Chapter One:
6:00 am was the time displayed on the alarm as the radio blasted out. Emma reluctantly rolled over and searched for the button on top of the alarm clock, slamming her hand on her bedside table a few times in the process, resulting in numerous curse worse being muttered. Emma never really had a problem waking up early in the mornings, after all she had gotten used to it with the un-godly hours the care homes she had lived in throughout her childhood had made her get up at, however there was something about Monday mornings that just plain irritated her. She dragged herself out of the comfort of her bed and walked lazily over to the bathroom. "Shit!" she yelled as she stepped into the freezing cold shower. "Fucking idiot" she murmured to herself upon the realisation that she had forgotten to switch the tap to hot. She quickly showered before getting dressed and pulling her hair into a messy ponytail, deciding to skip make-up as she realised she was running late for work. She quickly made herself a coffee and poured cereal into her bowl and sat down at the small table in the middle of her kitchen. 5 minutes later she was out of the door and on her way to her "crappy café job" as she usually referred to it. Her morning at work was dragging, and it had only been made worse by the unusually high number of rude customers that she had served that morning. When the café went quiet at around 1pm, she busied herself by re arranging the snacks on the counter and distractedly listening to the radio that played quietly in the background. To say the least her cafe job was boring, but one advantage of not being too busy was the opportunity she had to 'people watch', Emma always enjoyed listening in on other people's stories and conversations, and watching them with their friends and family, as the company of other people was something that was rare in her life. She had her best friend, Ruby, but apart from that she pretty much had no one, which could make living in a busy city feel lonely. Emma was pulled from her distracted thoughts as she heard the door open. She looked up and was immediately astounded by the gorgeous Brunette that she saw walking sophisticatedly towards her. Emma immediately regretted the decision she had made earlier that morning to dress casually and make very little effort to make herself look presentable, as she felt completely intimidated by the woman standing in front of her. "Excuse me?!" the brunette repeated, with a slight irritation in her voice. Emma realised that she must have been distracted, and that she had made the woman repeat herself. She looked up with an apologetic smile, "Sorry, what can I get you?" she asked politely. She frowned at the still irritated look on the woman's face, "Latte to go, please." The woman answered. "Of course, it will be with you in 2 minutes." Emma replied, still trying to keep the polite smile on her face, while also ignoring the fact that she was probably blushing. She found the woman attractive, and this made it difficult for Emma to make eye contact or behave like a normal, mature adult towards the perfect stranger standing in front of her. She turned around to make the coffee for the woman, trying desperately not to be her usual clumsy self and drop anything when she realised that the woman was staring at her as she completed the task. "Thank you." The woman said with a slight smile as she took the coffee from Emma and handed her the money for the coffee. "No problem, have a nice day." Emma said. "Thank you, you too, urm?" "Emma." She replied when she realised the woman was asking for her name. "Nice to meet you, Emma." She said with a smile as she turned to leave. "Aren't you going to give me your name?" Emma asked, confused. "Of course," she said with a slight laugh, "It's Regina. Regina Mills." She said as she gave one last smile to Emma and walked out of the café. "Holy shit." Emma muttered to herself as she watched her walk away through like glass window. Regina Mills had been the topic of her thoughts for the rest of her work day, and her walk home, and since she had gotten back to her apartment. "For god sake Emma, get it together!" she said to herself as she put a pizza in the oven for her dinner. "You saw the woman for 5 minutes, and you'll probably never see her again. And even if you did there's no way she feels the same way, it's ridiculous." She lectured herself. She turned on the TV, smiling to herself when she saw that her favourite show "friends" was on, and threw herself down onto the couch. She picked up her phone and called Ruby, she had decided that she would love to hear the story of her new found crush, considering she was always telling her that she needed to start "showing more human feelings." "Emma, hey!" Ruby said in her naturally over friendly and happy voice. "Hey Rubes." She said, happy to hear her best friend's voice, annoying as she found it sometimes. "What's up?" Ruby asked. "Nothing much, we just haven't spoken in a while, I have something to tell you!" Emma replied. "Ooh what is it? No wait, don't tell me, you got fired didn't you?" she said jokingly. "What? No," Emma laughed, "But it does have something to do with work." "Uh huh" Ruby replied, waiting for Emma to impart her news. "Well, you know how my work is always so boring and nothing interesting ever happens? Well today was the same and I was just stood there and then I looked up and there was this really gorgeous woman just stood there in front of me and I just kinda stared at her and then she gave me this intimidating hot look and was like "Excuse me I asked for a coffee" so I was kinda like "oh yeah sure" and she was staring at me and she was really kinda hot Rubes, like wow!" Ruby laughed at her friend's enthusiasm for this story. "Haha woah Em slow down! Okay so there was a hot girl, and you completely embarrassed yourself by checking her out?" Ruby joked. "No, wha-", "I wasn't done." Ruby said "so, this hot girl, did you get her name?" she asked. "Yeah, Regina Mills. But it so doesn't matter because I'll totally never see her agai-"Emma was interrupted by Ruby's shocked response. "Wait Regina Mills? Oh my god Em! That's my boss, Cora's daughter! I was at work today having lunch with her and she was telling me that she had just gotten off the phone with her daughter, who was telling her about a 'stunning blonde' who she had met during her trip to get a coffee on her lunch break!" Emma tried to hide her excitement at the thought that Regina had also found her attractive as she asked "oh my god! Seriously? Wow, I mean, it could have been anyone, I'm not the only blonde woman in new York, she probably wasn't referring to me." Emma said. "Seriously Emma? Of course she was referring to you. Accept it, Regina Mills thinks you're hot. This is a sign, I'm totally setting you guys up." Emma sighed, trying to cover up her secret excitement at the prospect of a date with the gorgeous woman she had met earlier that day. "Ruby, she might not even be gay." She stated. "Well you're wrong there, Cora told me she is. Anyway, I gotta go, but this is so exciting, I'll call you soon, love you." Ruby said, "see ya Rubes" Emma said as she hang up, smiling uncontrollably. For the first time in a long while, she felt like maybe it could work out.