The Roommate

Regina was sitting in Kathryn's apartment while reading a book. She appreciated the quite. In her own apartment building were construction worker hammering, drilling and shouting. She couldn't handle it anymore. First she wanted to move to a hotel, but her best friend Kathryn had offered she could stay at her place. She was gone for two weeks, going on a trip with her boyfriend and didn't need the space anyway.

Only catch: Kathryn was living with a roommate.

That roommate was living with Kathryn for a month. Regina hadn't met her yet, every time she had come over, said roommate weren't there. According to Kathryn she was friendly and good-looking. Not much of a talker, but at least she was nice enough to patiently listen to Kathryn's extravagant stories she liked to tell. Regina knew from her own experience how tiring it could sometimes be to listen to the talkative blonde.

Not for the first time today was she wondering what kind of person this mysterious roommate might be. Since her arrival this morning, where she said goodbye to Kathryn, she waited to meet the person Kathryn had chose to live with. Regina was still sulky that Kathryn hadn't included her in the choice, they usually valued each other's opinion and shared their deepest secrets. But Kathryn couldn't handle to live alone, she needed someone to be around, especially at night. Kathryn had seen too many Horror Movies in her youth and was sure that a young beautiful woman like her would definitely be haunted by ghosts if she was living alone.

Regina shook her head in memory of the talk she had had with Kathryn about the whole living-alone-as-woman-conversation. It was still hard to suppress the eye roll while thinking about that conversation.

The watch in the living room showed 8:36 PM. Regina was sure, that the roommate would arrive soon. But until then, she sat in the comfortable, pillow stuffed place at the window Kathryn was so proud of.

She was so absorbed in her book that she startled at the sound of keys turning around in the lock and she almost let her book fall to the floor. Regina regained her composure right in time before the roommate entered the living room.

She was definitely good-looking, Kathryn was right about that, although she looked tired and exhausted. She had long blonde hair, just like her friend, but wore it as a ponytail. Blue jeans, a red leather jacket and a white top underneath.

"Hi" the unknown roommate said in surprise. She looked like she hadn't expected someone to be there. Maybe Kathryn had forgotten to tell her about Regina staying here for a couple of days. The roommate looked her over with suspicious in her eyes and Regina managed to waken from her rigor.

"Hey. I'm Regina, Kathryn's friend." Regina said in while stretching out her hand for a handshake.

Realization dawned on the blonde. "Right. The one who is crashing here for a while." She stepped forward and took Regina's hand in her own to shake it. "I'm Emma."

"Nice to meet you Emma. I hope you don't mind that I will be staying here for a couple of days." They broke their handshake and Emma made a 'never mind' gesture. "No problem at all. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not up for a chat right now. I had to take a double shift today and I'm tired as hell." Emma said apologizing.

Regina glanced at the watch, 11:51 PM, she hadn't noticed that is has gotten so late. She could indeed see the fatigue of the other woman, although she had wished to talk to her for a while, but she understood the natural desire of sleep. "Of course, go ahead. It's not like we won't see each other again." Regina said in a light and sympathetic tone.

The blonde smiled relieved. "Well, good night then."

"Good night Emma."

The following days Regina couldn't avoid but notice how beautiful Emma was. When Emma was coming home, she wore her hair in a ponytail, but she soon switched and let her hair fall free around her shoulders. Regina decided she liked it more when her hair was loose, that was until she once saw Emma with curled hair. Her beauty increased by 1000% with these curls. And then there were those eyes. Regina hadn't noticed them at first. Well of course she had noticed that Emma had eyes, but she hadn't seen the variety of colors. There was a hint of brown around her pupils which faded into green and at the edge it switched to blue. Regina was intrigued how the colors changed depending on the lightning.

Regina was happy the days Emma decided to wear a tank top, that way she could see those strong biceps and how the muscles flexed while Emma was carrying something. And it seemed like Emma only owned skinny jeans, which didn't bother Regina because the view she got while Emma turned her back on her was excellent.

Several times she caught the blonde sleeping on the couch while the television was still on. She couldn't get herself to wake her, too peaceful was Emma's face while sleeping. She liked the way her breathing was calm and serene and somehow it relaxed Regina just listening to the steady breathing.

It was not just her appearance that captured Regina. They spent a few evenings eating and talking together. Regina could sense, that there was more to the stories Emma was willing to tell. She could see the conflict behind those magnificent eyes whenever Regina asked something about Emma's past. She felt the urge to know what was troubling the other woman, why she didn't want to talk about particular topics, why she was avoiding eye contact and subtle changed to another more comfortable topic.

Every day she felt more drawn to the woman she was temporarily living with. She was somehow glad that one night Kathryn had send a short text to let her know, that she was coming back sooner than expected, they had had some issues on the trip and decided to come home earlier. Kathryn hadn't said why they canceled the trip so Regina could only guess.

Regina got up at 8:00 AM as usual, dressed and made her way to the kitchen. Emma was already gone for work by this time, so they were never eating breakfast together. Regina often wondered if Emma was eating properly in the morning.

The thought of Emma on her mind disappeared as Regina saw the half hidden figure behind the door of the fridge who rummage through the fridge. She immediately recognized the black and white blouse. It was one Kathryn had found on one of their various shopping tours. She was still envious that Kathryn had seen it sooner.

Regina left her purse on one of the kitchen chairs and smiled. Finally her best friend was back from her trip. "Was about time you came back Kathryn." She said while turning her back to the person who was still rummage through the fridge. "You should have told me that Emma was such a beauty" she said while grabbing two mugs from the shelf, placing them on the counter in front of her. "I mean, seriously, have you seen her in her tank tops, those arms…" she shook her head, still not sure why a woman's arms had such an effect on her. "I thought of buying some new furniture just to ask her to carry them to my apartment so I could see more of those muscles she has." Regina looked out of the window, imagining Emma carrying some heavy stuff. The rummage behind her had stopped, that was a good sign, it meant Kathryn paid attention to her. "and those tight jeans…the other day she dropped something and bend down to pick it up, her ass, goddammit, have you seen her ass?" She poured coffee, which was standing right next to her, in both mugs. "and one day I caught her in the bathroom with just a towel around herself, I wish she had dropped it" she said with a sigh.

There was still no response from the other woman and Regina was unnerved that her talkative best friend hadn't said anything by now. "Seriously Kathryn are you even liste.." she turned around and saw a blonde leaning against the fridge with a smut smirk on her face. It just wasn't the one blonde she had expected it would be.

Open-mouthed she stood there and stared. Oh no. No no no no no. Did she really say all those things in the presence of this one particular person?

"Do you think Kathryn does mind that I borrowed a blouse from her? I spilled something on my last clean shirt and needed to change." Emma said with a wide grin on her face. She was clearly enjoying this moment.

No way. Emma was never there for breakfast. This couldn't be, right? Regina wished nothing more then just to wake up from this horrible dream. She had just made a fool out of herself. The seconds stretched like hours and Regina couldn't think of doing or saying anything to trivialize this situation.

She realized that she was still gawking at the blonde, making herself an even bigger fool by every second that went by.

Regina freaked out and acted in a blink of an eye. She grabbed her purse, mumbling something about she had to go and ran out of the apartment.

She could never ever visit Kathryn again.