"Robin, Robin," Regina sighed in frustration, she hasn't managed to say one complete sentence since the call started.
"Robin!" She finally yelled at the man on the other side, and he was stunned enough to finally shut up. "Listen, I'm sorry about my mother mess-"
And he started rambling again, screaming about how her mother ruined his business with that interview.
"I have three artists who are threatening me with leaving!"
"Maybe you should know how to handle your artists." She yelled back with arise in her tone, he was acting like a baby now. It's funny really, a baby who begged her to have a baby.
"Don't tell me how to handle my artists when you can't even handle your mother!"
It was her turn to shut up. He was kind of right. Her mother made it a habit of her, running around talking to the press and leaking information.
"You better fix this!" He gritted before he hung up the phone on her.
"AHHH" she growled loudly, her hold on the phone was so tight that the screen almost shattered into tiny little shards. She walked into her office, ignoring Belle's worried look as she slammed the door behind her.
"Your Majesty," Jefferson smiled at her, completely oblivious to her mood, "I wrote a song," a small giggle escaped his lips.
Unceremoniously falling onto her chair, Regina quirked one eyebrow at him, "You wrote a song?"
"I did," he smiled, he sounded surprised, it's been a year since he wrote a song that he was actually proud of. "It's going to be a hit," his eyes were glossy, his pupils dilated and Regina's eyes roamed over his face for a long minute before she finally asked, "Are you high?" afraid of his answer she clasped her fists tightly.
He didn't answer though, instead, he just shoved the piece of paper into Regina's hand, "Read it."
"You are," her face went pale, she remembered his last fall, how they were forced to hospitalized him against his will, how he kicked and screamed all the way to the facility.
The rehab was a nightmare, for the first couple of months he refused to talk, to eat, to even sing.
It took him a year to be strong enough again, longer to come back to work again.
"Please read it," he whispered before he rose up, leaving an exhausted Regina behind.
Small barefoot feet tiptoed down the hall, the five years old boy tried to stay silent, even in his young age, he understood his mother need of sleep.
He toddled into the room and climbed up the bed, trying not to wake his blonde mom as he crawled as close as possible to her sleeping figure, his head resting on her stomach and his legs spread haphazardly on the bed as he fell into Morpheus's arms.
.
.
.
"Care to explain?" Ruby said to her the minute she walked into the kitchen.
"Coffee," Emma mumbled, not even looking at her as she grabbed her mug.
"Emma! you have an envelope with two-hundred dollars and Regina Mills's business card inside!"
"So?" Emma sighed, soaking in the warmth of the mug against her cold hands. "Do you know her?"
"Don't you know her?" Ruby exclaimed, "You don't know her, do you?"
When Emma shook her head Ruby ran to her laptop, the envelope tucked safely in her hands. Typing down the brunette's name on the searching tab, she clicked on the first picture that popped on the screen, "Come here!" she demanded from the sleepy blonde who just sighed in response and walk heavily at her, making a point she was less than enthusiastic about it.
"Was it her?" the girl pointed at the photo on the screen, Regina was indeed there, with Jefferson- the most selling artist of the year.
"Yes," Emma whispered, her mouth open with shock, "Is she a celebrity? a singer?"
"No," Ruby chuckled "She is the mind, Emma, she is the best talent manager in the industry!, she discovered Zelena Green, Tinker Bell and Lost Boys, August Wayne and most importantly- she is the one behind the perfection called Jefferson Hatter!"
"Really? she must be-"
"Filthy rich!, she was ranked 40 on America's Richest Self-Made Women on Forbes"
"That bitch!" Emma suddenly yelled, her face flushed with anger and shame, the hot black liquid in her mug swirling from the shaking of her hands.
"Emma?" the brunette whispered, her eyes wide with confusion.
"I knew it! I knew there was a reason, she thinks she is better than me just because -" the angry blonde kept talking, her voice grew louder and louder with every word that left her furious mouth.
"Calmed down!" Ruby interrupted her rambling with a low growl "You are going to wake Henry up"
"Can you find out where her office is?" she lowered herself down to the chair beside her geek friend.
"Sure, why?" she squinted her eyes at her, already smelling the trouble in the air.
"Just do it," Emma ordered between her gritted teeth, she was a proud woman, and no one, not even Regina fucking Mills is going to mess up with her.
"Emma?"
"No one tips two-hundred dollars out of the goodness of their heart," the blonde finally explained and Ruby just sighed dramatically, holding the green papers to her chest. "Ok," she agreed, typing down frantically on her laptop, "But can you at least get me an autograph?"
"Just find it!"
Regina was working calmly in her office, trying her hardest to put the stress of the day behind her when she suddenly heard her assistant terrified voice from outside. She was about to go out and find exactly what is going on when the door burst open, revealing her useless assistance and a blonde woman.
"Excuse me," she said harshly, her eyes moving back and forth between Belle's scared figured and the blonde's fumed one.
"Hey," the blonde's said as she entered farther into her office, putting a white envelope on her desk, "I think that belongs to you," her dark green orbs sent daggers down her spine and Regina actually felt threatened.
"I tried-" Belle stammered "She just-"
"It's ok," Regina faked a smile, she actually felt sorry for the young girl, Emma, (she now remembered that green-eyed girl name) managed to scare her too. "Leave us," she commended and Belle ran out, eager to leave the room.
"What can I help you with?" the intimidated woman asked when the door closed, leaving the too proud women alone.
"I came here to bring you your money back." she declared "I don't need charity"
"It's a tip, dear, It's customary to leave one"
"Two-hundred dollars isn't just a tip," she seethed at her "It's you trying to prove a point"
"Maybe," Regina said, and she remembered how the blonde acted that night, how she served that man and assumed he was the 'important' one, how she assumed he was the one in power.
She was so tired of being looked down, she worked her ass off, become one of the richest women in the states, and still when she walked into business meetings, when she dine outside, they all just assumed the men with her are the one in charge, even when they are begging her to hire them.
"I knew it!" Emma exclaimed "Who do you think you are? you think you are better just because you are rich?"
"What?" Regina asked confused, this was not how she saw this conversation going.
"You think you are better with your fancy clothes and your bitchy attitude, I'm-"
"I did try to prove a point!" Regina stopped her, "But I don't think you got it,"
"Oh, I got all right!" Emma screamed at her, her hands shaking with anger and her mind playing every scenario of not being good enough, every family that sent her back, every partner that broke up with her, every social worker who asked her to be better, to do better, to act better.
"I was the one wearing Louboutin heels and carrying a Prada purse, he was wearing a fake leather jacket and Nike shoes!"
"So?" Emma asked after a long minute, a part of her understanding suddenly that she was wrong, Regina wasn't thinking she was less, she was thinking he was less. She doesn't know why it made her feel better.
"So you assumed he was the one with the money? Why because he was a man? Let me tell you something, I worked hard, build myself up from nothing and still every time I have a meeting with some guy people just assume he is the powerful one, that I need him."
"I don't understand," Emma shook her head, trying to make sense of the woman words but they all blurred up inside her mind. She just didn't see what she has done wrong.
"You were flirting with him!"
"That's what it's all about? you wanted me to flirt with you?" the blonde screamed at her, but when she finally realized what came out of her mouth she smiled, It wasn't about not being enough, it wasn't about being rejected, it was about being wanted.
"Well, when you put it like that-" Regina couldn't help but think that the blonde was up to something, after all, Regina never left her card to other waitresses who assumed wrongly about her, she never tipped two-hundred dollars before just to prove a point. Maybe deep down she did wish the blonde would have flirted with her, maybe deep down she wished the blonde would track her down and call her on it.
"I can flirt with you" Emma took a few steps closer to the brunette, her eyes roaming over the brunette features, studying the way her breath hitch with every step she took, her plump red lips opening up a little to reveal a pink tongue and she licked her lower lip. Trying to make some sense inside her hazy, troubled mind. "You can?" it's all that came out in the end, a question, she wasn't even sure would feel with the answer.
"I can," Emma answered without thinking, she had the woman right where she wanted her now, "Say tomorrow night?"
"Are you asking me out on a date?" The brunette smirked, how they ended up here, she will never know.
But looking into forest green eyes and blonde messy curls, she realized she didn't really care.
"That depends" the blonde answer, a small grin gracing her thin pink lips.
"Oh" the brunette face blushed at that and she fixed some paper on her desk, placing them in a small messy pile while clearing her throat, she didn't feel so out of power in a very long time, she hated to feel that way, but something about Emma was so enthralling that she put that feeling aside and asked "On what?"
"Do you want me to ask you out on a date?" she took another few steps, her legs nearly crashing with the desk now and she could smell Regina's spicy perfume. It smelled dangerous and sweet, later she will learn just how much that scent suits the brunette.
"It depends" Regina deadpanned and it was Emma's turn to lose her confidence, her face flushed with embarrassment and the fear of being rejected. "On what?" she mimicked Regina's words.
"Do you want me to want you to ask me on a date?" she quirked one perfectly sculpted eyebrow at her.
"I do," Emma confessed. Putting an end to both of their games.
"I do too." Regina smiled brightly at her.