Regina sat across the dinner table from Robin, finishing up the last of her lasagna. He was uncharacteristically quiet. She did not pry, and once Henry excused himself and went upstairs to do his homework, her patience was rewarded.
"I stopped by your office at lunchtime today." Robin said. His tone was even but she sensed an accusation in his statement. "You weren't there."
"No, I wasn't. I had lunch with Dr. Hopper," she answered. He looked up from his plate, his fork tapping against the edge with nervous repetitiveness. "I wasn't expecting you. Next time call me first and I'll change my plans," she said with a soft smile, hoping it would diffuse whatever was causing his anxiety.
"Don't you already see him once a week?" he asked. He tried to understand her need for regular therapy. Certainly the more he learned about her past the easier it was. But true love was magic, shouldn't that be stronger than her past?
"Yes," she replied, "But I needed his advice about something. I didn't realize I had to ask for your permission." Anger was rising in her.
His reaction to her growing anger was to release some of his own. He jabbed at a red pepper flake with a tine of his fork. "Something you couldn't talk to me about? I give rather good advice too, you know."
Regina almost laughed. "Am I imagining things, or are you jealous of my therapist?"
Robin chuffed and glared across the table at her in a way that suggested he was being overly defensive. She'd seen straight through his inquiry. "Of course I'm not. I have no reason to be. Do I?"
She just shook her head, her continued smile infuriating him even more. "Just look at us. You're jealous of me for having lunch with Archie, when I had lunch with Archie because I'm jealous of you being with Marian."
Robin dropped the fork with a clatter. "You are?"
"How could I not be? She was your wife and is the mother of your son. No matter what happens between us she will always be in the picture. I didn't want to say anything because I don't want you to feel awkward or guilty for being around her, and I definitely don't want you to stop letting her see Roland. I know what it's like to be kept from your child. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, not even her." In their weekly sessions, Archie was helping her maintain her abstinence from magic. They were working to overcome the darkness Rumplestiltskin had worked so hard to instill in her. But when the little green monster had almost made her do something unthinkable, she'd asked him to meet her. That was one skill he'd given her – the ability to stop and think before acting.
"You know there is nothing between Marian and I," he said softly, reaching across the large table for her hand. This was a more familiar place for him – comforting her, focusing on her. So much easier to ignore the feelings he didn't like inside himself.
"Allow me to share with you the advice the cricket gave to me. He said that a love built without a foundation of trust is doomed to fail. So who is it you don't trust, Robin? Me, or you?" And subtly she'd deflected his accusations back onto him. Her skill at wordplay never ceased to amaze him.
"I do trust you. It's just that… ever since you became mayor again I hardly see you. I think this doctor of yours gets more of your attention than I do." Not to mention Henry and Roland and everyone else in the damn town. "This is the first dinner we've had together in over a week."
Men, Regina thought as she shook her head. They can never just come out and say what they're feeling, they have to surround it in machismo and act like they are completely innocent in the making of their own emotions.
"Are you trying to say that you miss me?" she asked as she moved around the table to the chair closest to him. Her voice was soft now, now that she could see the reason behind his jealousy. He loved her. They hadn't exchanged the words, but it was there, in his eyes and the heart upon his sleeve. And he felt their separation as keenly as she did.
As he looked into her eyes his anger evaporated like steam from a kettle that's been taken off the fire. Her touch and her smile soothed him and he could not deny that she was right. He nodded, admitting to her and to himself that the hardest part of adjusting to his new life in Storybrooke was not being by her side every day.
"I've missed you too," she said and leaned forward to kiss him softly. Kissing him felt like slipping your feet into a worn pair of warm slippers – soft and relaxing. She resolved to bring him along with her on her next appointment with Archie. That way he could see that there was nothing to be worried about when it came to her doctor, and perhaps the cricket could teach them both a thing or two about open communication. She would do anything to make the relationship work.