that could possibly be used as a shot glass. She heard Brittany's voice carry in from the living room.

"And that's the Empire State building. Isn't it pretty?"

Santana smirked as it sounded a lot like Brittany was talking to toddlers. The answering oohs and ahhs she heard from Quinn and Rachel made her laugh out loud. She wished she would have video taped this. A moment later, Brittany popped up beside her.

"How ya doin?" Brittany asked, eyeing the towel in Santana's hand. "Can I do anything else to help?"

"I think everything is put away and mostly clean. Now we just have to get them to bed."

"I don't think that's gonna happen," Brittany said. "They started pinching each other."

"What?" Santana asked. "Why?" She dried her hands on the dish towel and set it on the counter.

"Because Quinn told Rachel that she looked like the Statue of Liberty and Rachel was extremely offended."

"Ugh!" Santana huffed. She heard a large yelp and slurred exclamations from the living room. "I feel like I'm their parent and they are the worst children on planet earth."

Brittany snickered. "They're not so bad," she said. "It's kinda fun to have goofy friends like this. They mean well."

Santana smiled but rolled her eyes. "You say that now…remember the hummus incident of not-too-long-ago."

"Oh, I remember," Brittany said slyly.

"I still wanna have that talk, you know," Santana reminded Brittany. Even though the evening had gotten away from them, she couldn't get their kiss off her mind. Especially when Brittany was standing so close to her.

Brittany blushed and nodded. "I know."

"Give me one of them!" Quinn yelled and came messily sprinting into the kitchen. Rachel was hot on her heels. If Santana hadn't jumped out of the way at the last second, the pair would have knocked her down.

"Quinn!" Santana shouted.

"Give me one!" Quinn started clawing at, and attempting to open, the recently closed garbage bag.

Rachel flung herself on Quinn's lower half and started shaking her, trying to get her away. "Leave them be! This is inhumane! Animal cruelty!"

"Gross," Brittany said, watching Quinn successfully open the neat knot Santana had used to close the garbage.

"Quinn!" Santana shouted again. She snatched the dish towel off the counter and tried swatting Quinn away from where she was unnecessarily elbow-deep in the garbage.

"Got it!" Quinn yelled, holding up half of a vegan 'lobster'. It's already unappetizing red color made Santana feel even more nauseous as she saw it was covered in brown maple-bacon cake icing…

"What do we do?" Brittany hissed.

"Ew, God. Let's just leave them here. Jesus." Santana said, horrified as Rachel started thrash wildly to try and dislodge the vegan lobster from Quinn's grip.

"Told you!" Quinn said.

Santana didn't know whom Quinn was addressing anymore. She started to try and swat Rachel with the dish towel but the short brunette paid no attention.

"This is definitely worse than the hummus." Brittany said, helpless. She took a step behind Santana.

Santana shook her head and watched as Quinn and Rachel suddenly burst into a fit of laughter and the half-dismembered, frosting-covered vegan 'lobster' finally dropped from Quinn's hand and rolled onto the floor. "I'd take hummus over this any day."

"I'm so not cleaning that up." Brittany whispered.

"It's my birthday!" Quinn announced, giggling happily on the floor. Rachel was now patting her head and saying something about 'doing right by the ocean authorities'.

Santana didn't really care to listen.

Brittany groaned and began to try and heave the two human messes to their feet so she could put them into bed and rid herself of the terrible mental image that was before her.

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"So," Santana said as she and Brittany both stood outside of Quinn's building.

"So." Brittany repeated. It was the next morning. She and Santana had fallen asleep on Quinn's couch after discovering that they could not pull Quinn and Rachel up off the floor last night. Brittany's neck was sore from how her head had been resting on Santana's knee.

Santana shoved the last piece of granola bar in her mouth as quickly as she could and used her chewing as a way of directing the conversation back to Brittany.

"You're sure it's ok that we just leave them up there?" Brittany asked, looking up at Quinn's building.

"Sure," Santana said. "We made the packs of bacon. We even left some vegan yogurt out for drunk Berry." She shrugged. "They'll be fine."

"They'll be hungover." Brittany stated.

"Oh, no doubt. Idiots."

Brittany laughed. She looked to the side of the street, where her car was parked. "So."

Santana bit her bottom lip. She didn't know whether to avoid Brittany's eyes altogether or stare at her shamelessly. "Do you want to get some real breakfast?"

Brittany looked at Santana. "What, that chia seed granola bar wasn't enough for you?" She smirked.

Santana scoffed. "No." She looked at Brittany while the blonde seemed deep in thought.

"I'd really like to but…"

"Oh, sorry, you probably have stuff…to do."

Brittany nodded and looked at her phone. "Sorry, I do."

"Go, then. Don't worry about it." Santana said, hurriedly. "I'll see you later, then."

Brittany pursed her lips.

Santana saw that Brittany's phone was lighting up again and again. "Really, it's fine."

Brittany frowned. "Okay. Bye, Santana."

"Bye," Santana said and gave the blonde a half-hearted wave. She spun on her heel and walked towards the train station, trying to pretend like she didn't feel as though she had something to be ashamed of.

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"Santana?" Brittany asked.

"Hi," Santana answered.

"Sorry for calling you…"

"Did you forget something at Quinn's?" Santana asked. She was standing on the subway platform, waiting for her train. It had only been ten minutes since she and Brittany parted ways.

Brittany, still sitting in her parked car, cringed. "No. Sorry. Uhm…"

"Are you okay?" Santana asked.

"Sorry, yea. I'm okay."

"Okay…"

"Are you…home?"

"Waiting for my train."

Brittany nodded to herself. "Sorry, I would have offered you a ride but…"

"Why did you call?" Santana asked, still curious.

"I…I wanted to tell you…"

The train roared onto the tracks, startling Santana.

Brittany heard the noise and stopped speaking.

"Sorry, it's kinda loud." Santana plugged her free ear and turned away from her train.

"You need to go?"

"What?" Santana asked. Brittany's voice was getting fuzzy. "I think I'm losing reception." Santana hated the subway for this very reason.

"You have to go?" Brittany asked again?"

"Yea, it's my train. I'll call you later, Britt."

"Okay," Brittany said and kept her ear pressed to her phone until she head Santana hang up. She felt nauseous.

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Santana never did call. Brittany didn't know why.

"B, your mother is on the phone for you."

"Car," Brittany rolled her eyes at her twin brother, "She's your mother, too."

Carter stuck his tongue out at his sister. "I've got a conference call with Brooks in five minutes. Please take this?"

Brittany snatched the cellphone out of Carter's hand and left her brother in his office, where they had been having a brainstorming meeting. She walked down the hallway towards the elevator and tried to still her mind before speaking to her mom.

"Hello?" The voice sounded.

"Hi. Mom."

"Brittany?"

"Yea, mom, Carter's busy."

"Oh."

"Something important or you want me to tell him to call you back?"

"Oh, no. I just needed him to fax me over all his information for his living arrangements in London. One of our new investors wants him to host a welcoming committee event for all existing investors. I need to know where to have the catering sent."

"I'll fax it over for you, mom." Brittany said as she got into the elevator and pressed the button for the floor her office was on.

"Thank you."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, please send your dress measurements."

"They haven't changed. Sasha should still have them." Sasha was Brittany's family's tailor.

"Very well. I'll see you in London next month."

Brittany grit her teeth. Apparently that was her mother's way of saying that her presence at the event Carter was supposed to host was mandatory. "Yea, mom. See you." She heard her mother hang up. She reminded herself to interrogate Carter about this later on. Like hell she was going all the way to London for a dumb party.

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"Santana, I'm worried…what's wrong?"

"Wrong?" Santana asked.

Quinn narrowed her eyes at her best friend. "You finally get me to go to Breadstix with you and you just sit there…poking at your food…"

Santana looked down. Indeed, she had done nothing but stab her chicken parmesan since it had arrived.

"I didn't sacrifice my usually very pleasant lunch break for you to drag me here and look like that."

Santana scoffed and put down her fork. "I'm not even doing anything!"

"Exactly." Quinn retorted. She took a sip of her iced tea and watched Santana. "What's wrong?"

"Uh…nothing I guess."

"Family?" Quinn wondered aloud.

Santana shook her head.

"Work?"

"Uh, not really."

Quinn took a deep breath. "Santana please just tell me, I hate playing the guessing game."

"Yea well I hate cleaning up disgusting vegan 'lobsters' from kitchen floors yet here we are…"

"Stop being defensive. You clearly have something bothering you. Tell me or start stuffing your face with food. Those are your two options." Quinn snarked.

"Fine. But you have to promise not to freak the fuck out like you are so prone to doing."

"I do not!"

"Do too," Santana said. She nodded towards Quinn's clenched fist. "Your hands are your first tell. I'm not saying anything until you relax."

Quinn huffed. "Sometimes I think you're too observant." She relaxed her hands. "There, are you happy now?"

"Eh, could be happier," Santana said. She finally took a bite of her food. God, she loved Breadstix.

"Santana," Quinn said through clenched teeth.

"And there they go again," Santana said, once again nodding to Quinn's hands.

Quinn flung her used napkin at her.

"Gross, Q." Santana said, dodging it.

"Tell. Me."

Santana didn't really want to. But, who else did she have to talk about this? She certainly couldn't tell Kurt. And definitely not Rachel. For a moment she got caught up in her sad social life and vowed to make more friends. "So…Brittany and I…we sort of…kissed." Santana stared at Quinn with the best emotionless face she could muster.

Quinn's jaw dropped.

"Friday night, while we were parked outside in her car…"

Quinn still said nothing.

Santana sort of wanted to take her phone out so that she could get a photo of Quinn like this.

"You kissed her?"

"Yea," Santana answered. "We kissed."

Quinn's eyes widened. "Santana."

"Quinn."

"What the hell do you mean you kissed. Does she like girls Santana?"

Santana shrugged. "That's not really for me to say. Can you just operate on the fact that we kissed and…I don't know…stop freaking out?" She eyed Quinn's hands again.

"She's your boss Santana."

"I know."

"Your boss. Santana."

"I know."

"This is by far the worst idea you've ever had," Quinn commented. She rubbed her temples with the palms of her hands.

"Idea? This wasn't an idea. It just sort of happened. It was kind of…happening…i think."

"You think?" Quinn asked. She lowered her voice. "Please, tell me you have thought about what this means."

"Q, it was kind of building for awhile…"

"What was?"

"I mean, I do have eyes Quinn," Santana said. "Brittany is gorgeous."

"She's also your boss."

"Yes, I have actually realized that in my short time here on earth," Santana teased.

"Your being stupid," Quinn said. "This is stupid."

"Okay, really not your place to say but—"

"How are you being so calm about this?" Quinn asked. "What does it mean? Does you like her or was it just a momentary lapse of judgement."

Santana could feel her traitorous face blushing. "For whatever it matters, I do like her. I like her a lot. I never thought…I didn't think anything would ever come of it."

"I thought she was straight," Quinn said through a breath.

Santana said nothing, still not feeling as though it was her place to divulge Brittany's sexuality.

"This explains so much."

"What?"

"She looks at you like…"

Santana sat forward. "Like what?"

Quinn shook her head. "Santana, you need to stop this in its tracks. You can't date your boss!"

Santana scowled at her best friend. "Okay, thanks for the advice but, ultimately, that's only your opinion."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Are you seriously going to sit there and tell that, after everything, everything you've gone through…after everything you've done to get yourself where you are in life…you're seriously going to throw it away over a crush you have on your boss?"

"Quinn," Santana admonished, "what are you even talking about?! I'm not throwing anything away…we just kissed. What the hell is the crime in that?"

Quinn shook her head again.

Santana thought the blonde looked a lot like she was dealing with keeping a lot of emotion inside. She wondered why Quinn was acting this intensely. "We are both consenting adults. We kissed, that's all. We left it kind of awkwardly the next morning…we were supposed to talk but thanks to you and the human mess that is Rachel Berry, we didn't get to."

"You're seriously considering dating your boss?"

"I'm not considering anything right now," Santana said, "besides how long you're going to keep acting like I stole your first born child and have no remorse."

"So are you guys going to talk?"

"I haven't spoken to her since Saturday morning when we kind of had an awkward goodbye. She's been in meetings all morning. Maybe I'll see her this afternoon."

"Your desk is right outside her office, Santana," Quinn reminded. "She is your direct superior and the person with whom you work the most closely."

"No shit, Sherlock."

Quinn took a deep breath.

Santana crossed her arms.

"Please, just…think about this before you talk to her. Really think about what this means."

"Stop being so dramatic, Q." Santana said. "I'm not dumb, you know."

Quinn winced, finally pulled out of her bubble. "No, I know you're not. I'm sorry…I just. If you end up getting hurt over this, I'm going to freaking kick your ass."

"How counterintuitively caring you are," Santana huffed. "But thanks, for caring."

"So…" Quinn said. She stirred her straw in her melting ice cubes. "How…was it?"

"Why is this conversation making you so uncomfortable?"

"It's not!"

"Yes it is, you're playing with your food."

"Stop observing me!" Quinn scolded. "I'm trying to be okay with this."

Santana sighed, feeling as though she and Quinn had a long way to go on this topic. "Can you just be a good best friend and ask me how it was?"

"How what was?"

"The kiss," Santana said, smirking.

"Ugh," Quinn groaned. She gave the brunette a soft smile. "So…how was it?"

"How was what?" Santana asked coyly, returning Quinn's smile.

"Santana!"

Santana felt a breadstick hit her cheek. "Stop, stop. Okay…it was good."

"Just good?" Quinn asked, playing with another breadstick just in case Santana decided to be a smart ass again.

"Really good." Santana answered honestly.

"What are you gonna do?" Quinn asked. She couldn't help circling back to her earlier concerns.

"I don't know, Q." Santana said. "I'll have to let you know how it goes when I finally see her today…"

"You do that." Quinn told her. "I'll be waiting."

"Yes, mom."

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Santana had been back at the office from her lunch with Quinn for more than three hours now and she still hadn't seen Brittany. She had gotten to have a brief chat with Kurt when she had met him in the lobby to exchange some documents Brooks had requested. Other than that, she was biding her time until seeing the blonde and, hopefully, getting to talk to her. She didn't have to wait much longer.

"Hi, Santana," a voice said.

Santana looked up from the paperwork she had been mindlessly reviewing.

"I have a four o clock appointment with Brittany."

"No you don't." Santana said slowly.

"Yea, I do. Please check."

"Puck," Santana said, "Brittany doesn't have any meetings past three thirty this afternoon. I schedule her meetings—I would know."

Puck ran a hand through his shaved head and had the decency to look away from Santana. "She told me to meet her here at four."

Santana stayed quiet, wondering if she should be calling security. Right as she was reaching for the phone to do just that, blonde hair caught her attention. Brittany.

"Hi, Puck," Brittany said. "Right on time."

"Yea," Puck said.

Santana sat there dumbly, feeling like her insides were twisting.

"Come in," Brittany said. She moved to her office door and held it open for Puck.

Santana remembered what had happened the last time Puck and Brittany had been alone in her office. Unfortunately for Santana, Puck's giant frame prevented her from seeing Brittany's face.

"Bye, Santana," Puck said as he closed Brittany's office door behind himself.

Santana had never felt more helpless.