I work for a publishing company here in the Philippines so some practices maybe different in other countries or the order of hierarchy. Let me know what you think!
Full summary is: Storybrooke Times is the leading newspaper and publishing company in Storybrooke under the reigns of Her Majesty, Editor-In-chief Regina Mills. But trouble is brewing as the News Section at are war with business man Zozo Greene who has his eyes on the coming election. Senior Associate Editor and News Section Head Adam Robert Gold is about to face a tidal wave but is it about news and current affairs or is it about the lovely Arts and Book subsection head named Belle French.
"Bae you better hurry up! Your mother will be here soon!" Adam Robert Gold called to his son as he finished cleaning up the kitchen counter of their breakfast.
"Coming!" shouted the 18 year old as he finished cleaning himself up and grabbing his backpack. "Geez, dad, next time don't schedule both your car and my bike on a tune-up at the same time." said Bae as he met his dad back in the kitchen. "Honestly, this is an hour earlier than when I usually leave."
"Give your mum a break, we are just hitching a ride with her and Killian," replied Adam as he dried his hands after washing their plates. He put on his coat just as a car horn was heard.
Gold's Cadillac and Bae's motorcycle were both at the shop for a scheduled check and tune-up. Adam's best friend, Milah Spinner, had offered to drive them to work and her son to school. A bit out of the way for her seeing as she lived in the metropolis area of Storybrooke while Gold had his big Victorian house in the suburban area.
Gold locked up as Bae made his way over to his mother's car where the owner was sitting shotgun with a younger man at the wheel.
"And here I thought your father would still be dragging you out of bed Baelfire," said Milah glancing his way as he got in the car.
"He pushed me off the bed," said Bae. "I still don't understand why we're an hour earlier than when I usually leave for school, Mum."
"Because I have to go to work on time," said Adam as he got in the car beside Bae. "Give your teachers a surprise for once by being on time, son."
"Hey, I don't' have an official late on my record," defended Bae.
"Grace period doesn't count for your father Bae," said the young man driving the car as they made their way to Forest High. "I know."
"How many times were you late during your first year at the Times, Killian?" asked Milah.
"Grace period or not, you were always late Jones," said Gold.
"Oh jeez, boss," said Killian. "I was still living on my boat during that time."
"So you introducing Killian and I proved to be an actual benefit to you, Adam," said Milah. "Now you're writer is always on time."
Adam laughed as Killian glared at his girlfriend.
Adam and Milah had been childhood friends and were also classmates during their University days and due to a drunken night right before their graduation, brought them Bae. Although neither felt that way for the other, they decided to keep Bae as a sign of their strong friendship.
Bae understood the relationship between his parents and didn't complain at all. He lived with his father, because as Milah puts it, Adam was the more responsible one.
Both Adam and Milah worked for Storybrooke Times, an award winning newspaper. Adam Gold was the Senior Associate editor and head of the news section, with Killian as one of his writers. Milah on the other hand wasn't a writer but was the head of the marketing department.
Killian Jones was senior correspondent of the news section, and he was the correspondent for the Navy and Coast Guard, as well as all laws concerning the sea and other water bodies. He was assigned this because of his many contacts in the field, given his boat and seafaring hobby.
They dropped Bae first and then headed to their offices.
"Does me driving you to work give me an incentive?" asked Killian, his eyes on the road but a playful smile on his face.
"What are you chasing this time?" asked Gold. He knew all too well that if Killian was asking for an extension it meant he was working on another story in mind.
"I heard the Coast Guard was commandeering a local case from what Emma is telling me," replied Killian. "Might be nothing but then again might be something."
"What's the case?"
"Murder. Sources say it has a connection with Greene."
Adam eyed Killian and saw the young man was glancing his way via the rearview mirror. Zozo Greene was a wealthy businessman who is rumored to be running for a government position come election time. There have been talks that he was paying off many law enforcement agencies to tie up some loose ends that Gold wanted to get the story on. Greene has been known to fund a lot of government projects and have donated a good sum of money.
"Who was the victim?"
"No clue yet," said Killian as he turned towards the parking of their building. "Too busy on the Navy story."
"Fine," said Gold. "End of the week, but give me more details on this by this afternoon."
Milah shook her head as Killian parked the car and they got out. "If you're going to go after Greene you need a solid piece."
"With your best friend's hunger for news," began Killian. "It'll be another thrilling feature."
Storybrooke Times' offices were housed in a 12 storey building. The lower floors were dedicated to the archives and printing machines, followed by the art and graphics department then the writing sections. Killian and Adam got off on the 11th floor while Milah headed for the 12th.
"Anything today, Ashley?" Gold asked his secretary. Ashley Boyd was a young hardworking woman, who may not have the same thirst for news and public affairs as other people on the floor, but was still very much dedicated to her job.
"Editorial board meeting at 9 and section meeting at 1, Gold," replied Ashley. "No word yet if Her Majesty wishes to see you about the editorials for next week. I did leave a message with Ariel about it. Should I follow up?"
"No," said Gold rummaging through the files Ashley handed him. "Knowing Mrs. Docks, she might just threaten to quit again."
"Mr. Glass has forwarded his editorial and wanted to know if it was already acceptable or would you and I quote 'Murder it to kingdom come' again?" Ashley asked with a small smile. "I told him I'd let you know."
"He in already?" asked Gold with a smile. Sidney Glass was the Times Managing Editor and may be good at his job of running the paper when it came to sponsorship, advertisements and other managerial tasks...but writing an opinion article was never his strong suit. He usually dealt with facts and research and not his own opinion.
Ashley nodded. "I'll tell him you're here."
"What about the other section meetings?" asked Gold as he entered his office but kept the door open so he could talk to his secretary. "Anyone mentioned that they needed me to attend?"
"Gold, everyone flags their section as meeting as needs your attendance," said Ashley from her desk. "I've managed to make a deal with everyone and organized them in such a manner that you'll be able to attend all and give a thorough lecture on how bad they've been doing their jobs and still have time to eat lunch."
Gold groaned. In all honesty, he didn't want the Senior Associate Editor position. He was happy being the Section Head of News, but Regina wanted him to be her second-in-command. Now he was overseeing all the other sections. He was a writer sure and knew how the other writing sections worked. But with so many sections the Times had...it was giving him a headache.
"Is this an editorial meeting or a management meeting?" asked Gold as he entered the meeting room with Sidney Glass on the 12th floor. Most of the members of the editorial board as well as the officers of the publishing company had their offices on the 12th floor, except for Gold that is. Storybrooke Times had grown from the newspaper of Storybrooke to one of the biggest publishing companies of the land. Besides their daily newspaper and weekly magazines, the Times had started branching out to publish children's books and young adult novels.
"Don't know," replied Glass. "I set my own managerial meeting later this week."
"Her Majesty wanted to hit two birds with one stone, Adam," said Albert Spencer, the man in charge of the legal department of the publishing company. "Guess she's in a hurry."
"Any legal matters on my end?" asked Gold as he rested his tea and papers on the table.
"Not yet," said Spencer leaning closer to Gold. "But I heard about the Greene piece, just give me a heads up. I don't want to deal with a lawsuit."
"Have Philip talk to Killian, he's the one pushing," replied Gold as two other people entered the meeting room in a heated argument.
Leopold White the business and finance section head glared at Friedrich Midas the head of the finance department.
"What are you arguing about now?" said Milah as she entered the room. "Honestly, I could hear you across the floor.
"Pretty sure it was business related," Rhea Maryweather Ghorm, head of human resources, remarked as she sat beside Milah. "Either numbers or taxes or the economy. Those are the only things those two can talk about and they still argue."
"You're in a cheery mood this morning Blue," said Gold. "What do you know that we don't?" Everyone called her Blue seeing as that was what her color of the day was usual. Nobody else saw her wearing anything else.
"I wanted to have a separate meeting but Her Majesty as usual wants to do things her way," replied Blue. "It's been six months since we started with the children and young adult publications and I think we should at least have a sole meeting for that. We can't keep rationing the people from the feature section to stand as editors for all the submissions we're getting."
"Have you talked to Mal?" asked Gold.
"Talked to me about what?" came the voice of Mallory Drake, features main section head. Features had a lot of smaller sections like the Entertainment , Health and Wellness, Art, Books, Technology, Fashion, Home and Gardening, Food and Restaurant, Youth and Children. All the smallers sections split the week as to when they are published except for the Entertainment section which is released everyday.
"How you feel about the use of your people as editors for the publishing arm of the company instead of them actually writing," said Friedrich. "They seem to be doing alright now. I don't see why we should hire more people."
"You try writing Friedrich and let's see you not blow a fuse," argued Leopold. "The feature writers may not get published on a daily basis but feature articles are longer and need more depth and research in them. The weekly load is enough time but with them reading submissions from prospective writers all over the country...they will miss deadlines."
"We've published how many books already since we ventured into it?" asked Friedrich.
"I believe we've had 15 since the last year," said Milah.
"And out of those 15 how many were best sellers?" pointed out Friedrich. "Oh...all of them."
"Well since they are selling, we have the money to hire more people," said Blue.
"What are we arguing about?" asked George Marco, the section head of arts and graphics, the man in charge of the layout of the paper as well as the different illustrations that other sections may or may not need as well as the comics part of the fun page under the Entertainment section.
"Nothing like an argument to start yet another editorial meeting," added Jefferson Matter, head of photography, as well as being Mallory's head for the fashion section. "Someone better call Her Majesty and of course our missing editor before they make babies."
"I heard that," said Regina, as she entered the board room with Robin Locksley, the sports section head. It was not a secret that the two had been dating but no one dared make a remark in front of the editor-in-chief. "Well at least we can start on time...where's David?"
"Sorry!" came the voice of the circulation manager, David Nolan, as he rushed into the room. He made a beeline towards Gold. "My article in your inbox, not late." Besides being the Circulations Manager, David was also the Gold's main political correspondent.
The meeting proceeded at its usual pace of updates from the different section heads, deadlines, circulation numbers. Updates on them as a corporation were also given which made Gold realize what Spencer said was true. Regina was pacing the meeting so she could get two things done in one go.
"Alright," said Regina as Blue made her piece again with regards to the lack of manpower for the new function of the publishing company. "My suggestion is this...we have a lot of people for features, especially for the Book, Youth and Children sections. What I am proposing is we shuffle some to the publishing department permanently, but of course those who are willing."
"That's actually not a bad plan," said Mallory. "The people who do read the submissions now are mostly from those three sections, specifically the Book section. I've been thinking of merging Art and Book with Youth and Children and have Mary Margaret head them."
"I'm guessing you already have someone in mind to promote as Book editor then?" asked Blue.
"Well she is known as The Librarian on the floor," came Mal's reply and even without glancing up at her Gold knew she was smiling his way.
"What do you think Gold?" asked Glass, and Gold knew everyone was smiling his way as he tried to be interested on his empty coffee cup.
"Why do I have a say in the matter anyway?" asked Gold. "It's Mal's department, not mine."
"Yeah but everything writing is your department," said Milah. "If Belle's going to be a book editor, she would need official training in a sense. We only have her as a subsection head. She'll need someone to teach her the works of being an editor."
Gold glared at his best friend who had a wide smile on her face. If Gold had matched her up with Killian, she was going to do the same thing.
"Could you all just wipe the smug look on your faces and finish this meeting?" hissed Gold. "I would love to eat before I have my section meeting."
"Mal, ask for volunteers who wish to change jobs and if we get to around 4 or 5 we do the shuffle," said Regina. "If not then we'll have to hire out. I think that's everything we need to discuss."
"Adam, I need the opinion article to know how many pages we have tomorrow," said Marco. "August says that's the only thing we need for the finished layout."
"Take it up with her," pointed Gold to Regina. "It's her piece."
"I forgot about that," said Regina, slightly annoyed with herself. "I can't with all the budget meetings I have to do with the board. Can someone else do it? What about your sub-heads Mal?"
"I'll ask," said Mal. "We have a section meeting later. What time do you need it George?"
"ASAP?" offered Marco. "By 5. Or else Leroy will have all our heads if we're late with the finished layout again for printing."
"Hey," said Mal as she poked her head into Gold's office. "Could you drop by our section meeting? It'll be very short. And I wanted you to be one to request the opinion article."
"Now?" asked Gold as he eyed his half-eaten lunch on his desk. More like a half-eaten snack turned lunch since he was busy with a lot of things.
"Yes," said Mal as he dragged Gold up and they slowly made their way to the elevator. "We're actually done with the meeting. Just last reminders from our Senior Associate Editor."
Gold groaned as Mal dragged him to the 10th floor's meeting room. The entire feature section team was inside, most were standing seeing as they were the biggest group in the paper.
"Alright sub-section heads report," said Mal.
"Entertainment is good to go," said Ruby Lucas. "We've distributed the gossip and movie reviews for the week so we won't go over page again."
"Fashion is alright as well," said Jefferson. "Two spreads as always so you won't blow a fuse."
"Motoring is all set for tomorrow," said Michael Tillman, editor for the motoring section and Gold's correspondent for anything related to the transportation section.
"What else do we have tomorrow?" asked Gold.
"Tech," replied Neal Cassidy. "Everything is up and running. Marco showed me the final layout and it looks alright. But I still say it should be news."
"New phones are not news Neal," said Mal. "Complain one more time and I ask Regina to make you focus fulltime on the website and not write anymore." Neal Cassidy was currently the one maintaining the Times' website with the help from the section heads. But in all honesty, someone needed to be hired to really focus on the website maintenance, another manager if you will. Neal would love to but he also was a born writer and so did not want to give up his post as Technology sub-sec head.
"What about our sections from our contributors?" asked Gold.
"Health and Wellness needs a few more things, doctors Whale and Archie are debating on who gets the space. But it'll be ok for before Thursday. Home, Gardening, Food and Restaurant are waiting for Gran's approval before Marco sends it to Leroy," replied Mal. "Anything else you'd like to bring up?"
"Youth and Children?" asked Gold to Mary Margaret, his previous correspondent for the Education Sector.
"All set for Saturday and Sunday release," replied Mary Margaret. "August's illustrations are already done as well. Just needs Marco's approval."
"Next week's art and book section are also done," said the familiar voice that never failed to put a small smile on Gold's face. Belle French, sub-sec head for sections Arts and Books. Gold could feel his heartbeat race when she smiled at him as he nodded.
"Well I guess that's that," said Mal. "But Adam has a request."
"Anyone willing to write an opinion and turn it in by 4?" asked Gold. "I know it's too much to ask but somebody couldn't accomplish it and we need it for tomorrow."
Silence. Gold was known to be very particular with deadlines and he would chew anyone alive if they turn in something passed the deadline, even if it was a few minutes or even seconds. One of the reasons why Gold was slightly feared in the Times.
"What's the theme?" asked Mary Margaret.
"Technology and its changes." relied Gold. "Sidney wrote on the pros and cons with regards to socializing and White wrote about fast paced businesses and markets. Regina was supposed to write about what part print plays in this new age."
"Does it have to be print like newspaper or it could be books?" asked Belle.
"Could be both."
"I'd gladly do it Mr. Gold," said Belle and Gold could see out of the corner of his eye Mal trying to hide her satisfied smirk. "I've ranted about things like for a while now, I might actually make a decent article from them."
"Thank you Ms. French," replied Gold with a small smile, desperately trying to fight his childish crush. "If you can give it to me by 4, I'd be able to look at it over before sending to Marco for the layout."
"Any other reason why you volunteered for that opinion article Belle?" asked Ruby as they all headed back to their respective desks.
"Aside from the fact that she has a huge crush on our dear Associate Editor you mean," pointed out Neal.
"Shut up," she hissed as she turned to see that Jefferson, Mal and Gold were already entering the elevator. "Honestly, do you want the entire Times to know?"
"I'm pretty sure the entire feature section knows." said Ruby. "Maybe even the people from News."
"Well…" began Mary Margaret. "I think they are taking the opposite approach?"
"The what?" asked Belle in surprise.
"Come on French!" exasperated Ruby. "It's obvious that you both like each other. If us here on the 10th are making you blush, those on the 11th might be doing the same thing to Gold."
"You know what," began Belle, taking her seat. "I have an article to write so I am going to ignore you lot."
"Pretty sure she's going to be worked up on it because she wants to impress," said Neal and duck the pen Belle threw his way.
"That went well," said Mal as she with Jefferson and Gold arrived back in Gold's office to see Milah, Blue, Sydney, Robin and Regina waiting for them.
"May I ask why you lot are here?" demanded Gold with a very annoyed look on his face. "If you don't mind, I do want to finish my lunch before my own section meeting."
"Well we wanted to grab lunch," said Milah. "And maybe ask how things went."
Gold glared at her which only made Milah smile. The woman turned to Blue. "We don't have any rules on inter-office relationships right?"
"You're asking a stupid question Milah," said Blue. "If we had one, then a lot of people in this paper would be fired already. Not to mention you and Her Majesty."
"You know I am rather growing fond of that nickname," said Regina.
"Why are you all here?" asked Gold again as he sat down.
"We wanted to grab something to eat," said Blue. "Come on Adam, we have plenty of time before your section meeting."
"Already eating," said Gold.
"That's not healthy," said Robin. "Pretty sure you need more than a sandwich for lunch Adam."
"Yeah you're thin as a piece of paper," added Sydney.
Gold glared at all of them, knowing full well why they wanted to take him out to lunch. "Won't make the same mistake again you lot."
"Oh come on it's obvious you like her," said Mallory. "Why don't you just make a move already? I'm sure Milah doesn't mind."
"Neither will Bae not unless you want him to set you up again with his headmistress," said Milah. "Cora sure was eager to meet you."
"Can you all just move out of my office so I can eat in peace?" asked Gold.
"Or we could go to the Rabbit Hole and maybe bump into a few of my sub-section heads," offered Mallory.
"Like I said I won't make the same mistake twice," glared Gold.
The group managed to drag Gold to have lunch with them and coincidentally enough some of the feature subsection heads were also having lunch in the same place. The two groups decided to merge their tables and Gold didn't know how but he was seated next to Belle French. Needless to say, he ate a whole lot more than what he had intended to because he had ordered everything Belle had suggested and shared lunch with her.
"Never imagined you'd order everything she liked from the menu," said Jefferson. "You were painfully obvious, Adam."
Gold glared at them. "Can a man eat in peace?"
"Not if he's name is Adam Gold," said Regina. "Come on. You won't have to pay. I'll treat you. Now that's something you don't hear everyday."
Gold rolled his eyes and looked at his half-eaten sandwich. A good meal couldn't hurt and the fact that he wasn't paying was actually a good incentive. "Fine, but if I see a woman with brown hair and blue eyes, I'm leaving."
"Our back-up for this week is Emma," said Gold as his section ended their meeting.
"Isn't it Killian's turn?" whined Emma. "I was just the back-up three weeks ago."
"I was last week Swan," replied Killian. "Besides last week there were loads of breaking stories and when you were the back-up nothing happened in the world."
"Nothing looks like it is going to happen and you'll end up writing a story at 2 in the morning," said David.
"I think you just jinxed it David," replied Elsa Frost said, Times' senior correspondent for disaster management and defence.
A back-up was a writer on call in case a breaking story would suddenly happen during untimely hours. The Times was known to be always on top of news so even if the story breaks at 2 or 3 in the morning, it'll still be headlines once the paper comes out. Leroy, the person in charge of the printing press would usually show his Grumpy side during times of a breaking news. Marco usually has a layout set aside for any breaking news story but he had put a word limit of 2,000 words.
"There is something in the international front," said Mulan. "If it's alright, I could be this week's back-up."
"Expecting something?" asked Gold.
"Lance said there was something brewing over in his area and sources are saying the same thing for Asia," replied Mulan. "Something is stirring up both UN and EU and it's basically at its tipping point."
"Alright, Mulan's backup then." said Gold. "Before we end, I would just like to discuss a very serious matter."
All eyes turned to their boss. Gold rarely spoke like that. The last time he did, Emma and Mary Margaret (who was still a news writer at that time) had gone against Peter Malcolm, Minister for Education and they had gotten into some trouble, legally speaking.
"By now I assume that everyone is working some sort of angle to add on Jones' little piece," said Gold and the room was silent. In all honesty, everyone was looking for a way to get Greene down especially during their last encounter with the man, one of their own, Ethan Dove, got admitted to the hospital. "I will ask everyone to exercise caution and to inform me or Albert on any action that might not be as straightforward as you think."
By that Gold meant consult him and the head of the legal department first before doing anything stupid or illegal.
"We won't be able to get him if we play nice," said Killian.
"I'm not asking you to play nice," began Gold. "I want to make sure I won't post bail on anyone of you...or worse."
Everybody cringed at that. Dove was beaten to almost death after following a lead. The man was still on leave due to Gold's persistence but the journalist wanted to get back to work to ruin Zozo Greene.
"I guess that's about it," said Gold and just as he said those words, a knock was heard and the door to the meeting room opened and admitted Belle French.
"I'm sorry to disturb but I just wanted to say that I've sent the opinion article," said Belle as she stuck her head into the room.
"No problem, Ms. French we were just finishing," said Gold as his entire staff tried not to smile and Gold fought the urge to glare at them all. "We could look over your piece back in my office, if that's alright with you."
"That'll be fine," said Belle.
"Alright you lot," addressed Gold to his staff. "I know for a fact you all have deadlines tomorrow so get to them."
The news team left the office, all greeting Belle and hiding their smirks as they left the room.
"What was that about?" asked Belle as she waited for Gold to gather his papers.
"They're all just cheeky since they all submitted before their deadlines," said Gold. "My staff can be a bit of a headache sometimes." Belle giggled earning her a smile in return. "I said I needed it by 4 not 3."
"Like I said, I've written some of it already because of my strong view on how print is not dying in this new age of technology," said Belle, her face turning a slight shade of red. "I guess they all spilled on the page."
Gold smiled as they headed to his office. He motioned for her to sit as he checked his inbox and found her article right on top. He looked over the file and was surprised to see that she had written over 10 pages.
"Did you even eat lunch Ms. French?" asked Gold as he read her piece. "I bet you've been working on this since your meeting ended."
"I had a ham and cheese sandwich that was very delicious," said Belle with a small smile.
"That settles it then," said Gold as he printed the piece and rose from his chair. "Why don't we head to that small coffee shop across the street so you can have another decent sandwich and we can negotiate what can be omitted or not from this piece. If it were up to me, I'd accept this but we do have other opinion articles and Marco might just kill me."
Belle laughed. "Lead the way Mr. Gold."
As they made their way out of his office and to the lift, Gold noticed the glances they were getting from his staff but Belle was oblivious to it.
"My staff need a lesson on subtly," thought Gold as the elevator arrived and they both stepped inside.
"Are my eyes deceiving me or are they heading somewhere together?" asked Emma as she, Killian and David walked up to Ashley's desk.
"I heard the words coffee shop and sandwich," said Ashley her arms raised in surrender. "I wasn't eavesdropping or anything."
"That's it?" asked Killian. "Come on Ashley, we need more than that."
"Yeah and when he yells at me I am going to blame you for something and let's see you enjoy Adam's company." replied Ashley.
Just then the elevator binged to signal another arrival to the floor and Mary Margaret and Ruby walked off and headed straight for them.
"Have you seen Belle?" asked Ruby.
"She went up here to see Adam," explained Mary Margaret but frowned when she saw that the office was empty.
"They headed to the coffee shop across the street," answered David.
"What?" chorused the two women from the Features section. Ruby immediately fished out her phone and fired a text to Belle.
"Blasted girl didn't even text me," said Ruby. "You guys know who asked who?"
"Adam offered," replied Ashley. "He said that Belle must have worked on the opinion piece and skipped lunch so he offered to go over the paper with her at the coffee shop. If you ask me, he just didn't want any of us to walk in and disturb them."
"Well at least he finally asked her out," said Killian. "Technically speaking."
"You're one to talk Jones," argued Emma. "And how long before you asked Milah out? Oh wait you didn't. Gold asked you to meet him for lunch but instead of seeing him there you saw Milah sitting on the table Gold had reserved for the two of you."
Killian glared at his partner while everyone else laughed at the memory. Gold told parties to meet for lunch, Killian to discuss a story and Milah to just have a chat but it ended up with Gold saying that he had an urgent meeting to attend too and Milah and Killian to have lunch by themselves. And as Gold puts it, the rest was history.
"We need to see what's going on," said Ruby impatiently. Belle was her best friend and no way in hell was she going to leave the two of them alone and wait for the girl to tell her what happened.
"Ruby, he's our boss," said Mary Margaret. "Besides, I do not want to be caught spying."
"Maybe we could ask some of the higher ops?" asked Ruby, looking at Killian, his eyes widening with realization.
"Hell no," said Killian. "I would love for my boss not to hate my guts."
"You're the boyfriend of his best friend, I highly doubt he'll kill you," said Ruby. "Come on, text Milah and tell her to go to the coffee shop to grab a cup of coffee or something."
"I don't think even Regina would dare do that," said David. "Face it Ruby, we'll just have to wait."
"Besides," said Mary Margaret. "This is Belle and Adam we're talking about. The pace of their relationship is slower than a snail's."
As soon as Blue heard what Leroy was telling Nova to tell Ruby, she went and marched up to Milah's office.
Milah was busy typing away on her computer and didn't even look up as the HR head planted herself on the chair in front of the woman's desk.
"I take it you haven't heard," said Blue as Milah continued to ignore her.
"Sort of busy at the moment, Blue," said Milah. "Give me a minute or so."
"You don't know?" asked Regina coming to the office. "And here I thought your boyfriend would inform you as soon as they left eh building."
This got Milah to look up and stare at the two women. "I am assuming you are talking about the same person or people but as you can see I am busy with-"
"Gold asked Belle out!" came the shout of Jefferson as he ran to the office. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"He what?!" asked Milah, standing up. "How? When?"
"Ruby just texted me that Gold took Belle to the shop across the street for something to eat while they look over that opinion article of hers," explained Jefferson. "Killian didn't tell you?"
"Oh he is going to now," said Milah as she fished out her phone and sent a text to her boyfriend. "But finally! Adam sure took his time." She eyed Regina. "Was this your plan all along? Why you didn't hand in your opinion piece in the first place."
"Contrary to popular belief," began Regina. "I do not manipulate the lives of the people who work for me."
"Yeah right," said Blue. "Come on Your Majesty, I'm sure you were thinking this might happen. You gave Adam the perfect opportunity."
"As much as I would love to take credit,'" said Regina. "I just didn't have the time. How was I supposed to know that it would be Belle who would take on the piece. Props to Adam for actually having the guts to ask her out. Unlike someone's boyfriend."
Milah glared at her as Blue and Jefferson laughed.
"Alright, knock it off," said Milah as she took off her glasses. "Who wants to do a bit of spying?"