"Please Emma, just one more time. I really can't do it tonight and you're free and I know you need the money." Emma looks her foster sister in the eyes. She was using the puppy dog stare they both learned when they were in the foster system. "Alright one more time. I don't want to earn my money by stripping anymore. I have a decent job now." Ruby hugs her. "Thank you so much, and I know, I know, I own you big time."
"Yes you do!" Emma yells when Ruby darts past her through the door. Emma is left alone again looks around her small apartment. It has tree rooms, kitchen/ living room, bedroom and a bathroom. It was small, it was cheap, it wasn't a place where you could invite anybody too but it was her own place, something she had worked for very hard and she was proud of herself. She had been through some deep shit but it had made her stronger than ever. She walks towards the bedroom and starts pulling clothes form under the bed. "Where are my tight jeans and glitter bra?" She asks herself. It had been a while since she had worn those clothes but she promised herself that tonight was to last time after tonight she was going to burn those clothes.
"I'm sorry I have to go sweetheart but it's only for three weeks and when I get back we will get married and we will go on our honeymoon." He smiles lovely at his fiancée. She smiles back and cups his cheek.
"Well you better make it up to me on our honeymoon." Regina grins and pulls him closer so her breasts were pressed up against him. She knew how he loves the feeling of her breasts against his masculine chest. His hand travels down her spine on to her butt and he massages her ass. Regina moans but slaps his hands away.
"I'm sorry honey but if we go any further I'm going to miss dinner with mother." She pushes him away and walks towards the hallway. "I will be home late, my mother wants to go over everything that has to be done before the wedding. So you don't have to wait up."
Regina takes her purse and sends Daniel an air kiss before closing the front door. Daniel looks at the closed door and waits for a second listening to the sound of a car driving away. When the sound is totally gone he goes into action. He takes his phone out of his pocket and dials the number of Richard his best friend and business partner. "Hey Richard? You still want to do this tonight? She will be home late and I really want to have my one last night of freedom." He hears Richard laughing and agreeing. Everything was set. Food will be here in a hour, and there is enough booze in the house to throw a party of hundred. And thank god for Richard who hired the entertainment. Regina might be beautiful but he also knows she a stuck up bitch with a lot of money and if he really wants the make a name for himself he will have to marry the bitch. A least for now after a while he will get a divorce and will get the half of her money. But tonight he needs the touch of a sweet woman. This was going to be the best night of his life.
Regina didn't thought the dinner with mother would be over so soon. She pulls up on the driveway and gets out of the car. She looks around. Why are there so many cars in the street tonight? She will ask the neighbourhood watch about It tomorrow. Maybe a neighbour is having a party? She looks a second time down the streets and sees an old yellow bug. Who in the world would drive a car like that. Only someone with a death wish would drive a death-trap. She walks up to the front door and goes inside. The moment she is inside so knows that there is something wrong. Loud music is coming from her home office and the smell of cigars is in the air. "Daniel!" She calls out. She walks towards the loud music and opens the door. Her face goes pale immediately at the view she is seeing. Daniel is sitting on a chair with only his underwear on. Smoking a cigar and with a young blond girl grinding on top of him.
Some friends of Daniel are cheering him on and he slaps the girls ass. Regina looks around and sees Richard laughing and cheering it on. "She is much nicer than you cold bitchy fiancée right Daniel. I always book the best entertainers." Regina feels her anger boiling. Did he just call me a cold bitch? She walks towards him and before Richard fully register what is happening she slaps him right in the face. The cheering stops immediately. Everyone looks at her. Regina sees Daniel's face going pale and the dancer on top of him quickly gets off and shield her body with her hands. "Daniel I would like to see you in the kitchen." She says bitter.
Regina leaves the room and people are starting the clear out, Richard is the first one to leave the house. Regina walks towards the fridge and pulls out a bottle of wine and starts pouring herself a big glass. Daniels walks in still fixing his shirt and pants. "Sweetie, why are you home so early?" Regina glares at him. "Because I wanted to be with you before you leave tomorrow!" She yells.
"Regina calm down! You don't need to yell. What you saw in there was innocent. I'm having my stag night."
"Your stag night?" Regina asks lowering her voice. Was it really just that a stag night? Regina thought he was having some kind of wild sex party. When she was a child she walked into a neighbour's house, asking for sugar when she came upon a weird sex party. She had ran away as quickly as she could and was still a bit traumatised. "Was it really just your stag night?" He walks over to her and cups her cheek. "Yes my darling! You know I would never do to something to hurt you. I love you." He kisses her on the mouth and she kisses him gently back.
"euhmmm." They hear a cough. "I'm sorry for disturbing you guys but I still need to get paid." Regina looks at the stripper and can't help but feel really disgusted by this person.
"Yes right, wasn't Richard going to pay you?" Daniel asks.
"Well, I think he is in China by now. You scared the shit out of him." Emma smiles looking at Regina. Regina doesn't say anything but walks past the girl without even looking at her.
Emma looks Regina up and down when she passes her and she can almost taste the disgust the woman is throwing her way. Why do people always judge someone that fast without even knowing them.
"Well I guess your friend is right, she really is a cold bitch." Emma says thinking Regina can't hear her anymore. Regina freezes for just a second. How dare she. Who the hell does she think she is? She thinks about yelling at the girl but doesn't. She knows the girl isn't worth her time.
It's in the middle of the night when Emma gets home. She pulls of her clothes and walks inside her bedroom. She feels dirty and decides to take a shower. The water feels good against her naked body. She puts on boxer shorts and a top, She doesn't really own a pair of pyjama's but this will do. She get to bed immediately. What an awful night. The events of the evening reminds why she stopped stripping in the first place. Rich greedy man, drooling all over her. Using her like a piece of meat. But that wasn't even the horrible part of the evening the horrible part was the beautiful brunette who walked in all regal, who slapped that guy right in the face for calling her a cold bitch. At the moment Emma thought the guy really deserved it but when she went to ask for her money and the brunette looked at her like she was some dirty street whore she knew the guy was right she really was a cold bitch. She had made her feel so ashamed of herself in just a split second. She knows she has to forget it. Why would she care what the woman thought of her. Maybe it was because the woman was totally smoking hot. She didn't want to feel attracted to her but she was and she couldn't do anything about it because first off all the woman was straight, she had a fiancée and she was totally out of her league. No if she couldn't love the woman, she was going to hate her.
In the morning Emma wakes up with new energy and she decides to forget about the brunette and go to work. Being a waitress at granny's wasn't bad at all. Granny's was a little restaurant downtown owned being Cynthia Lucas. She was the sweeties old lady she had ever met and she just loved working there. Everything inside the restaurant was like granny. Old, comfortable and the food was made old fashion style by granny.
Emma has been working for about two hours now when Ruby came walking in with the biggest smile on her face. "Hey Emma can I get a latte and some of that delicious apple pie?"
"Yes but first you are going to tell me why are you smiling that big?"
"I had the best night of my life, I really think I have found my prince charming. He is handsome, smart, nice and he loves the movie dancing with wolves." Emma laughs. "Really loving the movie dancing with wolves is on you checklist for dating a guy?"
"Yes!" Ruby chuckles. "He is coming to pick me up this afternoon. You need the check him out and use you super power on him."
"Really? You think you can't trust him?"
"It's not that I don't trust him. It's just… I…. I don't want the get hurt again. Like with the last guy, that doctor." Emma gives Ruby's arm a squeeze to show her support. "Don't worry Rubes, If he is a lying asshole I will protect you from him." She smiles and gives Emma a hug. "I don't know what I would do without you Ems."
"Probably date a lot of assholes."
"Why the hell are you dragging me to this place? Granny's seriously?"
"My brother, Graham. Met this girl, he really likes her and he has asked me to check her out." Regina rolled her eyes. Regina had dated Graham for a while but she was never deeply in love with him. It was more about the sex and not about the relationship. Graham was indeed a nice and handsome guy but he was so naïve and it was good that he had Kathryn to protect him from any mean gold-diggers. Graham and Kathryn were rich. Not just rich but like when Kathryn wanted a toy horse for her birthday, their parents bought her a stable full of horses. That's how they became friends they shared their love for horses and the fact that they were neighbours did help.
Regina enters the establishment and follows Kathryn to the nearest booth. She picks up the menu while Kathryn looks around. "It's that girl. The one with the red pieces in her hair. She's talking to the waitress." Regina looks at the girl but was immediately distracted by the blond waitress who was bend over and leaning on top off counter with her back towards Regina. The girl had the most amazing ass she had ever seen. She wanted to go over there and smack it or bite it or something. Regina felt herself becoming wet just by thinking about it. She know those thoughts weren't good. She had her time of experimenting when she was in college and she had get it out of her system. But still she couldn't keep her eyes of that ass.
"So what do you think?" Kathryn asks. Regina jumps and looks away from the blond and looks back at the brunette. "She looks okay, I wouldn't personally were something so slutty but I guess you could think of it as ...sexy."
A voice travels through the room. "Emma, there are new customers behind you. Go and take their order, love." Granny shouts form the kitchen. Regina watches the blond as she turns and locks eyes with her.
"Oh, shit!" Regina signs. Kathryn looks at her with wide eyes. Did Regina Mills just curse. "What's wrong? do you know her?" Regina looks at Kathryn. "Do you remember what I told you, when I came to you after I dropped Daniel off at the airport? Last night that stripper girl, she was so disgusting and rude to me." Kathryn looks at the blond and put the puzzled pieces together. "That's her? O my god Regina. She's fucking beautiful, you better hold on to Daniel if something like that was grinding against him."
The blond approaches the table. Regina could tell the blond remembered her as well because she was starring daggers at her. "Can I take your order?" Emma asks smiling at Kathryn." Kathryn just looks at the blond but doesn't say anything. Regina rolls with her eyes and speaks up. "We would like two coffees and… I …..would like an apology." Emma looks at Regina and laughs.
"An Apology! Yeah I don't think so!" The blond walks away and Regina's blood begins to boil. How dare this little whore talk to her like this. Emma comes back with the order and put the coffees on the table. "Anything else? No? Enjoy!" Emma turns around to walk away but Regina takes a hold of her wrist and makes Emma turn back. "I will have that apology now!" Emma pulls her wrist free but the sudden movement makes Regina knock over her coffee, the hot drink spills all over Regina's white and expensive blouse. Regina cries it out. "Shit, it hurts."
Emma sees it happen and feel instantly bad for the brunette, she had experienced the burn from hot coffee and she knew how painful it could be. "Oh Crap that must sting. Come follow me to the backroom. You can clean yourself of and I will get you a clean shirt or something." Regina gets up but doesn't follow Emma to the backroom. She shoves Emma and Emma falls to the floor. "What is your problem!" Emma yells. "I want an apology. One for last night and one for right now." Emma gets up and looks at the brunette. "Forget it." She holds her chin high. No way this woman is going to bring here down again. Regina looks at her with crazy eyes. "Do you know who I am? Show some respect! I can make your life a living hell."
"Respect is something you earn. You can't expect to get it because of who you are. You have to treat people with respect."
"I'm not going to show a dirty little whore like you any respect!"
"That is enough!" Granny yells and makes her way to Emma and Regina. She stand between the two of them and looks Regina in the eyes. Her voice is calm but threatening. "You get out of mine establishment. You are banished and if I ever hear you speak to this brave and smart girl like that again, I will make YOUR life a living hell." Regina eyes grow so wide they might pope out of her head. She wants to say something but a hand on her arm pulls her back and out of the restaurant.
"What the hell Regina? Are you crazy?" Kathryn tells her.
"I'm sorry okay, that girl just brings something out in me. She is just so frustrating."
The minute Emma walks through her apartment door she starts crying. She knew she hadn't done anything wrong but still the last words the brunette had said to her went through her soul like sharp knife stabs. A dirty little whore! She had called her a whore. The part of her life she wanted to forget so badly. She had come so far and had fought through every obstacle. She had found herself a respectable job and had started building her confidence up again. She had her life back and this woman smashed any self-respect she had back down. Emma walks towards the fridge and pours herself a big glass of red wine. The taste feels so good the first glass goes down quickly and she starts her second glass when her phone rings.
The moment she has her phone next to her ear she can hear the rambling voice of Ruby. She's crying and yelling in the phone.
"Ruby! Ruby, please calm down! Take a deep breath and tell me what happened. " Emma hears Ruby breathing. "It's graham, he broke up with me. That blond woman who was with that bitch today. It was his sister. He told me he couldn't be with someone who didn't respect his friends and family and then he broke up with me. I tried to explain but he wouldn't listen." Emma's blood is boiling. It feels like steam is coming out of her ears just like in those old cartoons. She wants to teach the woman a lesson. She ends the call and takes another swing of the bottle of wine, she drinks until the bottle is empty. The alcohol helps her make up her mind. She grabs her keys and jacket and takes a new bottle form the fridge before walking out the door. Does this rich bitch really think she can mess with her family, she is so wrong.
When Emma arrives at the house she had drunk half of the new bottle and is feeling pretty confident and really, really drunk. She knocks on the door but no one answers. She looks at her phone it was past midnight, the woman is probably sleeping. Emma starts pounding on the door until she can see that the light inside is switched on.
A furious looking Regina opens the door, still tying her robe. Emma got a glimpse off some pink pyjama's. Emma looks at the brunette and can see that she is wearing her cold and bitchy mask but Emma can also see the fear in her eyes, fear that she was trying to hide so desperately.
"What the hell are you doing here! Go away or I will call the police." Emma laughs and pushes past Regina. Regina is startled, she let her eyes travel over the girl body and can see her strong arm muscles if this comes to a fight, Regina knows she cannot win.
"Shut up! Right now you are going to listen to me and shut up. My friend Ruby is a smart, funny and beautiful girl. She's like a sister to me and thanks to you graham broke up with her and she really needed someone like him and you fucked that up."
Emma is swinging with her arms while talking. Regina is scared and steps back until she can feel to wall against her back. She is trying hold herself together by looking down, she can feel tears rolling down her cheeks and her breathing is getting heavier.
Emma sees the change is Regina attitude and stops screaming. The brunette was looking so small and now she was starting to shake and her breathing was sounding like she was having a panic attack. Without thinking Emma approaches her and hold her in a tight hug. Regina tenses she pushes back and starts struggling against Emma but Emma doesn't lose her grip.
After a while Regina stops fighting, and she melts in the hung. Her breathing slows down and the crying is reduce to little sobs. Emma lets her go and Regina finally is brave enough to look her in the eyes.
"I'm sorry." It was a whisper but Emma hears it. "I don't want to be this person. I don't want people to hate me, to think of me like a bitch. I just don't want to seem weak." Emma whips the tears of Regina's face with her thumb. "I'm sorry to, for calling you a bitch and for this afternoon. And I should apologize for now too probably." Regina smiles. "Thank you, any chance we could …you know ….. start over? And don't worry I'm going to talk to Graham tomorrow and clear everything out."
"I would like that." Emma smiles and gives Regina her hand. "Emma Swan nice to meet you." Regina accepts the hand and gives Emma a genuine smile
"Regina Mills."
"It's late, I should go." Emma turns around and walks back towards the door but stumbles a bit. Seems she was more drunk then she thought. Regina catches her in her fall and supports her by putting her arm under Emma. "Your drunk! I can't let you drive home like this." She guides Emma towards the living room and put her on the sofa. "You don't have to do this." Emma says but Regina is already pulling a blanket over her. "Yes I have to do this.." Regina watches until Emma fall asleep before going back upstairs. She doesn't really understand what has just happened but she doesn't mind.
Regina wakes up the next morning and still can't believe what has happened the night before. There is a perfect stranger sleeping on her sofa and she had cried in front of this woman. She had worked for so many years to build up her walks on put on this mask so no one could mess with her and no one could hurt her but this person had broken down one of those walls. Regina gets out of the bed and walks to her bathroom too take a hot shower. The warm water does her good. Her muscles are relaxing and when she steps outside the shower she feels like a whole new person. She walks downstairs and finds her living room empty. The blanket folded neatly and there was a small note on it.
Dear Regina
Thank you for letting me stay last night.
I was indeed too drunk to drive. I want to apologize again for everything.
If you ever want to talk or need someone who will listen to you. You can give me a call or come by granny's again.
I will tell her that you are not banished anymore.
Emma
Ps: my number 0478716370
Regina couldn't help but smile at the note. She really had judged this girl too harsh. She looks at the number and was thinking it over. Someone who will listen to me. It's weird but she never really can talk to Daniel about some things. When she things about it she doesn't really want to talk to Daniel. She walks to the kitchen and takes her phone. She could just ask her how she was doing and thanking her for the offer.
'This is Regina Mills.'
She puts the phone down and waits. A few minutes goes by and Regina is becoming nervous. Maybe she shouldn't have done that, what was she thinking? She looks at her phone again. Why isn't there a app or something that can delete the texts that you send or prevent you from sending something stupid. She was about to put her phone away when she got a text.
'Hi.'
That's it? A stupid 'hi'. How old is this girl. She takes the phone and start sending a new message.
'Thank you for the offer, I really appreciate it. Would you conceder coming to my house tonight for diner. I'm making lasagne.'
Regina was calculating in her head she didn't had all the ingredients to make the lasagne. She will have to go out and get all of them and wine, there wasn't any wine in the house.
'That's my favourite dish!'
'Can I expect you around seven?'
'Yes! I will be there.'
She reads the last message over and over again. I definitely have to buy wine. Red or white? Two bottles of each! O shit, I need a new dress! Regina thinks.
Emma is smoothing out her dress and looks at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a casual black dress with her hair put in a high ponytail. She finishes her look with her favourite red leather jacket. Maybe she was looking to nice for just dinner. Did she asks me for dinner as a date or as friends. No not a date. It isn't a date, she wants to become friends. She's getting married, to a man, she's totally straight.
When Emma arrives at the mansion she can smell the lasagne. She could feel herself starting to drool. It was a quarter past seven so she was fashionable late. She knocks on the door and it was opened immediately like Regina had been waiting until she knocked. She looks at the woman and can start feeling her body going into shock. She was looking so amazing, so beautiful. The light green dress that she was wearing hugged her in all the right places.
"Hi." Was the only thing Emma could utter. Regina smiled and opens the door more so the blond could come inside. They were looking at each other for a while until Regina made herself come back to reality. "You look really nice." She says taking Emma jacket and hanging it up.
"Thank you, you look …amazing." Emma told her. Regina smile grew even bigger. She leads Emma to the dining room were a table was set for to two with on each end of the table a plate. Emma looks at the distance between the two plates and was a bit disappointed. "Would you like white wine or red?"
"White please." Regina goes back into the kitchen and Emma decides the make a bolt move. She takes her plate and the cutlery. And moves everything so she could sit right next to Regina. When the brunette come back she looks very confused. "Why did you move everything?"
"I didn't feel comfortable sitting so far from someone when we are supposed to have dinner with each other." Regina nods but this bolt move of Emma makes her nervous and uncomfortable. She pours Emma a glass of wine and does the same for herself.