Chapter Text
Yale was all right. Santana had found a good group of friends, and she’d been worried at first about her roommate being some crazy conservative who was going to hate on Santana for being bi or whatever, but it was cool. Emma was from Kentucky, but was totally liberal and stuff so it wasn’t an issue.
It was only about a month into her freshman year of college, but she had already fallen into a routine. One of her classes was near the Starbucks in New Haven, so she would show up and grab the corner table next to the window so she could finish up the readings before class.
Santana set her books down at her table, then made her way to the counter, then narrowed her eyes slightly when the girl behind the counter handed her a cup. “What’s this?”
“Venti Black Eye, right?” Quinn asked, looking at the brunette and then back down to the cup. That was what she had been ordering for the past.... several times. “Or did you want something different today?” She bit her lip doubtfully. Maybe it was too soon to consider her a regular.
“I didn’t even order, though,” Santana said, raising her eyebrows a little. She leaned in slightly, trying to see a nametag, but all that was there was some stupid badge talking about how she was ‘blonde.’ “Your sign’s kind of dumb. Of course you’re blonde.”
At first Quinn thought the other girl was staring at her boobs, but at her remark, she looked down and then laughed. “Oh. Yeah. I know... But we’re supposed to promote our new roast. So. Do you want to try it?” Not that she wished that Veranda shit on anyone, but it was her job and stuff.
“I guess,” Santana said, kind of thrown by this hot girl making her drink before she had even ordered it. “And... yeah.” She pointed to the cup the blonde was still holding. “That’s my drink.”
Quinn grabbed a sample cup, then slid it across the counter. “There, give that a try. And then I’ll ring you up for your drink.”
Santana picked the cup up and brought it to her mouth, then made a face. “This is water,” she said, setting it back down on the counter. “You should shake the thing so the coffee actually gets into it.”
Quinn bit her lip, trying to hold back her laughter. “I guess it’s just not the roast you love the most.” Immediately a blush crept onto her face. “Oh, Jesus, I can’t believe I just said that. It was, like... in one of our customer coaching pamphlets. Uh. Anyway. $3.75 please.”
This girl was seriously cute, Santana thought to herself, her eyes noticing the blush right away. But she was also not pinging Santana’s gaydar at all. Everything about her just said ‘straight.’ Plus, she had long nails. Totally straight. “Here,” she said, reaching into her pocket for the change. “And... thanks.”
“Yeah. Sure. Of course. I mean, well. Enjoy your coffee!” Quinn blurted out, all too enthusiastically.
“Thanks,” Santana said, a bemused smile appearing on her face of its own volition. “Um... bye.” She turned then to walk away towards her favorite table, then startled somewhat when she saw someone already sitting there.
“Mike! I thought we were going to just meet in class?”
Quinn let her eyes linger on the girl as she walked away before snapping back to reality. She had customers to attend to, after all. And she was doing a pretty okay job of taking orders and calling drinks but then she heard a boy saying really loudly...
“Sup, fuck buddy,” Mike grinned at Santana and patting the chair next to him.
Santana had a minimum of decency so she blushed slightly at Mike’s words as she sat down next to him. “We’re in public,” she said, though she shot a glance over at the blonde behind the counter to make sure she was watching before leaning in to give Mike a light kiss. “But I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to go over some of the problem sets with you before class.”
Mike shrugged. “Saw you walk in here as I was coming down the street. Thought we could go to class together. That way we won’t have to sit next to that weird kid with the jew-fro. I’m just gonna go grab a drink then we can hit the books.”
Quinn had only looked over at … well she didn’t know the girl’s name, but her hot customer (?) and her acquaintance (fuck buddy, how lewd!) a few times, but all of a sudden he was in front of her and ordering a drink. “Do you want whip cream on your Green Tea frappuccino?” She asked, on autopilot.
“Dude, it’s the best part!” Mike said enthusiastically, handing his card over.
Quinn’s nose wrinkled, not at the whip cream but at the boy in front of her. It was an instinctive reaction, and Mike cocked an eyebrow at her. “You don’t like whip cream?”
“Uh, I do. Just had a, um, leg cramp. Here’s your card. Have a nice day,” she said stiffly. Turning to her co-worker, she said, “I’m going to get a drink of water, be right back,” before walking to the back room.
Santana was busy poring over her textbook when Mike came back, drink in hand. “Hey,” she said, obliviously, glancing over at the bar and telling herself not to be disappointed when she saw that the blonde was gone. Once he sat back down, they spent a few minutes going over their answers and comparing work. Then she looked up and startled somewhat (totally not smooth!) when the girl was suddenly in front of them.
Quinn had classes of her own to attend and thanked her lucky stars when her shift ended. Folding up her apron and shoving it in her bag, she made her way out of the back room. She meant to just leave, but unintentionally found herself stopped in front of the hot girl’s table. “Oh, um, have a nice day. I’m off to class.”
“You too,” Santana said, kind of amused. Maybe her gaydar was totally off and this girl was totally into her boobs, since there was no reason why she should have stopped at her table. “I’m Santana.”
“Oh! I’m Quinn,” she finally replied after a moment. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Santana said, her eyebrows raised. Thinking it was time to flirt a little and see what would happen, because it was totally annoying not knowing whether this hot girl was same-sex oriented, she smirked slightly and added, “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime?”
“Well I have some time off this week. My ex-boyfriend is coming to visit. Maybe we can, uh, all go out or something,” Quinn said, smiling hopefully.
Well, that made it pretty clear. Unless this girl was bi, but she didn’t seem to be vibing. And if she was into girls at all, she would totally be into Santana, because who wasn’t? “Yeah, totally,” she said, smiling a little in return. “My last name’s Lopez. You can find me on Facebook.”
“Totally, I’ll send you a friend request,” Quinn said. With another shy smile at Santana, the blonde turned around and made her way outside.
Santana followed Quinn out the door with her eyes before turning back to Mike. "Come on, let's go to class."