Delivering a professor
Chapter 2
Henry's alarm went off at five o'clock, as usual, on Saturdays. The morning routine is the same as every weekend, wake up, take a shower, get dressed, brew some coffee for his mom and wake her up so she can start her day with a fresh cup of coffee.
But this morning however, as the zombie enters the kitchen…"Mom, why don't you wear that new shirt you bought the other day?" Henry suggests as he begins the next part of his plan.
He is standing at the stove, making some pancakes for both of them. It is the weekend so his mom allows him to have pancakes for breakfast. He stands back and flips the hotcake with flair.
From out of the corner of his eyes, he can see the blonde frown and lower her cup to answer, "you mean that fancy, kinda see-through, long sleeve shirt?" She asks and Henry nods. "Why? It's not really a day to wear that sort of thing." The blonde woman questions, "It'll be overkill just to wear it working at the diner."
"Well," turning the stove off and stacking the last of the pancakes onto a plate. "This morning, I'm getting some help from Miss Mills, for that big ass assignment I told you about." He's then taking some toppings from the shelves and the fridge and placing everything neatly on the table.
"I mean, it's not that I'm struggling, Mom, so don't worry, okay." Taking three of the pancakes, he slathers some butter on the top one and reaches for the maple syrup. Hungry, he takes a large bite. "This assignment is just one of hardest yet, so Professor Mills in gonna explain some things to me." He mumbles around swallowing his food and taking more large bites from the pancakes. "Besides, it's always good to show your teachers you're serious about school. "
The blonde woman sighs, "Well, okay. So... you want me to look nice because your teacher is gonna help you out?" She arches a brow as she finishes placing banana slices on her own stack and reaches for the strawberry syrup.
Henry rolls his eyes. "Yes! We're going to get together at the diner and I want you to meet her as well." He explains. "I told you about Miss Mills, right?"
Emma washes down her food with a mouthful of coffee before answering. "The woman that kicked that blonde bimbo out of her house while throwing some stuff to her head?" Emma asks. Henry nods with a small snicker, "then yes, you told me about her." Emma smirks.
"Yeah her," Henry laughs, "but don't tell her I saw that!" He points at his mom with the fork, a piece of pancake stuck to it and syrup literally dripping off of the pancake onto his plate. (Henry enjoys having some pancake with his syrup.)
After breakfast, Henry and his mom say their goodbyes 'til they'll meet again before lunch time, with Henry instructing his mom again, to wear something nice for when she meets the professor.
The morning goes by rather fast and easy. Henry walks his blocks, the stack of newspapers disappearing pretty fast. Before he knows it, he's already walking up to Miss Mills' large, white, mansion. He puts the newspaper inside the mailbox and turns around, he is 15 minutes earlier than usual so he can have more time to go home, change, get his homework, and make his way to the diner.
But the door swings open before he takes two steps, "morning, Henry" a female voice calls out behind him. Turning around with a smile, he sees Miss Mills standing there in her morning robe, "morning, Miss Mills. No running today?" He asks.
The brunette looks down at her clothing and then back to Henry, it looks like she might have forgotten about how she is dressed right now. The woman steps a bit back inside the house, standing behind the front door to cover her body. "Well, I have to tuto-" the woman stops talking. "I am helping a student with some homework study so, no." She smiles.
Henry laughs because the professor remembered how he had told her he hated when she called it 'tutoring'. "Well in that case..." he turns around and walks back. "I won't take up much more of your time." He calls over his shoulder.
"And please, don't be late!" The professor yells out to Henry.
Henry laughs a little and shakes his head, "Don't worry, I won't." He replies, shoving a paper above his head as a wave while he keeps walking off towards the next house to continue with his route.
A little over five hours later, Henry walks into the still mostly empty diner, wearing a new, fresh and clean outfit.
He picks out a booth at the back of the restaurant. He knows almost nobody from his school would go to this side of town, but he just wants some privacy for when his mom and the professor would finally meet.
He puts his book for creative writing on the table (because yes, he has a book this time and didn't forget it) and his laptop. Now all he has to do is wait for the professor to arrive.
"Hey Hen," Ruby comes walking up with a hot cocoa with everything, already making Henry smile.
"Hey Ruby," he smiles. "Ah, thank you!"
"You're very welcome. So what are you doing?" She asks, looking at his laptop and other stuff spread out on the table.
"Waiting for Professor Mills, she's gonna help me on this project I've been struggling with," he says, sipping his hot cocoa.
Ruby frowns, "you're struggling with school?" Ruby asks a bit worried. She is a very close friend to his mom and she knows what mother and son do just to get him through school.
"Well no, not really, I just think Mom and Miss Mills would really like-" Henry is about to tell Ruby his plan when his professor comes walking in, to the small dinner.
He waves at her a little low-key, but she walks up to him with a smile. She is now dressed in one of her grey skirt suits with a red blouse, instead of the morning robe from before.
"Hello," she smiles and sits down next to the teenage boy.
"Hi, um, this is Ruby," he points to the tall brunette with the red stripes in her hair. "Ruby, this is Professor Mills."
"Hello," Regina smiles, earning a smirk from the tall brunette.
By the way Ruby smirks at the seated brunette, Henry knows Ruby has figured out what he has planned for his mother and this woman. And he is thankful Ruby picks up on these kinda things very quickly. "Would you like anything to drink, eat?" Ruby asks Miss Mills.
"Just a coffee, thank you," the professor says but she is paying more attention to the background on Henry's laptop.
Ruby nods with her smirk still in place and walks away.
"That's a lovely picture," Regina points to the background.
"Oh, thanks. That was last summer when Mom took me camping." He smiles, thinking of how dramatic the camping trip had been so they had just packed everything up and gotten a hotel room.
"That's your mother?" Miss Mills asks, the surprise not going unnoticed by Henry.
"Yeah," Henry laughs, seeing the look on his professor's face. She looks like can't look away from the screen. "Just wait 'til you meet her for real." Henry pokes his elbow into her upper arm, trying really hard not to wiggle his eyebrows at the woman.
Henry grins proudly when the professor clears her throat and focuses instead on the book that lays open in front of her. But Henry can see a very faint blush on the woman's cheeks.
Thankfully, Henry is a good student and it is very well known that Miss Mills is cool when you just do what needs to be done with her projects. But if you just don't do shit in school, it is most likely she is going to make your school time a living hell.
A couple of minutes later, Ruby comes back with coffee for Professor Mills. "Here you go." Ruby puts down the coffee at the corner of the table
Miss Mills looks up and smiles, "thank you."
"You're welcome," Ruby winks and walks away.
Henry chuckles at the stunned look on the professor's face. "Don't worry, she flirts with everyone." He explains.
But the professor doesn't reply and just dives straight back into work, explaining things about the project for her creative writing class.
After about half an hour of going through Henry's pages that he has already written for that upcoming paper on the boring book he had had to read, his mother finally has time for a lunch break.
"Hey kid," Emma says and sits down across from his professor.
"Hey Mom," he sighs and drops his pencil heavily on his book. Smiling softly when he notices that his mom is indeed, wearing her 'fancy, kinda see-through, long sleeve shirt' with her signature tank top underneath it.
From the corner of his eyes, Henry can see that the brunette woman's mouth falls slightly agape and his mom's eyes are focused on the brunette too.
"Um, so this is my mom, Emma. Mom, this is Professor Mills." He introduces, saving the word document on his computer before closing it.
"Hi, Professor," Emma smiles, her hand moving forward so it can be shaken by the other woman.
A small smile appears on the professor's face, "Regina." She almost whispers. Taking the hand of the blonde and shaking it.
"Regina," Emma repeated with a grin, not breaking the eye contact, or the physical hand contact they had. 'Til Henry clears his throat.
The two women let go of the other one's hand right away, the professor clears her throat while Emma turns her focus to Henry.
"Did you guys eat already?" Emma asks, looking from Henry back to Regina.
"Nope," Henry answers with a sigh.
"Alright, let's eat something then," Emma says, looking for Ruby to take their order. "Are you staying for lunch, Regina?" Emma asks, and Henry can see that dorky smile on his mother's face.
"It's only 11," Regina frowns.
"Yeah I know," Emma grins, "but we both have shifts that start at noon."
"Oh well, in that case, yes," Regina smiles back at the blonde. And Henry can see the smile on his mother's face grow bigger.
Fifteen minutes later, the empty spot of the four person table is occupied with Henry's laptop and books. The rest of the table is filled with food and drinks.
Emma swallows a bite of her sandwich, "Regina, I want to thank you for what you are doing for Henry." She says. "You don't know what it means to me that you're giving him some of your precious time on your weekend."
Regina puts her fork back on her plate where a half eaten sandwich lays. "Don't worry, as I told Henry as well, I don't really do much on my weekends, so it is an honor to be able to help him." she smiles
"Still though, thank you."
"You're very welcome."
Henry knows both women are in the zone right now, staring into each other's eyes the way they are doing right now. He doesn't want to ruin a special moment like this, but he has to. Clearing his throat, again, both women snap their eyes away from the other.
"Maybe," Henry starts, "we can take Miss Mills out to dinner sometime, to say thank you." He suggests to his mom.
"Oh, don't be silly, that not necessary." Miss Mills blushes. "And Henry, I know I'm your teacher, but on the weekends you can call me Regina." She smiles.
Henry smiles back, "alright." He nods.
"And I don't think that such a bad idea, kid," his mom agrees with a smile, looking from his brown eyes to find the woman's dark eyes, sitting next to him.
Regina shakes her head, "no really, it's not-."
"I insist," Emma says, leaving no room for discussion.
"Profe-" Henry suddenly perks up as if a thought has just occurred to him out of nowhere. "Regina, do you know Mom is a writer as well?" He says with a proud smile while still looking innocent.
Regina arches a brow and leans forward, as if she is truly intrigued, "really? What do you write about?"
Henry can see his mom's cheeks turn red. "Well, um, noth-" Emma clears her throat and Henry has to stop himself from snickering. "Nothing special. Mostly just fictional stuff. But it's not really serious, though." She says, looking down at her plate and playing with her half eaten sandwich. "It's just for fun." She mumbles.
Henry just keeps eating his sandwich. He wants to see where this conversation will bring the two women. He can, however, see that his professor is really interested in his mom at this point.
"Well, that's the most important thing," the brunette woman says. "If you don't write for fun, then it's not going to be any good."
"Oh," Emma's eyes widen a bit. "But, I- I wasn't going to like, let people read it or something."
Henry can see Regina frown from out of the corner of his eyes. "Why not? How will you ever know if it's any good or not if you won't let people read it?" She asks. Henry almost raises his eyebrows at the impassioned tone of voice she spoke in.
Emma chuckles, "oh well, I don't really care if I'm good or not." She takes a sip of her coffee. "It's just a hobby, nothing more." She shrugs her shoulders, taking a piece of lettuce from her plate and chewing on it.
Taking a sip of his own drink, "maybe you could show Regina some time?" He mumbles. He lowers his eyes, afraid of how his mom is going to react to his suggestion. He knows he is on thin ice since she has just finished saying her stuff is for her eyes only.
And that's the moment his mom almost chokes on the small piece of leafy green. "Oh god, Mom!" Henry is about put his drink down to jump up and help, but someone beats him to it.
Regina is already up and at Emma's side. Patting her back, trying to help Emma dislodge whatever is making her choke. "Okay, easy, take deep breaths." Henry can hear Regina whispering to his mom.
Seeing his mom nod a little before coughing loudly again and trying to take deep breaths. The professor stops patting the blonde's back, but even from where Henry is sitting, he can see she is now making small circles on his mom's back.
And even Henry might have turned a little red, when his professor crouches down next to his mom. She is still making circles on his mothers back, but Regina takes some blonde hair out of his mom's face and tucks it behind her ear with her other hand. And her hand might have lingered a little too long on the blonde's cheek, and the eye contact might have been a little too intense for just two women having just met over a casual impromptu lunch.
"Are you okay?" Henry hears Regina ask softly. His mom, however, can only nod. And he watches as his mother slowly and unconsciously leans forward towards his professor. The two look as if there is no one else in the world but them right now.
This is all going a little too fast for his liking. I mean, he did, still does, want the women to get together, and they do seem to like each other very well. But Henry just meant for them to meet today, not to fall in each other's arms and make out like a bunch of teenagers... that's what he is, a teenager right now. Not his mom.
So, Henry speaks up, "Mom, are you okay?" He feels a bit awkward as two sets of eyes, that were very tightly locked together, turn to look at him. "Uh, yeah." The green eyed woman speaks up softly.
Henry sees that Regina drops her hand from Emma's cheek to her lap, the other hand now moves to Emma's shoulder. She is about to stand back up again, but Henry sees that his mom places her own hand carefully on the woman's back. They lock eyes again. Regina stands up and Emma's hand goes from the professor's shoulder to her lower back. The brunette's hand is still firmly placed on the blonde's shoulder. "Are you sure you are okay?" She asks one more time.
Emma nods, looking up at the brunette. "Mhmm, yeah, I'm okay." She says. And Henry can see how his mom now is the one who's making small circles on the brunette's back.
"Okay," Regina whispers back, and after a small squeeze she gave Emma's shoulder, she goes back to sit next to Henry, opposite Emma.
"Maybe we can all go to dinner next Saturday?" Henry proposes, taking another bite from his sandwich, trying to bring them back to where they were before his mom started choking.
"I suppose," Regina looks at Henry, then turns to Emma. "If you have time for that," she smiles.
Henry sees his mom smile back. He is sure that his mom will say yes. Especially after the little scene he just saw happing before his eyes. "Of course." His mom smiles back happily.
"Alright!" Henry smiles happily, "next Saturday it is! We can pick Regina up, right mom?" He looks at his mom with a smile, who only nods back. "Since I know where you live and all, it's just easier that way I guess." He grins at his professor.
"Of course," she smiles back.
Henry goes back to eating his sandwich with a bright smile on his face. He can see his mom and his professor sneaking glances at each other while eating the rest of their own sandwich.
Part two, of operation 'SwanQueen', check!