"How was I supposed to know that Mike got sea sick?" Brittany scowled at Charlie. "He's never been on a boat before and it wasn't exactly a smooth ride!"

"It's a yacht and he threw up in the cabin, it's going to smell like vomit for days. The least he could have done was throw up into the ocean or something." Charlie snaps back crossing his arms over his chest. "I didn't even get to go fishing!"

"He said he was sorry, I don't know what you want from me Chu—Charlie." Brittany said leaning back in the car seat. She didn't like this, she didn't want to leave Mike alone but he had insisted and Charlie had made her sit in the back seat like she was a child. "Santana, make him stop being mean."

Santana glanced at the two of them from the corner of her eye, she had been distracted all day. She was sure Charlie had noticed but their relationship was far more physical than it was emotional, he didn't ask and she wasn't going to give up the information until it was too late for him to back out of it or jump out of a moving car. "Charlie stop being a dick." She shakes her head, Charlie and Brittany acted like children, it had been funny at first but now ten minutes into the ride she was already sick of it.

"Me?" Charlie scowled. "My boat smells like vomit and I didn't get to go fishing! I was promised time to fish. I even got the right bait, I mean come on." He was going to simply go fishing by himself next time. He was going to spend the entire day out on the open ocean listening to music while fishing for tuna.

Santana resisted the urge to smack her head against the steering, she was tempted to simply turn the car around, "How do the two of you not have a car?"

"Do you know how expensive the upkeep of a car is?" Charlie asked. "I'd have to pay for gas, insurance, repairs—I mean I'm sure I could figure it out but I'd have to pay for parts—"

"He bought the cheapest car that he could find, but the repairs were worth more than he paid and it was a fire hazard. It started to smoke the second day he had it. So, he makes Lucas take him where he wants to go because Lucas got a proper car."

"Lucas?" Santana asked.

"My oldest brother," Brittany said with a shrug looking at Charlie and shaking her head. This whole thing was stupid, Santana liked him even though he was being a jerk which meant that she'd like him even if she found out his last name was Fabray.

"As for the reason Britt doesn't have a car it's because she's not allowed behind the wheel of a car. Pretty sure she's on a blacklist." Charlie offered, smirking. They couldn't even find a driving school for Brittany. She was an absolute menace behind the wheel of a car.

Santana glanced back at Brittany who grinned and shuddered. No wonder Charlie had refused outright to let Brittany steer the ship. She smiled despite herself, this night was going to be a disaster, but at least she had the memories of today which despite Mike puking his guts up in Charlie's cabin hadn't been that bad. While she was on the topic of puking, she could feel her own stomach flip uncomfortably. It was getting worse as they got closer to Lucianda's, Charlie wasn't even dressed to go to a fancy restaurant. He simply didn't have a suit, in fact she managed to choose the least offensive pair of clothes that Charlie owned that were clean. His jeans were covered in grease, and the rest of his clothes were in a desperate need of a laundry run. He blamed that on her, like it was her fault that he couldn't do his own laundry. But he looked nice, it wasn't meet the parents nice or even a fancy restaurant nice, but the khaki shorts and the simple light blue t-shirt that was only a tiny bit too tight for him. It was the best that she could do given the short time she had allotted herself.

"Am I underdressed?" Charlie asked pulling Santana out of her thoughts as he stared at the restaurant in question. He had been to places like this before judging by the all the needlessly expensive cars in the parking lot. He glanced down at himself and shrugged, he didn't personally care, getting dressed up to eat food was stupid as far as he was concerned.

"You're always underdressed," Brittany informs him reaching up and smacking him upside the head. She scowls when Charlie smacks her hand hard. She's about to smack him again when Santana glares at the two of them and clears her throat. "Sorry," she mumbles.

"You didn't have a suit—"

"Which I wouldn't have worn even if I did, who dresses up to eat food? How does dressing up in fancy clothes make the food on the plate taste better? Besides the portions are probably tiny. Look Santana, you might have your heart set on this place, but how about we go to that pizza joint that was two exits back? I think it may have a play area for Brittany—ow!"

"Stop being mean to me!" Brittany puffs out her cheeks irritated at her brother.

Santana sighed, as she found a place to park. "I'd love to, but we can't."

"We can't because?" Charlie asks flicking his eyes to the restaurant again, he had a feeling he wasn't going to like this answer.

Santana winced, "My parents are waiting—and they don't really like to be kept waiting." Santana flinched when Charlie turned to stare at her. "They called this morning, I don't even know what they were doing up that early, but they're irritated at me for not spending any time at home and they want to be overly involved in my life so they wanted to meet Brittany probably to pick your mind about your dad—I'm sorry Brittany," Santana threw over her shoulder. "And they wanted to meet my new—boyfriend."

Charlie frowns, this was why he avoided complicated relationships like this. This was just supposed to be a bit of fun between two people. "And I'm guessing that if I blew this off, your parents would just find a way to—"

"Follow us around until they finally got what they wanted? Yeah, pretty much." Santana agrees.

"Great." Charlie mutters pulling at his shirt, he was underdressed. As far as he knew Santana's father already hated him, and more importantly he hated restaurants like this.

Brittany pokes Charlie after a second, "Too bad Lucas isn't here. Lucas is great with parents. Maybe it's the whole 'I'm going to be a big fancy businessman' persona but every one of his girlfriend's parents loved him."

"Or it could be because of his last name, they think that being linked to you will open up opportunities for them." It was what her parents thought, and while she used it to her advantage and perhaps it was the first reason she had been nice to Brittany but she did actually like Brittany. To the point where she wished that they could have been friends all throughout high school, it might have been easier having someone she could trust. She glances at Charlie who doesn't exactly look pleased with the turn of the events, and was picking at his shirt, it was already starting, even though she had set him up to fail. He was still going to fall over himself trying to impress her family, at least with Brittany there they would be more interested in attempted to needle out business relationship.

Charlie sighs and shrugs deciding to give up on any attempt of impressing Santana's family, they thought he was some poor mechanic and he wasn't truly in the mood to challenge their misconceptions or have them start kissing his ass. "Well, at least I'm getting a free meal out of this, but so we're clear this doesn't count towards the fact that you haven't bought me dinner yet."

Santana rolls her eyes, "I'll buy you a pizza on our way home."

"Extra large, with triple cheese, and double meat portions," Charlie insists immediately. He was going to get this in writing. "I suppose I'll have to buy the beer myself," Charlie sighs, it was his fault for dating someone who was barely out of her teens. He opens the door, still thinking, "Also wings, and breadsticks."

Santana rolled her eyes, she was going to get him a medium pepperoni pizza with some breadsticks, wings were needlessly expensive and she wanted no part of it. Though if this went as bad as she thought it would then buying him a shit ton of food might actually distract him from being angry at her. Or at the very least talking about her dad like he wanted to become him. "Yeah, sure whatever," she said as she put her keys in her purse and exhaled.

Brittany watched Santana for a moment before elbowing her brother in the ribs, "Don't be you. She probably wants her parents to like you."

"Brilliant advice," Charlie responded pushing Brittany away from him. He was who he was, he wasn't going to change who he was just to impress Santana's stuck up parents, they weren't even really dating. Hell, Santana didn't even like him, and he didn't like being dragged into these situations. "Excuse me while I don't take it," he adds, holding the door open for Santana.

Brittany sticks her tongue out and slips through the door after Santana. This was going to be a train wreck but that was why she liked Charlie better than Lucas. It was so much more fun to watch him crash and burn while insisting that everything was fine. Today she even got front row seats.

Santana glanced back at Charlie and Brittany, they were still bickering and she shook her head and reached out to take Charlie's hand. Maybe if her parents saw a united front? Whether it would grant Charlie any mercy, she had no idea but it was worth a shot. She spots her parents and abuela chatting noting that they had gone with best seat in the house. No expense had been spared to impress Brittany, who they probably thought would inform her father, but as far as she knew Brittany didn't talk to her dad nearly as much unless she wanted something.

"Mija, stop wasting time and introduce us to your friends." Carlos encourages with a pointed look. She gulps, and steps forward.

"Brittany these are my parents. Parents this is my friend—"

"Best friend," Brittany corrects with a smile.

"Right, best friend Brittany and this—" Santana motions to Charlie who forces a smile onto his face. "Is my boyfriend, uh Charlie."

"Well, I can certainly see why you've been distracted," Maribel said studying the man with a critical eye, he was pretty enough but he wasn't dressed to impress anyone and his clothes were cheap. In a restaurant like this it was obvious he didn't belong here.

Charlie extends his hand to Mr. Lopez, "We've met at North Sails? I'm the mechanic—"

"I remember," Carlos interrupted instead choosing to focus his attention on Brittany. "We're pleased to meet you. Santana's told us so much about you. The fact that you got into MIT? That's rather impressive."

Brittany shrugged, "Not really, it was either MIT or Caltech and my parents worried about me going all the way to California by myself. I personally feel that Caltech has the better program but MIT offered me a full ride scholarship, while Caltech didn't. Which means I have a bit more freedom at MIT, than I would at Caltech."

Maribel's eyes widened, "That's rather impressive, Santana got into Yale, while it isn't Harvard which is Carlos's Alma Mater, or Columbia, which is mine—it's a decent enough school, perhaps if she had spent a bit more time doing volunteer work instead of cheerleading then she would have gotten into both schools."

Santana flushed deeply, she had busted her ass off, and she had been put on the waiting list for Harvard. So, what if she wasn't going to MIT, Yale was still one of the big three and it was still an Ivy league school. "Right," she muttered and smiled when Brittany shot her an apologetic look. She hadn't meant to make Brittany feel bad about succeeding, but her family made her feel so inferior sometimes.

"And what about you?" Alma asked turning her attention to Charlie who had picked up a menu and seemed rather bored with the entire affair.

Charlie blinks he hadn't given much thought about this whole conversation, he had hoped that they would simply ignore his existence the entire night. "I—"

"Charlie lives in his own boat."

'He's a mechanic,' Carlos interrupts turning to look at his mother. 'Probably went to a trade school.'

Santana flushed and glanced at Charlie who had stopped talking and was watching Carlos, she had no idea if he understood Spanish well enough to discern what her father had said. "Papi."

'Am I wrong?' Carlos responds and looks at Charlie frowning when the boy simply goes back to his menu. Yet another one of Santana's rebellious phase boyfriends. When Santana doesn't say anything, he takes it as an affirmation and decides to focus his attention on the boy, he looked like a slacker a beach bum, and even from here he could see the grease that clung under his fingernails. He was sure that his daughter found that attractive. "So, Charlie was it? What is that your parents do?"

Charlie frowned at the question, what did it matter what his parents did? He wasn't going to hold this horrible dinner on Santana, even though she had basically kidnapped him and drove him here under false pretenses. Actually, he was going to hold it against her. Maybe he should add a dessert to that list of things that Santana was buying him for dinner. "My mom works for some charity or another and I have no idea what my dad does. I'm sure he's told me a million times, but I honestly can't remember."

Brittany bit her lip and tried not to laugh out loud, it was classic Charlie. It also explained a lot and she had never actually believed the story of Charlie falling asleep during bring your parent to school day until now. She can't help but let out a small giggle and it's enough to cause some laughter around the table.

Charlie blinks slowly and turns to Santana and flashes her a small smile and pats her hand. Things were not going terribly, in fact as far as he was concerned things were going rather well. Despite his own feelings, he's somewhat aware that Santana probably doesn't think the same thing.

But Santana is trying desperately to hide her smirk. It's not like she likes getting under her parents' skin, nor is she hanging out with Charlie just to piss them off. But that is clearly an added bonus. No. She had simply never had a boyfriend—or a friend for that matter—care so little for her father's wealth and influence. She's tempted to reach over and kiss Charlie right there but thinks better of it. She's about to tell them to back off when she's too slow to stop her Abuela from joining in.

"You don't know what your father does?" Her abuela practically gasps in shock.

Santana grimaces and cuts in before her parents can be any more humiliating. "It's not like I know what you do Papi. Maybe you and Charlie's dad are in the same business?" She says, more to make a point than that she actually thinks it's true. She thinks it's ridiculous that her father cares so much about appearances and status and is glad when he simply gulps down his own retort.

Charlie laughs, and shoots a glare at Brittany to try and force her to stay quiet. "Yeah, maybe."

"Well, perhaps I know him, or have done business with him," Carlos offers. "Charlie what was it?"

"Just Charlie, like Madonna. One name." Charlie responds and pauses when Brittany finally loses her shit and begins to laugh. He scratches his chin a bit puzzled by the reaction but he flashes his sister a small smile.

"Well if you aren't going to take this seriously—"

"No, Papi. This is my boyfriend and you're acting as if this is some sort of job interview. If you aren't going to take meeting him seriously, then maybe we should just go. There's a pizza place down the street—"

"You're joking." Carlos rolls his eyes. "You aren't going to pass up Lucianda's for pizza. That's like turning away a filet mignon steak for a street vendor's hot dog. Now stop making a scene."

But Santana feels emboldened. She loves her father and he's not always an asshole, but she's tired of trying to step through the ridiculous hoops that he has for her. Charlie is a decent guy—yeah, he was a bit of an ass, but at least he was up-front about it. "You're the one making the scene. Come on Charlie, Britt—let's go."

"Oh, thank god, can we get ice cream for dessert?" Charlie asks dumping the menu on the table and scrambling to his feet.

Santana shook her head and glances at Brittany, who smiles politely at her parents. "It was nice meeting you," Brittany said with a pleased smile. "Oh, you don't mind if Santana comes with me to New York? There's a Broadway performance that I have to go see and I really don't want to go alone with my parents—or Frannie." Brittany doesn't wait for Santana's parents to say anything more before she moves to catch up with her brother and Santana. She's about to call shotgun this time when she stops a few steps back and watches Santana pull Charlie by his shirt and kiss him deeply.

Charlie blinks when Santana pulls away and begins to pull her keys out of her purse. "Uh? Not that I'm complaining but—?"

Santana shrugs, she was probably in deep shit, grounded for life, but it was worth it. "Thanks for not kissing my dad's ass."

"Why would I do that? I'm not into men's butts." Charlie points out and shudders, it was probably hairy.

"It's hard you know when people know your dad and use you for the connections that you have, and you don't know if they want to be with you or they're just using you to get close to your family."

Charlie blinked noting the pain in Santana's voice, "Yeah, I do get it." Charlie admits after a moment scratching his cheek. So maybe Santana wasn't someone he could completely write off.

Santana smiled, he was attempting to be nice, which was a bit weird but she shrugs it off. She didn't need him placating her, what she needed was a place to stay for the night. She was simply going to switch off her phone and just relax, she'd deal with the fallout tomorrow. "Can I crash at your place tonight?"

"Sure, I don't think Mike's going to be up for much fun tonight, so we can have a girl's night." Brittany said with a smile.

Santana nods, "Were you serious about heading to New York?"

"Yeah, Lucas's girlfriend is on Broadway, it's a small part but Lucas is like super crazy about her. I think he's going to propose, so we're going as a family to support her. She's not in one of the cool Broadway performances like Lion King or any of the Disney ones. But after that's done we can totes party before heading back."

Santana glances at Charlie a slow smirk crossing her face, "Could you—"

"No, we're not going clubbing, it's highway robbery to party in New York. Besides I'm going with Lucas the following week, and he's going to pay for my drinks," Charlie grumbled. He loved his twin and they had fun together but he wasn't going to drain his sizeable bank account to party it up with Lucas and Rachel and her weird theater friends.

Brittany nods, "Yeah Lucas is making him go, otherwise Charlie would stay on his boat for the rest of the summer bitching about how he can't go fishing." Brittany said immediately tapping the door to the passenger side door. "Shotgun."

Charlie grunted and sighed and was about to take the back seat when Brittany grabs his arm, "What?"

"Take her to New York on a date, it would be romantic." Brittany hisses at him before smiling at Santana who glanced at the two of them. "Charlie's going to take you New York for a romantic weekend!"

"What?"

"Well," Santana says smirking at him. "It's about time you showed me more than your bedroom don't you think?"

"I took you to see dolphins twice!"

"On the boat in which you live in. Basically, your floating bedroom," Santana smiles and grins at Brittany, she really was a good friend.