CHAPTER 2

Word

A word

One word... was all it took...

...before her life was forever changed. Every day of her life had been a struggle to find her own way in life. Trying to find her own place in the world she had been thrown into, not by choice but by fate some would say. She hated the word fate, how would anyone expect her to find footing in a life that was never really hers to begin with. Her life had been an endless journey from one foster home to another, that was until she had been adopted by Regina Mills. Now she suddenly found herself in society circles far beyond her imagination. Regina Mills was mayor of Vancouver and had adopted her when she was 10 years old, and now suddenly she found herself in a life far beyond her imagination, and with a sister too. That had taken some time getting used to. But during her teenage years, she had grown closer to her adoptive sister, Snow. Yes that was her name, at first she had found it rather fun, and sometimes she had opted to call her Snow-white, just to piss her sister off. But then again it wasn't the strangest name she had heard high society parents give their child.

She liked her family but not really the perks that came from being the daughter of the mayor. It had been some 5 years since Regina had been elected and ever since life had been even more hectic in the Mills family.

She had tried to keep herself far away from the spotlight, at least as much as she could. She had in the meantime, excelled in the police academy and was now working as a crime investigator. Much to the chagrin of her mother, who had wanted her daughter to seek more suitable work for a woman in her family. But there had been no doubt in her mind that this was what she wanted to do, and she did it well. She had already gained much respect amongst her coworkers.

She had lived with Snow for several years in a nice loft downtown and then Snow had started dating David. Within a year the couple had planned to get married. It had been an easy choice of moving out and when David offered her his apartment she had moved out instantly.

Now she was hauled into a wedding planning extravaganza that would put most wedding planners to shame. Snow wanted it all, and beyond that. And with the mayor as her mother, it was all rolling out according to plan. Snow had assigned her sister to arrange for flowers as she knew that one of her friends owned a little flower shop in the outskirts of the big city.

This was why she was now driving to said flower shop and tried to figure out what to do with the wedding flowers. Snow had laid out some ground rules to go with. Now she hoped that her friend Anna would be able to find some flower plan that would suit the bride and groom, but knowing David he cared less for the little details like his future wife did.

She parked her car and entered the shop. She spotted her red-haired friend immediately among the flowers, she was rearranging some flowers on a table.

"Hi, Anna." She greeted her friend and walked over to her, giving Anna a hug. It had been some time since they last had seen one another. The two women had met in high school and had stuck together ever since, even though their choices in life and careers had been very different. But sometimes it was just great to unplug and enjoy life without being a cop, she could do that with Anna. They would always find a way to get away from it all, either by just going for a drive out of the big city, or slipping away from reality by binge-watching various Netflix shows.

"Oh hi Swan, it's so great to see you, it's been like forever." Anna tended to use her last name. She had always liked that name, which had stuck with her all through the foster care system.

"Hmm," she sighed a little then continued: "you know why I'm here. I really need a plan for the flowers for my sister's wedding." She made a face letting her friend how exactly not thrilled she was about that plan. Anna just laughed and said: "oh we'll find something that will work wonders for the wedding of the year. At least we still have six months to go." She took her friend by the arm and walked into the back room. The next hour or so was spent browsing through huge amounts of catalogs filled with flower arrangements.

Her head was spinning with all the options there were, and when Anna's sister Elsa showed up she took it as an opportunity to finish up for today: "Anna, I really can't look at another flower arrangement today, do you mind if I borrow some of these and take a look at it at home." Anna nodded and went over to her sister to plan for the rest of the day. She put the catalogs into her bag and said to her friend that she would be out in the shop for a little while, then heading home. She wanted to see if she could find some new plant or flower for her apartment. She hugged her friend goodbye and she let her friend continue with her work in the back room and followed Elsa out into the shop. While she took some time looking over the options of a new plant she suddenly noticed a tall dark haired man enter the shop. The flower pot in her hand suddenly all but forgotten while she tried not to stare too much. The man carried a crate with white orchids, it was actually her favorite flower but had yet to make one survive in her apartment. Her mother had given her a pretty one when she moved in, but only a few months after it had died. While still not openly ogling the man, she wondered what he was doing.

He spoke with Elsa at the counter and his deep voice carried back to where she stood. It was a warm and gentle voice, something that she tried not to linger too much at. Apparently, he was bringing in more crates and suddenly she found herself looking straight into his eyes. She was not really able to see the color but he gave her a polite nod of his head and somehow she remembered her manners and did the same. And pulled herself away from his stare, and tried to find interest in the flower pot in her hand. When she heard the door close she breathed out and turned to place the pot back on the shelf.

Every time the door opened and she saw the man walk in or out she did her best not starring openly at him, and at one point she found herself looking openly at his back while he placed a crate on the counter. Suddenly his eyes looking right back at her, she froze and tried to think of something to do. She sends him a feeble smile and tried to look away. He turned his head around and lifted out another orchid, but somehow he managed to make the pot hit the edge of the crate. When she looked over at the commotion she caught a quick glimpse of Elsa crocking her eyebrow at the man, who nervously scratched his ear and tried to clean up the mess he had made.

She tried to decide what plant she wanted to buy for her apartment but found that her mind kept wandering back to the man talking with Elsa. At last she simply just gave up and shook her head and took one last look at the man, then silently waved goodbye to Elsa. Walking out of the shop her head was filled with this strange sense of something huge was about to happen. Looking back at the closed door she suddenly took one bold decision and walked over to the truck parked outside the shop. She had no idea how she knew that it was his truck, but somehow it felt right when she leaned up against it, keeping her eyes on the door to the shop waiting for… she had no idea what but knew that if she wanted something to happen out of this she should do something about it.

In the past, she had had her ups and downs when dealing with the whole dating and meeting someone new. Either they got spooked off by her profession, or they were sleazebags that thought her to be an easy fix to an itch they had. Neither options had brought anything good with them, so in the past year she had passed up on all invites from any man coming her way, even the ones that Snow or Anna had tried to hook her up with. She wondered about her sudden change of heart but before she really had any chance of wondering more about it the door opened, and the man walked out. He carried the empty crates, it took several seconds before he spotted her at his car. The smile coming to his lips made her feel a sudden warmth in her stomach, she gave a small smile to him while nervously biting her lower lip.

He placed the crates in the truck and turned towards her, she found confidence in the fact that he was still smiling. She pushed herself away from the truck and faced him.

"Hi" That one word was all it took for her life to change forever.

AN: that's it for now... hope you like it... ideas are welcome. Thanks for reviewing :)