"Let's get some coffee. I think we deserve it," Brittany said when she put her money back in her purse and grabbed the shopping bag that contained her newly acquired dress. Santana stood near the exit and waited for her with her phone in her hand.
"Sounds good," she responded as she tore her eyes away from her phone. They started walking in silence until they passed a little café outside the mall. "How about that one over there?" Santana pointed at the cozy coffee shop and looked at Brittany expectantly.
"Sure, I like it there. Their cakes are really good." They took a seat opposite from each other outside at a little table on which sat a vase that contained a single flower. They leaned their bags against it, picked up the menu and started skimming through the various choices. But Brittany didn't really notice what she was reading, because she caught several glimpses of the beautiful woman in front of her. It was so cute how she pulled her bottom lip between her lips. Her lips were so plump and looked so soft. Brittany felt the sudden urge to stand up and take Santana's head in her hands. She wanted to feel her lips crashing into hers and…
Santana looked up from her menu and recognized the sudden change in Brittany's eyes. They were much darker, but she couldn't really put it into words. When Brittany snapped out of her daydream with wide eyes, her face nearly changed into the color of a tomato. She held her menu in front of her face and cursed. Santana started laughing and pulled the menu down to look at her. "Brittany? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, sure. Everything's fine," she quickly answered and suddenly the grey pavement was way more interesting than Santana's face. "It's just a bit hot here, don't you think?"
Santana knew that she wanted to change the topic, but she wouldn't let it slide so easily. "All of a sudden, hm? I seemed that you were thinking about something. Willing to share?" Santana smirked knowingly at her and rested her head on her hands as she leaned forward. The table wasn't really big so her face was not so far away from Brittany's. Their eyes locked again and Brittany couldn't help but get lost in Santana's beautiful chocolate brown eyes. But then she remembered that Santana was waiting for her answer and she seriously had no idea what to tell her. She tore her gaze away and caught a glimpse of the waitress in the corner of her eye. The young girl quickly made her way to their table and held a little note pad and a pen in her hands. Brittany let out a relieved sigh, shifted in her seat, and sat upright.
"What can I get you two?" The young asked cheerfully. She shifted her glance between the two women at the table and smiled brightly.
"A coffee and a piece of chocolate cake for me, please." Brittany looked back to Santana with a smirk, because she recognized the disappointed expression on her face. From what Brittany could tell, Santana really wanted to know what was going through her mind, but she would never find out. Ever.
"Can I get a piece of strawberry cake and a cappuccino please?" she asked the waitress in a friendly tone.
"Sure." She scribbled their orders on her note pad and quickly made her way inside the café.
"So Santana, why do you need a dress? Any special occasion?" Brittany asked, interested.
Noticing that Brittany didn't want to talk about her previous hot flashes, Santana dropped the topic. "Actually I needed it for my brother's wedding. And I just found out yesterday that he wants me to sing to their first dance. So I thought I couldn't show up in baggy clothes. And, voila, here I am." Brittany laughed lightly at her answer.
"That's so cute of your brother to let you sing during his wedding. I bet you're really good. Do you sing professionally?" Brittany asked, earnestly interested.
"Oh, no." Santana let out a breathy laugh at the assumption. "No, I just finished studying this year and I got a job as an estate agent," she answered proudly. She really worked her ass off the last few years and finally all of her work paid off.
"Wow. You must have studied hard for that."
"Yeah, I did," Santana's smile grew. In the last months, nobody really noticed, except her best friend, Mercedes, what Santana had achieved and she was happy that someone, who she met just one and a half hour ago, sensed her hard work and was impressed by it.
Their waitress returned back to their table and placed the coffees in front of them. With an enthusiastic, "There you go," she put the plates with the cakes beside the coffee. "Enjoy your cake!"
Both women replied with a friendly, "Thanks," and continued their conversation.
"So, Brittany, what do you do for work?" Santana asked after she took a sip of her hot coffee.
"Oh, I'm doing many different things. At the moment I'm working at a club as a waitress. It's not perfect but it's enough money to pay the rent and to live from. In my spare time, I teach kids to dance hip hop at a youth center. It is voluntary work, but I have so much fun doing it, so the money doesn't really matter to me," she told her. Santana watched Brittany's eyes lit up by talking about her work.
"That's impressive. I think it's great when people like you do such work. Because I know I couldn't do it," Santana replied honestly. Brittany had the biggest smile on her face by now.
"Thanks. I think you would be good with the kids, too. You could teach some of them to sing." Brittany looked like she had a sudden inspiration. "Julie likes to sing. Maybe we should ask her to…"
"Woah, Brittany…wait a second. I'm not really good with kids and I'm super busy with my job right now, so I don't think it's a good idea." She flashed Brittany an apologizing smile. "Sorry."
"Oh okay." She looked a bit disappointed and she lowered her gaze. Santana couldn't stand to see the woman in front of her so sad, so she stretched her arm a bit to take Brittany's hand in hers.
"Hey," Santana said softly as she rubbed circles on the back of her hand. Brittany immediately looked surprised at her and let a smile form on her face. "Sadly I have no time to teach something, but I would love to watch you and your kids dance sometime." Brittany's smile grew more and she nodded her head. "But only if you want me to. And if I'm not wasting your time." Brittany shook her head no instantly.
"No. I would love that. The kids would be so happy to show their dance to someone other than their parents."
"Great. So it's settled then." Both women smiled at each other. Suddenly Santana realized that she still held Brittany's hand and now it seemed a bit inappropriate. So she took her hand back to her fork and continued eating her strawberry cake.
Brittany did the same. "Can I eat that strawberry? Or do you want it? You can also try some chocolate cake," Brittany asked hesitantly.
"Sure. Go ahead." Brittany took the strawberry at the edge of the plate dipped it in some whipped cream and brought it to her mouth. Her lips closed seductively – in Santana's line of view, of course– around the fruit as she took a bite. A tiny bit of juice leaked out and dripped down her chin. Brittany laughed and tried to stop it from falling as she tilted her head back. But Santana only sat there, mouth slightly agape and kind of turned on by the sight. All of the sudden she felt embarrassed to have really dirty thoughts about Brittany right now, because…well, she only ate a strawberry.
"Santana? Are you okay?" A concerned voice asked when she was brought back to reality. She felt her face flushing. "It's hot outside, isn't it, Santana?" She asked with her famous knowingly smirk from earlier. She totally did that on purpose. Brittany returned back to her cake smiling. After the last bite Brittany cleaned her fork with her tongue and closed the lips around it without breaking eye contact. Brittany noticed –still with her smirk plastered on her face– when Santana unconsciously licked her perfectly shaped lips. Why was Brittany doing that to her?
*B*S*
An animated conversation, exchanged numbers, and some staring contests later, Brittany asked the slightly hyperactive waitress to bring the bill. When she came back to their table, they were already searching for their money.
"Hi. I hope you and your girlfriend enjoyed the food," she told Brittany with a huge smile. Both of them looked like deer caught in the headlights. Awkward silence fell over the three women. But then brown eyes met blue, and they both burst out laughing. The waitress only joined in confused, not really knowing what she was laughing at. That only caused the women to laugh louder; a few tears escaped their eyes and their stomachs began to hurt.
When the laughter died down, Santana started to wipe her tears away. "No. We're not a couple…" she explained the waitress with a little chuckle. "We just met about two hours ago."
Now the poor girl started to understand what just happened. A blush crept over her face and she looked away, ashamed. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry about that – it was just the way you acted…"
The two women shared a curious look. "What did we do, though?" Brittany asked with a smile. She looked back to the waitress.
"Well, it was just the way you... I can't really explain. Just how you looked at each other or the way you held her hand." She looked over to Santana apologizing. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that."
"It's no problem, really. Don't worry about it. So what do we owe you?"
"Oh, you're not going to pay for that. It's on the house. I embarrassed you and I'm really sorry about that. You don't have to pay." She waved them off and nodded her head for emphasizing.
"Are you sure? It's no problem. We can pay." Brittany assured her and grabbed onto her purse.
"No. I insist." She turned a bit towards the other tables and looked over her shoulder. "Have a great day, you two." She added with a smile and returned inside.
"Well…" Brittany started. "That was random." They laughed lightly, grabbed their bags from underneath the table, and left the mall behind. On their way to the parking lot Santana's phone buzzed in her pocket.
"Excuse me, but I have to take this," she told Brittany when she saw her best friend's name at the screen.
"Go ahead." Brittany looked up as she searched for her car keys in her purse.
"Hello?" Santana asked friendly.
"Hey San. How is it going? " Mercedes and Santana met in college. They shared a room in the dorm and quickly became friends. Now Santana was working at the same firm as Mercedes's boyfriend Sam. He was really nice and helped her to get along with everything.
"Hey, pretty good. Guess what? ... I found a dress," she told her proudly.
"No way. How did that happen? Praise the lord." Mercedes laughed and Santana quickly joined. Brittany shot a curious glance in her direction and quirked an eyebrow.
"Actually, I had really good help." She winked at Brittany quickly, who was smiling shyly at the ground and fidgeting with her keys. They stopped walking and came to halt next to a small grey Fiat. It was probably Brittany's. It suited her pretty well.
"Really? Tell me about her." Mercedes had noticed her best friend's flirty voice, which probably meant a girl's presents. She was paying attention now and was most likely leaning back into her couch already. "I want to know everything that happened today, Santana. Now."
"Sorry, Cedes, but I have to go. I'll call as soon as I'm home, okay?" She seriously did not feel like explaining everything to her right now. Especially when Brittany was still standing beside her.
"You better do, girl. See you." Mercedes sounded a bit annoyed, but that didn't really matter to her at that moment. What mattered was Brittany standing there, her eyes expectantly locked with hers and the corners of her lips slightly curled up. She was just so beautiful.
"Yeah, bye," she ended the call and put her phone back into the pocket of her sweater. "So…" she wanted to break the silence that fell upon them but didn't know what to say to her. She wanted to tell her that she looked beautiful and that she had such a great day. Probably the best in a long time. She wanted to ask her out on a date, to hold her, to kiss her, even if they just met a few hours ago. In Santana's mind it seemed right, appropriate. But what if Brittany didn't feel the same? What if Santana was just a pleasant surprise who helped her to find a dress? She was already thinking too much. She always did that. And now she was standing there like a total idiot.
But before she could think about the right things to say, Brittany wrapped her arms around her. Santana immediately let her bags fall to the ground, her hands found their way to Brittany's back and squeezed lightly. She felt so soft and warm and nice. She never wanted to let her go. "I would love to see you again." She whispered in her right ear, which caused Santana to shiver involuntarily. Brittany noticed and smiled against her shoulder. When they pulled apart both of them beamed at each other.
"You will, Brittany. I had a great day. Shopping with you is…so much more fun than going alone," she told her genuinely.
"Well, you can call me anytime you want." She added a wink, which felt like the hundredth that day.
"I definitely will." They both smiled as Santana picked up her bags. "See you soon, Brittany." She started towards her car.
"Take care," Brittany said softly.
Santana turned her head back to the pretty blonde once again and looked over her shoulder when she closed her car door.
So… let me know what you think. ;) It feels great to know that people actually take time to read my story.
And a special thanks to Adi who is my awesome beta. You're really great. :)