Clockwork | Brittana

Chapter 12

Brittany sat quietly on the couch in the living room of the Lopez-Fabray household. She had been impressed the first time she arrived, interested the second, and now she was inquisitive. She loved the dark wood furniture and the soft gray accents. It seemed like such a perfect blend of Santana and Quinn's personalities.

She was thankful for this moment alone, so she could try to stifle the bubbling urge to flirt constantly with the brunette. Brittany really wasn't keeping her professional boundaries up. She knew she couldn't push to fast or she might scare Santana off... and she really had to handle this situation well.

Santana shuffled into the room carrying a box.

"I would really appreciate it if you didn't tell Quinn about this," Santana huffed as she heaved a cardboard box onto the coffee table. Brittany looked up from the box to meet Santana's eyes, she found a small embarrassment mixed with a quiet reserve in them. She was taking a step here and Brittany knew it.

"Your secret stash is safe with me," Brittany smiled and waited, she wouldn't be the one that opened the box, that was Santana's right.

Santana rolled her eyes with a smile, "You make it sound like porn."

She sat down on the couch next to the journalist and took off the cover of the box, setting it under the coffee table. Brittany watched her pull out the first magazine, a copy of The Lead.

"The newest are on this side," she explained, "it gets older as you go back."

"Is that the copy I brought you and Quinn?" Brittany's heart clenched at the idea that Santana had saved her work.

"No, Quinn has that somewhere around the house," Santana blushed a little, "I always buy my own. Seeing it there on the rack... it's kind of like an accomplishment, even if I don't really care for the product."

"Can I?" Brittany gestured to the box and Santana nodded.

"Knock yourself out," she set the magazine aside and picked up the TV remote.

Brittany pulled the next to latest magazine and watched Santana start up her game, setting up her new wireless controller, and logging on under the username, ForwardSlashSnixx.

The opening screen of the game was familiar to Brittany. She remembered spending weekends sitting on a couch watching Artie play the same game. Santana even had one of those headsets that let you talk to the other players. It sat on the coffee table, unused.

"How long had you been working at Clockwork before you started doing the advertising?"

"I had just made department head before St. James got his hands on me," Santana scoffed, "which did wonders for my reputation, let me tell you."

"People thought that it was a inside deal you worked out?" Brittany prodded.

"They thought I was sleeping with him," Santana's nose crinkled in disgust, "I really hate that man."

"He didn't seem very pleasant in the meeting with marketing," Brittany agreed, "I was glad to get out of there when it was over."

"I swear, the stench of pompous dickhead just seeps from his pores."

Brittany shook her head, looking at the screen where Santana's character was running around with a gun.

"Don't tell anyone in the office, but Quinn is angling for his job."

"Really?" that surprised Brittany.

"Yeah, that's why she's been requesting to go to these conferences," she shrugged, shifting lower on the couch and propping her feet up. "She already works so closely to the marketing department because of my situation, people hardly know her real position anyway."