"Oh, well. Maybe you should join a chat site or something like that," Zelena suggested.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not gonna join a chat site," Regina said and firmly dismissed her sister's suggestion. "I just said that with Henry away on his own adventures in the Enchanted Forest…"
"And what exactly do you have against chat sites?" Zelena asked and raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing," Regina shrugged. "They're just not for me. I mean, can you imagine me on a chat site?"
Zelena chuckled lightly.
Zelena had obviously just been joking about the "chat site"-comment. Regina knew that.
But for some reason, the remark kept lingering in Regina's mind when she returned home from their lunch. She could no longer remember what they originally had talked about, but at one point, she had made a comment to her sister about feeling a bit lonely sometimes. Henry was roaming around somewhere in The Enchanted Forest, and the mansion was awfully quiet without him. Regina had been trying her utmost to quell the feeling, but occasionally, she felt a bit lonely.
Not that she in any way was unhappy with her life, oh no. It was just that work and lunch appointments with the Charmings and Emma and Killian couldn't fill her life entirely.
That's when the remark had fallen.
"Maybe you should join a chat site or something like that."
A chat site. A chat site.
Wasn't that for young people only? Regina knew she wasn't exactly old, but she wasn't exactly young either.
She knew that Zelena was only joking when she said it, but still, Regina was intrigued by the suggestion.
So far, her online life had been limited. Of course, she sometimes used her laptop when she was at work. But that was about it. She had never considered using her computer for anything else besides work stuff.
Not that she didn't knew how to "act" online, she did. But she didn't know much about all the different chat sites Henry had used when he was still living at home. He had tried to teach her how to use Twitter about a million times, but Regina had laughed and declined every time, claiming that she had no use for it.
Maybe she should have taken those "lessons" when she had the chance.
Regina wasn't sure why she was so intrigued by this idea, but she somehow ended up on her couch, laptop balancing on her lap, googling chatrooms.
Okay, that was daunting enough to make anyone take a step back and reconsider.
There was a myriad of opportunities. Literally. There was about a million different suggestions.
There were chat sites where she could meet "new friends", free chat sites, chat sites with no registration, chat sites you had to pay to be a member off, chat sites where she could get a "date", and even chatrooms that offered casual sex.
Regina was appalled. That was definitely not what she was after.
This was overwhelming. Daunting in every way.
Maybe she should just abandon ship, as they say. Maybe she should just close the laptop, forget everything about this and go about her business. Maybe that would be best.
Curiosity got the best of her. She ended up signing up to one of the free chatrooms. And for the life of her, she couldn't figure out the exact reason why she did it. Was she really that lonely?
The page didn't require much information about her. Just her name and age. Regina felt a bit like a fraud when she typed in "36".
She couldn't very well type in "Storybrooke" as her location, so she ended up typing "Portland" instead.
There. She was signed up. It's just for fun, she told herself. She didn't expect anyone to take notice of a new member on the page.
But either way, she didn't want to be a picture-less profile, so she ended up uploading a picture of herself. To be polite. To be honest. To give people a chance to know who they were talking to.
If anyone should message her, that was.
Regina finished her profile, logged out and then tried to forget everything about her profile's existence. She was still slightly embarrassed that she had actually joined a chatroom.
Maybe she would even close her profile when she came home after her dinner at Granny's with the Charmings and the Jones's.
Yes, she would definitely close her profile later. What was she even thinking? What if someone from Storybrooke accidentally stumbled over her profile? That would be awful. Nobody needed to know how lonely she actually was.
Regina placed the now closed laptop on the coffee table and left the mansion.
And for three blissful hours, she actually forgets about the profile. For three hours, she manages to forget about her moment of desperation.
But when she arrives back home, after she has discarded of her coat and kicked her shoes off, the laptop is staring at her from the coffee table.
Stop staring at me, Regina silently ordered the device. Stop giving me that look already.
The computer makes a noise, and Regina scoffed. What, a dead thing is talking back to me now?
She's not gonna… No, she's definitely not gonna…. Of course, she isn't. It's foolish. Silly. Dumb.
Regina sighed irritated as she grabbed the laptop. It comes alive with a slight "brr" and she quickly tapped in her password.
She could do a bit more work. She could. Or she could watch another episode of "The Crown". But…
She ended up on that damned chatroom again. And… What's that? A little red envelope is blinking in the corner. Is that indicating that there is a message?
Yes, yes there is. Regina squinted, pushed the reading glasses up her nose as she read the message:
"Hi there, Regina. I'm Laura. Welcome to the page."