CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 26

BLAINE

My attempts to pacify my best friend had not exactly gone as I had hoped and Santana skipped out around lunchtime, leaving me with a reservation for two for 1:30 and no best friend to join me. Her bag was gone and her computer was turned off; she must have headed out for the day already. The fact that she had likely taken personal time off to decompress from whatever was going on only made me more worried, but there wasn't much to do if she wouldn't reply to my emails, texts or phone calls.

I had thought about asking Kurt to join me for an impromptu lunch date, but I knew that it would be too much too soon and that was the type of behavior I was trying to avoid. Besides, he and I had already established a plan for Sunday evening, which was soon enough I guess. I mean, it wasn'treallysoon enough since I'd love to see him practically every day, but I needed to pace myself otherwise I might lose out on the first guy I really had gravitated toward since Jared.

Instead, I found myself calling David, who had declined since he was in the Bronx and couldn't make it down to the restaurant in time. Instead of resigning myself to eat a soggy sandwich from the café on the bottom floor of our office building, I thought of one last person who might want to join.

I clicked on the contact and held the phone to my ear, hearing the ringing on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hey Wes, it's Blaine."

"B! What's up man?"

"Not much. Are you busy right now? I know you're probably at work hustling out some paperwork at your fancy law firm."

Wes chuckled. During our mini-reunion at Blockheads, Wes mentioned that he was an associate at the firm of Alston & McCoy that had an office over by Grand Central Station and had groaned over how he was little more than a paperwork filer in his current role. He hoped it would change soon since the partners were finally allowing associates who'd been with the firm for eighteen months – an anniversary that was quickly approaching – that they could take on independent cases rather than assist the partners. "Well, as busy as I am with checking boxes on paperwork that makes my mind explode, I'd rather be sitting in your fancy office listening to music all day."

Now it was my turn to laugh. Wes had serious delusions about my job and thought I spent an inordinate amount of time at music venues and listening to music all day and did nothing else. I had corrected him a handful of times since he and I had reconnected, but he relented and I gave up once I realized Wes was just poking fun. "I was calling to see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat at around 1:30."

He paused for a moment, probably checking his calendar. "Looks like I'm all yours. Where we headed?"

"I made reservations at Fusia Asian off 56th and Lex. Is that okay with you?"

I could practically hear Wes' smirk. "A reservation? Is this a date?"

I chuckled. "No, I had already made the reservation and my friend cancelled on me. Oh, Santana, you remember her."

"Oh, so I'm second fiddle to agirl? Blaine, have you had such a bleak dating life that you had to turn to the ladies?"

I smiled to myself, the thought of Kurt reminding me that as long as some guys would be as attractive as he was, I would never ever find girls appealing sexually. "Hardly. She... cancelled... so I didn't want to let the reservation go to waste. Plus, if you play your cards right, I might even pay."

"Well I'm considering this a date since you made a reservation and you're paying," he said with a laugh.

"Fine," I retorted as I rolled my eyes. "But you better let me get lucky."

"I'm not that easy, B. I don't put out until atleastdate number four."

...

When I arrived at the restaurant, Wes was already standing outside waiting for me to arrive. The cold air seemed to have no effect on my friend, as he was fiddling with his phone with his jacket unbuttoned and no scarf at his neck.

"Shall we dine, fine sir?" I mocked as I approached him. He grinned.

"Why, of course," he replied, going to the restaurant's door and holding it open for me.

"What a gentleman," I chuckled as I went through the door, Wes following at my heels. We really were idiots but well mannered ones thanks to Dalton and the required etiquette classes we had to take during prime cotillion years.

Once we were seated and our drink and food orders taken, I realized it was easy to fall back into sync with Wes even after all of these years with us not maintaining contact.

"Why haven't we talked for all of these years?" I asked aloud, not really expecting an answer.

He shrugged. "I guess that stuff happens when you move away, ya know? We weren't best friends in high school, but we were certainly close enough that I thought we'd avoid the whole not-talking-for-years thing. But apparently even we fabulous Warblers aren't immune."

I chuckled. "I'm glad that you maintained contact with David and that both of you guys managed to walk back into my life again. It's a nice change. Santana is great and all, but there's really only so much I can tell her without feeling like I'm crossing some weird guy-girl boundary." I took a sip of the water in front of me, before continuing. "Besides, she was acting really weird today."

"I can't believe she turned you down for such a delicious lunch," he noted.

"I didn't even get the chance to ask her to come before she just... disappeared. I guess I upset her too much this morning," I replied with a sigh.

"What did you do to piss her off?"

"She said I was acting... distant this morning and I told her I didn't want to get into why I was spacing out and she just freaked."

"So why were you being distant?" Wes asked, intrigue playing on his features.

"I – uh – Wes, if I didn't tell Santana, what makes you think I'll tell you?"

"Because I'm so dashing?"

I laughed. "That won't work on me now just like it didn't in high school. Without going into too many details, I'm just trying to be guarded about a certain area of my life because I don't want the past to repeat itself. In order to do that, I just need to keep it close to the vest for the time being. I tried to tell Santana that but she just got... offended or something."

Wes sighed. "Blaine, it's totally okay that you want to keep things private or... whatever is going on in that head of yours, to yourself. I'm guessing something bigger is going on with her for some reason."

"Yet another reason I'm glad I like men."

He laughed. "I don't think it's a purely female issue, B. But it just seems like something else might be at hand here. I mean, I met Santana once and she seemed like she could get angry at the drop of a hat, but she also cares about you more than she might be willing to admit aloud."

"Santana is just like that; she may come off as a control freak, but deep down she cares so much that she's defensive of the people she cares about most. So far, Brittany and I are the primary recipients of her care."

"Lucky you," he said just before the waiter placed our food at our table. "I don't know her – or you anymore, really – super well, but just wait it out for a bit. Maybe try to talk to her at the end of the day?"

"Sounds like a plan," I replied, grabbing the chopsticks next to my place setting. "And since when did you become so insightful?"

He shrugged. "I think my roommate has a lot to do with that. He's a really considerate guy. Total pain in my ass, but he really makes me think sometimes." Wes took a bite of his Pad Thai before speaking again. "Too bad he's seeing someone; you could probably date a guy like him."

I smiled to myself before delving into my sushi. "Oh. Well. That won't be necessary," I replied coolly, hoping my blush at the thought of Kurt wouldn't give me away.

At that moment, Wes looked up at me and I averted my gaze but resigned myself to the fact that – once again – my emotions were on display on my face and as obvious as the sun on a summer's day. I'd been caught and Wes was now privy to something I hadn't quite wanted to share yet. He grinned mischievously in response to my actions. "Something you want to share, Blaine?"

I rolled my eyes. "In your dreams, Wes."

KURT

I had spent a good portion of the morning planning a few things for my date with Blaine for Sunday and all that work had left me starving. I left the confines of my room and ventured out into the kitchen to find something to eat only to remember that I hadn't been grocery shopping in far too long and had more Chinese takeout boxes in my fridge than I knew what to do with.

Since I didn't have to report to work until 5, I figured I could do some grocery shopping at Whole Foods and still make it back to the apartment with plenty of time to get to work after dropping off my groceries. I grabbed the reusable bags from the hook on the pantry door, grabbed my keys and made my way to the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle.

There were plenty of grocery stores that were closer – and more affordable ones at that – but I always enjoyed shopping at this location more than anywhere else. It probably had something to do with the fact that it shared a building with some of my favorite shops so it often ended up being a two-for-one trip when I'd window shop before descending down the escalator to the basement where the Whole Foods was located.

I hailed a cab – not wanting to walk the nearly thirty blocks all the way to the grocery store – and gave the driver my desired location before settling back and watching the buildings pass by as we drove up 8th Avenue.

As we passed Penn Station, my thoughts started to drift to Blaine. It had become a common occurrence in recent days, especially after our date. He and I really had hit it off spectacularly, but I knew there was so much I had to learn about him. Where was he from? What was his family like? Who did he consider to be his best friends? What did he want to do in five years? What movies made him smile? What was his favorite food?

It was a drastic change from anything I'd felt before. Even when I had been on that one date with James – who I needed to schedule some time to go shopping with soon – I found myself not feeling fully into the date. Obviously, James had been exceedingly attractive and was a sweet guy, but I think that inkling I felt after our date was just the first sign that he wasn't it for me. The date hadn't felt right and somewhere in the depths of my mind, I knew it.

But Blaine, he was a different story. I don't think I'd ever been so nervous to go on a first date before, even though he and I had already met and had been talking for a while before embarking on our first and second dates. But as soon as Blaine was in front of me, it was as if the nerves subsided and things fell into an easy conversation. We laughed together and seemed to just... click. It was something I hadn't experienced with anyone else before. It was like I could probably tell him anything that was on my mind and I knew he wouldn't judge me for it.

The thought terrified me since this had never happened – not even with William. But it was something I didn't want to question at this point. Whatever it was with Blaine right now was wonderful and I didn't want it to end any time soon.

"Sir?" the cabbie barked from the front seat.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I realized we were already at Columbus Circle. I swiped my card into the reader on the back seat and thanked him after inputting the tip to be allocated to my card and scooted out of the backseat. The cab driver mumbled something as I got out of the car and drove off. I shrugged; he was probably getting ready to get off shift since it was nearly three and the cab drivers usually switched out around this time of the day.

I started walking toward the glass doors to the building when I realized I'd left my reusable bags in the backseat of the cab. I quickly turned around to see if the cab was anywhere in sight, but if it was still nearby it was lost in the sea of yellow that circled around the fountain in the middle of the street.

I threw up my hands and started to make my way back toward the doors. It wasn't a big deal since the bags weren't really expensive in the first place, but I really hoped it wasn't a sign of more bad things to come; you know what they say about bad things coming in threes and all.

At that moment, I felt something wrong with my stride. I looked down at my shoes and noticed a long string of chewed bubble gum coming from the bottom of my shoe and connected to a spot on the sidewalk a few paces back. I groaned and tried to scrape the sticky residue from the bottom of my shoes – which I had just bought last week – but not having much success.

I started mumbling to myself but kept walking into the building, praying to the deities or mother earth orsomethingto spare me from having anything else bad happen to me this afternoon only to be hit sharply in the arm with one of the doors that had swung open in front of someone carrying a lot of shopping bags. I rubbed my arm gingerly with a resounding "ow!" escaping my mouth and mentally resigned myself that bad things – or at least annoying things – really had come in threes today.

"Watch where you're go-" said a voice. "Kurt?"

Shocked to hear my name said with such familiarity and calm, I flicked my eyes up to encounter the face of the person who had just yelled at me.

"Santana?"

"Holy shit! What are you doing here?" she asked, eyes full of shock and awe. I hadn't seen Santana in years, probably since we graduated from high school. She and I hadn't really been close then and had eventually lost touch sometime during our freshman year of college.

"I – uh – was going grocery shopping."

She kept looking at me, the harshness that was previously evident in her voice when we had collided now infinitely softer and calmer. "Well," she continued. "What do you say about grabbing something to eat right now? Do you have anywhere you need to be? I"m hungry and we could totally catch up a bit if you can spare the time. I know it's very last minute and unexpected..."

I shook my head. "I'm starving actually, so I'd be glad to. I have to be at work by 5, but that's not for," I peered at my watch and noted that it was just past 2, "nearly three hours. But do you have somewhere to be?"

"Nah. I decided to take a half day from work today – had a rough go last night so I needed to clear my mind."

I laughed. "Glad to see we cope with stress in the same fashion."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Hummel. Let's go, shopping has worked up my appetite and though you look ravishing, I'm strictly opposed to cannibalism."

I snorted and held my arm out for her free arm to take. She smiled as she lightly looped her arm with my own and led the way.

...

We were nestled into a booth toward the front of the restaurant, Landmarc – chosen because it was in Time Warner Center and we wouldn't have to venture out into the chilly afternoon – and Santana and I had quickly caught up on what had happened in our lives. Santana shared how she had transferred from Ohio State after her freshman year to NYU and majored in communications with an emphasis in public relations. She had gotten an internship at a music label in town during her senior year and got a job offer once her internship was over working in their PR department. I updated her on Parsons and how I now worked in the costume department - starting first with national tours and now on Broadway. We comfortably fell back into more catching up when the light laughter of our conversation and the slight smile she had fell a bit.

"I can't tell you how glad I am to have run into you today, Kurt."

I peered at her over my nearly empty water goblet and gently placed the receptacle on the table. The Santana that I'd known in high school was a lot harsher than the one that sat in front of me now – though they looked practically the same to me. Santana in high school had been cool and distant but this one seemed a bit warmer, albeit it seemed like something was holding her back. Then again, how could I really be sure? I hadn't seen her in about eight years.

"I'm glad I ran into you too," I softly replied. She smiled a bit before turning to look out at the direction of the restaurant, as if she wasn't really here anymore. I decided that even if she and I weren't besties that I could still ask. "Is everything okay? I mean, I may not know you very well after all these years, but leave it to intuition to think something might be on your mind." Part of me wanted to reach out and gently touch her hand – being a more tactile person in recent years – but I wasn't sure how New Santana would take to the physical contact.

She sighed. "This week has just been ridiculously busy and full of personal drama." She stopped briefly and looked at me, as if she was seeing if it was okay to continue. I nodded lightly and she elaborated. "Work has been go-go-go due to a new band getting signed. I asked to be in charge of this band's publicity now that they're signed. It just takes a lot of fielding calls and stuff when things get launched."

"That sounds like a lot," I conceded.

She agreed with a slight hum. "Yeah, but it's not just that. I had a major fight with my girlfriend on Wednesday and we've both been too busy to really resolve it. I hate being mad at her for so long, especially since we live together, but we haven't seen each other much since she mostly works nights and I work a 9-5."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Santana. Do you think you'll have time to sort things out with her this weekend?"

Santana shrugged. "I don't know. Brittany – that's her name – might have to work so I can't be sure. But god, I just want it to be done – I want she and I to be okay again."

I hesitated once more but decided to just ask the question I'd been curious about since she started talking about her problems. "What happened with you and Brittany?"

"She and I have been together for a few years now and we're getting to the point where our family and friends are asking if we're 'in it for the long haul.' I want to be in it with her for... well, forever... but I don't want to start thinking about that right now. We're both so busy and she just started a new job and adding any pressure of a wedding or whatever it entails. We already live together, so the next step is marriage and I want it with her, but I don't want it right now."

I paused to think for just a moment. "So what did she say when you told her that?"

"Well, that's where the argument kind of started. She thought that by me saying 'I don't want it now' meant 'I don't want it ever' and we haven't been able to really talk about what each other want since then."

"It sounds like it might be a miscommunication between the two of you," I replied. "Perhaps you guys should talk this out tonight. It doesn't seem like it's doing you much good to be fighting with each other if you bought out the entire selection at True Religion and bebe," I said, nodding toward the mountain of bags that had been set to the side of our table.

She chuckled. "I suppose you're right." The lull in our conversation felt comfortable, as Santana seemed to debate what to say to her girlfriend as I just looked at the people around us in the somewhat empty restaurant. "Thanks, Kurt," she said, interrupting the silence that had remained for a few minutes. "But onto lighter and somewhat relevant subjects, what's going on in your love life?"

I blushed slightly, noting that Santana's bluntness hadn't escaped after all these years. "Not too much in the past few years, an odd date here and there. I was pretty busy traveling with the tour that I didn't have much time to date."

"Is there anyone currently vying for the role of Kurt Hummel's boyfriend these days?"

I was going to deny anything to Santana since she didn't really know me anymore, but what harm could it have? It's not like she knew Blaine or anything. "There is someone. Or, at least I think so."

Her eyes gleamed with intrigue. "Do tell, Hummel. What man has tickled your fancy?"

I laughed. "I don't want to jinx it or anything, but he and I have been on two dates and they were both wonderful. He's just..." I stopped and let my thoughts race with images and memories of Blaine.

She cleared her throat, immediately pulling my attention back to the woman in front of me. "Wow. He's got your panties all in a twist. What's his name? Do I need to stalk him?"

I rolled my eyes. "You're no better than Mercedes. But just to keep him from the prying eyes of the two of you, I'm keeping my mouth shut on the details."

"Fine, fine, have it your way Hummel. But when you think of him you look as distracted as..." she stopped talking but her eyes bulged.

"What? Is everything okay?" I sputtered as she stared at me, blankly.

"I don't know how I didn't realize," she replied.

"Realize what?" I asked, curious as to what rabbit hole her brain had gone down.

"My friend. Why he was acting so weird this morning. It was another reason I was having such a rough day this morning." Rather than speak, I just let Santana think it out loud. "He was acting all distracted this morning like he was in another world or something. But he was making the same face you just made."

"What face did I just make?"

"One where I could tell you have feelings for this guy that you went on two dates with. That has to be why he's acting weird and all gushy and love-struck. I'd know that face anywhere; he went on a date!"

"Why were you mad at him for going on a date?" She was not making sense. Shouldn't she be happy for her friend?

She shook her head. "No, I didn't realize that he had. He said he needed his space from me and now I know why. He tends to get easily excitable about things - especially if he's interested in someone - and he probably is just trying to figure out his emotions or whatever before talking about it. But I thought he was trying to push me away and since things are so up in the air with Britt right now, I didn't want to lose yet another person in my life. One is bad enough."

She looked somber and the happier mood established because of my thoughts of Blaine cleared as I thought of the girl in front of me. I remembered the abandonment she felt when her grandmother disapproved of her lesbianism and the scuffle it had caused in her family because of it.

"I'm sure your friend is still there for you, San." She smiled a bit as I kept talking. "Just talk to him. Maybe he doesn't want to talk to you about the date for some reason. I get it – I'm the same way. But if he's your best friend, I'm sure he still cares a lot about you."

She was beaming now. I forgot how amazing it was when Santana smiled. She had smiled so infrequently in high school that seeing her face full of smiles and teeth only made her radiate more than she already had. "Thanks Kurt."

I shrugged. "No big deal."

She laughed. "Too bad you're dating Mr. Fabulous. Otherwise I'd set you up with my best friend."

I chuckled. "Any man that can put up withyoumust be a saint."

"He really is," she said, small smile still at her lips.