Imagining Tigers

Chapter 1:

I stirred from my sleep when I heard my phone ringing. I groaned and rolled to my side to check the time. Who is calling me at 9 on a Sunday?

Sugar.

I grunted as I sat up, bringing the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I said in my best I-did-not-just-woke-up voice.

"Santana! Hi!" Came the overly cheerful voice.

"Sugar." I acknowledged.

Sugar Motta is the daughter of Crawford Motta, the owner of the law firm I work at. I met the girl almost five years ago when I started my internship at the Motta's after I graduated from NYU. Now I am one of the best young lawyers working at the firm.

"Are you free today?" Sugar asked.

No.

"Yes. Why?" Was my reply. I really didn't want to leave my apartment today. It was Sunday after all.

"I have this contract for a new shop I saw the other day that I really liked and I was wondering if you could look it over?"

That is Sugar for you. If she sees something she likes she has to buy it. With Daddy's money of course. She might be spoiled but she is a good person and puts up with my grumpy moods. We are not best friends, Quinn is my best friend, but Sugar is my only friend at the firm so I help her whenever I can.

"Sure. Where do you want to meet?" I asked.

"Can you come to my house? A friend is going to come by later."

"Ok. I'll see you soon." I said.

"Bye." She sang.

I hang up the phone and threw myself back on my pillows with a huff while tossing the phone on the other side of my bed. I guess my plans for staying in today are ruined.

An internal battle and several minutes later I managed to get up and go make some coffee. I have to be fully conscious to be able to deal with Sugar and read this contract. I took my mug and went back to my bedroom to get ready. I threw on my jeans and a tank top, finished my coffee and left.

...

I just started reading through the contract and Sugar went to the kitchen to bring me a glass of water. I've been listening to her ranting about a guy named Rory and how much she does not like him for an hour. I'm about to turn another page when the front door opens. I wondered who just opens the front door without even knocking.

I glanced up and was met with the most alluring and hypnotizing blue eyes I have ever seen staring back at me. I allowed my eyes to travel down this blonde's body. A purple and blue tattoo of a flower on the right of her chest caught my attention, showing from her off-the-shoulder top. My eyes continued all the way down her body stopping at another tattoo on the outside of her left thigh, some of it hiding under her very short shorts. From what I could see, it was a very impressing and imposing tiger staring back at me with blue eyes, in the background was a jungle. Her gloriously long legs ended at the flip flops she had on.

I looked back up and she was holding her phone and keys on her left hand and a cigarette and a bunch of papers on her right hand. She looked so relaxed but guarded at the same time. I met her eyes and found that she was staring back at me with those blues that you would think they hold the secrets of the world. I felt the need to unravel them. I was about to speak when Sugar came back in the living room.

"Britt!" She whined. She was holding two glasses of water in her hands.

"What?" Asked the blonde. Her voice sounded bored but also sweet and melodic. The fact that I could make this combination freaked me out.

"I told you a thousand times! Don't smoke in my house!" Sugar complained.

"Come on Motta, you know I can't smoke in my house! Cut me some slack." Said the blonde with the same bored but also sweet tone.

"No." Was all Sugar said. One word answer is rare from her so she was probably serious. The blonde seemed to know that as well because she put her things on the small table next to the door and grabbed one of the glasses from Sugar's hand. She drunk almost all the water, leaving just a little bit to throw in her cigarette. Sugar huffed and the blonde just shrugged, handing the glass back to her.

I found myself staring at the blonde mesmerized. Only now I noticed the piercings she had on her face. She had two on each ear and one on her right tragus, a ring on the left of her nose and a stud under her bottom lip. It was weird that I was not grossed out from this tattooed woman but I was captivated instead. I must stared to her pink lips for a long time because they were moving and I couldn't concentrate to hear a thing.

"…the last time. If he wants to graduate he better start studying Motta. He can't keep doing this and you can't keep helping him." The blonde said sternly. I wondered what they were talking about.

"Well technically, you are helping him, not me." Sugar smirked.

"Whatever." The blonde replied and gave the papers to Sugar. Then she turned and looked at me.

I shifted uncomfortably under her penetrating gaze until Sugar spoke up again.

"Oh Santana I'm sorry. This is Brittany, my best friend." Brittany rolled her eyes at this."Brittany, this is Santana."Sugar finished, gesturing at me with a smile.

"Hi." I said. She just nodded and then looked at the contract in my hands.

"Santana what?" She asked then. I was momentarily unable to think, my name rolling off of those lips was having an effect on me. I managed to find my composure again though.

"Lopez. Santana Lopez." I replied shakily. I wanted to please her and I didn't even know her. I was captivated by those blue eyes full of mystery and she was doing things to me I couldn't understand. Normally I would find it rude if someone was asking for my surname and probably insult them. But not with this woman.

"Well Lopez…" She trailed off, bringing my attention back to her. She looked at Sugar and then back at me. "What did she see this time?" She asked. At first I didn't understand what she was talking about, her lips were really distracting, but then I remembered the contract in my hands. Before I could explain Sugar spoke up.

"Oh my god! I saw this shop at some street, I don't even know, and it had the cutest little teddy bears. I remembered my childhood and all that cliché, I don't really care, and I just wanted to have them. What's the big deal anyway?" She wondered. Brittany rolled her eyes again. She came on the other side of the couch I was sitting on. She looked me up and down and sat, then turned her attention back to Sugar.

"You are crazy Motta." Was all she said in that bored but sweet voice. Sugar huffed again.

"Anyway. How much do they cost?" She asked waving the papers in her hands that were holding two glasses of water, somehow managing to not spill it.

"Something edible." The blonde replied. She looked back at me, her gaze calculating, trying to figure out if she can trust me or not. I just thought that she was the most beautiful woman on Earth with those blue eyes, blonde hair, creamy skin, perfect body and those tattoos. I wondered what they meant.

"Seriously Britt? Again?" Sugar took Brittany's attention from me.

"Just make me something to eat woman, I'm fucking hungry." Brittany replied, smirking at an irritated Sugar leaving the living room. She looked at me again, her eyes and face back to guarded and untrusting. I was a little intimidated by her. I stared back at her eyes, trying to understand her until she cleared her throat, breaking our eye contact and looking around.

I went back to the contract. I tried to concentrate but I could feel her eyes on me again and I just wanted to know what she was thinking. I managed to stay focused on the papers in front of me though, reading through the contract and clearing it. When I finished I turned my head to my right to see what Brittany was doing and saw that she was sitting cross-legged on the couch, her back on the arm rest facing me and staring at me. I should find this creepy but I just felt self-conscious under her piercing gaze.

"What?" I finally asked.

"You're a lawyer, Lopez?" She asked, still staring at me.

"Yes." I said showing her the contract in my hands, feeling uncomfortable at her stoic face and thanked god when Sugar came in a few seconds later.

"Here." She said offering a plate with triangle shaped PB&J sandwiches to Brittany and a glass of water to me. The blonde broke her gaze off me and turned to accept the plate, starting to eat immediately and Sugar just laughed. "Slow down Britt, Ali isn't here to take them from you."

A smile broke its way through the blondes face at the mention of this Ali person and made me wonder who Ali was and if Brittany was gay too. Or maybe Ali was a dog? But as soon as our eyes met again the smile vanished and was replaced with a frown and a glare at Sugar's direction. Sugar looked guilty and apologetic and I frowned because I was clueless on what was going on. I decided that was my cue to leave. I cleared my throat.

"Well, the contract is fine Sugar, you can go ahead and sign." I said and stood up handing the contract to her and placing the glass on the coffee table. Sugar lunged in my arms, hugging me and thanking me and I awkwardly patted her on the back."I should go now." I said.

"Thank you again." She said, pulling away and walking me to the door.

"No problem." I said and looked back at Brittany. I really wanted to get to know the mystery blonde but the frown she was still sporting let me know that she didn't. I nodded my head at her as a goodbye and she did the same, allowing her frown to evaporate. I smiled at her and left.

All I could think about on my way home was Brittany. Her blonde hair, held tight in a high ponytail, her blue eyes, mesmerizing and alluring, her perfect body and long legs, her piercings and her tattoos, wondering what they meant, why she was so guarded and what was her story.