DISCLAIMER! CHARACTERS ARE NOT MINE and is a bit more adult explicit with adult imagery

Chapter 4

Boston, Mass – Dating!

'BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BE…' Emma slammed her hand on the dresser searching for the alarm clock with her fingertips after finding it swiftly lifting her hand up high and nearly breaking it. Slowly peeking one eye open to glance at the time reading 6:15am, groaning at the time she began to slowly open the other eye and lazily slump up in the bed while hitting her head up against the wooden headboard. She rubbed her head after the rush of pain woke up her and then began rubbing her eyes. Minutes rolled by and she just sat there till her vision slowly corrected itself after an exhausting slumber. Not able to believe her discussion that she had last night with Henry she just wanted to think of it as a horrible nightmare and shrugged it off hoping he would have forgotten all about it before it gave her a migraine. Her bare naked body scooted to the edge of the bed as she grabbed her robe and walked to the bathroom to take a nice hot steamy shower to ease the pain that knotted itself in her lower back. She grabbed her wash cloth and began to clean herself as the water trickled down her back calming the nerves, then reached for her shampoo to comb through her golden locks, massaging her scalp helped to take away the pain from hitting her head earlier. After cleaning herself up, Emma just stood there to let the hot water penetrate her skin before turning off the facet. She pulled a towel out of the linen closet and dried off before putting on her bra and panties before slipping on some long fleece plaid pants and a t-shirt. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves one last time she reached for the door knob.

Heading to the kitchen Emma walked straight to her coffee pot and started to prep up a nice morning brew. While waiting for the coffee to start heating up Emma stood there tapping her foot up and down in rhythm with her fingers that played on the counter impatiently; her lips pursed together while her eye started to twitch a little. It felt like it's been forever but she just wanted to finally get rid of the tense feeling in the pit of her stomach.

That warming aroma smell of coffee that it gave as it brewed made her nostrils lift up as she took a good whiff before going to the fridge to get some eggs, bacon, and pancake batter out of the pantry. Finally, the pot of coffee beeped when it was ready and Emma swiftly moved to fetch a large mug in the cupboard above and poured herself a brew while adding just a little sugar and some creamer, then took a deep breath slowly exhaling before drinking her morning coffee.

A smile crossed Emma's face; she was now ready to start making breakfast for Henry, who would to be up shortly getting ready for school. Minutes passed before hearing his alarm go off in the bedroom; Emma started setting up some plates on their little red dining room table and placed a plate of dippy eggs, bacon and pancakes. She then grabbed her coffee and a newspaper before taking her place at the table just as Henry slowly dragged himself out of his room.

Emma smiled and looked up at a still half asleep Henry, "Morning kiddo. How'd you sleep?"

Groaning at his mom Henry ignored her and grabbed a tall glass and poured some milk and chocolate syrup. He started mixing it quietly and yawning before speaking. "Eh I slept okay. Do I really have to go to school today? Can't I just stay home and play some video games with you?"

Laughing at her son Emma said firmly, "No, because I have to work today too. We can't just skip work and school to just play some video games. It would be nice though wouldn't it?" She smiled at him as he sat down next to her filling up his plate.

Henry smiled back at his mom and began dousing his pancakes in syrup and butter before cutting it up and eating it. Emma then continued reading her newspaper relieved that he is too tired to talk about last night's conversation. They continued their morning in silence before realizing the time.

Emma put down her newspaper and placed her mug in the dishwasher before going to her room to change. Staring at the closet she finally decided on an outfit for the day. Pulling out a short fitted black dress with a red vest before bending down to grab her knee high suede boots that had two silver buckles on the right sides. Smiling at her choice Emma began to undress from her comfy clothes to her day attire.

Slipping on her little black dress Emma looked in the mirror and twisted and turned for her eyes never leaving the mirror feeling so good about herself this morning. She grabbed the vest that she had placed on the bed and put it on. Emma walked over to the bathroom as she combed her hair before tossing it playfully for style; and then put a little mascara and lip-gloss on. She once more smiled and gave herself a wink in the mirror feeling that today would be a good day now that the restless feeling had faded away. Opening the door going back to the living room Henry turned his head and smiled at his mom.

"You look really nice today mom." Henry gave her a hug and grabbed his backpack before walking to the door.

"Thanks kid." Emma gave him a kiss on the forehead while grabbing her keys that were sitting on the table by the door and they left.

After arriving at the drop off at Henry's school, Emma looked at him with a smile and brushed her fingers through his hair before speaking softly, "You all ready for a good day kid?"

"Yeah I have a feeling it will be eventful today." He smiled at her before unbuckling and opening the door. Henry stepped outside the car and before shutting it he slyly, "Well mom good luck in finding a date today!" He shut the door quickly as he chuckled under his breath and turned away to run up to his friend who was standing by a tree in the courtyard.

Emma's eyes widened and her jaw dropped still staring at her son as he ran off. She turned her head still shocked at his remark wondering what just happened before shifting back into drive. Shaking her head Emma just simply tried to laugh it off, maybe today was a day to run into a nice guy you never know.

While driving down into town she decided to stop off at the park to sit on the bench and enjoy the fresh air before dealing with some idiotic perps. Pulling into a parking spot Emma spotted the perfect place to sit, there it was, a bench sitting under a cute oak tree that grew slightly crooked that it gave it a branch that stuck over the bench shading it nicely. Strutting her stuff, Emma walked over to the bench and sat down watching as people jogged by or walked their dogs. She leaned back and relaxed closing her eyes and loosening her muscles.

Some time had passed as Emma was suddenly awoken as a black lab jumped up placing his front paws on her knees and started licking her. She sat there startled as she began to pet the dog as it licked her face drooling all over her. Laughingly Emma looked at his tag trying to figure out whose dog it was. There was no number on it just a name, mumbling under her breath quietly, "Jones". Emma looked up and wiped off her face as the dog sat there beside her. Confused and curious she stood up grabbing the dogs leash and began walking down the pathway to her left seeing if maybe she could find his owner. After spending fifteen minutes walking back and forth through the park asking people questions with no luck Emma could not find the dog's owner. Looking down at him he sat beside her with his big puppy dog eyes Emma couldn't bring herself to take him to an animal shelter. She tried one more time to look for his owner, and after another ten minutes a man came running towards her gasping for breath and slumped to his knees in front of her.

Trying to grab his breath with his hand to his chest the tall man about 5'11 with short shaggy dirty blonde hair looked up at Emma, "Ma…ma..ma'am…" he said between breaths pointing at Emma. "Th…Thank….ugh…you" Gathering his breath and composer the man with his deep brown eyes gazed into Emma's hazel eyes and smiled at her. "I'm so, so sorry if he caused you any problems. He took off this morning as we stepped outside the complex and just ran."

Emma reached out to hand him the dog's leash back and smiled at him, "It's alright, and he's very friendly and great for company."

Taking the leash back from Emma captivated in her beauty he gracefully reached for her hand and gave it a gentle kiss. "I'm sorry if I'm out line but please forgive me for being rude. My names's Derek James, and as I believe you have already met Jones here." He laughed quietly.

Emma pulled back her hand and rubbing it with the other one as she stood there looking shocked at this strange man's gesture. Hesitantly and wide eyed Emma gathered her words together, "Emma Swan and your welcome again."

"Once again I'm sorry and thank you for holding onto him for me. If I'm not completely out of line would it be uncomfortable if I asked you Mrs. Swan out for coffee, lunch or dinner one day? As a thank you, of course that is." Derek said rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand feeling rather embarrassed, "Sorry if that was a little blunt".

"Uhh.." Biting her tongue Emma squandered for a loss of words. Thinking back to her conversation last night and Henry's comment to her this morning up gathered up a smile and mumbled, "Uh sure, that sounds really nice of you." Waving her hands around not knowing what to do with herself; she then folded them together and rested them on her chest as she gathered what was now an awkward smile.

"Re..really?" He said shocked and excitedly.

"Yeah" Emma nodded at him now feeling completely awkward.

"That's great." Derek smiled. "Well um.. just need to exchange numbers and we will talk later I guess?" he questioned unsure if maybe she was just trying to brush him off for coming off kind of stalker-ish.

Emma took out her phone to exchange numbers with Derek before waving goodbye and walking back to her car. Sitting in her car Emma took a deep breath trying not to completely freak out at what had just happened. Closing her eyes she gathered back her strength and calmed back down before heading off to work.

Later that evening Emma and Henry had sat down for dinner.

After a few moments of silence Henry looked up at his mom who had been staring at her phone all day nervously. He seemed confused and worried, "Mom is everything okay?"

Emma looked gazing at Henry and grinned. Unsure of herself she did her best to gather her composer for her son. "Uh yeah everything's okay. Sorry it's just been a very long day today."

Not settled with her answer Henry began to pick at the situation curiously, "Are you sure mom? Did something happen at work? Because I've noticed since you picked me up today you kept looking at your phone an awful lot."

After glancing back at her phone Emma perched her elbows on the table folding her hands together and resting her head upon them, "No, it's nothing to do with work. I also said everything is alright."

Setting down his fork and pushing his plate forward he gave his mom a serious look after staring into her hazel eyes. "Mom, I know there's something wrong so don't keep telling that there isn't. So what happened today that you keep staring at your phone?"

Emma bit her bottom lip and rubbed them together as she tried her best to tell him what had happened. After a few minutes of gathering her thoughts she finally spoke softly as straight forward as she could be. "Well today I decided to do something different and go sit at the park downtown. I guess I fell asleep for about ten maybe fifteen minutes and a dog jumped on me and started licking me. After maybe an hour and a half of searching the owner finally spotted me. It was a gentleman and he was well good looking but yet kind of… creepy yet nice I guess? He thanked me for finding his dog and asked me for coffee… well that or lunch or dinner. I said yes and we exchanged numbers. Well he texted me a few hours later about coffee tomorrow at the park and I'm way too nervous to respond. I don't know if it's okay to text this guy." Emma took a deep breath and folded her face into the palms of her hands.

All Henry did was smile and try not to laugh. "Mom I think it might be okay to have coffee out in a public place with some guy." He said happily. "I think it would be a good experience for you."

Emma looked back up at Henry not at all shocked at his response. She simply smiled back up at her son and reassured herself things will be okay. "I can't believe I may be taking advice from my 11-year old."

Henry laughed, "I know it's great! You do it because you know I'm right."

Emma threw a crumpled up napkin across the table hitting Henry in the face. Laughingly, "Alright well if he ends up being some stalker I'm coming for you kiddo."