Ch. 15 — Old Friends
"Quinn," Santana says into the phone with a quiet voice, so quiet that Quinn has to pull her phone away from her ear to make sure that the Santana actually called her phone and that Quinn wasn't just imagining things.
"Hey, how are you?" Quinn asks, trying to figure out how to start a conversation with Santana after all these years, when before the words just flowed easily.
"Why did you message me?" Santana injects as Quinn talks.
"I, uh, I don't know. To talk, I guess."
"To talk, you guess?" Santana inquires.
Quinn sighs, frustrated. The conversation she imagined in her head after talking with Rachel earlier is nowhere near what's happening now. Now it's like a runaway train about to crash into a fiery explosion, which is not something that she wants at all. Not like she envisioned the conversation to be all rainbows and butterflies with Santana saying that she's always been in love with her too after all these years, but she also didn't expect things to be quite this difficult. "Yes. To talk," she says defensively. "You coach my daughter in soccer now."
"I coach a lot of people's daughters," Santana says matter of factly.
"Do you have a history with their parents though?" Quinn asks, hoping that the answer is no and also hoping that Santana will understand what kind of history she means.
"Not many people from our part of Ohio come out here. You know that. So no, I don't have a history with other kids' parents. If you're worried about — "
"I'm not worried about anything to do with your coaching abilities, San," Quinn interjects.
Santana pauses a beat at Quinn's use of her nickname from high school."You said that you called to talk about me coaching…" Santana lets her sentence trail off.
"Beth."
"I know her name," Santana says quietly as Quinn continues on.
"I said that I had wanted to talk and also said that you coach Beth in soccer. I never said the two were mutually exclusive."
"Using your courtroom vocabulary isn't going to scare me, Quinn. Do you remember who was valedictorian?" Santana says with a slight underlying tone of humor.
Quinn catches the change in Santana's voice. "Only because you cheated by taking AP Spanish and slept through all the classes, yet scored a five on the test. I could have done that too if I grew up in a Spanish speaking house."
"Touché. If only for you they had AP dinner party etiquette, then maybe you might have beat me out."
"Whoa," Quinn says, faking a wounded sound in her voice. "I would like to have you know that I can throw a mean party, dignitary worthy and all."
"Life goals right there: to settle down and host dignitary worthy parties with my wife by my side."
"While speaking Spanish?" Quinn asks, trying to keep the conversation light, even though her stomach feels like butterflies are soaring around it.
Santana chuckles. "I mean, sure. If there were Spanish speaking dignitaries at the party, then sure."
"I missed this," Quinn blurts out before she can stop herself. When Santana doesn't reply fast enough, Quinn is quick to follow up. "I mean, having an actual adult conversation with someone who gets my humor and jokes. According to Beth, conversations with me aren't that fun. But, why do I care what a ten year old says, right?" Santana laughs a little, though this time when she laughs, Quinn can tell that the vibes have changed between them, almost like how they were when Santana first called her. Desperate to get the conversation going smoothly again, Quinn quickly changes the conversation. "Do you like pizza?"
"Pizza?" Santana asks, curious to know how Quinn could change the subject from what it was to pizza. "Yeah, I like pizza. Why do you ask?"
"Because you always did love eating food back in high school. I was always amazed at how you were able to stay so slim looking when all you ever did was eat eat eat."
"Lots and lots of cardio and weight lifting with Puck," Santana chuckles. "It was always a competition between the two of us, whether it was sports, eating, gaming, girls…" Santana trails off. "But yeah, I still love to eat. I had dated a chef awhile back and my teammates all made fun of me, saying that the only reason why I dated her was because of the five star food and not because of the company."
Quinn nervously chuckles at the mention of Santana dating someone else. "Was it true? Did you only date her for the food?"
"A true lady never kisses and tells."
"Oh," Quinn murmurs.
Santana can hear the change in Quinn's tone as well, and even though she might not have started the phone call off on the right foot, she's not going to ruin it now, especially because she knows Erika would kill her when she finds out about the call later. So she opts for a safe way to end the call on a light note. "I'll tell you what. I'll give you a list of my favorite pizza places around the area and let you decide which one you like the best. Once you, and Beth, have tried them all, tell me which one is your favorite and I'll let you know which one is mine. Does that sound like a plan?"
"Yes," Quinn says excitedly. "But I think that you should tell me your favorite one now."
"No way! You've gotta earn that. I can't let you just skip all the other pizza joints and go straight to mine. Embrace the carbs, Quinn."
"Okay, okay. I'll embrace the carbs,"Quinn laughs.
"Good. I'll go ahead and send you the list shortly, then. Oh, and Quinn?" Santana pauses before continuing to make sure that Quinn is still there. "I missed this, too. Later."
A week goes by since Quinn has talked to Santana. Yes, they've seen each other in passing when Quinn drops off and picks up Beth, but they haven't had an actual conversation since the phone call they had that skirted around their past and provided Quinn with a list of pizza joints. Tonight, Quinn's not feeling the domesticated Betty Crocker vibe, so she throws out the idea of going out to eat to Beth. Beth, ever the carb loving preteen, immediately chooses pizza as what she wants for dinner. At first, Quinn is ready to suggest their go-to pizza place, but then remembers the list that Santana gave her. "Hey Beth. How about we try a new place today? I actually have a list of pizza places in the area that are supposed to be goo and thought we could try them out so we can see which one is really the best. Like our own little Tour de Pizza, like how we used to do food trips before. Does that work for you?"
"But wheat if they suck compared to the one that we found now? I mean, why mess with a good thing?"
"Because while our place might be a good thing, there might be a better thing out there."
Beth, ever the observant child, has noticed that her mom's mood has changed the past week, especially when she's taking her to her soccer clinic, so she can't help but wonder if her little sneak attack with the text to Santana worked or not. "Are we talking about pizza here or something else, Mom?" Beth wiggles her eyebrows up and down, making her look like a mini version of Puck in that moment.
For Quinn's part, she doesn't let her reaction to Beth's question show and instead deflects back to the important question at hand: pizza. "Let's focus on dinner, Beth. We doing this pizza trail or no?" With an eye roll, Beth agrees to the pizza trail, though there was never any doubt that she wouldn't, especially with who her parents are. "That's what I thought. Okay, there's seven on the list, and looks like we've already been to one of them — our favorite. So let's pick one of the other six and try them out. Maybe a new place each week?" Beth nods in agreement and so off the Fabray women head to the first pizza joint on the list, but not before Quinn shoots off a text first.
Quinn: Trying the first place on your list tonight. We've already been to one of the others and love their pizza, so we're curious to see how this one stacks up.
A few minutes later, her phone is vibrating back with a notification.
Santana: I hope you ladies enjoy the start of the list then!
Quinn: Let's see if you still know how to pick them ;)
Santana: Guess you'll just have to try all the pizzas to find out!
Across town, Santana's phone pings with a notification, causing both her and Erika to groan at the interruption to their intense game of Mortal Kombat. "If you put this game on pause to answer that, I'm going to be pissed because I'm like this close to whooping your ass!" Erika tells Santana bluntly. Santana just grunts in return while both women pound the buttons of the controllers frantically, each trying to create the best combo to knock out the other player. With a successful jab-cross-front kick-roundhouse, Erika KO's Santana's character and let's out a victory whoop. Santana grumbles over losing to Erika and goes to reach for her phone to see who sent her a text. "That's right. Go ahead and blame the text notification for why you lost to me," Erika gloats.
"Hey! I was distracted thinking that it could be someone from the hospital who needed my help or something like that. I do have an important life outside of video games!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Lopez. You're just a sore loser when it comes to playing video games. Actually, I take that back. You're a sore loser whenever it comes to any kind of game — electronic, board, or card!"
"I prefer to call it driven, not a 'sore loser'," Santana defends herself. "That's what gotten me to where I'm at now for soccer and for my orthopedic career. I hate losing, so I always give everything I got. But, I admit, you played well today, my worthy opponent. Same deal as normal? Loser buys dinner?"
"Duh. And I'm craving some carbs, so how about something Italian?"
"Okay, Italian it is. Now, may I please look at my phone to check my notification and then order pizza?" Erika nods. "Thank you," Santana says jokingly as she finally checks her phone and sees that the notification is a text from Quinn. Santana reads the text and then types out a reply before switching over to another app to order pizza for her and Erika. Almost as soon as she starts to order their pizza, her phone pings again with another text notification.
"Damn, someone is popular today, aren't they?" Erika jokes and waits for a smart tort back from Santana, but when she doesn't immediately get one, she looks up from her own phone and sees Santana blushing slightly while tapping out a reply. "Ohh, who's making you blush, San?"
"Wha, what?" Santana asks, trying to play dumb though she knows that she is definitely blushing now, if she wasn't before, because she can feel the burn creeping up her neck and ears. "I have no idea what you mean."
"Bullshit, San. You totally do! So who's the lucky lady that's making you blush? Is it some other intern or someone from the hospital?"
"Uh, no. Um, actually, it's Quinn."
Erika raises her eyebrows questioningly. "Quinn, eh? How'd that happen?" Inwardly, Erika thinks to herself that the next time she sees Beth, she needs to let her know that their little operation is working, regardless of whether or not Santana or Quinn know about it.
"It's really nothing," Santana states as she glances at her phone again due to the vibration that she feels from her phone. Quinn's name again pops up. "Really, it's nothing. I'm just being friendly and gave her a list of the different pizza places that I frequent so her and Beth can try them out."
"You gave Quinn a list of pizza places to try out? San, I've known you for how long and you've never done that for me before. You sure that it's nothing? I mean, for you, food is everything."
Santana glares pointedly at Erika. "Yes, I'm sure. Now, do you want me to order pizza or not?" Erika nods her head, which satisfies Santana. "Are you going to be chill the rest of the day and not bombard me with questions about this? It's just pizza, okay?"
Erika rolls her eyes and nods. "Sure San, whatever you say. If you need to think it's just pizza, then it's just pizza."
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A/N: Sorry everyone for such a long break with this story. Life happens and things change, so you gotta do you. But, I'm back now and will hopefully be posting more often.