Killian was miserable. He was eating a nice dinner at a nice restaurant with a nice-looking woman, but her personality was awful and it was beginning to piss him off. He must've had a few more drinks than he remembered when he asked her for her number at the bar because his date was much more appealing there than at dinner with him tonight.

"So I said to him, 'Do you really think you can date me with that salary?' I mean, I was seriously worried we were going to have to do the restaurant's dishes that night, you know?" The smug woman took another large drink from her second glass of wine. "So advertising. You must be raking in the dough, huh?"

Killian had enough. "Sorry, but can you excuse me for a minute?" he asked. "I just have to go to the men's room."

She gave him a smile as he quickly dropped his napkin on the table and headed towards the bathrooms to get a break from this horrendous date. Luckily, he kept his phone in his pocket at all times so he was able to occupy himself in the small hallway leading to the bathrooms by checking the latest links on reddit. Sure, it was a time waster, but it was better than wasting time at the table.

"Um, Killian?"

"Yea," he replied, casually pulling his eyes away from his phone's screen to see the most amazing woman standing before him. "Emma!" he said, realizing he had been a little too enthusiastic with his greeting. "It's good to see you here."

"Yea," she replied, a smile creeping onto her face. "I guess it's better than seeing me in jail again."

"You have no idea," Killian said, adding a bit of sarcastic drama to his tone.

Emma just raised her eyebrows at him. "You didn't get arrested again, did you?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I'm just on a really bad date so, you know, it felt like I was in jail several times so far tonight."

"Ah," she replied. "So you're hiding out by the bathrooms."

Killian just shrugged his shoulders. "She told me I should take her to a more upscale place next time like the Olive Garden in Times Square, so she really left me no choice."

"Ouch."

"So what about you? Bad date?" Please be a bad date, he thought.

"More like wrong date," she replied. "I called this guy, Mike Johnson, and was going to use our date to lure him out since he owes me money, but I invited the wrong Mike Johnson."

Killian laughed. "So is the guy you're having dinner with even a criminal?"

She smiled at his joke, her green eyes shining in the darkly lit hallway. "All I got out of him is that he got a ticket for smoking pot. Oh, and he doesn't always remember things, so he had to apologize because he couldn't figure out how we met."

"Because you just met him tonight."

"Right," she said before leaning closer. "But he doesn't know that."

Killian smiled and looked back at his phone, trying to play this cool. The last time he saw Emma was a month ago when he dropped off his payment at her office. Despite that, he hadn't stopped thinking about her and seeing her randomly could make his emotions go very wild if he didn't take control of them.

And then he had an idea.

"Hey," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "What if you got out of your date by getting me out of mine?"

Emma looked intrigued and turned towards him as she leaned against the wall. "Go on."

"What if I hadn't paid you back and you saw me here tonight?" he asked excitedly as he quickly slid his phone in his pocket.

"I would approach you and see if you would like to fix the issue the easy way, which involves me discreetly walking out of here with you, or the hard way, which is not discreet at all."

He began to get the goofiest grin on his face that he couldn't control. "How indiscreet? Like 'We are never going on a second date' indiscreet?"

Emma's smile began to match his own. "I could be that indiscreet," she replied. "Go back to your table and I'll be there in five minutes."

If Killian hadn't had any sort of basic decency or human restraint, he would've been down on his knees, worshipping the ground Emma walked on. Instead, he just smiled and squeezed her arm with his hand. "Thank you," he mouthed quietly to her before heading back to his table.

As he expected, Swan was a woman of her word. He zoned out - once again - blocking all the nonsense being spewed by his date. Instead, he watched as Emma returned to her table with her date who, to be honest, was not as attractive as Killian. He watched as Emma made small talk, drank from her wine glass, and then … she saw him. Her face fell in mock shock. She gave her date an apologetic look and said some words to him while she held his hand across the table. Then he looked over at Killian, staring daggers at him, before nodding and giving Emma a tight smile.

The swan started walking, tight green dress hugging all the right curves, hips swaying, high-heeled shoes making a forceful and deliberate clack as she made her way to his table.

Killian ducked his head, staring intently at his pasta so he wouldn't give anything away.

"Jones?" He looked up to see Emma looking down at him and if he didn't know this was all fake, he would've been truly scared of her presence. "Remember me?"

He looked at his date, who had finally shut up for once to watch what was unfolding at her table. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met before."

"Really? Because I think we have." Emma leaned over the table, giving him an ample view of her cleavage that he was trying very hard not to notice. "I bailed you out of jail for being a shoplifter."

"A what?" said the squawking voice that belonged to his date.

"Miss, please stay out of this," Emma instructed. "Now, Jones. Do you want to come with me?"

"I'd rather not," he said quietly.

"That wasn't actually a question," she said harshly. "Stand up, hands behind you."

All eyes in the restaurant were now on Killian as he gave an exasperated sigh and did as instructed. Emma shoved his face on the table - he barely missed his plate of pasta - as she locked his wrists up in handcuffs.

"I'm really sorry," he said to his date. "Maybe we can go out again and I can make this up to you?"

"That's really alright," she replied, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

Emma yanked him up and started leading him towards the door by her handcuffs. "I'll call you!" he yelled back at his table.

"Please don't!" came the reply.

He smiled and focused on the blonde who now had complete control over him as she led him out of the restaurant as patrons stared at their exit. It wasn't until he reached the curb, watching her hail a taxi, that he allowed himself to accept the fact that this plan could succeed.

"I forgot to ask where you live," Emma said, leaning out into the street with a hand in the air. "I mean, I'm sure it's in your file, but I don't remember things like that after I get paid."

"I'm on the Upper West Side."

"Good," she said. "Then you can pay for our cab home since I got you out of that mess."

"I could do that," he replied with a smile.

A yellow taxi pulled up next to them and Emma eased him into the backseat - handcuffs and all - before sliding in next to him. He looked over her shoulder into the restaurant to see his date at the table he just vacated with none other than Mike Johnson. Apparently, Emma and Killian were going to be involved in a good date night, just not their own.

"Two stops on the Upper West Side," Emma told the cab driver.

Killian noticed the driver do a quick double check of his rearview mirror to confirm the passenger he just picked up did indeed have handcuffs on. He looked over his shoulder to see that Emma had noticed the reaction as well.

"Here, let me get these for you," she said as she gently unlocked the cuffs on his wrists.

"Thank you again."

"No problem," she replied. "And thank you. I couldn't stand being there any longer talking to that guy."

He smiled and watched as Emma checked something on her phone.

"So your ban on dating clients..."

"Still in place," she replied without looking up from her phone.

"Right," he said quietly.

There was something special about watching the city pass by a cab window at night, something romantic. Whenever Killian shared a cab with a woman, he liked slipping her hand into his and holding on as the lights and cars and people passed by. But Emma wasn't any woman and after the quick blow-off she just gave him, he doubted she would be agreeable to him doing the same with her. Instead, he simply rolled down the window a bit, letting the night air hit his face as he tried to gain some control over the whole situation. Unfortunately, the cab was already approaching their neighborhood by the time he finally began to clear his head.

"Hey, can you pull over to that corner?" Emma said to the driver.

"So this is you?" Killian asked as the driver slammed on the brakes.

"Sort of," Emma replies with a mischievous grin. "Remember, don't want my clients knowing where I live."

Killian put his lips together and gave her an awkward smile to once again acknowledge his defeat. He watched as she slid out of the car and was about to close the door when she leaned over and looked at Killian in the backseat.

"Have a good night, Jones," she said sincerely.

"You too."

Emma smiled and slammed the door, leaving Killian to watch her walk away ... again.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

Killian turned to give the driver directions and by the time he looked back, Emma was gone.

"That girl really has ahold of you, doesn't she?" the driver asked from the front seat.

"You have no idea," Killian replied.