Paperweight

Chapter 4

Santana doesn't even make it to work before bumping into Brittany on Monday morning.

Quinn is still feeling horrendous from Saturday and is taking the morning off, so Santana is on her own on her subway ride to the studio. Walking out of the station and back into dubiously fresh air, she heads into the Starbucks across the road from the studio, and promptly crashes into Brittany, who is walking out.

"Shit! Sorry Brittany wasn't paying attention again, as usual." Santana awkwardly giggles at the end of her sentence as Brittany just looks at her. She prays with everything she has that Brittany won't ask her about her blatant perving on Saturday night.

Thankfully Brittany's beautiful face breaks out into a grin that's way too happy for this time in the morning. "No problem Santana. How are you?"

Santana internally breathes a sigh of relief. "I'm good. Bit tired, so I needs my coffee. What about you? Quinn's still hungover from Saturday so she probably won't be in today." Santana nearly smacks herself in the face. Why bring up Saturday? Maybe if they just don't talk about it, it'll just go away, and they can pretend it never ever happened. Santana would be thrilled with that.

Brittany doesn't bother to answer. Instead, she grins and spins around to walk back into Starbucks. Confused, Santana follows her.

"Brittany you already have coffee." She points out.

Brittany waves goofily at Ryder, who's standing behind the counter serving a grumpy looking teenager, before turning back to Santana. "I'm buying you your coffee silly. I never got to return the favor from the first day we met."

Santana is about to protest, when Brittany pouts at her.

Oh God. Santana is fucked. As long as Brittany is in possession of that pout, she doesn't think she'll ever be able to say no to the blond.

This is great, just fucking fantastic, Santana thinks to herself, yet another weekend gone by where you didn't get any, and look how it's making you feel.

Brittany bounds up to the counter and high fives Ryder. Santana wonders how his date went with Unique. She hasn't heard Quinn bitching about any equipment being "accidentally" destroyed, which has actually happened twice in the photography department after somebody got dumped, so she assumes it went well.

"Santana, what would you like?" Santana just manages to stop herself from blurting out you or something equally inappropriate to Brittany and looks up at the menu. She doesn't even know why she does that, she has the same thing every day she comes in here, but she just can't look Brittany in the eye or she definitely will blurt something idiotic out. She fixes her gaze on Ryder, who's smirking like he knows something she doesn't, and asks for a grande caramel macchiato.

"So how was your weekend?" Again, why does she say that? Santana never usually loses her cool around pretty girls, but apparently she does just for Brittany. Fantastic.

Brittany takes a sip of her shockingly pink drink before answering. "It was good. I went out with Tina and Mike on Saturday night, then just hung out with Sam on Sunday. How was yours?" Santana vaguely remembers hearing Quinn mention that Sam and Brittany live together. Santana chooses to ignore the feeling in her stomach that feels suspiciously like jealousy in favor of answering Brittany.

"Bit of a blur to be honest," Santana decides instantly her new favorite sound is making Brittany laugh that heavenly laugh. "I was out on Saturday as well, for a friend's birthday. I'm just glad I didn't drink as much as Quinn, I woke up on Sunday morning to the pleasant sounds of her throwing up."

Brittany crinkles her nose and Santana has to resist the urge to melt into a puddle of goo on the floor.

Ryder hands her the drink with a cheerful "Have a nice day!" and Santana and Brittany both head towards the door.