Chapter 1 - The Diner

New York City

Aja woke up abruptly to the sound of the wailing siren outside her apartment. She had just recently moved to New York City from outside LA for a change of pace. Why did she decide to move to another big city? Something about the liveliness of city life was something that kept Aja at peace, and LA was becoming too muggy for her taste. The only problem was, she had no job and only had enough savings to cover next month's rent. Waking up was nice with no job, no worries about setting alarms or having to rush anywhere. And in somewhere like New York, not rushing was a blessing.

She shared the apartment with a couple other people, a Canadian girl named Fae who had bright pink hair working middle management for a large non profit organization, and Ethan, an Australian who was trying to make it big on broadway. Both of the roommates were funny and gave Aja a sense of home.

"Morning Aja, I made some tea if you want any." Fae was turned towards the stove frying up bacon in a tank top. (Who does that?)

Aja looked over to the counter which had a bright pink teapot full of what smelled like green tea. It was nice to have that sense of care in the house. "Thanks Fae." Aja was still sleepy and let out a big yawn.

Ethan rushed out of their room with their jacket hanging off the side of their arm. "Holy shit, is it already 10am? I have an audition at 10:30!" Ethan booked it towards the door. "Bye guys!" was followed with a loud thud of the door.

Aja enjoyed her slow morning with Fae, as she had the day booked off for stress leave.

"God, it's brutal out there." Fae slightly turned her head to Aja, eyes glued on her phone. "Jobs are real hard to come by these days, I've been keeping my eye on wall street recently…"

Aja was beginning to tune Fae out, god who cares about all this business talk?

"Aja?" Fae asked.

"Hmm? Sorry I wasn't listening, what was that?"

"I asked if you found any leads on any jobs?" Fae now had her eyes on Aja with an eyebrow cocked in the air.

"Oh, right… that" Aja looked down at her cup of tea in her hands.

"Hey right now there's a huge labour shortage, you could probably get something real easy at any sort of low end job just so you can get some sort of income."

"Yeah, I could do that…" Aja was trying to imagine what she could possibly do. And with a labour shortage it would probably be really easy to get something fast. It's only temporary.

/

Later that day after flipping through Indeed on her phone, Aja was feeling disheartened. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her job, and would she be okay working at something like McDonalds? Gross, but her options were waning thin.

A loud shuffle emerged from the front door as Ethan came in with what looked like large stacks of paper in their hands. "Guys!" Ethan exclaimed loudly, grabbing Aja's and Fae's attention. "I just got booked for a show! They loved me! I mean it's just a background character, but it's a show, and I have a couple lines too! Oh and I'll be starting rehearsal next week! Isn't this amazing!?"

Fae got up from the couch with a massive smile on her face. "Oh my god Ethan! That's incredible! I'm so proud of you!"

Aja also got up and smiled. Wow, she was rooming with a broadway star!

Fae was so elated at her friend's achievement. "Okay guys, I think this calls for celebrations. Let's go out for dinner tonight. Drinks on me!"

Both the flatmates cheered. Who can say no to that!?

/

"Oh, let's try this place, since Ethan has booked their very own Broadway gig!" Fae pointed up towards the bright neon sign illuminating the name of the place. "Spotlight Diner".

The group walked inside and got seated at a table. "I heard the waitresses do live performances here!" Fae whisper yelled, leaning into the rest of the party.

"Oh this is gonna be good." Aja was pretty excited, she loved live music.

"Oh, excuse me, can we get a round of lychee smash cocktails please?" Fae flagged the waitress down.

Aja was looking around the room taking in the ambience of the place, but the second the waitress showed up to the table, all focus was glued to the woman. She was beautiful, breathtaking in fact, her skin tanned with long raven hair that was pinned back but fell luxuriously down her back. Her body was curved in all the right places and had legs for days. Aja trailed her eyes down from the waitress' face down to her chest… wow… oh! A nametag. Santana. What an interesting name.

"Coming right up!" Santana smiled sweetly at Fae and with a quick glance at the rest of the party, flashed a sultry look directly at Aja and winked.

Aja's heart nearly fell out of her chest. Was she going to die right then and there?

"Umm… I know I may be autistic, but I'm very certain that waitress had the hots for you Aja." Ethan gave Aja a playful nudge which broke Aja out of her trance.

"N-no she doesn't what the fuck Ethan. I mean, she's hot, but no way would she be into me." Aja was flustered with her face rising in temperature at a rapid pace.

"I wouldn't be so sure…" Fae had her hands over her mouth trying to be as subtle as possible.

Before Aja could even respond to the older girl, Santana came back with a tray full of fruity drinks in her hand. She threw some coasters down on the table and starting with Fae placed down the drinks. When she finally got to Aja, there was a split second of direct eye contact when suddenly Aja felt a rush of cold wash over her body. Santana had dropped her drink all over Aja, with ice cubes falling down her outfit.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" Santana was panicking hard, placing a hand on Aja's shoulder. The touch felt electric to Aja, sending shockwaves from the point of contact.

Aja looked up at the waitress, unable to form a proper sentence "I-I- uh, it's o-okay…"

With the poor girl trembling beneath her, Santana gave Aja a really soft look before snapping into reality. "Right! Um, napkins! Right, that's what we need. Napkins. Be right back. Again, I'm sorry!" Santana rushed away and came back lightning fast with a giant stack of napkins. "Again I'm so sorry."

"No, it's okay, thank you." Aja finally managed to compose herself. With both girls stopping to look at each other blushing, Santana finally nodded before walking away.

Aja looked over to see Fae and Ethan staring at each other with eyes wide, covering their mouths. Soon enough the two of them burst into laughter.

"Oh my god, what you guys!" If Aja's face couldn't get even more redder, it just did.

"Oh nothing!" Ethan said in between laughs.

"I've never seen so much gay panic in my entire life!" Fae burst out. "And did you see how she talked to you? She said sorry more times than your average Canadian!"

Everyone was laughing at this point. "Ion know…" Aja gave the two of her roommates looks. "I mean, she was cute… but this may be a one night little thing."

"We'll see about that." Ethan said, picking up their drink.

/

The live show started and it was incredible, the entire waitress crew performed an amazing rendition of "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman. The waitresses got down to the diner floor, singing to tables. Aja had her eyes glued on Santana, her singing was incredible and her dancing sexy as ever. Aja's heart couldn't help but to pace faster as she saw the waitress sashay over to their table to sing the chorus right in front of the party.

If I can't have you

I don't want nobody baby

If I can't have you, uh-huh, oh

If I can't have you

I don't want nobody baby

If I can't have you, uh-ho, oh

Santana and Aja locked eyes the entire time and Aja felt her mouth gaping open in utter shock seeing this beautiful woman in front of her singing, and couldn't bring to close her mouth. Both Ethan and Fae were looking at Aja and Santana's "interaction" whispering things into each other's ears and giggling about what was going on in front of them, but Aja couldn't care less.

The song wrapped up and the waitresses went to the back area likely to cool down from that amazing performance.

"Gaaaaaay" Fae chimed.

"Shut up." Aja snapped back.

"Okay but like… she was so hot? Get her number? Now? Pleek?" Ethan looked into Aja's eyes so seriously.

"Ugh… We'll see. I'll come back here without you two clowns with me."

"What do you mean clowns!?" Fae leaned over to smack Aja's arm. "I think me and Ethan are the best wingwoman… err… wingpeople?"

"Right." Aja rolled her eyes at her roommates. She turned around to see if she could find Santana again, but she was nowhere in sight.

Fae slapped a couple bills on the table and the three of them got up and walked out the door.

"Hey-"

"HEY!"

The group turned around to find the source of the noise.

"Santana?" Aja questioned.

Santana was out of breath and visibly exhausted. "Hey, umm, I wanted to give you this." She extended a napkin with some scribbled pen marks all over it. Aja reached out and picked up the napkin to find a phone number.

"I want to say sorry for spilling that drink on you, and maybe I can make it up to you? You know, just to say sorry and thank you?"

"Thank you? For what?" Aja crooked her neck in question.

"Looking so beautiful tonight, it really made my night better." Santana winked and quickly rushed back towards the restaurant before Aja could even think of what to respond with.

Fae and Ethan at this point were jumping up and down with excitement. "Oh my god Aja!" "Oh my god!" Fae and Ethan were ecstatic, almost tackling Aja to the ground in pure joy.

"Okay, this is officially the best day ever. To Aja and Ethan!" Fae raised her fist in the air and cheered. She was clearly drunk.

/