Chapter 37

Valentines Day

February: Age 19, Spring of Freshman Year

Finn and Santana weren't kidding when they said they would have a jam packed schedule. Santana had a considerably easier week, and she even had Thursday mornings off. This was time for Finn to get some of his work done. Most of his courses were writing intensive. Santana helped him for Spanish by speaking it at home. It would also help Charlotte become bilingual. It wasn't super high on Finn's priority list, but they would help her learn new words.

Even through all of this, Finn felt that they needed to actually go out for Valentine's Day. He was very secretive about his plans. Amanda was able to babysit. She agreed to stay over only if Finn left money to order pizza, and not pay her. Finn felt bad, because he had offered to pay, but she flatly refused.

So the Saturday following Valentine's Day, there was a knock at their door. Santana was very confused but got up to answer the door. She opened it, to find Amanda was standing there all bundled up, cheeks all pinked up. "Amanda, what are you doing here?"

"Telling you to go get ready," she replied cheerily, forcing her way into the room.

"Get ready for what?" Santana asked.

"For our date," Finn chimed in. He emerged from their bedroom in a dress shirt and Dockers.

"Date?" she questioned.

"Our Valentine's Day date," Finn explained. Santana looked pointedly at Amanda. "I've asked Panda to babysit Char. So go get ready, you have an hour and a half." Santana's face lit up as she raced out of the room and began to get ready. Finn chuckled to himself as he heard the shower turn on. "Thanks for doing this Panda."

"No problem Finnie," Amanda joked. "You guys need this."

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Right up until they had to leave, Santana was running around, trying to find a shoe, do her hair, and finish her make-up. They said their goodbyes and final instructions to Amanda and were off to the Greek restaurant just outside of the main town.

The hostess was the wife of the owner. She was quite affable and sprinkled their table with little heart confetti. "Adorable you two are," she said heartily.

"Thank you," Finn replied. He felt like the cat that swallowed the canary. Here he was with a beautiful girl on his arm, who loved his daughter nearly as much as he did. They were succeeding in college. What more could they ask for? It ended up being a great night. They got to talk and laugh, and have a good time. Amanda had texted when she put Char to bed. The couple felt some relief. This was the first time that Charlotte had a babysitter that wasn't 'family'. They had finished dinner and gotten dessert when some music came on. "Would you like to dance?" Finn asked, holding out his hand.

"I'd love to," Santana replied, a smile spreading across her face. She put her hand in his and he led her over to the makeshift dance floor. They swayed together on the dance floor turning in a small circle. "I miss this."

"I do miss spending one on one time with you," Finn agreed. "I wish we could do this more often."

"Maybe we could convince Amanda to come over at least once a month and we can get out and be together," Santana suggested.

"We can certainly budget for that," Finn acquiesced.

"I'm glad," she sighed. "Because as much as I love that little girl, we do need time for just us."

"I know, now we know for sure she likes Amanda," Finn replied. "I love you."

"I love you too," Santana replied. Finn leaned down and gave her a kiss. The hostess was nearly in tears of how sweet they looked. She then gave them free dessert. After dinner Finn suggested that they take a walk up the street. It wasn't too cold out and some of the shops were still open, so it was nice to just walk through town.

Once they meandered back to the car, Finn drove them home. Amanda was watching a show on Netflix relaxing on the couch. "Hey guys. Did you enjoy dinner?"

"It was delicious," Santana gushed. "We went to the Greek place outside of town."

"I heard they had good baklava."

"Oh yeah,"

"How was Charlotte?" Finn asked, starting to head to his daughters room.

"She was fine. We ate some pizza, watched some sesame street, took a bath, and read a book. She was out like a light," Amanda reported. Finn had to go check just to make sure.

"Hey, we wanted to run something by you," Santana said to Amanda.

"Sure, what's up?"

"We need to have a date night. At least once a month and we were wondering if you would mind babysitting?"

"I'm sure I can," Amanda shrugged. "I just have to double check my calendar."

"Oh course," Santana agreed. "This is so awesome. We had so much fun tonight, and we just need to spend some one-on-one time together."

"I totally get it."

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