Regina felt as if she was suffocating. It wasn't the fact that she was afraid of flying, she's been on an airplane plenty of times and felt just fine. What makes her sick is the location of where she is going.
She's going home, to the States, to see her family. A family she didn't miss at all.
She moved to the United Kingdom when she was still very young with her boyfriend Daniel. The reason for that was the same family she's going to visit now. Her mother was against her relationship with Daniel, her sister made fun of her on a daily basis because Regina was a shame to the Mills family.
So she took her purse, Daniel's hand and traveled over the ocean because it was the only way to stop her family from controlling her.
They found their happiness there.
But Daniel is long dead and Regina had no other choice but to stay in touch with her family, because family is what matters the most, even when that family makes your stomach turn.
Regina already knows what Mother will ask first. She'll not be interested in Henry, she'll not be interested in Regina's new occupation. The first question will be about Regina's love life. Is she still single? Why is she so pathetic? What kind of woman can love a man who's dead?
She can already see how Cora will roll her eyes when Regina tells her that she's still single and that she's not seeing anyone. Then Cora will start ranting about Regina being foolish for holding on to someone who wasn't even worth her.
Of course, Mother will find more things that are awful about Regina, but she's sure that the first day will be about her love life.
It won't be the first time Mother acts like this ( she was a snob the whole life, it just got even worse after Daniel), and at first Regina would cry herself to sleep, she would actually feel pathetic but time does its magic and now those words don't hurt her as much as it did before.
This weekend Regina will suffer with her head held high and then she'll travel back to London, be shaken up for a few days and then continue to live her peaceful life with her son, the only man she's interested in.
However, the weekend will be hell. It's enough time for Cora to point out all Regina's flaws, remind her what a disappointment she is and show all the photos of old business men who would like to marry her.
Regina groans at the thought.
"Is everything alright? You look pale, mom," Regina's snapped out of her thoughts when Henry touches her hand.
She blinks her eyes for a few times and forces a smile.
"Of course," Regina lies but when her son gives her a knowing look, she sighs, defeated. Henry is only twelve and already reads her too well. "You know grandma Cora will complain that I'm such a disappointment to the family and try to hurt me like she always does."
Henry frowns, "She's so unfair to us."
Regina can only hum in response.
Unfair is an understatement.
"Don't worry, Henry, it's only three days and then we're going home and won't see any of them for another year," she says, trying to sound as hopeful as she can.
Henry looks at her for a moment, he's obviously not happy to go there either, but then he sighs, knowing that he won't be able to change anything. He rests his head against Regina's shoulder and Regina closes her eyes, tries not to think about Cora.
But it's too hard to do so and Cora invades her thoughts again, making her whole body tense.
"Hello."
Regina's eyes snap open when she hears Henry's voice. She must've fallen asleep for she didn't even feel how her son pulled away from her. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she turns to look at her boy confused. They don't know anyone on this plane, there's no one her son could talk to.
"Hello?" it's a male voice that greets Henry back, and that man sounds obviously confused.
Regina lifts her head a bit so she can see the man Henry's talking to better. He's been sitting here all the time but only now she noticed how handsome he is. He doesn't look much older than her, his hair are dark blond, the strand falling over his forehead, and his eyes… his eyes are the color of the ocean they're now flying over.
She hasn't felt like this in a really long time.
"Are you single, sir?"
"Henry!" Regina cannot help but hiss, grabbing her son's hand. "I'm sorry, he's not usually like this," she quickly apologizes to the man who only chuckles.
"Well, if you're that interested, yes, I'm single," he answers Henry's question, his eyebrow raised in question. "Why are you asking that?"
"Would you mind to be my mom's fake boyfriend for the weekend?"
As soon as the question leaves Henry's mouth Regina's jaw falls open as her cheeks turn different shades of pink. She stares at her son in disbelief, not being able to find the right words to apologize to the man beside them.
The man looks as stunned as she is, but only for a moment. He recovers rather quickly and chuckles again, looks at Regina for a second. She feels her cheeks heating even more when their eyes meet. Thankfully he quickly turns to look back at Henry.
"Why would a woman as beautiful as your mom need a fake boyfriend?"
Henry's a smart boy, he really is, but now something must have gotten into him because he starts explain to this stranger what kind of person his grandma is, and that he doesn't want his mother to suffer from harsh words.
Regina wants Henry to stop. She doesn't like sharing her family issues with others, least of all with complete strangers. She's squeezing Henry's hand lightly, hoping that he will turn to look at her and she'll give him a look and he will know it's time to stop.
However, her son doesn't react to her.
"Well, your grandma is really awful," the man states after hearing her story. He looks at Regina one more time and she wants to look away from him, is too embarrassed, but when their eyes meet, she cannot do that. She just stares at him dumbly.
"I wouldn't want you to feel bad, milady," he says, this time to Regina, and leans over until he's able to grasp her hand. "I would love to be your fake boyfriend for the weekend."
(…)
"This is so awkward," Regina says, nervously shifting on the chair when the stranger from the plane puts two cups of strong coffee on the table and sits down in front of her.
She was already under a lot of pressure due to their travel back to the States and yet her son decided to make it even harder.
What was he thinking?
"Don't overthink it," the soon-to-be fake boyfriend tells her and pushes coffee towards her.
It turned out that the man is named Robin Locksley, he's working in a huge firm in London and now is traveling to see how the work is going in the same firm in the States. What is more, it turned out that he has a four years old son Roland who was sleeping peacefully beside him when Henry offered him to be Regina's boyfriend.
Now, when the kids are resting in their hotel rooms, they're sitting in the café (surprisingly they both are staying in the same hotel), trying to discuss their fake relationship. But it feels so awkward somehow, or perhaps Regina is just too tired to see the bright side of all this mess.
"I'm sorry that Henry put you in this position. If you don't want to do that, I'll understand."
"No, I already agreed, Regina," he tells her sincerely, takes her hand in his and smiles. "I'm happy to help."
Goddamn it, that smile! Regina hasn't noticed men in more than fifteen years (when she was young, all she saw was Daniel, and then, when he passed away, all she could think about was still Daniel) but now she's sitting in front of this beautiful stranger and she can feel flutters in her stomach.
It's probably due to all that stress, she tells herself, and takes a sip of coffee that smells so heavenly.
"So, where had we met for the first time, milady?" Robin asks her with a chuckle and Regina sighs, hoping that it won't turn into a disaster.
(…)
"You're shaking," Robin tells her when they get out of the cab. Roland and Henry are walking in front of them, it seems like the boys get along just perfectly. However, the adults are a different story. Yesterday Regina had a break down, she basically shouted on Robin for trying to help her but he managed to calm her down and they worked out their story together.
"Tell me something I don't know," she hisses.
Robin only smiles in encouragement as they reach the door.
When Henry knocks on the door, Robin grasps Regina's hand. "Hold my hand, we have to make this look convincing!" He tells her, squeezing her hand tightly.
Regina rolls her eyes at him but squeezes his hand in return, wordlessly thanking him. When he smiles to her, she forces a smile on her face, inhales deeply and turns to the door, waits until Mother will open the door.
"You owe me a drink for this, milady," Robin whispers into her ear and Regina turns to look at him immediately, her eyes wide, but then she chuckles and whispers a 'we will see about that'.
And then Cora appears in the doorway and the hell begins.
(…)
It's been two months since Regina came back from the States back to London. She must admit that this time meeting her family wasn't that bad when Robin was with her. Although her mother made sure to let everyone know that he wasn't worth to be Regina's boyfriend, they still managed to have fun together.
Of course, there were and bad moments, for example the one when Robin kissed her. She hasn't kissed anyone for years and she still belonged to Daniel so she excused herself right after that and cried in the bathroom. Robin apologized, and she did too for she obviously overreacted.
Despite a few moments of break downs and words that were meant to hurt Regina, they still had a lot of fun, he made her laugh more times than she can count. Henry seemed to be having fun as well, he adored Roland and couldn't stop talking about how cool it would be to have a younger brother for two weeks.
Her life became normal again, and as every Friday Regina finishes her work day, puts all of her things into a purse, wishes everybody a good weekend and walks out of the building. She'll stop at the doughnut shop to buy Henry his favorite doughnut and then she'll go home, curl on the couch with her son and watch a movie together.
However, when she's walking to the store, she's interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She stops in the middle of the street and pulls the phone out of her purse, finds that it's an unknown number calling to her.
Frowning, she picks up. "Hello?"
"Hello, Regina," she hears a voice, and the way her name rolls off of his tongue makes her weak.
"Robin," she returns, a smile forming on her lips.
"I'm back in London, you know," he says cheerfully, "and you still owe me that drink."
"I suppose I do."
"What about a meeting tomorrow? I know the place where we could have that drink and some very good pancakes, what do you say?"
"That sounds lovely," she tells him, and the fluttering is back in her chest.
"I'll send you the address in a text." He says and Regina hums in response. "See you tomorrow, then, milady."
When Regina puts her phone back into the purse, she grins and thinks that for the first time she actually feels thankful that Henry asked Robin to be her fake boyfriend that awful day.