Regina soon found herself spending a ridiculous amount of time on the chat-side. Hell, sometimes she even checked the site before having breakfast. Which obviously was a scandal. What was she, sixteen and addicted to her computer?

But little did her scolding help, and it didn't exactly better it, that there was always a message from Laura waiting for her.

Maybe it was stupid, but for some reason Regina found herself to be ridiculously happy when she saw that silly little, red envelope blink. Maybe she was addicted to her computer after all.

Sometimes there were other messages too. Regina politely read every single one of them, but often she was shocked over what those men wrote to her. Had no one ever taught them good manners?

Some of them were so rude, she just deleted them, but most of the times she couldn't resist give them a verbal tongue lashing.

That's what they got for writing such rude messages to her.

Their answers were almost amusing. Some of them became aggressive and called her names, but a few of them became quite timid and apologized to her.

Now that was funny.

No, Regina was definitely not impressed with some of the things they wrote to her. Well, some of them appeared polite at first, but it didn't take much more than a few messages between them before the conversation turned sexual.

That was when Regina either snapped or simply deleted the conversation.

But "Laura The Florist" was a different story. She was kind, polite and funny. Quirky, maybe even spunky, and Regina thoroughly enjoyed their conversations. Sometimes she stayed up well past 1:00 in the morning to prolong their conversation. Laura was a creature of the night, as she put it.

Regina became a little tired during the day, but she could live with that. It wasn't like she had anything in particular to do during the day, and the sleep deprivation was definitely worth it.

Suddenly, they had been chatting for two and a half week, and Regina asked herself where the time had gone. Normally, she found that time passed by so slowly, but the last two weeks had just disappeared in a flurry of chats and messages back and forward.

[[Regina locked in]]

Laura: hey!

Regina: Hello. Have you had a nice day?

Laura: Yeah, busy as always. You?

Regina: Fairly predictable, I'm afraid. But I won't bore you with that.

Laura: Why not? I'm interested.

Regina: I would much rather hear about your day. Did you deliver all your orders?

Laura: Yeah, and I even made it on time, ha ha.

Regina: Impressive.

Laura: Are you being sarcastic with me?

Regina: No, I wouldn't dream of it. I just have no idea how these "emojis" work, that's all.

Laura: You're really not used to online chatting, are you?

Regina: Are you mocking my lack of online skills?

Laura: Wouldn't dream of it.

Regina: Now who's being sarcastic?

Laura: woops…

Regina chuckled to herself. She found herself to be laughing a lot whenever she and Laura were messaging each other.

The little red envelope blinked again, and Regina immediately clicked it only to groan a second later. Another unwelcome message from a man with clear intentions.

Regina deleted the message.

Laura: Did I offend you?

Regina: No, I just had to delete a message.

Laura: Oh? A rude one?

Regina: Yes, very. Maybe I'm incredible dense when it comes to being online, but I truly don't understand what those men are trying to accomplice with their messages. If they're trying to flatter me, they're choosing the wrong approach.

Laura: And what is the right approach?

Regina: Pardon?

Laura: To flatter you. What's the right approach?

Regina: I don't know, definitely not asking if I'm feeling "frisky".

Laura: ARE you feeling frisky?

Regina: Laura!

Laura answered that with a laughing/ crying emoji, and Regina chuckled again. God, the things she wrote was sometimes completely outrageous, but incredibly amusing.

Regina: You're awful, you know that, right?

Laura: Yes, so I've been told a few times.

Regina felt incredibly tempted to answer with an emoji but found that that would simply be too silly on her behalf. Emojis were Laura's thing. Not hers. So instead she settled for telling Laura that "had there been an eyerolling emoji, I would definitely have sent that".

[Laura has sent you an attached file]

Regina quickly opened the file and smiled when she saw the image. Laura had taken it upon herself to "test" Regina's knowledge about flowers, and almost every day, she sent Regina a picture of a new bouquet and questioned Regina about the different flowers in it.

Regina: daisies, dahlias, poppies and yarrow.

Laura: Well done. You only missed the eucalyptus.

Regina: Definitely improving then.

Laura: Yes, pretty sure you'll be able to take over my store.

Regina: And rob the "Secret Garden" of it's owner? I couldn't possibly do that.

Laura: But I would probably get a lot more costumers with you behind the counter,

Regina: Whatever makes you say that?

Laura: Have you ever looked yourself in the mirror? You're crazy beautiful.

Regina: Oh. Thank you.

Was she blushing? No, no of course she wasn't. That would be ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

Laura: I didn't make you uncomfortable, did I?

Regina: No, no. It's fine.

Laura: Just checking. I wanted to make sure I didn't trample over your boundaries.

Regina: You're fine.

Laura: :)

"Hello? Regina? Are you home?"

Regina checked the time and looked up with a frown on her face. It was three in the afternoon. What was Emma doing in her house? Wasn't she supposed to be at work right now.

"Regina?"

"In the kitchen," Regina answered and scribbled a short message.

Regina: Hang on two seconds.

Laura: Sure thing.

Regina was closing her laptop just as Emma came into the kitchen.

"Oh, you are home," the blonde said. "I wasn't sure."

"Well, obviously I'm right here," Regina said and elicited an eyeroll from Emma.

"I thought you were busy, okay? I've been calling you for the past ten minutes."

"Have you?" Regina frowned and fished her phone out of the depths of her pocket. Oh. Emma had indeed been calling her for the past ten minutes. Regina just hadn't noticed because she was too busy messaging Laura.

"It was on silent. My apologies," Regina excused. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Coffee at Granny's?" Emma suggested. "I feel like I haven't seen you for weeks, and I could use a break."

"Sure," Regina shrugged. "Just give me a second."

"Okay."

Regina waited until Emma had left the kitchen. Then she opened her laptop again.

Regina: I have to go.

Laura: Really? Shoot.

Regina: Something came up, and I'm sure you have flowers to attend to.

Laura: I have, but I found it more interesting to message you.

Regina: You're flattering me.

Laura: Talk to you later?

Regina: Of course.

Laura: Great. Have fun, wherever you're going.

Regina: Have fun with your flowers.

Laura: Funny.

[Laura logged out]

[Regina logged out]

"You coming?" came Emma's voice from the hall.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming." Regina said and reluctantly left the laptop in the kitchen. And the next minute she immediately scolded herself for lingering. There would be plenty of time to chat to Laura later…

To Be Continued?