When Emma got off work around seven, she got on her bike and rode a few blocks through the Santa Monica streets. She had promised Ruby, who lived over on that part of town, that she would hang out after work to grab a few drinks. Apparently, the live music at whatever bar it was that they were going to do was pretty good. Actually, what Ruby had said was, 'The drinks are strong and the chick who plays music there on Thursday night is bangin.' So, Emma figured there was no harm in going and hanging out for a while. Even though the last time that she had hung out with Ruby when she didn't have work the next day Emma ended up having to toss her bicycle into the back of an uber and spent half of her weeks wages to get home. Not going to happen this time. Emma assured herself.

Emma arrived at the bar, which was in the basement of an old brick building in Venice. She had been there a few times, but not as many times as Ruby, who always seemed to know every barman in town. A fact that always had Emma shaking her head at her leggy friend. Emma looked around the room and spotted Ruby leaning over the bar giving the barman a kiss on the cheek. She turned and noticed Emma standing awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs. 'Oi, Swan!' She shouted and waved her over.

'Hey, Rubes!' Emma said as Ruby leaned in and kissed her on both cheeks before pulling her into a hug.

'You made it!' Ruby all but squealed. 'I didn't think that Granny was going to let you out on time.'

'Well, here I am!' Emma smiled. 'I'm just going to go and change out of my work shirt. Give me a sec, will ya?'

'Sure thing, babes. Do you want a beer?' Ruby called after her.

'Please!' Emma called back. Once in the bathroom, she washed her face and changed her shirt. She attempted to tame the now frizzy mess of her hair, but opted to just pull it back in another ponytail because one thing she had learned throughout her life was that, most of the time, there was no taming that mess. So, instead she threw her backpack over her shoulder and walked out of the bathroom to rejoin her friend.

'Here you are, my darling!' Ruby said to Emma as she handed her a full pint of lager.

Emma took a generous sip of the golden liquid and closed her eyes as the tension slowly began to leave her body. 'Gods, I needed this.' Emma admitted.

'I told you Granny was a hardass when I got you the job!' Ruby reminded Emma.

'No, it's not just that. The job is fine. I'm just still stressing about school.' Emma said. 'I still haven't heard anything about whether or not my grant is going to be renewed and that B minus I got in maths might have affected my scholarship. If I don't get that money, Rubes, I might have to take a semester off from school.'

'Hey hey, Em, you'll be fine.' Ruby threw an arm around her friend. 'You're a resourceful little street rat. You'll be fine, I promise.' The taller girl kissed Emma on her cheek and pulled her close. Emma smiled at the term of endearment. Ruby had always been the only friend that Emma had that not only knew about her past, but didn't use it as a reason to pity her. 'Now, seriously, you have to see this chick. I think her set's about to start. Totally your type. Like whoa!'

Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head at her friend's relentless quest to hook her up with someone, and followed Ruby to one of the tables closer to the small stage in the corner of the bar. They sat there for a few more minutes and Ruby let Emma know about what she had missed when she had left early from the bar downtown the night before. Apparently, one of the guys they had been chatting to had a Maserati. 'Still not enough to get me in his bed.' Emma laughed into her beer.

'Oh, I know but man he was trying hard.'

'Haha, he was, wasn't he?' Emma laughed harder. 'Men can be so blind sometimes.'

'Yes, yes we know. Emma Swan is hella gay and everyone knows it.' Ruby laughed at her friend and stuck her tongue out. 'I'm still thinking of getting you that shirt to wear out, by the way!'

'Yeah I don't think a shirt that says "no one knows I'm a lesbian" is necessarily my style.' Emma grimaced.

'Yeah probably not.' Ruby agreed. 'Oh shit, that's her, Em! What did I tell ya? Totes your type.' Ruby pointed towards the stage.

Emma turned her head towards the stage and almost couldn't believe who she saw there. 'Regina.' She hadn't realised she'd said out loud.

'Yeah Regina something.' Ruby agreed. 'You know her?' She cocked an eyebrow in Emma's direction.

'No, I don't. Well, not really.' Emma stumbled, which only made her friend eye her more suspiciously. 'I mean she came into the diner earlier today. But that's it.' Emma hid her embarrassment at her own rambling and the slight flush on her cheeks in her beer.

'And you run into her twice in one day!' Ruby gasped. 'Oh my god this is perfect! You have to talk to her when she's done playing!'

Just as Ruby said that, Regina sat down on the small stage and quickly ran her fingers over her vintage looking acoustic guitar. 'Good to see you all again.' She said quietly. 'How about I start us off slow with some Dylan?' She then began to play and Emma swore that if she hadn't already been transfixed with her, she definitely was now. Regina's voice was smooth, a lovely alto voice and she could play guitar like she had been playing the instrument her entire life. Emma knew she was in trouble. There was no way that this was going to end well.

Emma couldn't tell how many songs she had simply sat and watched Regina play, but suddenly there was a set of long fingers snapping in front of her face. She turned to see Ruby on the other side of the table with an amused look on her face. 'Sorry, what's up?'

'I asked if you'd like another beer.' Ruby laughed at her friend's aloofness.

'I'll get this round.' Emma offered as she stood up. 'You want the same?'

Ruby simply nodded her head and watched Emma practically tear herself away from watching Regina sing. 'Two lagers, please.' Emma said to the barman before turning back to the stage. She hadn't realised that it must have been the break in Regina's set as she walked to the bar and found herself scanning the room for her. Get yourself together, Swan. Emma chided herself.

'Here you are, love.' The barman said as he handed Emma the two drinks she had asked for and just as she was about to pay him for the fare, he turned to someone next to her and said, 'You want the usual, darling?'

'Please, Tony. Thank you!' A familiar voice replied. Emma turned to see Regina standing almost next to her at the bar. It wasn't until Regina turned towards her that Emma realised she was staring. Regina cocked an eyebrow at her.

'Uh.' Emma stuttered and in the process spilled her drink on herself. 'Shit.' She exclaimed, embarrassment flushing her cheeks.

Regina simply laughed and grabbed a few napkins from behind the bar. 'Here you go.' She said as she handed them to Emma. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.'

'Oh. No, no you didn't. I'm just…I'm just clumsy.' Emma laughed as she attempted to wipe the spilled beer off of her. 'Thank you.'

'No, it's okay, honestly. I have quite the penchant for being a bit of a klutz myself.' Regina smiled and Emma felt it in her chest.

'Great set, by the way.' Emma said as she tried to be as cool as she could. 'You've got a beautiful voice.'

Regina tilted her head and studied Emma's face. 'Thank you. Do I know you?' She corrected herself at her bluntness. 'I mean you just look so familiar.'

'You came into my diner this morning.' Emma said as she took a drink of her beer and then immediately choked as she realised what she'd said. 'I mean the diner that I work at. I don't own it.'

'Right!' Regina smiled. 'I thought you looked familiar. What was your name again?'

'Emma.' Emma went to offer her hand to Regina but realised that it was covered in beer and retracted it as quickly as she had offered.

Regina just smiled and bit the corner of her lip. 'Right. Emma. Nice to meet you again. I'm Regina.' This time it was Regina who offered her hand and tried not to laugh when Emma wiped her hand on her dark wash jeans before accepting the handshake. 'Well, I've got to get back up there. Are you going to stick around? Maybe we can grab another drink when I'm done.'

'Yeah…' Emma stuttered, 'I'll be around.'

'Great.' Regina smiled at Emma's nervousness. 'Nice to properly meet you, Emma.' And with that she sauntered back up to the stage.

'So, it looks like I was right.' Emma heard Ruby say from behind her.

'Hm?' Emma said without turning around.

'Oh my god, lets go sit down, crazy!' Ruby laughed as she grabbed her drink in one hand and Emma's arm in the other and dragged her back to their table.

Regina's set lasted about forty-five minutes more and during that time both Ruby and Emma had gotten up once to get more drinks. 'I'm going to go outside and have a smoke!' Emma said to her friend as she stood and fished her pack of smokes out of her backpack.

'One of these days, I'm going to finally convince you to quit those things.' Ruby swore.

'What can I say? It adds to my "street rat" persona.' Emma said with a wink and then walked up the stairs to the outside of the bar.

Once outside, Emma lit up her smoke and leaned against the cool brick facade of the building. Even in summer, it was cold at the beach at night and the evening sea breeze made Emma wish that she had brought a hoodie or a sweater of some sort. 'And here I thought you'd run out on that drink you'd promised me.' Emma heard a voice say to her left and jumped slightly at the sudden break in her peace. Emma opened her eyes and saw Regina standing next to her with the same purple handbag from earlier in the day on her shoulder and her guitar case in hand. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, again.' She apologised.

'No, it's ok.' Emma smiled. 'I guess I can also add jumpy to the list of my more attractive qualities.' She inwardly made a face at her use of the word 'attractive,' but there was no taking it back now.

Regina laughed slightly and tucked a stray piece of raven hair behind her ear. 'I guess so.' She agreed.

Emma snuffed her cigarette on the bottom of her boot and flicked it into the bin to her left. 'So, can I buy you that drink?' She asked.

As soon as the words had left Emma's mouth, the Bach Cello Suite #1 Prelude filled the air. Regina fished through her bag and pulled out her phone. Disappointment crossed her face as she looked at the lit up screen. 'Will you excuse me for a moment?' She asked.

'Yeah sure. Go ahead.' Emma replied to her, waving off any hint of impoliteness.

Regina stepped a few feet away from Emma and took the phone call. Not that she was watching, per say, but Emma saw Regina's shoulders slump as she spoke to whomever was one the other end of the phone. 'Yes, I'm aware.' She said flatly. 'Of course. Is he on the way now? Oh.' Regina turned her head to scan the street and Emma turned, as well, to see a black town car pull up across the street. 'Never mind, I can see him. Yes, I'm on my way back.' With that , Regina ended the call and then turned back to Emma, who quickly tried to pulled out her phone and pretended to text. She had to admit that even to her it was unconvincing.

'I apologise, Emma, but it seems we're going to have to have that drink some other time.' Regina said as she replaced her phone in her handbag.

'Oh.' Emma tried to hide the disappointment in her voice. 'Don't worry about it! I completely understand.'

'It was nice to see you again, Emma.' Regina said as she met Emma's eyes. 'I hope to run into you sometime soon.'

Before Emma could even reply, Regina was looking both ways and sprinting across the street to where a man in a black suit was holding the back door to the town car open. She handed him her guitar case and he closed the door before opening the boot and placing the case inside. And just like that, she was gone. Fuck! I didn't get her number. Emma thought as her left hand flew up to cover her face. Crestfallen, Emma turned back towards the building and back down the stairs to the bar.

When she returned, she found Ruby had pulled up another chair to the small table they had been sitting at and now had her arm around the bartender from before who was occupying it. 'Hey, Ems! Where's Miss Hotstuff?' Emma immediately recognised that the new nickname was for Regina. 'I thought she was going to join us!'

'She had to go.' Emma said as she picked up her beer and finished what was left in one long gulp, then put it back on the table with a little more force than she had intended.

'Did you get her number at least?' Ruby wondered.

Emma didn't reply. Instead she just stared blankly at her friend in a manner that simply said, 'What do you think?'

'Don't worry, babes!' Ruby reached across the small table and patted Emma's hand. 'You two ran into each other twice in one day. I'm sure you'll see her again.' Emma smiled back at her friend, grateful for the reassuring words. 'But, in the meantime, how do you feel about a whiskey shot? It'll take the edge off!'

Before Emma could reply, Ruby was already up and headed towards the bar. And for a second, Emma let herself hope her friend was right.