They walked to a small café that was close by. It was on a quiet and narrow street, its sidewalks were populated with tall trees. On the front of the café, there was a metal sign that read "La Rambla" in elaborate typography. Santana immediately took a seat at one of the two tables that were outside on the sidewalk, each under an awning which protected them from the drizzle that kept coming down. Brittany took a seat opposite Santana and Cerbero just lied down on a dry part of the floor beside the table.
Brittany suddenly felt anxious. The girl in front of her seemed completely at ease, like she went to that café quite often, but she also acted pretty indifferent towards Brittany's presence there. In order to assuage her nerves, Brittany focused her attention on the inside of the café, which she could partially see from a window. The place was old school, with wooden paneling and gold fixtures. Behind the bar, the bartender methodically dried glasses. The only two people that were seated at the tables were an old lady having tea and a bald middle aged man who was reading the paper. It was the last place in the world that she would have imagined Santana in.
Santana cleared her throat and Brittany noticed that a waiter was standing beside their table, with an inquisitive look on his face. She smiled at him, then looked at Santana and asked "What's good here?" Santana just looked up at the waiter and said "Dos cafés con leche y medialunas, por favor." The waiter just said "Muy bien." and left.
Brittany had a pretty good idea that Santana had just ordered her a coffee with milk. So she looked at her questioningly. Santana just smiled and said "There's nothing particularly good here. That's the whole point. There's a whole culture around cafés in this city. You order something and then you just sit down with someone and talk about anything, or if you are alone, you read. The coffee is an excuse. But still, the stuff here is a million times better than what you usually order, if memory serves me right," she finished jokingly.
Brittany caught Santana's playful jab at her and made a quick decision to have some fun of her own. "Wait," she said in feigned confusion, "how do you know what I usually order?" She saw a flash of panic go through Santana's expression and the girl started to try to save face by awkwardly making excuses as to why she'd guessed Brittany's order. Santana's flustered face was so comically cute to Brittany that she couldn't hold her laughter in.
A bit out of breath and with a huge smile on her face she said, "Don't worry so much. I know how you know my order, I remember that day at the Starbucks. I was only having a little fun. I'm glad I did, the look on your face was priceless." Santana frowned but couldn't hold in her smile "Well, that was mean," she said, and then they both laughed together.
The tension and nerves Brittany had felt before were soon gone, and she decided that maybe the best way to get to the very guarded and cool girl in front of her was by being playful and cheeky and just overwhelmingly open. So when she blurted out that she'd lost her virginity in her neighbor's tree house, but not with her neighbor, she wasn't being random and ditzy, she was making a calculated play to get Santana talking to her.
That all may have seemed too obvious to her, but the other girl's dumbfounded expression told her that she'd need to let Santana in on just what type of game it was that she was playing. "Come on," she said, "now you have to tell me something secret about yourself. It's how the game works."
Santana crossed her arms in front of her chest and said "We are strangers, why would I tell you my secrets? And why would you believe me if I told you any?" Brittany frowned at Santana's reaction but recovered soon, "Well, I think the whole point of telling each other secrets is that we don't know each other. I mean, it's nice to just be able to say these things and not have them weigh on the history you have with another person, because we don't share any history. So go on, stranger," she dared her with a smile.
Santana, as Brittany had accurately guessed, was never one to back out of a dare, so it was no surprise when she said, "Okay I'll play along, but here are the rules. One is no lame secrets, like, just because you haven't told anyone that Khloe is really your favorite Kardashian, it doesn't mean that it's a secret. Two is you can't ask questions, you only get as much information as the other person volunteers." As soon as Santana had finished naming the rules, the waiter showed up with their coffees and some pastries that looked very much like croissants.
Once the waiter was gone, Brittany focused on Santana, "Okay," said the blonde "It's your turn." Santana looked to the side and seemed to ponder her answer for a small while, until finally she looked at Brittany with a serious expression and said, "I can't really parallel park and Queens has four less fire hydrants thanks to me and my dad's shitty, old Cadillac."
Brittany chuckled and immediately after she said "I'm pretty sure I made my sister happen, because when I was five, I stole my mom's birth control and may have misplaced a few of the pills. Anyways, she always says it was a happy accident, because she has a really bad memory for keeping track of those things, but I think it was totally my fault." Santana looked at her with raised eyebrows and an amused smile.
She quickly responded with another secret. "I have been fired from three jobs, so far. The last one was a waitressing job. I got fired because I broke the day manager's hand. He pinched my ass twice, so I figured he deserved it," Santana said and shrugged as if she hadn't given the situation a second thought. Brittany thought that the girl had a tendency to punch assholes who liked to get too handsy. The blonde was usually against any type of violence, but she had to admit that the victims of Santana's rage were all pretty deserving of it.
Brittany suddenly had an idea: she thought she'd bait Santana with a sexy secret and see if the brunette would go along with it and tell one of her own. "I have been naked in a library on five different occasions. And not all of those times were for sex," she said in a mysterious and flirty tone.
Santana's eyebrows shot up and she smirked, "You're making it hard for me to not ask questions, you know?" she said, "I've got one. You know how I told you my Puerto Rican grandma is super religious? Well, when I was a teenager she used to make me go with her to Sunday mass. When I was seventeen I managed to get away from her during a sermon, and I had a quickie with someone in the confessionary. I still don't know how we managed to not get caught."
Brittany smiled and said "Oh, sneaky, I like that…" Santana let out a low laugh, Brittany watched her. She took in the way her eyes narrowed and her cheeks bunched up and a perfect dimple formed in the center of the left one. Her teeth were also pretty much perfect. She thought Santana's smile was adorable, but also seriously hot.
Then she took a sip of her coffee as she tried to come up with something new to say. She thought about telling Santana something important about herself, to make herself vulnerable and see how the other girl reacted. "When I was a kid, I wasn't the most conventional learner and I'd been home schooled up until high school. During my whole first year everyone in school thought I was stupid because I couldn't adjust. I never told my parents how badly I was doing. I just dealt with it; I taught myself how to learn like the rest of the kids. But it made me so sad to have to think like that, it still doesn't make sense to me," Brittany said in a defeated tone.
Santana looked at Brittany with soft eyes. Brittany thought she could see farther into Santana's eyes than ever before. She saw earnestness in them, and compassion and most of all, deep understanding. But then the brunette blinked, and she seemed to blink all those feelings away, and all that Brittany could see in those eyes then was pride and determination.
Santana took a deep breath, "Anyways, here's a big one: I didn't drop out of college, I got kicked out," she said quickly and then she looked down. After that confession, Brittany wanted to ask her a million questions, but rules are rules. So she let it go and she raised her cup of coffee to her lips, while she searched for a secret of her own.
Since Santana was still looking down and seemed more guarded than ever after her most recent revelation, Brittany decided to go the flirty way once more, and see if that could gain back the brunette's attention. "The first time I had an orgasm with someone other than myself, was with a girl who was in my high school cheerleading squad," she started, and Santana quickly looked up and into the blonde's eyes. "Before her I had only ever been with boys, so for a long time after that, I thought only girls could make me come. It wasn't until much later that I found out boys could do it too," Brittany said.
Brittany had hoped that Santana's reaction to her secret would tell her as much as her secret had revealed to Santana. Her strategy had been a success. Santana for the most part, had kept her cool. But the way she'd gripped the arm of the chair that she was sitting in just a bit tighter, and the way her eyes had darkened a few shades and that her mouth had slightly opened, told Brittany that her words had had the effect she'd expected. Santana was interested in her; possibly, also interested in making her come.
What Brittany hadn't expected was for Santana to maintain the eye contact, and then proceed to up the ante with a secret of her own, "The first time I made a girl come," she said, in a low and raspy tone, "I realized it wouldn't matter how many orgasms a boy could give me, there was no way they could be better than what I had just witnessed."
Upon hearing that piece of information, the blonde felt pulses of heat which started at her throat, traveled down her stomach and finally settled between her legs. She felt how the echoes and the vibration of Santana's voice were torturously making their way into her fantasies, filling them with new possibilities. The way Santana kept her eyes on Brittany's maintained a tension between them, which made the blonde's cheeks warm up, her heart speed up and her breath escape her. Brittany couldn't take it for very long and she broke the eye contact and shifted in her seat. She had to admit to herself that Santana had beaten her at her own game.
After that last exchange, it seemed that the game was over. Both girls concentrated on drinking their coffee and eating the pastries. Brittany had wanted to fling herself over the table and kiss Santana's face all over when she'd seen how the brunette had, very casually, held the last piece of her pastry under the table and in front of the dog's face, so that he could have some too. But throwing yourself at a girl you've just met is kind of inappropriate, even if you'd just been doing some pretty hardcore flirting, so Brittany settled for giving her a sweet and ample smile. The smile had seemed to make Santana a bit self-conscious, which had made Brittany want to kiss her even more. She'd found that Santana was really shy about other people noticing her kindness. That feature had made her even more attractive in Brittany's eyes.
Soon they'd left the café and walked back to the apartment. Santana let the dog off his leash and both of the girls went upstairs. They'd parted ways when Brittany had stopped at Quinn's door, with the intention of checking on her friend. Santana had glanced at her, mumbled a brief goodbye and shut herself in her own room once more. She had been indifferent and cool and the exchange had left Brittany thoroughly dissatisfied. She'd wanted a bit more from Santana, at least one single understated gesture that she'd enjoyed the time they'd spent together, but she'd had no such luck. Still, Brittany knew she'd made a connection with the brunette, and that alone was enough to paint a triumphant smile on her face.
Quinn was awake, so Brittany went into her room and sat at the foot of the bed. Quinn looked at her and quickly asked Brittany where she'd been all day. Brittany responded with a very noncommittal "Nowhere, just around," which motivated her friend to throw a pillow at her face and demand to know why the hell se was smiling like that, then. Brittany told Quinn only that she'd been out with Santana, and that she'd tell her more, later. Quinn tried to protest but Brittany just changed the subject.
Once Quinn had fallen asleep again, Brittany left her friend's room and took a shower. She was in her room in just cut off sweats and a t-shirt, drying her hair with a towel, when she realized that Quinn had all their adapters, and that she'd need one if she wanted to charge her phone.
She'd decided against waking her sick friend just to ask for an adapter. So instead she finished with her hair and thought she'd head towards Santana's room, to see if maybe she had one. Her idea wasn't entirely innocent; she wanted to see Santana once more. She could only hope that Santana would feel the same way about seeing her.
As she changed out of her sweats and slipped into dark skinny jeans she thought about how tricky it was to try to read Santana's behavior. She had been restrained and withholding at one moment, and completely overwhelming at the next.
When she got to the brunette's door, the first thing she noticed was the music; it was a different type of music than the nights before, it was some electronic indie thing, which instantly made Brittany's brain itch and her body want to dance. She knocked on Santana's door and waited. She heard movement on the other side of the door. Soon, Santana opened the door. She looked surprised to see Brittany there.
"Um, yes?" Santana asked in a serious tone. Brittany caught her first glimpse of the room behind the girl. It was bigger than hers and the walls seemed to be covered in band posters and strange drawings. The bed was against a wall, it had a red comforter on it. On the left of the bed there was a window, it was wide open.
Brittany switched her attention back to Santana and awkwardly spoke, "Oh, yes, sorry. I was wondering if you have any adapters for a phone charger, that I could maybe borrow?" she said. Santana's expression softened at the request. Brittany was relieved that Santana's guarded and defensive posture had changed so fast.
Santana moved to open her door wider and invited Brittany in. Brittany walked into the room and saw that there was a desk filled with an assortment of stuff haphazardly placed on it, a chair, and above the desk, there were two shelves that were filled with records. On the opposite wall there was a very comfortable looking, yet beaten-up couch. The room had nothing to do with the style of the rest of the house. After she'd looked around for a few long moments Brittany let out an impressed "Wow."
Santana cleared her throat, "It's my uncle's room. He lived in here when he was a teenager in the early 90s, that's why this place looks like it's frozen in time," she said, "Anyways, even though it looks like Nirvana threw up in here, it's roomy and it's got a great vinyl collection."
"I think it's kind of cool," Brittany said with a smile. Santana gave her a tight smile and said "Sit anywhere you want, It's gonna take me a while to find what you asked for in this mess," as she pointed to the desk.
Brittany, who had taken a seat on the couch, looked at Santana, who had her back turned to her and had been rummaging around the desk for a while, "So, what are your plans for tonight?" she casually asked.
Santana kept searching and she answered "No plans. You?" Brittany sighed, "Well, I don't think I'm gonna do anything today. Quinn is sick and I don't feel like going out on my own," she explained with a disappointed pout.
Santana turned around; she had found the adapter and was holding it in her hands. She looked Brittany up and down, taking in the blonde's expression and her casual appearance, "I figured you were staying in. But it's Friday night, you should be making plans, drinking, getting naked in libraries, whatever it is you do…" she said as she handed the adapter to Brittany.
She leaned against the desk as she took a moment and seemed to contemplate something in her mind. Then she spoke again, "Anyways, I'm off work today, and I refuse to go to a club on my day off, I mean I'm at a point where thinking about having to ward off some sweaty douchebag who insists on rubbing up against me on the dance floor gives me PTSD," she said with a disgusted expression and an exaggerated shudder. "So I'm just gonna smoke a bit of pot, play some music and eat some really unhealthy food. You're welcome to join me," she suggested coolly, with an almost practiced ease.
Brittany didn't have to think about it too much. She was far from sleepy or tired, and the music in the room was already making her bounce in her seat. She'd enjoyed smoking pot on several previous occasions, and the thought of spending more time with Santana was exciting, so she just answered her with a happy sounding "Yes, I'd love to get baked and eat junk food with you, sounds fun!"
Santana just laughed at her. When Brittany asked her what was so funny, she just answered "Nothing, it's just that you keep surprising me." Santana had seemed a bit taken off guard by her own admission, which, in turn, had left Brittany with a strange feeling of accomplishment.
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Hi, I have nothing charming to say. Thanks for the reviews. Leave me new reviews?