"God, I'm so tired." Quinn moans, placing another item from the go backs cart onto the shelf. As it so happens, something also went on with Quinn and Tina on Friday night but you still weren't sure exactly what yet since neither of them wanted to share no matter how much you and Mercedes begged and then last night they had been up for most of the night texting each other and now both were complaining about the lack of sleep. You wish you had that problem.

"Yeah, me too." You mumble, picking up what felt like the millionth box of cereal as you stock the shelf.

"Are you sure you're okay, B?" The other blonde asks, her arms folded on the handle of the cart, "You've been quiet all day, more than usual."

"Yup, just tired, like you said." You mutter and go back to focus on the puzzle on the back of the cereal box. You've been trying to solve it for the past week and have yet had any luck but you refuse to look at the answer.

Quinn doesn't look convinced though, "Is it because Santana's not here? Because you can't be all mopey everytime you're not on a shift together."

"No, it has nothing to do with that." You lie, well it's kind of a lie, not working with Santana is kind of at the last of your list of reasons as to why you're upset.

"Well I gotta go finish putting these back but if you ever wanna talk about it just come find me." She offers, turning the cart around before heading out of the aisle leaving you alone.

Looking down at your watch, you can't help but give out a huff seeing that you only have about an hour of your shift left. Usually you would be counting down the minutes to get out of here but you had yet to have seen Santana today. Actually you haven't seen her since Friday night when you dropped her off home after that happened.

You would have been okay at the fact that you hadn't seen the brunette since then because yesterday, while you worked an eight hour shift, she had the entire day off. So since you wouldn't see each other at work you decided to text her asking if she wanted to go grab a coffee or something after your shift had finished since it wasn't too late. You figured that the two of you could talk about what happened and what it meant, which would be the sensible, mature thing to do considering you were friends who worked together. She didn't say no to your offer, actually she didn't say anything. You had sent her a couple texts since you last saw her but she had left them all unanswered. It's not like you were over doing it and being an obsessed stalker or something. It was just other basic stuff like asking if she was alright since you figured she might have a hangover. You also sent her a few memes like you normally would and asked her what time her shift started today since she always starts at different times on Sundays. But she never replied to any of them. Or opened them for that matter.

You're not really sure why she's decided to ignore you. After all, it's not like she would've thought that she could just sleep with you and then you never have to see each other ever again. You do work together after all and it's not like she can get you fired. Can she?

It's also not like anything bad happened either or at least you didn't think it was bad but Santana also seemed to be enjoying herself. But, after that, the two of you had held hands in the cab ride back to her place and she even gave you a kiss good night and told you to text her when you got home so she knew that you were safe, which you had done, but like the others that also got no response but at the time you thought she had just fallen asleep, but now it was Sunday and it was like she had just fallen off the face of the earth. You knew that she hadn't though, you had seen that she commented on one of Mercedes Instagram posts from Friday night which meant that she was definitely just ignoring you.

You weren't sure why though. You had thought that maybe she regretted what happened until you thought back and remembered her telling you that it was amazing so now you're just confused and sad. You're also a little worried.

So now it was less than an hour until the end of your shift and you knew you couldn't go another day without talking to Santana. You had known beforehand that she was only in for half the day since it was Sunday, so you figured you would be able to talk to her during your break or you would at least get her to acknowledge you, but for some reason Will changed your shift at the last minute so that you would only work for half the day and you were scared because if Santana's shift doesn't start in the next hour then you're going to have to have another day of her avoiding you and you don't really know how much longer you can take.

Just as you're on your last box of cereal and about to take the carry cart back down into storage Mercedes walks over to you, giving you a hesitant smile, "Britt, you know you can talk to me if something's wrong, right?"

"I-I know." You nod.

"Good because we're all really worried abo-"

"Well don't! Everything's fine." You snap, making Mercedes jump a little. You hadn't meant to snap like that, it's just that you can't handle everyone asking you if you're okay and you know that eventually you're going to end up crying which would definitely just make everything worse, "People should just mind their own business and leave me alone."

There's also the fact that you don't want to talk about your Santana problems until you've spoken to Santana about them first since it wouldn't really be fair. After all, you actually have no idea about Santana's life outside of the store. What if you make things worse by telling people? You have no idea if people know that Santana likes girls, or if Santana even knows she likes girls since you've never heard her or anyone else talk about it. Maybe that's why she's been avoiding you? But if that is the case then wouldn't she want to talk to you even more to make sure you don't tell anyone? Or perhaps you would be able to help her figure herself out? After all you have been there yourself before, except you think you realizing your sexuality was a lot more easier than most people considering you figured it out while watching One Tree Hill where you couldn't decide if you were more in love with Nathan or Brooke. You still haven't figured that out.

You're brought out of your thoughts when you see that Mercedes is looking at you with a worried look on her face, the shock long of your outburst long gone.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap. It's just stuff. I can deal with it though." You shrug like it's nothing.

"Okay, if you're sure." She nods, putting her hand on your arms before turning to walk away.

"Hey 'Cedes?" You call and she turns back to you.

"Do you know what time Santana's coming in today? That's if she's actually coming in." You ask, your voice soft.

"She texted me earlier, she should be on her way." She answers, giving you a knowing look. A look that she knows your behaviour has something to do with Santana. "You better cheer up before she gets here, otherwise she's gonna worry about you all day, which means she takes her stress out on the rest of us." You just nod at her, "I mean it, Britt, last time you were upset she sent everyone to the freezer." She jokes and turns back round again and walks out the aisle.

At least you think she was joking. Then again you wouldn't put it past Santana to send everyone to the freezer when she's pissed.

You grab a hold of the cart and think about the other thing Mercedes said as you head into storage.

How are you supposed to cheer up before Santana gets here when she's the one that's making you sad?

You end up hiding in the break room waiting for Santana since this is the first place she'll go when she comes in. You think it will be anyway but you've been in here for the past twenty minutes and the only person, well thing, that's come in is the raccoon.

Rolling your eyes at yourself, you hop off the table you were sitting on and decide to go back out onto the floor figuring that Santana should be out there by now.

Turns out the Universe really is against you when you step out of the break room and bump straight into someone.

You don't even need to look to know that it wasn't just 'someone' you bumped into, it was Santana.

"I-I'm sorry." You whisper and keep your eyes focused on the floor not wanting to look at her, "I was jus-"

"Can we talk?" She asks hesitantly and you can see that she's playing with her hands.

You give her a small nod and you follow her into your bosses empty office and try to ignore the feeling in your stomach.

Leaning back against the desk you cross your arms against your chest, as if you're trying to protect yourself, and watch as Santana locks the door which makes you even more nervous. Now it's going to be harder for you to escape.

It's weird. All you've wanted for the past day and a half was to have an opportunity to talk to Santana, you've even planned out several different potential conversations in your head, but now that you're with her and she wants to talk you can't help but feel completely terrified about the possibilities that are going to come from this conversation.

What if she wants to pretend that nothing happened between you and that you should just act like you were before? What if she tells you to stay the fuck away from her and she just ignored you forever? What if she tells you to quit?

Or, the one you're hoping for.

What if she wants to be with you?

You really have no clue what she's gonna tell you but even though you don't want to believe it, deep down you know that if she had wanted to be with then she wouldn't have ignored you after you had slept together.

She clears her throat and you finally look up to her for the first time that day.

"Hey." She starts.

Hey

Fucking hey

"Look, Britt, I'm really sorry that i've been ignoring your texts. It's just that I-" She stops and starts pacing the room, "I panicked, okay? I'm sorry."

That's it? Well now that sick feeling in your stomach has gone and you just feel pissed.

"Santana, you have literally ignored me since I dropped you off at your place. Last time we saw each other we were fine. Better than fine, even. You kissed me before you left and you were the one that told me to text you when I got home, which I did." You rant and now it's Santana who won't stop staring at her shoes. "Even if things weren't fine for you, we didn't have to talk about what happened, the very least you could've done was send me one fucking text back to let me know that you were alright."

"I-I know and Britt, I really am sorry for that." She whimpers, wiping the tears off her cheek.

"So is that all you wanted to talk about?"

"No I-"

"Let me guess you wanna tell that you think it's best if we just pretend that we never slept together and that we should just stay away from each other?" You interrupt and you can tell by the way she looks at you that you're right and you can feel your eyes starting to water. "Is that what you wanna do?"

"Kind of." She whispers, "I think it's for the best that we forget that it happened, but, Britt, I don't want to stay away from you, I still want to be your friend. Like how we were before that."

"So, we just forget that it happened?" She nods, wiping her eyes again, "Fine. If that's what you want. We'll forget it ever happened. We'll go back to just being friends. Or I guess just work friends since that's all we really were before then right?" You sneer.

"No! Of course not," She argues, "Britt, we are friends and I'm sorry that I can't give you anything more and that I made you think that we were only work friends, I'll try and be a better friend for you. Look, Brittany, I know you probably don't trust me right now but please believe me when I say that I can't lose you."

You can't help but feel bad as you watch her cry and as much as you want to hug her, you know it's too soon.

"Fine." You nod, "We'll have it your way. Just friends."

You walk past Santana towards the door where you're about to unlock it when she calls your name.

"You haven't told anyone right?"

"No, I haven't, I figured I should talk to you first."

"Thanks. I really don't want this getting out to people."

"Well, no one's gonna hear it from me." You tell her before slamming the door behind you and leaving Santana alone to cry.

After your conversation with Santana you ended up walking out of the store five minutes before your shift had even finished but you didn't care, you just didn't want to be there anymore.

You probably should have known that whatever was going to happen between you and the brunette would be different and wouldn't end well ever since she Saturday morning when she never responded to your good morning text. Before then she had always texted you good morning back and always with a smiley face.

Once you get home you toss your red waistcoat, that you forgot to take off at the store, across your bedroom and throw yourself onto your bed, burying your face into the pillows as you cry.

Santana was the only good thing you currently had in your life and even though you had only known each other for a month, that didn't matter, it was like you had known her for years. As soon as she stopped hating you the first time you two instantly clicked and she had actually liked you and you two had fun together, something that she never does with the other staff, as you've been told.

After everything you've been through the past couple months with having a life ruining injury, losing all your friends and having to move back to your shitty hometown, you didn't feel like it was as bad since you had Santana. She made you feel better. She was snarky and funny, she always had your back and she was the only person that had made you smile in months. She also understood you and respected you which is something you haven't had a lot of in your life.

But, then you had to fuck it all up by sleeping with her. Sure it was a two person job but it was your fault for falling for her in the first place. If you hadn't done that then you wouldn't be hurting so much.

The worst part about it all isn't that she wants to forget that it happened, you could live with that, it's the fact that Santana still wants you to be friends and you just know the friendship between the two of you will never be the same. It never is when you sleep with a friend. Last time you did it, it was really tense and awkward and eventually he ended up separating himself from you. Except then you didn't really care. He hadn't meant as much to you as Santana does. You think she's the best person you've ever met and you've met a lot of people.

So no matter if you and Santana decide to stay friends or not, you know that either way you'll eventually end up losing her.

That just makes you cry harder.

You passed the crying stage about five minutes ago after an hour of sobbing into a pillow and are now back in the pissed off stage.

You're pissed at yourself for letting someone hurt you this much without even meaning too. But, mainly you're still pissed off at Santana for ignoring you, for sleeping with you just to want to forget about it and for not wanting to talk about what happened. You know she panicked but she never actually gave you a reason why she wanted to forget about it. Or why she wanted no one to find out.

You can't help but wonder if it's because she just doesn't like you like that.

You're brought out of your thoughts by a vibration, so you take out your phone from your back pockets to see that it's a text from Santana.

I'm sorry

You don't reply.

You know that today is going to be harder than yesterday. Even without any of the drama, it's Monday which means that you're probably going to end up having to stack the shelves and then restack them in the evening, but then there's also the fact that both you and Santana are on an all day shift together when in the past few days you haven't spent more than ten minutes with her which ended up with both of you crying.

"Tim, Fabray and Boy Chang, you're stocking shelves." Santana orders as she reads from the clipboard in her hand.

You just stand in the back of the group of employees as you all to find out where you're assigned for the day and you can't help but wonder what you're going to be doing today since you're basically always on stocking? Maybe Santana wants to change things up for once.

"Mercedes, Connor, Matt and Jace, you're on the registers. Girl Chang, you are in the freezer." You glance at Tina and see her roll her eyes at that. You've never done it since Santana would never put you in the freezer but you've heard that it sucks.

"By myself?" Tina asks.

"Nope. You are with….lemme see." Santana begins and turns over a sheet of paper, "...Pierce."

Shit.

"So, what do we have to do in here?" You shiver as Tina opens up the door to the walk in freezer, "I've never been in here before."

"We just have to bring in all the frozen items that's not getting put on the shelf today and organise it by aisle." She explains, rubbing her hands together.

This really sucks and you can't actually believe that Santana put you on this. She's never put you on it before and once told you she would never make you do it, maybe she lied about the whole 'let's still be friends' thing.

"I can't believe Santana is making me do this." You complain, picking a box up, "She only makes people she hates do this."

"That's not true." Argues Tina, "She makes me do this all the ti- Oh."

Yeah. Oh.

You just give her a pity look before placing the box of what seems to be ice-cream in a far corner and head back out to get more boxes. You just want to get this all done as fast as you can before your fingers don't freeze off. You're not sure what Santana's problem with you is but the very least she could've done was give you a heads up so you could've brought gloves, and wore more than a t-shirt.

"What actually happened between you two anyways? You guys were pretty much best friends and wouldn't even leave each other's sides at my birthday and now she has you working the freezer and she was crying yesterday."

You can't help but feel guilty about that, sure it was her that made you get mad at her in the first place but maybe you should have at least stayed until she stopped crying. Then again you also needed to get out of there so that you could cry yourself.

"I don't wanna talk about it." You brush off, "I'm sure we'll be fine."

At least you hope so.

"Let's forget about me and Santana. You finally gonna tell me about you and Quinn that has you both so secretive? Did something happen on Friday? I promise I won't tell anyone."

Despite how cold it is, you can still see her blush, "Nothing, I don't wanna talk about it either."

"Okay, well whatever it is I hope it goes well for you guys."

If you and Santana can't be happy at least Quinn and Tina can be.

Despite it being Santana who wanted you two to stay friends, you're having a pretty hard time believing her considering it had been hours since you finished in the freezer, which you're still pissed that she put you on, and you have still yet to have seen her, not even in the break room, which is weird since she always hides there if she's not out on the floor. You even had to get your next assigned job from Quinn who told you to just do go backs which is what you're doing right now.

Turning the cart into the toy aisle you notice a small boy, who looks around five or six, trying to reach a power ranger that's on the shelf that's a little out of his reach. Looking around it's obvious that the kid was by himself since no one else was around and from your past experiences with kids who have been left alone in the store you know that this is going to end up one of two ways. Either the kid is going to follow you around like a lost puppy until someone eventually comes and takes him away, or some hysterical mom is going to accuse you of kidnap.

"Hey buddy, let me help you." You say and rush towards him and grab the toy off the shelf to make sure that it didn't end up falling on his head. The last thing you need to deal with today is a screaming kid who's bleeding and a mother who would try and get you fired.

"Thanks." He smiles, but instead of rushing off to find someone like you thought he would, he just stares at all the other toys.

"Are you lost?" You ask.

"Nope."

"Is there anyone here with you?"

"My mom's somewhere." He shrugs and picks up a small soccer ball before putting it back down, "She told me to wait on the couch near the TV's but I got bored and I wanted a new toy."

"Well, now that you have your toy how about we go find your mom together?" You suggest, "I'm not really supposed to just leave a kid by themselves for security reasons."

"Fine." He huffs and rolls his brown eyes in a way that you've become so familiar with over the past month.

You ignore it and the two of you walk out of the aisle with the power ranger still in his small hands and you decide to head towards the furniture section first, which is probably the best place to go since that's where the boy's mom is expecting him to be.

After seeing that the area is empty you're about to turn around to head to customer service to give an announcement of a lost child when you freeze at the boy's words.

"There she is!" He points out and you're not really sure who he's pointing at because after you have another quick glance around, you still can't see anyone.

Just Santana.

That's when it clicks.

"God, Luca, I told you to wait here!" Santana scolds as the young boy runs up towards her and she picks him up before placing a kiss on the cheek.

You're standing dumbfounded when Santana finally looks at you for the first time today, "Thanks." She nods before focusing her attention back to her son.

Her son

The only thing you can do is give a nod back. You're too scared to even open your mouth to talk. You have no idea what would come out.

"Come on, baby, abuela's here, you're gonna go to her house until I finish work, okay?" She tells the boy in her arms, who you've learned is called Luca.

"Okay, but can I get this?" Luca pleds holding the power ranger up to his mom's face and gives her a pout, "You said I could get a toy since I scored in my soccer game yesterday."

"Of course, let's go. Say bye to Britt-Britt."

Britt-Britt

Luca gives you a wave and a soft bye and you just give a hesitant smile in return as the duo walk away and you're still in the middle of the furniture second, standing in shock because holy shit.

Santana has a child.

Santana is a mom.

When you had seen the kid alone you had instantly expected it to go the same ways that all the others go.

You would never have expected to find out that Santana was a mom and you definitely never would have expected Santana to be a soccer mom.

Looking back on it you're surprised you didn't notice as soon as you had seen the boy. He did look exactly like mom. Pretty much everything about him was the same as Santana, from his dark hair and the big brown eyes, to his cheeks with cute dimples and you especially should have noticed when he gave you that eye roll. He's literally a miniature version of Santana.

Your thoughts are interrupted by the sounds of heels clicking and the smell of soft vanilla which can only be one person and you take a deep breath and turn to see Santana walking up to you and the first thing you notice, other then the fact that Luca is no longer with her, is the way that she's playing with her hands.

"Can we talk about this later? I don't really think we should have this conversation at work." She suggests, "I have to go sort some stuff out right now but I won't be too long so just go finish whatever you were doing and then we can leave and go to the café around the corner to talk.

"B-but my shift isn't over for another hour." You tell her, finally finding your voice for the first time since finding out about Luca.

"I know and neither is mine, but we need to talk and I can't do it after work since I now have to pick Luca up from my moms after. I'm sure they can manage without us for an hour."

You give her a nod as she turns and walks off to do whatever she needs to do and as you watch her walk away it pretty much takes all of your strength to not break down right there.

You wipe your eyes before your tears even have a chance to fall and head back towards the toy aisle to finish doing go backs.

As you're pushing the cart you make a mental note of all the things you want to ask Santana, like, why did she not tell you about her son? Did she not trust you? Do the other staff know? Is he the reason she wants to forget that you slept together? Is there anything else that she's hiding?

There is one question that you thought of that you can't stop thinking about. Since you never knew about the most important thing in Santana's life, did that mean that you were never really friends?

Santana is sat opposite you in the corner of the small café, both of your coffee's are untouched, you feel too sick to even take a sip and you think that Santana probably feels the same.

You're too busy focused on playing with your ring and staring at the cheesy signs that hang on the wall near you when Santana clears her throat, gaining your attention.

"I wasn't trying to keep Luca a secret from you." She starts, taking a sip of her own coffee, "I just don't really like talking about my home life at work. Like if someone doesn't bring it up then I won't talk about it. I do that with everyone."

"I understand that." You nod, "But, Santana I thought we were friends? I'm pretty sure most friends would tell their friends about something like that."

"We are friends, Britt." She protests, "And it probably would have came up in a conversation at some point and I would just tell you then but if you had just asked if I had a kid and a boyfriend, I would have said yes. It's not like I was lying to yo-"

"Boyfriend?" You interrupt, because what the actual fuck?

So, not only does Santana have a child.

But, she also has a boyfriend.

A boyfriend who she was in a relationship with when you two slept together.

A boyfriend she has who she probably loves and who loves her back, while you're falling for her.

But it turns out she doesn't feel the same and you just have a one sided school girl like crush while she has a family.