I know to never promise ever again! So many apologies! I hope there are still people interested in reading :(
I work at a tourist attraction and Christmas & New Year is our busiest time so I just got smashed with work. Also my delay means that this chapter has sucky timing but I still wanted to do it anyway.
Happy New Year to all!
We arrive at Santana's parent's house and my nerves start to kick in. I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea. She grabs my hand and it instantly calms me.
"You okay, babe?"
"Yeah" I smile at her.
We head up the front porch and before we get a chance to knock, the door opens and an older Latina woman is pulling us inside.
"Come come, it's cold out there"
"Mami, this is Dani. Dani this is my mother, Maribel"
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs Lopez" I put my hand out intent on shaking hers when she pulls me in to a hug.
"Call me Maribel, sweetheart. Santana has told us all about you." I look to Santana who shakes her head while smiling.
We walk in to the kitchen where a man who I'm assuming is Santana's father is, with a teenage girl and Bailey.
"Carlos, Chelsea, this is Dani" They both turn towards me. Santana's father just smiles at me, while Chelsea looks surprised and like she's about to have a fit.
"Oh my god!" She looks to Santana, I'm guessing trying to figure out if she's seeing things.
"Chels, calm down, you're gonna scare the poor girl away" Santana says and then turns to me.
"Dani, this is my niece, Chelsea. She may or may not be a fan of yours."
"Fan? What are you talking about mija?" Carlos addresses Santana.
"I'm a musician. Chelsea must have heard of me." I decide to jump in.
"The entire country has heard of you! You're amazing!" The girl says excitedly.
"Thank you" I say, getting a little shy with all eyes on me. I think Santana picks up on this so she tries to ease some of my nervousness.
"Yes she's amazing, stop hitting on my girlfriend, kid and make me some coffee" We all laugh except for Chelsea who grumbles and then goes to prepare coffee for her aunt.
Chelsea then turns back to me smiling "Dani, do you want coffee?"
"Uhm.. sure thanks." As Chelsea makes the coffee, Santana heads over to Bailey who is sitting at the table colouring. I love how her face lights up at the sight of him and I stand just watching them interact until Maribel speaks to me again.
"When I said Santana told us everything about you, I was clearly very wrong" I don't know how to take that and it must show on my face.
"Oh not that it's a bad thing, you'd just think she would have mentioned that you were a big star."
"Oh I'm not..." Santana interrupts me then kissing my cheek.
"Don't listen to her Mami, she's amazing"
I can feel how red my cheeks are. It doesn't matter how long I've been doing this, I still get so embarrassed when people talk about me like that.
She grabs my hands and drags me towards the table "Come sit. What time is your flight?"
"We're leaving in about half an hour. Your father was just explaining everything Chelsea needs to do while we're away. Your brother will be bringing her over every day to look after the animals and water the plants"
"You better make sure Antonio stays with her, she'll probably try and burn your house down again" Santana says grinning.
"Shut up Tia, that was one time and it was an accident!" Chelsea responds and Santana just laughs.
"Santana, leave her alone, you know she is still sensitive about that." Maribel admonishes her daughter.
"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." She continues giggling to herself.
Chelsea brings the coffee over to the table, handing me mine with a smile. She puts Santana's in front of her roughly and then storms out of the room.
"Did she really nearly burn the house down?" I say to nobody in particular.
"No, she just put a paper cup in the microwave and it caught on fire. Obviously at the time it wasn't funny, but her reaction was golden, she was seriously running around the house screaming. By the time someone came to the kitchen to help her, it had already put itself out." Santana explains laughing to herself again.
"Aww she must have been terrified" I can see the funny side, but Chelsea is probably only 13 or 14 so I can imagine how that would freak her out.
We sit drinking our coffee chatting with Santana's parents for another 20 minutes or so before we prepare to leave.
"Dani, it was so lovely to meet you, you must come over again when we have more time to get to know you. What are your plans for Christmas?" Maribel asks. I look to Santana as we haven't really talked about any of that but she just shrugs at me.
"Well my family are going away so I'll probably just have a quiet one this year." I answer.
"Nonsense, you come here with us. I'm sure Chelsea will be talking about you for the next week so Santana's brother will want to meet you as well."
"I wouldn't want to impose"
"It's no imposition, we'll see you at Christmas" She says and pulls me in to a hug.
We say goodbye to her family and then head back in to the city. I'm a little nervous driving Santana's car, I'm a good driver but I'm always paranoid with someone else's car and I've never driven with someone so young in the car before.
"You don't have to come for Christmas; please don't feel like you have to, my mom can be a little full on." Santana says while running her hand over my knee.
"It's fine babe. I won't do anything you don't want me to do"
"There's nothing more that I want than to spend our first Christmas together, even if it is with my family"
"Really?" I grin at her.
"Really." She leans over and kisses my cheek.
We arrive at Santana's work and she turns to Bailey "Be good for Dani, okay buddy?"
"Yes mami" He says grinning.
"Last chance to back out" She says to me.
"No chance, we're gonna have an awesome day." She leans over to kiss me.
"Okay well I should only be a few hours but I have my cell if you need me."
"Call me and I can come and pick you up when you're done."
"Okay. Have a good day."
"Bye beautiful" I say to her before she shuts the door and makes her way into the building.
It's a few hours later and Bailey and I are watching a movie when I hear the front door start to open. I jump up, not expecting anyone but relax when I see it's Santana.
"Hey, what are you doing here? I said I'd come get you." I say walking over to meet her.
"I know but I was done earlier than expected so I just thought I'd get a cab so I could get home sooner" She hangs up her coat and wraps her arms around me.
"Hi" She kisses my nose
"Hi" I grab her and pull her to the couch.
"Mami!" Bailey climbs over me so he can hug Santana. "We got a fish!"
Santana looks over Bailey's head to me with wide eyes.
"Well.. technically yes, we did get a fish, but he's totally gonna live at my house so you won't have to do anything!" I say, realising I probably should have thought that decision through.
Bailey interrupts me.
"His name is Oliver!" He says getting excited.
"Oh really?" Santana says, looking at me with a smirk.
"Come see him, he's in my room!" Bailey says and jumps up dragging Santana with him.
She gets up to follow him and turns around to look at me before heading down the hall. I can't figure out how she feels about me buying Bailey a pet. I can be so bit stupid sometimes.
She comes back a few minutes later without Bailey and sits down next to me.
"I'm so sorry, I really should have asked you but we went shopping because I wanted to get some Christmas decorations and there was a pet shop and then we went in and I couldn't say no to him and I'm so sorry San" I say.
"Hey, it's fine. A fish is better than a puppy. But you know that there's no way he's going to let you take Oliver to your apartment, right?"
"Yeah I should've thought of that before setting the tank up in his room. I'll clean it though and I can come over and feed him."
"Relax. Let's get Bailey in to the routine and then you won't have to worry about feeding him and Bailey can help you clean the tank."
"Okay. So you're not mad?" I say, giving her my best puppy dog eyes.
"Not at all baby. Did you get decorations?"
"Yeah I think I went a little bit crazy." She starts looking around for my shopping.
"Where are they?"
"At my apartment. There's a lot"
"Let's go see. I love Christmas" She says getting excited.
We get Bailey and go to my apartment. Since we got together, we haven't spent a lot of time here.
As we walk in, Santana eyes my shopping and starts laughing.
"Oh my god. You weren't kidding"
"Nope" I say blushing.
"So are you going to decorate your apartment?"
"I don't know, I didn't really think that far ahead. I'm an impulse buyer." I say shrugging.
"What about a tree?"
"I want a tree but I have no idea where to get one in the city"
"Let's go tree shopping tonight. They've already started selling them; I've seen two stalls in the last few days"
"How are we going to get two trees back here?"
"Why two trees?"
"Two apartments?"
"Oh.. yeah. Well.. what if we just decorate one apartment. We can just do your apartment."
"That's silly. We spend most of our time at your apartment. Besides, Bailey should have his own tree."
"Okay well, we already planned to spend Christmas together, what if we go buy a tree and decorate my apartment together? I think it's a great way to celebrate our first Christmas together. What do you think?"
It's such a simple gesture but I find myself tearing up anyway. It's been so long since I've got to have a proper Christmas.
"Sounds perfect." I say, pulling her over to me and kissing her deeply.
We pull apart as we hear rustling and look over to see Bailey looking through the shopping bags.
"Hey you, stop that and come over here" He looks up guiltily at his mami and comes over to where we're standing. Santana kneels down to his level.
"We're going to buy a Christmas tree tonight so we can get our apartment ready for Christmas. How does that sound?"
"Can Den come with us?" He asks looking up at me.
"Of course she can. She's going to help us decorate and spend Christmas with us this year."
"Really? Yay!" He says and jumps up to hug me.
Every time I think I've had the best 24 hours of my life, something else happens and I find myself so excited for what the rest of my future with this girl holds.