Today was like any other day of Emma's adult life, or so she thought. She woke up after relentlessly snoozing her alarm until the last possible moment, made herself look presentable (or as she likes to remark to herself in the mirror, "You'll do") and headed out her front door to the elevator of her building by 8:30am to head to work. Her job is whatever, but it pays the bills and offers her some extra to enjoy, so she really can't complain too much. Her best friend Ruby Lucas had gotten her the job at her grandmother's marketing and design company, Wolf Productions and it was nice being able to work with her best friend. Her Monday to Friday schedule was pretty routine, but as it turns out, there would be nothing routine about this particular day.
Still half asleep and cursing the evil beings who created Mondays, the elevator door opens. Only today it's not empty. Today the elevator contains a brown haired, brown eyed woman standing in what Emma can only process as the outfit of all her "I'm a boss ass bitch" fantasies - Skin tight black dress pants that lead down into a pair of red stiletto heels, accompanied by a matching red blouse hugging and dipping in all the right places. Her hair is perfectly styled, falling a few inches past her shoulders in a loose wave, her look completed with dark red lipstick. She's frozen in place, and not entirely convinced she isn't drooling like a teething infant. The woman gives her a look with a raised eyebrow, patience clearly fading from her face the longer Emma remains still. She clears her throat louder than is probably necessary.
"Are you getting on the elevator, or do you merely enjoy standing there watching the doors open and close all morning?"
Emma suddenly registers that Lady Hot Pants (as she will now refer to her as) is talking to her.
"Oh, yea. Right. Sorry." she said as she takes a few stunned steps into the elevator.
"I've never seen you around before, have you recently moved into the building?" she asks while looking towards Lady Hot Pants. She knows the answer, because like hell she'd forget seeing her around. She's pretty much immediately formulating a 5 step plan in her head for charming this woman into agreeing to a date. She's already failing step one - look hot AF, because she decided "you'll do" was an acceptable way to leave the house today. She mentally curses herself, but she can sulk about that later because right now LHP is replying.
"Yes" is all she offers as a response, without so much as a glance towards Emma's general direction. And Emma thought she was grumpy in the morning. Ok, tough crowd. No problem, I can still work with this she thinks to herself. She steps a little closer to the object of her ever growing desire and extends her right hand and plasters her best smile on her face.
"Welcome to the building then, I'm Emma Swan"
She holds out her hand for what she feels like is becoming an awkwardly long amount of time. Lady Hot Pants glares at it like she just tried to hand her a dirty gym shoe. Is that a look of disgust? Or maybe annoyance? Emma studies her glare for a second longer and decides it's the second. Definitely the second. Before she can try and formulate her next move the doors open and they're on the ground floor and LHP wastes no time in walking her wonderful stiletto clad self towards the door and out the building.
Emma uses her still outreached hand to shake the air while carefully admiring the view. She reckons the scoreboard now reads "Emma - 0, LHP - 1" but that's ok. "Challenge accepted" she says out loud to herself. With a new found purpose, Emma struts towards the exit, grinning like an idiot.
The next morning she doesn't even push snooze on her alarm once. That's gotta be a new record for her. She's a lady on a mission and she'll be damned if she's going to fail already. She showers and dries and styles her blonde hair into loose curls and applies just the right amount of makeup so it's not over the top, but enough to get noticed. Now for the important part, the outfit she thinks to herself while opening her closet doors.
She tears through her closet and tries on several outfits. In the end she settles for her skin tight dark wash jeans, tight fitting white tank top and her red leather jacket. She gives herself a once over in the mirror.
"Emma, you magnificent bastard. You got this."
With a newfound confidence in her step, she heads towards the elevators at 8:30 sharp. She's not sure if she will run into Lady Hot Pants this morning, but she sure as hell hopes so. She didn't wake up this early for nothing.
The elevator doors open, and she's not disappointed.
Today, LHP went with a tight black pencil skirt, black stilettos and white blouse. Yep, definitely not disappointed.
Emma makes her way into the elevator, and she can swear she catches eyes in her direction staring her up and down. She smirks slightly to herself, ready to count a point on the scoreboard in her favour and consider step one a success.
"Fancy seeing you here again" she says, with a playful smile on her face.
She receives an eye roll in return. "Not really Miss Swan. As established yesterday, I do live in this building now. It's not unlikely to assume we will run into each other often."
Yikes. Maybe slightly premature to be counting her points just yet Emma thinks.
"Right. Of course. Duh" she replies. Oh my God you sound like an idiot Emma. Get your shit together. She mentally scolds herself another moment longer before getting back on track.
"I didn't get your name yesterday."
This earns her a glance in her direction. "That's because I didn't give it." And maybe it's just wishful thinking, but Emma could swear she's checking her out in further detail now, racking her eyes up and down the blonde's body. She isn't quite sure how to respond, because damn, this woman isn't throwing her a single bone.
"What's a girl gotta do to earn a name?" she goes with.
The elevator doors open before there's time for any response, and LHP is gone like a flash.
Emma momentarily debates giving herself a half point on the scoreboard for the fact that LHP actually remembered her name and (probably) checked her out. Progress she thinks.
She spends her morning commute to work debating her next plan of attack. She settles on a plan that she thinks will target the root of the issue, or what she decides to herself is the issue.
The next morning starts similar to the one before it, only this time she needs to get up even earlier to execute her plan. She engages Magnificent Bastard mode once again while getting ready, this time opting to forgo the jacket to showcase her toned arms because hey, she's proud of those puppies, and hurries out of the apartment at 8:10 this time.
She heads down to the Starbucks around the corner from her building and initiates step two of her plan - charm her with a thoughtful gesture. Emma's concluded that the reason she's receiving such an icy welcome from Lady Hot Pants is because it's simply too early in the day and she hasn't been properly caffeinated yet to be social. Emma can understand that, she prefers a few cups of coffee before most morning interactions, it makes perfect sense. She all but pats herself on the back for her astute power of deduction.
She goes with two Grande Lattes and quickly heads back to her apartment floor to wait for the elevator at 8:30. She pegs LHP as a creature of habit, so she waits patiently for her 8:30 elevator ride. She's feeling pleased with herself, thinking this plan is definitely going to earn her at least a name. After all, who doesn't appreciate a morning latte?
She quickly finds out that Lady Hot Pants doesn't, that's who.
The elevator doors open and she lays eyes on her target, takes in a breath and goes for it.
"Hey" she says with a smile, holding both lattes in her hand.
"Morning Miss Swan" the brunette replies with a straight face.
Greetings are out of the way and she continues her plan.
"I popped out earlier this morning to grab some lattes. I'm not sure what you drink, but I figure everyone likes a good latte. I can totally relate to not being a morning person, my snooze button gets more action than I do." Ok so that last line was probably a mistake she thinks, probably. But what's done is done and she doesn't let it waiver her confidence as she outstretches one of the lattes in her hand towards LHP.
The brunette doesn't take the latte. Instead she stares at it then looks back up at Emma.
"What exactly are you trying to imply here Miss Swan?"
She stutters for a moment before gaining enough composure to answer.
"O-oh, I-I just meant I totally get being grumpy in the morning, I can't look at another human before 8am without wanting to punch them in the nose most days. Caffeine is the magical nectar of the gods, works like a dream. I could write sonnets about my love of coffee for days."
She's nervous rambling now because LHP is glaring at her, like seriously glaring and Emma suddenly thinks she probably should have gotten around to writing her Last Will and Testament because this is surely going to be it. As she prepares to be engulfed in a hellfire fury and meet her maker, she thinks at least it will be at the hands of the most magnificent creature she's ever laid eyes on. In fact, that's what she would envision on her tomb stone, "Emma Swan, Daughter, Friend, taken from this earth too soon by a magnificent creature too hot for this earth"
Before the hellfire can claim her soul, the elevator door opens and snaps LHP out of her glare. Only today, before she practically power walks out of the building, she turns around and reaches for the latte that is still gripped in Emma's stunned hand. She takes the latte and as she turns on her heel back towards the door, she flashes one final look back to Emma before finally throwing that bone.
"Regina"
And then she's gone.
"Regina..." Emma repeats to herself with a smile once the brunette is out the door.
Despite the near death experience, she counts this one as a solid win. The scoreboard now reads "Emma - 1, Regina (formerly Lady Hot Pants) - 2"
Once Emma earned that name, she couldn't get it out of her head. Regina. Finally a name to go with that gorgeous face. She was now contemplating step three of her plan -make casual conversation. She figures her best shot is to show up armed and ready with reinforcements.
And this is how she finds herself in line at Starbucks once again the next morning. She gets them to write Regina on one of the lattes and then she's back on her floor, waiting for the 8:30 elevator.
The elevator dings, and she's ready. This time she forgoes the formal greeting and instead just smiles towards Regina and hands her the latte with her name on it.
As she reaches for the cup, she gives a slightly suspicious, yet oddly playful glance at Emma. "If I take this, you're not going to ramble on again about your love affair with caffeine and how grumpy you think I am in the morning, are you? Because no amount of caffeine is worth that price"
Emma smirks slightly, "No, don't worry. I saw a doctor yesterday and after extensive treatment, he says my Foot in Mouth disease seems to have been cured. Shouldn't be an issue anymore."
And despite how horrifying her embarrassment was yesterday, she instantly decides it was worth it because she smiles. Regina Lady Hot Pants fucking smiles and Emma thinks it's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. She decides right then and there she needs to see it again and again.
"I'm glad to hear it, Miss Swan. Thank you for the latte." Regina replies, still a ghost of a smile on her face.
"You know, you can call me Emma" she says as she takes a sip of her latte.
"I think Miss Swan will do for now." Regina retorts, seriousness back in her demeanor.
Emma puts her free hand up in mock surrender "All right, all right. I guess you can Miss Swan me for a while longer. But if getting to know each other is what it's going to take to get you to use my first name, how about you tell me where you're from? Have you always lived here in Boston?"
Regina seems to be considering her response for a moment. "No, I just moved here. I'm from a small town you wouldn't have heard of." and stands slightly more rigid than usual, almost awkwardly.
"ah" Emma replies. "So how are you liking the big city life?"
Almost as if saved by the bell, the elevator dings and Regina starts her walk to the door.
"I'm sure I'll see you again soon, Miss Swan." and with that, she's gone out of sight.
Well that went alright Emma thinks. She's determined to find out more about Regina, break down her walls a little more. Even if she has to chip away at them with a tooth pick. It's been a long time since she felt this instant spark with someone, too long.
Though she still considers step three to require more time to complete, she considers this another win for the scoreboard. It's now an even tie, and Emma has never looked forward to mornings more.