Prompt: What about Regina goes by undercover boss (what ever company you like) and meet this beautiful blond employee called Emma, she gets to know her and her little boy and fall for her in the process?
Alright, Regina, you can do this. You can do this. You went to Harvard Business School. You graduated top of your class. You grew up with Cora Mills. You will not be bested by a damn ice machine!
She's tried everything she can think of; she's pushed every button, kicked it, smacked it, unplugged it and plugged it back in- she's not sure if she was supposed to do that- but nothing works. All the frustration of the past few days erupts, and suddenly she's violently shaking the machine, yelling profanities at it that she'd deny exist in her vocabulary.
"Need a hand?" A voice sounds from behind her and it's the last straw.
"Oh gee, do you think?" She spits out. "I'm having a great time-" She whirls around to face the source of the voice and give them a piece of her mind but she stops short when she sees the woman in front of her. She looks to be about Regina's age, maybe twenty four or twenty five. She's wearing a standard issue maid's outfit, and even though strands of blonde hair are falling out of her messy bun and she looks exhausted and harried, she's still the most beautiful woman Regina has ever seen.
She instantly feels bad for taking out her anger on this perfect stranger who no doubt has enough problems of her own. The only reason why she agreed to do this ridiculous undercover show was to help employees like this woman, not make their day harder. But she's fed up. She wants to return to her real job, her beautiful office, using the degree she worked so hard for. And she wants the damn camera crew out of her face. She's tired of making a fool of herself pretending to be someone she's not, and pretending she has any idea what she's doing.
Regina Mills is the VP of the Mill's Palace hotel chain, second in command to her mother, Cora, who owns and operates the entire company. She was born and raised to take over the Mills family hotel empire. It wasn't her first choice, in truth she would have preferred a more low key profession, but it's all she knows. Her mother made it clear that this was her only option, so Regina had settled in and become comfortable as best she could. The job is stressful, and dealing with her mother in every facet of her life, personal and professional, isn't a walk in the park either. But it was better than venturing into the unknown and trying to break away from all the expectations set upon her by her mother.
It's how she got roped into doing this whole thing. Cora had insisted, she said it would be excellent PR for Regina and it would gain their company more publicity. As if they needed any more. Their fortune and famous hotel chain had gained them all notoriety, and Regina had seen her name appear in the papers more times than she cared to count. But Cora always gets what she wants, so now Regina is working under an assumed name as an entry level desk clerk at the Mills Palace in Boston.
But she had assented to this in order to help make improvements to her company, especially to see if she could better working conditions for her employees, and screaming at this poor maid is not the way to accomplish that. So she forces herself to relax the tension in her shoulders and runs a hand through her hair. She's still not used to its new length; the producers had made her cut it so short it just brushes against her jawline. She's wearing black framed glasses, contacts that change her eye color from their natural coffee brown to a dark grey, and she's not wearing any make up. Her picture has been in the paper and the tabloids more than once, so they'd had to put some effort into disguising her so she wouldn't be recognized.
The blonde is regarding her with an amused but good natured smirk, and Regina offers a sheepish smile of her own. "I could use some help, actually. If you're offering? There's a guest up in the VIP suite on the top floor demanding ice, and I've already kept them waiting long enough."
The blonde gives Regina a sympathetic smile; she knows the strain of dealing with difficult guests. "I'm offering. This machine is tricky anyways, you have to know the magic trick."
The maid stands on the left side of the machine, gives it a look of appraisal, and brings her hand down to bang the side loudly two times. Regina rolls her eyes, "I've tried that a hundred times." But the woman just gives a cocky grin and steps around to the front to push the button. Regina stares in wonder as the machine whirs to life and ice starts dispensing rapidly into the bucket she had set there before.
"How did you do that? I hit this damned piece of crap a thousand times, why did it work for you?" Regina realizes that's not exactly, 'thank you for helping me, Stranger,' but she's so maddened by this contraption that evidently refuses to work for only her. She's aggravated and taking it irrationally personally.
The maid chuckles, "It only works if you hit that spot exactly. Hey listen, I know you're frustrated, but could you maybe ease up on the language a bit?"
Regina furrows her brow, but she doesn't wish to offend so she apologizes, "I'm sorry. I usually never curse like this, this client is just really on my case and I have had a very long week."
"Hey we've all been there, and normally I don't care at all, it's just I try to keep it away from the kid you know?"
"Kid? What kid?" Regina looks over her shoulder in confusion, she didn't see any children around.
The blonde quirks her brow at Regina curiously, then points to the cart full of cleaning supplies she had been pushing. When Regina follows her cue she notices a little boy. He's about five or six, with brown hair and he's playing quietly with a stuffed dinosaur toy next to the cart. Has he been here the whole time? How the hell did I miss that? Regina thinks to herself.
The maid just laughs again lightly and goes over to the boy. She lifts him up on her hip and gives him a kiss on the cheek. He laughs delightedly and shouts out, "Mama!" while she ruffles his hair. Regina watches with fascination and she can't fight the smile spreading on her face at the sight of the adorable mother-son duo.
"This is Henry. He's my son." The woman announces with a breathtaking smile. She steps closer to Regina, and holds out her hand to shake, "And I'm Emma Swan."
Regina takes the offered hand and shakes it firmly, wishing deeply that she could give her real name to this woman. Instead she introduces herself with the alias the show gave her, "Sara Matthews."
"You just started down at the front desk, right?" As she's speaking, Emma adjusts Henry on her hip.
"Yes, I've only been here for a couple of days. How long have you worked here?"
"Since I got pregnant with Henry, so almost six years now." At the mention of his name, the little boy bounces up and down in his mother's hold and starts chanting "Hi! Hi! Hi!" with a big grin on his face. Regina finds her own smile growing impossibly wider; he's such a cute little kid.
"How do you like working here?" Regina asks. She's careful to keep it casual. There aren't any cameras on them at the moment, and she doesn't want to appear overly inquisitive.
Emma shrugs, "It's alright. I mean I think you're well aware that the guests can be a pain sometimes. And cleaning stranger's hotel rooms isn't really my dream job, you know? But it pays the bills. Not enough of them to let me afford a sitter, but my supervisor lets me bring Henry with me to work, so I guess it evens out."
Regina smiles warmly, but she can't think of anything to say in response. After a moment she realizes she's just standing in the hall awkwardly and clutching the bucket of ice. She really needs to get this up to the guest before it melts. Or they call down to the desk for the fourth time.
"Um, I should-" She holds up the bucket in lieu of finishing her sentence, and gestures down the hallway with a jerk of her chin.
"Right, of course. Well it was really nice to meet you, Sara." Emma smiles warmly and Henry happily shouts, "Bye!"
Regina's heart melts at how precious he is. The blonde adds, "I'll see you around," before moving back to her cart to resume working.
"I hope so." Regina replies softly. She begins walking down the hall, when she hears the other woman call to her once more. She turns around quickly, not sure why she's so excited by the prospect of talking to the woman for a bit longer.
"Would you like to get drinks or coffee after work with me sometime?" Emma asks.
Regina's heart skips a beat, and there's a hopeful gleam in the blonde's eyes. Her first instinct is to say Yes, absolutely!But there's something in her mind holding her back. She'd be lying to Emma. It's one thing if they're just coworkers who pass each other in the hall, but she can't go on a date with the woman and let her think she's someone entirely different. Hell, she doesn't even know her real name. It kills Regina, but she swallows hard and says, "I don't think that's the best idea."
She turns away and scurries down the hall before she can see Emma's reaction, not wanting to know if she hurt the other woman. Regina continues on in search of the irate guest's room to deliver the ice, and tries not to focus on what might have been if she had met Emma as her real self.