At 7:50, Brittany is already at the Lodge's reception waiting for Santana and Alonso to arrive. She's wearing black tight jeans, a thick white wool sweater, white fluffy snow boots and her hair is falling freely over her shoulders. She's also wearing some light make up and is holding a black coat over her left shoulder. She kind of wants to take Santana and Alonso for a walk outside after dinner, but she'll see how the dinner goes first though. She's nervous and she doesn't really understand why. She has always had her way with beautiful women, she's an expert flirt with both younger and older women, but for some reason, Santana is different. They have spoken like 3 sentences to each other, at best, but the energy the Latina exudes, has Brittany's mind floating in a pool of excitement she hasn't felt for a while, if ever at all.
At 8 sharp, Brittany catches on her peripheral vision how the elevator doors open, and when she turns towards it, she sees Santana and Alonso exiting it. Brittany can't help but smile. Santana is wearing thick black tights, black boots and a red long sleeved dress. Red is so her colour. Her hair is also down, falling in loose waves over her back, and she's wearing glasses. Brittany believes she's drooling. Alonso is by Santana's side, wearing jeans, a black button-up shirt, black boots and a cute red bow tie.
"Britt!" He says as he sees the blonde, and starts running towards her, what, as a chain reaction, makes Santana start running behind her son too.
"Hey!" Brittany says happily, kneeling down to give him a hug. "Look at you, all handsome for me." She jokes ruffling his hair slightly, to which he protests soundly and both Brittany and Santana chuckle.
"It is literally for you." Santana says. "He wanted to impress you." She adds with a playful smirk.
"You don't look bad yourself, Santana." Brittany mutters raising her hand for a handshake, but when Santana grabs it she firmly pulls her closer to herself and hugs her. It takes Santana by surprise, but she accepts it. "You smell good too." Brittany whispers kind of longingly next to Santana's ear and the Latina feels a shiver roll down her spine.
"She wanted to impress you too." Alonso chimes in. "That's like the tenth dress she tried on." He huffs and pokes his tongue out at his mother as she tries to think of something to say to erase the last three seconds altogether. A deep blush covers her cheeks instead.
"Is that so?" Brittany says smirking as they break their hug. Then she checks Santana out painfully slowly, and when her eyes reach brown ones again she winks. "Well, I am impressed." She adds before turning back to the little boy. "Shall we go eating, buddy? You must be hungry."
The three of them walk silently towards the dining hall. Alonso is happy to be in Brittany's company. Brittany is convinced that keeping Alonso on her side will serve her as an endless fountain of information about Santana. And Santana is trying to think different ways of shutting her son up before he runs his mouth too much, but she's also preparing herself to be embarrassed the whole evening. When they reach the hall, a handsome young waiter (who's eyes linger a little too long on Brittany, and Santana wants to claw his eyes until only the sockets are left) guides them to a table next to the window, where they can see the beautifully lit up garden and all the slopes in the distance. It definitely is a great view, Santana can't hold a gasp and Brittany sighs in amazement.
They are instantly served water, but on top of that, both Brittany and Santana order white wine. Since the dinner is also buffet it takes them a little time to get everything ready. Santana goes with Alonso first to take some starters, then it's Brittany's turn. When they are finally all settled down, the conversation flows easily, especially between Alonso and Brittany. Santana is not much of a talker, she has always preferred to listen, but she's enjoying the dynamic between the blonde and her son so very much.
"So...why Sonso as a nickname?" Brittany asks the boy curiously and Santana snickers devilishly as Alonso blushes, making Brittany look up at her with a curious eyebrow raised.
"Goofball here, when he was a young little boy, was unable to pronounce Alonso. He introduced himself as Sonso, and it kinda stuck." Santana explains smiling and it's the first time Brittany notices her dimples. If she had any doubts before, now she is fully convinced Santana is the most beautiful woman she has ever seen.
"Where are you from?" Brittany asks curiously out of the blue, for some reason hoping that the magic of Christmas will grant her the wish of them living close to one another.
"Portland, Oregon." Santana answers before sipping on her wine and she sees how Brittany's eyes cast down briefly and for a millisecond she could have sworn the blond was pouting. "What about you?"
"Tuscaloosa, Alabama" Brittany answers biting her lower lip. She was never very good at geography, but she has gone to Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon for a work trip and one thing she knows about it is that Oregon is fucking far away.
"Ah, that's why you have a funny accent." Santana teases with a wink.
"How so funny?" Brittany huffs with a frown.
"Yeah, it sounds like a fake Texan accent." Santana teases again poking her tongue out slightly, gesture that catches Brittany's eye, and whatever possesses Santana shall not be named, but she makes a show of it. Brittany almost chokes on her food.
"Britt, is Alabama close to Oregon?" Alonso asks completely oblivious to the exchange between the blonde and her mother.
"Unfortunately no, buddy. We live like opposite sides of the country." Brittany answers sadly, and Alonso is visibly bummed too.
Both Britt and Santana try to cheer him up talking about nothing in particular like how their day was, or their favourite things to do. Brittany learns that Santana likes reading thriller books, that her favourite colour is yellow (which Britt finds utterly unfitting to her personality) and that she has always wanted to own a horse. Santana learns that Brittany has a cat named Lord Tubbington, that she loves rainbows and her favourite music band is Metallica (which Santana fins utterly unfitting to her personality). Alonso notices lingering and longing looks, shy smiles, flirty smiles. He has never seen his mother be like that with anyone before, she usually is more on the mean side with everyone but him. He guesses that's what it looks when two people like each other.
Once they are done eating, Alonso is so stuffed that he almost can't walk, and his eyelids are falling due to tiredness. They've had a hectic day after all. Santana pulls him up to her arms, perching him on her left hip, and with Brittany's help, they walk back to the reception and take the elevator back to their room.
"I wanted to take you both to a night walk, but he's k.o" Brittany whispers as Sonso is falling asleep on her mother's shoulder.
"He's out for the day, yes." Santana muses. "But I can go if we don't go too far. Just let me put him down, I took my old baby monitor with me so I can hear him and he knows he can talk to me through it if he needs me. I think he likes it because he thinks it's a walkie-talkie or something." Santana chuckles, and Brittany does too.
When they reach Santana's room, Brittany waits outside politely for a few minutes, until Santana comes back with a black snow jacket over her shoulders. They go back downstairs and outside, where it is chilly but not uncomfortably cold.
"Thank you for today, Brittany. I haven't seen Alonso so happy in a long time." Santana says and Brittany smiles, deciding to simply take the compliment.
"Can I ask you where his father is?" Brittany asks full of curiosity, but she knows she made a mistake when she sees Santana cross her arms over her chest defensively.
"He was never in the picture." Santana answers drily.
Brittany raises both hands as a sign of peace.
"Sorry, I shouldn't pry." She muses as a sincere apology and Santana relaxes slightly.
They keep walking silently, enjoying the nice weather and the nice company, stealing glances and shy smiles at each other. Next thing they know, they have reached a gorgeous look out, and Santana is resting her arms over the railings when Brittany boldly moves behind her, resting her hands next to her arms and effectively trapping Santana between the railing and her body.
Santana notices the change of demeanour and freaks out. Like full on freaks out. Like she wants to run away or jump over the railing into the nothingness, whatever comes easier.
"You realise I'm way older than you?" Santana says in panic, but doesn't dare to move a single muscle as Brittany presses her front softly against her back.
"Why does that matter?" Brittany whispers huskily against her ear, and Santana can't hold back a whimper.
Slowly Brittany moves slightly to one side, at the same time raising her hand up, cupping Santana's jaw tenderly and turning her face towards her. Slowly she leans into her.
The moment she's about to kiss the Latina, the baby monitor beeps obnoxiously, taking them both out of their reverie.
"I gotta go." Santana mutters and somehow manoeuvres herself out of Brittany's embrace, leaving the blonde behind completely flabbergasted.
Well, shit.