A/N: Hi, everyone! Sorry this took a while. This chapter is a lot of Gold's POV so I hope you enjoy that. And always keep in mind that Sparkles believes in happy endings!

I send a big thank you to tumblr user rumbellelyrics, and everyone who posts their Rumbelle playlists because the songs they post always keep me inspired and help me write.

CHAPTER 7

"When you love someone but it goes to waste, could it be worse?"-Fix You, Coldplay

It's Sunday, and Sunday sucks for Mr. Gold. Usually Saturday sucks too because Belle doesn't work weekends, but since he'd seen her yesterday, Sunday really sucks.

After his encounter with Mary Margaret, Gold had spent the entire night at the office. His boos had seen him there at 6AM and told him to take the day off, something that should have been a blessing, but was actually the worst curse imaginable. Having an entire day free after such an incredible thing had happened to him was dangerous. It's also terrible because he knows that he can't see Belle today.

Going home was definitely not an option. He's not the kind of person who sits around reminiscing about some girl on his day off. Besides, he doesn't have much in the way of entertainment back at his place (mostly because he's never there) besides your basic TV and computer, and he deems both of those things fairly ineffective distractions.

So he ducks into a diner about a block from Pongo's and decides that since it's too early for any kind of alcohol, coffee will have to do.

He sees a tall, dark haired girl with chunky red streaks in her hair taking the order of a stalky black man. She turns around when she hears the ding of the bell above the door, and when her eyes land on him her jaw drops, and she whispers, "Oh. My. God." making each word it's own sentence.

Of course, Gold hasn't the slightest idea who she is. He goes through his memory, trying to figure out where he's seen her before, but he can't remember. So he decides that it really doesn't matter much.

"Are you going to offer me a seat?" he asks her, and not exactly in the kindest way.

She looks dumbstruck for a split second before she covers her shock with a smile and says, "yes, of course," and leads him to a booth in the back, "this okay?"

He nods and takes a seat. "I suppose."

The girl gives him an odd look before plastering on that same sincere smile and saying, "So, can I get you anything?"

"Coffee," Gold says flatly.

She claps her hands together slowly and says, "Okay then," and it looks like she's totally forcing her smile.

He watches her waltz back around the counter. She's already about his height, but she's piled sky high heels on top of that. Then she's got those itty bitty red shorts to add to her whorish demeanor. She obviously isn't a self conscious girl.

But Gold has no room to say anything. Every woman has held no appeal to him ever since he met Belle.

The girl comes back to his table with the coffee pot and a mug. She places the mug in front of him and pours his coffee.

"Thank you," he mutters, expecting her to leave him in peace. But instead of honoring that, she gets down on her knees and rests her hands and chin on the table.

"Can I tell you a secret?" she asks.

He looks at her like she's got six eyes and a tail and stammers, "Um. Sure."

"I know who you are," she says matter-of-factly.

"Really? And who exactly do you think I am?" he asks her, slightly intrigued.

She grins hugely. "You're Mr. Gold. Wanna know how I know?" she teases.

He rolls his eyes and breathes heavily. "How do you know?"

"Because my best friend is a girl named Belle French, and you're basically the only thing she ever talks about," the girl informs him. She raises her eyebrows and waits for his response.

Well this is just perfect. He'd come here to escape thoughts of Belle as much as possible. It's just his luck It's just his luck that her friend happened to be waiting his table at some random diner he'd ducked into. Seriously, what were the odds? "You...you know Belle?"he says. It's a stupid question.

She laughs. "Yeah. And from what I've gathered, you know her too. Pretty well, it would seem."

He nods and sips his coffee, trying to avoid this awkward conversation. .

But obviously, this girl isn't an awkward person because she just continues talking. "I think it's sweet. All those stories she tells me about you...it's like a fairytale. But she still doesn't believe that you care for her the way she does for you. She's in love with you, Mr. Gold."

He shakes his head. "She must have been drunk when she said that," he mutters.

"Ha!" she laughs loudly, "Yeah, she's drunk! She drunk on you, Mr Gold!"

The sentence throws him off a little, but he doesn't let it show. "Sure she is," he says, like the thought hadn't made a chorus of angels start up in his head.

She rolls her eyes. "You act like you don't care, but you're head over heels for her and you know it. It scares you, but I don't know why. She's pathetically in love with you. She's practically counting down the seconds until she can see you again."

Mr. Gold lets out a huge sigh. Why is this girl doing this? It's deliriously torturous to hear this stuff. "Okay, that's quite enough," he assures her.

She grins. "Whatever you say, Mr. Gold," she says, "Enjoy your coffee."

She turns and walks back behind the counter, grinning all the while

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The rest of the day passes in a blur, as does Monday.

Now it's 7:17, meaning he only has about a half hour before he can race down to the bar. Unfortunate for him, life can't be as simple as waiting around for 7:45. Someone bangs on his door hard, and he hears a voice yelling, "Gold! I know you're there, open the damned door!"

It's Regina, and that realization doesn't exactly make him want to jump up and open the door, but she continues banging on it and yelling so he decides that whatever it is she wants can't take very long.

"Regina." he says, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She storms right past him and paces around his house, "Do you think," she spits, "That I don't know what's going on here?"

Gold licks his lips slowly before saying, "No, I'm fairly certain that you know precisely what's going on here, being that what's going on here is my psychotic co-worker parading into my house for what I wish I could say is the first time."

Regina's nostrils flare and she glares harder. "You think I'm a fool, don't you?" she says coldly, "I think you forget, Gold, I have eyes everywhere."

"Do you?" he asks.

"Yes," she says, with perfect articulation, "and I must say that what I see can be quite unsettling."

"I have no idea what you're referring to, dearie."

Regina plants her hands on her hips. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, Gold! That stupid whore at the bar? You really thought that I wouldn't find out?"

It takes all his self control not to hit her. "Find out what?" he growls.

"Oh for God's sake, Gold, do I really need to say it!"

While he'd really prefer that she didn't, he's not about to give in. "What I do is my business, Regina. What I ask is, what's in this meddling for you?"

Regina squints her eyes and shakes her head. "You need to stop seeing her."

"Ah," Gold says, "And why might I do that?"

Regina walks around the room slowly. "Because she's a small, innocent girl, and it would be so very easy for something to happen to her. Especially at the hands of a dangerous man."

"Your threats mean nothing to me, Regina."

Her jaw sets and she glares right through him. "You're not going to see her tonight."

A/N: This was actually meant to be longer, and not as much setup, but I swear I'm going to make up for it in the next chapter. Spoiler Alert: It's gets FLUFFY.

And hats off to my reviewers, who predict my plans before I've even set them in motion. Wow!