Chapter Text
Santana Lopez hated Wednesdays more than any other day of the week. She was almost always guaranteed to be in a bad mood on a Wednesday. She put this largely down to the seemingly endless stream of meetings-that-could-have-been-emails that clogged up her calendar, and the fact that she had always found Wednesdays to be neither here nor there, not carrying quite the gloominess of a Monday but just that bit too far away from Friday for her liking. This particular Wednesday was shaping up to be no different, though she had received the perfect avocado with her eggs at breakfast, and the take away coffee warming up her hands against the chilly December air was the exact level of scalding that she liked – flawless avocados and coffee so exemplary and so hot it could almost burn through the cup were usually a sign her day was going to be good. She didn’t get her hopes up though, blowing the steam emanating from the small hole in the lid of her cup, she reminded herself it was Wednesday and everything was bound to go to shit sooner or later.
Her heels clicked as she made her way through the sliding glass doors, she nodded politely to the burly security man behind the front desk who offered her a crooked smile of acknowledgement in return. When she reached the elevator she pressed the button quickly three times knowing it wouldn’t make it come any faster but trying nonetheless, keenly watching as the LCD numbers made their way downwards towards her floor. She had stalled a bit at breakfast hoping to miss the usual elevator small talk of colleagues she honestly found draining, but she was starting to run late and the only think she hated more than mindless workplace chatter, was being late.
She let out a sigh of relief when the elevator finally came to a stop in front of her, scurrying inside, she quickly hit the number for her floor.
“Hold the door!” A familiar voice called urgently from a little away. Santana contemplated ignoring their plea but she’d had a good morning so far and she didn’t want to add bad karma to a Wednesday, so instead, she pressed the button to hold the doors open, her best, practiced bitch face in place, not surprised to see a frenzied Rachel Berry bolt through the door, carrying a comically large folder in her arms, bag sliding half way down her arms. Rachel was always late, which irked Santana to no end, her joke about liking to make an entrance wasn’t funny the first time Santana had heard it, and certainly wouldn’t be funny in 10 minutes when she echoed it again at their morning huddle. Rachel however did seem surprised to see Santana in the elevator. “Oh, hi Santana, cutting it tight this morning?”
Santana narrowed her eyes and kept a stare straight ahead, releasing a calming breath through her nose, before offering a clipped “Morning Rachel.”
Neither girl made any effort to speak beyond that, instead allowing the dated elevator music to fill the small space with an awkward tension. When the ding sounded as the made it to the 11th floor, Santana brushed past Rachel to get out of the elevator first, not offering to help the struggling girl with her clunky items.
“You’re late.” The blonde smirked behind a mug of tea almost as large as her face as Santana approached her desk.
It wasn’t accusatory, just a simple statement and it earned her a playful scowl from Santana.
“I’m exactly on time.”
“That’s Santana Lopez late.”
“Well I paid the price by having to share a confined space with Rachel Berry for 2.3 minutes, so lesson learned.”
Quinn laughed.
“Rachel’s not so bad when you get to know her.”
“I’ll just take your word for it.” Santana said, placing her coffee cup on her desk and removing her laptop from her Marc Jacobs satchel.
They made their way to the conference room just before nine, securing two seats at the furthest end of the long table, watching as their colleagues meandered slowly and unenthusiastically in behind them.
“Good morning everyone!” Will greeted cheerfully, taking his seat at the top of the table, pulling up this morning’s agenda on the giant monitor to the right of Quinn.
Like clockwork, the conference room door burst open, revealing Rachel and that obnoxiously large folder. “Sorry I’m late everyone, I like to make an entrance.”
Santana rolled her eyes while a few people around her laughed out of politeness. Will gave Rachel a tense smiling, responding with his usual “How nice of you to join us”, it had become so routine that Santana often found herself wondering if this was some cruel real life version of groundhog day she’d be forced to repeat until she rectified some wrong she wasn’t aware of.
“Seriously, there is no need for that meeting to go on as long as it does.” Santana noted as she and Quinn returned to their desk. “I don’t even know why Will insists on opening any topic up for discussion when it just turns into the Rachel Berry show, and honestly no one has contributed anything useful to that meeting in months!”
Quinn let out a tired sigh in agreement, “I know, I can’t even bring myself to think about how many hours of my life have been wasted in that room that I’ll never get back.”
“Right?” Santana holds her hand up for Quinn to give her a subtle high five.
Quinn was the only person who made her work day bearable, and probably her best friend in this lonely city. They’d hit it off pretty quick, Santana recalls Quinn making a scathing comment about an awful client which made Santana laugh for what felt like the first time since moving here. They shared a playful, easy banter, sometimes verging on flirtatious but that wasn’t a line Santana was willing to cross when there were so few people here she could tolerate.
“So, I think there’s a few people going for drinks after work, wanna come with?” Quinn asked absentmindedly, tapping away on her keyboard in an effort to fit in some actual work before their next meeting.
“No thanks, I have a date with Elaine.”
Quinn stopped typing and swivelled her chair so she was facing Santana.
“Oooh Elaiiine.”
“Shut up.” Santana scoffed with a playful roll of her eyes.
“Things are getting pretty serious between you two,” Quinn noted, turning her attention back to her screen, “What’s it been, two months?”
“Three.” Santana corrected, her own surprise evident in her tone. She hadn’t been looking for anything serious when she started dating Elaine, but she was funny, and smart, and gorgeous, and Santana enjoyed her company. Santana had barely even realised they had been dating until Quinn pointed out that they probably were since they spent most nights and every weekend together, and Elaine seemed to think it was obvious when Santana brought it up in conversation.
“Have you two made it official?” Quinn asked, in her very non-prying Quinn way.
“I think so?” Santana wasn’t sure, though neither had mentioned any interest in dating anyone else.
This grabbed Quinn’s attention again, scooting her chair and knocking into Santana’s, startling her. “You haven’t had the talk?”
Santana furrowed her brow in confusion, “What talk?”
“The girlfriend talk? Honestly Santana sometimes you are so oblivious.”
Santana laughed, “People actually still do that? Isn’t that a little high school?”
“Oh absolutely, but you still need to have the talk.” Scooting back to her own side of the cubicle, she clarified, “So you’re both clear on where you stand.”
Santana’s stomach coiled with anxiousness, she hadn’t dated anyone seriously since high school, sure there were a few potential love interests in college but they never made it to the point where a conversation of labels seemed remotely necessary. She wasn’t even sure she wanted Elaine to be her girlfriend, but why not? She began to think back over the last three months and how she felt being around Elaine, she made her happy, they had fun together, she wasn’t overly keen on the idea of Elaine having sex with other people, but was that all there was to it? She considered the other adult relationships she had been exposed to, there were her parents who still held hands on the street and kissed each other goodbye every morning, her neighbour down the hall and his girlfriend who never stopped smiling and stealing glances at one another - she often worried they’d miss a step on the stairs from gazing into one another’s eyes, and Rachel and her boyfriend Finn, who she’s fortunately only witnessed together a handful of times but who were always touching and kissing. Sure she and Elaine were clearly attracted to one another, but their passion and affection was mostly reserved for behind closed doors. Maybe that changes with labels?
She was snapped from her musings by Quinn’s hand waving in front of her face, “Earth to Santana, helloooo.”
“Sorry.” She said absently, standing and grabbing her laptop and notepad for their next meeting.
“Don’t apologise to me, it Sue’s wrath you’ll suffer if we’re late.” Quinn teased, pushing her distracted friend playfully down the hall.
By the time she’d reached her apartment, all Santana wanted to do was run a hot bath, pour a large glass of wine, and listen to her favourite podcast; she had half contemplated calling Elaine to cancel, partly due to exhaustion but mostly after the spiral Quinn had sent her on earlier, but Elaine text to confirm they were still on as Santana was packing up to leave the office and she didn’t want to disappoint her. Not wanting to disappoint someone meant they were important, right?
She was still lost in her thoughts as she applied a light layer of lipstick to her plump lips, music blaring through her bedroom speakers in a measly effort to drown them out, she wouldn’t have heard her phone buzzing on the nightstand but the light from the screen brightened, indicating someone was calling. She silenced the music with the tiny remote and moved toward her phone, silently hoping it was Elaine wanting to their cancel their plans so she could buy herself more time to digest this whole girlfriend prospect.
But it wasn’t Elaine.
Santana beamed down at the Caller ID and its accompanying photograph, two sun kissed faces smiling back her, cheeks pressed together, wind blowing a mess of blonde and brown hair together in a chaotic frenzy. She didn’t hesitate before answering, “Hey Britt!”
“Santana! I’m so glad I caught you.” Santana could hear the smile in Brittany’s voice, and it encouraged one of her own. “You’re not busy are you?”
Santana took a seat at the corner of her bed assuring her, “Never too busy for you Britt-Britt.”
Brittany giggled at the other end of the line and it made something warm in Santana’s chest. “So, what’s up?”
“Oh not much, only that I got ENGAGED!!”
The smile fell from Santana’s face when she heard the excited screeching of multiple people from the other end of the line, it was clear Brittany wasn’t alone.
“Wh-wh-wait, hold up, you got engaged?” Santana saw the way her brow furrowed in the reflection of her mirror but for once she wasn’t concerned about the potential wrinkles this could cause her in the future. “To who?”
“To Sam, dummy!” Brittany’s explanation did nothing to quell Santana’s confusion, she wracked her brain trying to think of who Sam was. Surely she’d have remembered her best friend talking about someone so significant?
She thought back on their recent conversations, sure they had been less lately, Santana was busy with work, and Elaine, and Brittany had her dance class, and the bakery with her mom, but they talked, and Santana was drawn completely a blank on any Sam.
Her silence must have spoken volumes because Brittany clarified, “Santana, I told you about Sam. He’s comes to my beginners class on Wednesdays.”
“The guy with the giant lips and inappropriate hip thrusting?” She asked as the penny dropped.
“That’s the one.” Brittany laughed at Santana’s description of her fiancé, “And he’s reigned in the hip thrusting.”
Santana was in shock, she thought back to that conversation they had had over facetime with a bottle of wine, “Britt, didn’t you just meet him like a month ago?”
Brittany’s laughter began to die down when she wasn’t receiving the response Santana supposes she had expected, but how could she pretend to be happy when her best friend was telling her she was engaged to someone she barely knew? She knew Brittany was spontaneous albeit a little reckless, it’s one of the things she loved most about her, but this was extreme, even for Brittany.
“It’s been almost two months,” Brittany replied, quiet and defensive. She knew Santana better than anyone and was telling her without words that she didn’t want the lecture.
“You love him?” Santana asked, ignoring the way her stomach dropped as she waited for a response.
“Of course I do, silly! I wouldn’t be marrying him if I didn’t.”
Santana felt physically sick, she wanted to lie down but she had just perfected her curls and she didn’t have time to re-do them. She should have known this day would come eventually, not that she’d ever given it any thought, but she figured if she had she would have expected to have at least gotten to vet Brittany’s future husband, give her approval. All her life Brittany had been her special thing, she wasn’t ready to face the prospect of sharing her with someone else forever, definitely not someone she’d never even met, it left a hollow feeling coursing through her entire abdomen.
“Say something Santana?” Brittany’s voice was hopeful, and though frustrated tears burned in the corners of her eyes and an uncomfortable lump had formed in her throat, she mustered up her best congratulations Britt.
“I gotta go Britt, I’m meeting Elaine.” She excused herself, not trusting her voice to not crack and betray her.
“OK!” Brittany’s voice was light and happy, a stark contrast to how Santana suddenly felt, “Tell her I say hi!”
“I will.”
“Oh and Santana?”
“Yes Britt?”
“Will you be my maid of honour?”
She didn’t think there was any wind left in her to knock out but with that simple, innocent request from her best friend, Santana felt like she had been sucker punched in the gut. She wanted to say no, that this whole thing was preposterous, but she couldn’t, she should have expected the request, and she was too stunned and an odd, unexpected, inexplainable sadness weighed on her, surrendering her fight. “Of course, Britt!”
They hung up the phone with Brittany promising to call her the following day with more details, Santana didn’t even want to know how they’d gotten to a point where there were details to discuss but she didn’t want to think about it anymore.
She stood and released a steadying breath, looking to the sky to try contain the tears that threatened to fall. On autopilot, she gathered her things and left to meet Elaine, ignoring her neighbour Mike, and his adoring girlfriend who looked at her strangely and asked if she was ok.
The bar was busier that she would have expected for a Wednesday. Santana had opted to walk instead of getting a cab, she needed the cold, crisp air to provide some much needed oxygen to her lungs; the walk had done her good, but she was late, and Elaine didn’t look impressed.
“You’re late.” She echoed Quinn’s words from earlier but instead of shooting back with a witty response, Santana just nodded and offered to go get them a drink.
When she returned she took a generous gulp of her martini, grateful for the way the vodka burned down her throat and warmed her belly.
“You ok?” Elaine asked, taking a small, cautious sip from her beer, eyes staring suspiciously at Santana.
Santana nodded, giving a forced smile, “Yeah, I just got some unexpected news is all but I’m good.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
Santana just shook her head, she hadn’t really talked about Brittany much to Elaine, her name had only come up in relevant stories of Santana’s childhood and hometown. She had never really thought about it before but Santana hadn’t wanted to share more of Brittany than that with Elaine, just the surface stuff. She knew she was consciously doing it at the time, holding back talking about Brittany, because she knew once she started she would start gushing about her amazing best friend and how great and funny and beautiful she was, and Santana had told herself that she didn’t want Elaine to feel jealous or threatened by Brittany, but sitting here now she wasn’t sure that was exactly why.
Elaine didn’t push her for more information, in fact, she seemed a little distracted herself, toying with the condensation of her glass, “Ok. If you’re sure…” she was making Santana nervous with how uncharacteristically skittish she suddenly seemed, “There’s actually something I was hoping to talk to you about.”
She finally looked up and made eye contact with Santana for the first time since she had arrived, and Santana’s mind raced back to her earlier conversation with Quinn. Though she hadn’t had a chance to complete her internal panicked pros and cons list at home or on the way there, she felt more certain sitting in from of Elaine now, that she didn’t think girlfriend felt right. But then Brittany and her ridiculous engagement popped into her head again and she figured, if Brittany’s moving on to a new chapter in her life, so should she, so she made the silent decision to just go with the label flow and figure it out later. So she nodded at Elaine, encouraging her to continue with the most genuine smile she could muster.
She knew she wasn’t ready for this conversation, but she knew Elaine was into her and it would make her happy, and Santana was happy too… she thinks. This was a good idea, she reasoned with herself , she wasn’t ready but she was as ready as she’d be any time soon. After all her efforts at hyping herself up, she was in fact completely not ready at all for the words that followed.
“I think we should break up.”
Santana face lingered in between a happy-ish smile and utter confusion, “I’m sorry, what?”
The volume of her voice was louder than she intended but justifiable considering how completely blindsided she’d just been.
“Santana, please.” Elaine pleaded, looking around self-consciously at the few stares Santana had garnered.
Uncaring of their small audience but having enough self-respect not to cause a scene, Santana leant in closer to Elaine, her voice low in a vicious whisper, “You’re breaking up with me?!”
Elaine, no longer capable of looking Santana in the eye, followed a droplet of condensation down her glass until gathered in a tiny pool on the table, and gave a mournful nod.
“Are you going to tell me why?” Santana asked, incredulous, gesturing in the air with her hands in the way she only did when she was livid.
Elaine just shrugged, “There’s just something missing.”
Santana faltered a little at her words, calming. As soon as she heard them she knew she agreed. That would explain the internal panic she had felt all afternoon.
Unsure of what else to say, and exhausted from the events of the day, Santana just nodded, “Ok.”
Elaine looked back up at her, surprise evident on her face. “Ok?”
Santana shrugged, “You’re right.”
“You’re not even going to argue?”
Santana just shook her head.
“Guess this is it?”
“Guess so.” Santana downed what was left of her martini before slapping her hands lightly on the table and rising, “See you around.”
It was the most clean cut break up Santana had ever had, even the fleeting romances of college came to a more fiery end, but Santana just didn’t have the fight in her.
When she arrived back in her apartment, she silently removed her make up and changed into comfortable pyjamas, she set her alarm for the morning, turned off the light, and nestled comfortably under her lager duvet for just a moment before throwing it off of her in a huff and screaming into the darkness of the room. If her neighbours heard her, no one came running to see if she was ok. Fucking Wednesday she thought as she begrudgingly reached for the heavy blanket again and willed herself to try and sleep.
Her attempt at forcing herself to sleep proved futile, she was sure she had gotten four hours at best; she had groaned when her alarm went off and hit snooze so many times she didn’t have time for her usual breakfast routine, grabbing a croissant and cheap coffee from the cart across the street from her office instead.
The coffee was lukewarm and too sweet even without milk, she scrunched her nose up and tossed it aggressively into the trash can in the elevator lobby.
“Woah! Someone’s in a good mood.” She glared at the source of the teasing, it was Blaine from advertising, and he recoiled under her gaze. She was sure had his hair not been gelled so firmly in place that it would have stood on end, but even the thought couldn’t bring the faintest smile to her face.
She clamoured into the cramped elevator, particularly annoyed by the monotonous music and the sound of her colleagues’ cheerful voices discussing the karaoke bar they’d gone to the previous night. Their joy served nothing only to piss her off further.
As soon as she reached it , she dumped her bag on her desk and slumped in her chair.
“You look like shit.” Quinn noted, blowing on her hot tea, observing Santana curiously.
“Thanks.”
She gave her the finger but Quinn ignored it, a look of concern creasing her brow. She knew better than to pry, she wasn’t a nosy person which was something Santana appreciated.
“Elaine broke up with me.” She offered when the weight of Quinn’s concerned gaze grew too heavy.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Quinn said sincerely, taking a sip from her tea.
“And my best friend got engaged to a total stranger so now I gotta worry about her getting murdered by a deranged serial killer who probably just wants her life insurance, on top of everything.”
“OK, I think we need to put you on a crime podcast hiatus!”
This managed to garner the ghost of a smile from Santana.
“You’re not happy for Brittany?” There was a curiosity to her tone that Santana hadn’t been expecting, she half expected Quinn to bite back in faux-offense that she thought she was her best friend.
Santana didn’t want to get into it, it was early and she still hadn’t had a decent cup of coffee, so she just shrugged hoping that Quinn would take the hint and leave it at that for now.
She did.
Santana pulled out her laptop and began scouring through her emails, wondering how they could build up so fast when she quickly spotted one that wasn’t quite like the others, the title was fully capitalised, shouting at her from the inbox.
Subject: I’M GETTING HITCHED!
Hey San,
Sorry for adding to the million emails you always complain about but I was too excited to wait until tomorrow to call you and I didn’t want to distract you with texts while you’re on your date.
Thank you for saying yes to being my maid of honour!!! There’s no one I want standing up there with me on my big day more than you.
Santana smiled, thinking of how beautiful Brittany would look in a while dress, her hair soft and most-likely half pulled back in the way she had always said she would wear it on her wedding day.
I know it’s all super sudden and I know you’ll probably think it’s reckless but this world is crazy and the ice caps are melting and I’m pretty sure they’ve removed Friends from Netflix which is criminal but anyways, we figure, why wait?! So we’re getting married on New Year’s Eve at my grandparents’ house in Port Rhodes.
Santana felt a thick heaviness in her chest as she read, she had nothing but great memories at Brittany’s grandparent’s home and this feeling didn’t fit with them.
Can’t wait to see you!! You need to visit more.
Oh! And bring Elaine!! I’m starting to think you’ve made her up.
Lots of love,
Britt xx
Santana folded her hands on her desk and banged her head semi-gently against them.
Ceasing her banging before she bruised, she looked to the calendar on her computer, two weeks, her Brittany was getting married in two weeks.
Placing her head in her hands she groaned only loud enough for Quinn to hear.
“You ok over there?” Quinn asked over her shoulder, eyes remaining on the document in front of her.
“Oh yeah, fantastic.” Santana mumbled into her hands, “Brittany’s getting married in two weeks, and invited Elaine, so not only do I have to tell her that we broke up the same day she got engaged, I’m gonna have to go to the wedding alone as the single bridesmaid.”
Quinn chuckled silently to herself at Santana’s dramatics.
“Relax, being a single bridesmaid isn’t a staple of failure, no one will care!”
“These people will. It’s a town full of old wenches who love nothing more than to gossip. I would know, I’ve been the hot topic on more than one occasion.”
Santana lifted her head from her hands, staring at Quinn, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Her stare bore into Quinn deep enough she turned her attention to Santana with a suspicious stare.
“What?”
Santana titled her head to the side, considering Quinn for a moment longer, she was cute, well educated, Santana knew she could hold a conversation, her sense of humour was good, she was confident without being cocky and people seemed to like her.
“Stop looking at me like that, you’re weirding me out.” Quinn laughed nervously.
“You could come with me?”
Quinn turned her chair to face Santana full on, smiling in amusement.
“You’re joking.”
“Come on! Why not?”
Quinn scoffed.
“Because I can assure you that bringing your colleague to a wedding is even more pathetic than going alone.”
“AH HA!” Santana pointed a triumphant finger at Quinn, “You admit that going alone would be pathetic!”
“It’s not.”
Santana scooted her chair closer to Quinn, bracing her hands on her co-worker’s arm rests, their knees touching, her expression serious when she pleaded, “Please.”
Quinn for her part, looked sorry for Santana, her friend rarely admitted when she needed help, so after short deliberation she conceded.
“Really?” Santana beamed.
She nodded, “Really.”
Clapping her hands together, Santana moved back to her side of the cubicle, she was about to start working on her next presentation, pausing for a moment and throwing a guilty look over her shoulder, “Will you pretend to be Elaine?”
Quinn looked at her like she had grown an extra head.
“I know, I know it’s crazy.” Santana brushed off, shaking her head at herself as she returned to her document.
Realising that this request went deeper than Santana would admit, Quinn reluctantly agreed.
“But you owe me BIG time, Lopez.”
Santana bolted from her seat and wrapped Quinn in an impossibly tight hug.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou.”
Quickly composing herself, Santana released her grip on Quinn, stood, straightening out her blouse and smiled.
“Anything you want.”