Chapter Four; Enter the Villain
No more than ten minutes before they were supposed to be at Granny's, Belle began puking her guts out. Regina had tried to stay with her, but Belle insisted she go to dinner with her sister. So Regina called Merida Dun-Broch, another friend of Belle's, to stay with Belle while Regina was at Granny's.
Regina arrived a few minutes late, but Robin was the only one already there. Regina groaned internally and sat down. "Where are Zelena and Arthur?" she asked.
Robin shrugged. "They said they were on their way a few minutes ago. But I haven't heard since. Where's Belle?"
"She got sick," Regina said simply. She took her phone out, mostly to avoid conversation with Robin. She texted her sister, asking where she was.
After Regina sent the message, she began to look around the restaurant. Granny's wasn't a big restaurant, and it wasn't fancy by any means. But it was a nice place for a quick meal or somewhere to meet when you needed to talk to a friend over lunch. Belle and Regina ate there a lot because Belle was friends with one of the waitresses - Ruby - who also happened to be the granddaughter of the restaurant owner. Ruby was talking to Dorothy, another waitress, about something.
Regina's phone vibrated in her hand, jolting her out of her thoughts. She looked down to see that Zelena had replied;
Sorry, Arthur and I got distracted. We'll be there in a few minutes.
Regina groaned, knowing very well what Zelena meant by 'distracted'. Instead of sharing the message with Robin, she decided to ask Merida how Belle was doing. Anything to prevent a conversation with Robin from happening.
"Hey, Gina," Ruby winked at Regina as she arrived at the table. "Who's this? Do I have to stop chasing you now?"
"That's Robin," Regina pointed at her sworn enemy with her phone. "He's Zelena's client, and he's definitely not my boyfriend. We're waiting for my distracted sister and her boyfriend to join us."
"So you're still single?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.
Regina rolled her eyes. "Keep dreaming, Rubes. I thought you had Victor now anyways?"
"How'd you know?" Ruby quickly went from flirty to defensive.
Regina shrugged. "Belle told me." She looked back at her phone, hoping for a response from Merida. Ruby pursed her lips and stalked away, back over to where Dorothy was standing.
"Why are you so against me being your boyfriend?" Robin asked, hoping to start a conversation.
"Because you're freaking annoying and I don't need to be all over Instagram and Twitter because I'm going out with some British movie star," Regina answered, not even bothering to look up from her phone. Robin admitted defeat in his attempt to get a conversation going and began to look around the restaurant, taking in his surroundings.
It wasn't long before Zelena and Arthur showed up, holding hands as they walked across the restaurant to where Regina and Robin were sitting. "Sorry we're late," Zelena whispered as she sat down.
"I'm sure," Regina rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this dinner over with."
A man in sunglasses and a pressed black suit stepped off of his private airplane. He held a briefcase in one hand and kept his eyes trained straight forward. His black-haired assistant was by his side almost immediately.
"Mister, you aren't set to arrive at the hotel for another hour. Why did we leave from Ireland so early?"
"You never know what the traffic will be like."
"We took a plane."
The man stopped walking and looked over at his assistant. He lowered his sunglasses so he could look her in the eye. "Air traffic is highly unpredictable. And I have arranged a meeting before I check into the hotel. Look at my schedule."
The assistant opened her planner to see that the man had scribbled in his meeting, without her knowing about it. She slammed the planning book shut and frowned at the man. "Next time, tell me before make adjustments to the schedule. Where is this 'Granny' restaurant anyways?"
"It's called Granny's," the man corrected. "It's a small restaurant in a small town, just north of where we will be filming. "I'm meeting up with an old acquaintance."
Regina happened to glance at the door to Granny's at the exact wrong moment. The door swung open and Neal Cassidy entered the restaurant. He sat at a corner table, out of the way, and to Regina's surprise, Emma and Henry hadn't followed him in.
"What's wrong?" Zelena raised and eyebrow. Regina noticed she had a french fry raised halfway to her mouth and she was staring at Neal. She blinked and dropped the fry before looking at Zelena.
"Do you remember Neal Cassidy?" Regina asked in a hushed voice.
Zelena frowned and nodded. "Of course I remember Neal."
"He's sitting in the corner over there," Regina gestured towards him, and Zelena turned around to get a quick glance at him.
"Didn't he marry Emma Swan?"
"Mmm-hmmm," Regina took a sip of her water, "but she's not with him, and neither is their son. Which means he's here-" the restaurant went silent and Regina finished her sentence in a whisper as she looked up at the door once again, "-alone..."
The man who had just entered the small restaurant was clearly famous, as he was flanked by an assistant and a bodyguard. He had sunglasses covering his eyes and he was looking down, so Regina couldn't tell who it was, but she felt like she should know him.
And then she heard his name, amongst the other whispers bouncing around the building; "...Robert Gold..."
Regina's eyes widened, "Is it possible that's Robert Gold?"
Zelena looked over at Robin. "Yeah, isn't he in the movie you're in?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"I...I need to..." instead of finishing her sentence, Regina shot up from her seat and rushed back to the kitchen, where Ruby was loading food onto a tray.
"Sorry, Gina," Ruby lifted the tray up so it was balanced on her shoulder, "can't talk right now, we've got a celebrity guest. Besides your boyfriend, that is."
"Okay, first of all, Robin is not my boyfriend. And second, your 'celebrity guest' is Robert Gold!"
Suddenly, Ruby seemed very intrigued with what Regina had to say. "The Robert Gold? The one Belle is hopelessly in love with?"
Regina nodded. "That's the one. But Ruby, you cannot mess this up for her. If you go on about how much she loves him in front of him, Gold will get weirded out and Belle will probably murder you."
"Okay. I won't mention her to him ...But Regina, she won't even get to meet him!"
"Yes, she will," Regina assured Ruby. "Apparently he's starring in the same movie as Robin. Zelena will have to be on set whenever Robin's filming, and she can bring Belle and I along. I promise Belle will get her chance to meet him, but you can't talk to him on her behalf."
"I won't," Ruby promised. "But I gotta get this food out before it gets cold."
"Right!" Regina moved out of the way so Ruby could get through before heading to the bathroom. She locked herself in a stall and pulled out her phone to call Belle.
"Hello," it didn't take long for Belle to pick up, which meant she must have been feeling better. "Is something wrong?"
"Hey, Belle...um...nothing's wrong...but you know how you've always wanted to meet Robert Gold...?"
