For such a hub for a region, Boston is a fairly small town. You can find whatever you want. It is such a small town that, with some effort, you can walk to the North End and have a delicious cannoli or eat in one of the nice Italian restaurants from the area. During the summer, you can catch a baseball game on Fenway Park, or observe the city from above, at the top of the Prudential Center. The parks are green and lively, with the ducks and the geese swimming amongst the Swan Boats in the Public Garden, the kids running in the Boston Common. You can hear the screeching of the subway, or as locally known, the T, entering Boylston Station, or Park Station, depending on where you are.
If you're lucky enough, or simply lost, you may stumble upon one of the nicest, cute looking bookshops in the city, the Once Upon a Book, located on West street, on the perimeter of the Common, with an incredible amount of old books on the outside of the store, just waiting, begging really, to be acquired by chance passers, or people looking for a nice scenario for their instagram accounts. And that's what happened to one Emma Swan. - She was lost, trying to find her way to the hotel, and also using the opportunity to take nice photos in the beautiful city. After all, Boston is famous for making you lose yourself in its narrow streets, mind you.
Emma decided she wanted to buy a new book - or rather an old book - to read between her takes. As a fan of the classics, Little Women was her newest reading goal of the month. Being an actress working in New York, Emma was feeling tired and wished to take a time off from all the craziness of the city and specially, the paparazzi. That's why she decided to take a weekend off and shipped up to Boston, where she would certainly still be followed by the local media, but at least there, she could simply put on her sunglasses and pretend to be a citizen of the Commonwealth.
The bookshop was empty of customers, with nobody else in sight other than the woman behind the register.
"How's it going today? Do you need any help?" - The brunette woman asked her, removing her reading glasses.
"No, thank you, I'm just browsing, thank you." Emma was always afraid of stating whatever she was looking for in a store without walking around it first.
"By all means, be my guest! If you need any help, I'll be right here." The woman sat back, pushing the glasses up her nose, and reopening the book in her hands.
Emma walked around the shelves, Mystery, Romance, Children, Religious, Young Adult.
"If you're looking for Young adult books, I can always recommend the Percy Jackson saga, sounds childish, but it is a great pastime if you're stuck in the T." The woman said, observing the other woman despite her claim to be there if Emma needed her.
"I've actually already read it last year."
"Oh, I see."
"How about the classics? Do you have a shelf for those?"
"Well dear, which classic are we talking about here?" The brunette stood from her chair and walked in Emma's direction. "You see, you are in Massachusetts, homeland of Ralph Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott."
"To be honest, that's exactly what I had in mind. I have read Emerson, Poe and Hawthorne, and now I'm in the mood for some female writer, but I'm not really in the right mindset for Jane Austen yet."
"Well, I have some Virgina Woolf if you're interested, also good thing Louisa May Alcott has written one of the nicest books there is, Little Women. Let me get it for you." Emma observed the woman, as she walked to the shelf titled Local Writers and chose four different editions, with colorful, different covers. She also chose some of Virginia's books.
"Here, I brought you some of my favorite books and different covers, so you choose the one you like the most." the woman gave Emma a bright smile while depositing the books on the table in front of Emma. "Take your time, dear."
She went back to the cash register, and Emma noticed she was pretending to organize her things. She decided to take all four editions, so she could donate to the community library in her neighborhood back in New York. The cute Asian girl who runs the library would be happy to see her donating some books for the kids.
"I've decided to take all of them. They look very nice and after reading, I'll chose some of them to donate to the kids in my neighbor." Emma stated, taking all the books and walking to the register, where the woman quickly put them on the bag.
"Wicked! You've made a great choice, let me grab a bigger ba…" The woman stopped talking as she looked at the screen. "Just a second, dear." She walked to the back of the store, and Emma couldn't help listening to the conversation.
"Bad news, dude. We have security cameras installed back here." She indicated with her head to the camera in the upper corner of the room. The man followed her eyes and froze. She put her hands in her waist, and Emma was dying to see the look in the woman's face, but all she saw was the look on the man's face. The short, bearded man, with a beanie and a round belly looked like a deer.
"Yeah? So what, sister?"
"So I saw you putting that book in your pants, brother. "
"What book, sister? I'm just looking around."
"The Hard Rock Mining 101 I've seen you looking at before. So, I will give you two options: 1- I will go back to the register and you're going to take it from your pants, clean it, and put it back, or, 2 - You will buy the book. Either way, I'll be watching you. Like a hawk." Emma observed the woman turn around and walk back in her direction, only stopping by the bag pile to take a bigger one for the Little Women fan. The woman was finishing charging Emma when the thief approached them.
"Excuse me, sister, would you give me your autograph?"
"Sure." Emma answered, getting a pen from the holder and a piece of paper with the store's logo. "What's your name?"
"Leroy. L-E-R-O-Y".
She wrote down and gave it to him. "There you go, Leroy."
"What does it say?" The man looked at the brunette, who looked like she could murder him with her eyes, with a smile in his face.
"Here's my signature, and it says: To Leroy. You belong in jail." Emma looked at him defiantly.
He started to laugh. "That's a good one, sister. Do you… do you want my phone number?" Leroy smiled and leaned on the register, while wiggling his eyebrows to her.
"Hmm. Tempting. But no, thank you." She smiled back and looked at the woman. Leroy for once, took the hint and left the store.
"Sorry about that, dear." The woman said giving to Emma her bag and the receipt for the books.
"That's okay, you handled it brilliantly." Emma extended her hand to her. "I'm Emma."
"Regina." The woman answered, shaking the offered hand. "It's wicked nice to meet you, dear."
"Same. I'll see you".
"Thank you for shopping with us, please come back." Regina said with a smile in her face, which reached her bright brown eyes. She also took the opportunity to give the blonde a business card for the shop. Emma smiled back and left the store.
Regina watched as Emma Swan left her bookstore in a hidden awe. She had seen many movies with the blonde, how couldn't she? Emma Swan was the Hollywood star of the moment. Regina was a great appreciator of the film industry, as just much as an avid reader.
The bookshop was a gift from her father, a Puerto Rican man who came to Massachusetts to chase the American Dream in the second half of the century. Enrique Mills worked hard at the shipyard in Watertown to provide for his wife and the child from her first marriage, Zelena, and later, worked even harder in a second job, to provide for the family when Cora found herself pregnant with Regina. As time went by, Enrique had enough money to buy the property and the three women took care of the bookstore while he continued working at the shipyard, and thus, Regina grew up working on the family business while Zelena decided later, that she wanted to do other things in her life.
Regina worked with David White, her childhood friend and her sales assistant. The bell above the door rang, and Regina was taken out of her stupor by a little boy's voice.
"Hi mommy!"
"Hi my prince! How was your day?"
"Good! The Tillman twins played with me and Grace gave me a piece of her apple!" - Henry hugged his mother and ran to the back of the store, where he had a room filled with toys and a makeshift bed, to take his late afternoon/evening naps before it was time to close the store and go home. Regina laughed at how fast he gave her the news about his day and ran to his room.
"I think you won't believe who was just here." Regina told David with a small smile, startling the blonde man. "Who?" He asked looking out of the window. "Was it someone famous?" He still kept looking outside, although nobody famous was walking by. "It would be exciting though, if someone famous came into the store, uh?" David turned to Regina and leaned against the windowsill. "Do you know, this is pretty amazing, actually. I once saw Drew Bledsoe."
"Where was that?" Regina asked skeptically.
"Boylston Street. At least I think it was Drew Bledsoe. It might have been that quarterback from Denver, Airway."
"Elway"
"Yeah, that's it, Elway."
"Yeah, but you see, Drew Bledsoe doesn't look at all like John Elway." Regina answered.
"Yeah but he was pretty far from me."
"So it could've been neither of them."
"Yes, I suppose so, yes." David was a little embarrassed.
"You don't use this type of pick up lines with the girls, do you?" Regina wanted to laugh, as much as she wanted to keep on pushing him.
"No. No, I don't." Both laughed.
"Since you were so kind to pick up Henry from school, would you like something to drink? A cappuccino, maybe?" Regina offered.
"Yes! No! Let's go crazy! I'll have an orange juice!"
"Okay, you take care of him, I'll be right back!"
"I really don't understand how people never assumed Henry to be my son. I mean, the amount of time I've spent with him and all…" David commented out loud, and Regina just laughed.
"You're not my type of blond, handsome." Regina said and winked at him, and left the store. She walked to the nearest coffee shop and ordered a black coffee for herself and an orange juice for David. She also picked up some mini donuts for Henry.
It was a surprisingly warm afternoon for the end of the spring, with the days getting significantly longer and warmer as summer finally approached. She really liked that time of the year, the wicked cold weather finally giving way to brighter, warmer days, tourists from all around the country and abroad could finally come and spend their money in the city, the events and concerts being scheduled to rock the place, and the influx of customers into her small bookstore was always a plus.
Regina heard her name being called, retrieved her order and left the store, imagining if she could have a quiet dinner with Henry, and what could she prepare for him once they arrived home. She wasn't really paying attention where she was going, since that region was practically her entire universe, going back and forth was a mechanical activity for her. She never had much problem with that, but that , she should have had. As she turned the corner, she banged into someone, splashing them with the content of David's cup of juice.
Regina couldn't thank enough the gods for allowing her to have her coffee on the other hand, thus preventing a burning catastrophe from happening. The woman she banged into was none other than Emma Swan, the celebrity who graced her store half an hour earlier.
"Oh goodness! I'm so, so sorry. Here, I have a napkin, let me help ya!" Regina tried to clean the white shirt with the napkin, touching Emma's breasts in the process.
"Get your hands off me!" Emma said sternly.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry! My house is across the street, I believe we can clean you up in no time.
"What I need is get to my hotel!"
"I also have a washing machine, you can get yourself cleaned and I can wash your shirt! Please, it's the least I can do." Regina said, still trying to make it up to the blonde.
"You said your house is across the street. How far?"
"38 yards". Regina answered, pointing to the other side, down the street. "The house with the blue door".
They walked down the street and Regina let her in, pointing out the bathroom. She took some of the bags the blonde was carrying and left them on the table beside the door. While Emma changed herself, Regina put away Henry's toys and organized the living room. "Holy heavens, Emma Swan is in my house". Was the only thought in her mind, and she was trying to prepare herself to the moment she would have to interact with the actress again.
Emma found the bathroom and calmed down. This type of accident never happened to her, but then again, it was not her fault. The bookstore owner, Regina , was responsible for that. Luckily, she had a new shirt in one of the bags she was carrying, and she didn't have to spend an awkward hour with Regina, if she put her shirt in the washing machine. All she had to do was change the clothes and go to her hotel. And that she did. She put on her new shirt and left the bathroom. Regina was sitting down on the kitchen, with a cup in front of her.
"Would you like something to drink, dear?"
"No, thank you."
"I'm a fan of tea, but I have something cold as well. Water? Soda? White wine? Maybe some orange juice?"
Emma looked funnily at Regina. "Right now, I'm not the biggest fan of orange juice."
Regina realised what she said and blushed a little. "Oh, right. Yes, understandably." She laughed and Emma could help but laugh as well.
"How about the best apple cider you'll ever taste?" Regina smiled.
"Got anything stronger?"
"You clearly never tasted my cider, I make it myself." Regina was very proud of that fact, Emma noticed.
"No, thanks". Emma changed her mind.
"May I offer you something to eat, then? Some snack? Something to nibble?" She walked to the fridge, looking for something that might interest the blonde.
"I have cranberry jam, they go nicely with the whole toast. It's not quite cranberry season yet, but this jam I made it myself during last autumn and I have kept it here, it's still delicious, I can assure you. I've got some fruit if you'd prefer. Have you already eaten?"
For the perspective of someone who didn't know Regina, it seemed like she was nervously trying to please her guest, and Emma was starting to feel a little amused by her attitudes.
"No, thank you. I swear I'm good."
"Do you want some apricots soaked in honey? Particularly I think it only tastes like honey, and if you wanted honey, just buy some honey instead of apricots. Nevertheless, they are yours if you want." Regina held out the jar of apricots, which were there solely because of David, who insisted on keeping some of his favorite fruits in her fridge.
"No, thank you."
"Say dear, do you always say no to things?"
Emma thought for a moment, laughed and said "No. It's just that I don't feel like eating anything, I appreciate your effort, but all I have to do is go back to my hotel."
"I see. Well, I'm sure you'll have a wicked good time in Boston, if people stop bumping into you with their orange juice." Regina said, while walked Emma to the front door.
"Well, this was nice. Surreal, but nice." Regina said, offering her hand to Emma.
"Yeah, it was." Emma shook her hand and Regina opened the door to her, observing as Emma left her house, walking towards her hotel, Regina expected.
"Surreal but nice?" What was I thinking?" She asked herself after closing the door.
Regina went to the kitchen, to take some of the orange juice she had in her fridge to David, who was still waiting for his drink and would probably be wondering where was she.
Before she could get a tumbler, the doorbell rang.
To her surprise, it was Emma Swan. "Hi! I forgot my bags." The blonde said, and Regina stepped to the side, giving Emma access to the house.
"Please, come in. They're right here." She closed the door behind her and pointed to the bags. Emma got them and looked at Regina. "Thank you. This was… surreal, but in a beautiful way."
They looked at one another, and in a burst of confidence which Emma had no idea where it came from, she stepped forward and kissed Regina, who stayed still for two seconds, before putting her hands around Emma's waist line and bringing her closer, while responding to the kiss by opening her mouth. As oxygen became necessary, the kiss ended and both smiled.
"Now, this was a lot nicer." Emma said, still smiling.
"Yeah."
"It's probably best not tell anyone about this." Emma said looking at her.
"Right. Right. No one." Regina looked a little sad. "I mean, I will tell myself sometimes, but don't worry, I will not believe it, either." Emma opened the door and left to the street.
"Is this real life?" The brunette asked herself out loud, but with no one around, she was left without an answer.