The glass in Emma's hand slipped through her fingers and smashed loudly on the floor, shards shattering all over the space behind the bar.
"Shit!" Emma gasped and suddenly all the eyes surrounding the bar turned to her. Embarrassed, Emma started to bend down to fix her mistake but before she knew it, Roni was behind her, resting her hand on her waist to halt her movement.
"It's alright, it happens," she said kindly, flashing the blonde a gentle smile, before she picked up a dust pan and brush that was kept behind the bar. "Which is why we keep one of these here. I'll do it," she added when Emma reached for it.
"You don't have to," Emma muttered, wanting the moment to end.
"I insist," Roni said before she ducked down to start clearing the broken glass.
The blonde was blushing at her clumsiness but reluctantly accepted the woman's help. Standing up, she saw Ivy standing awkwardly with her now empty glass.
"I guess that wasn't the best way to announce that," she murmured quietly, her own face flushing slightly. She placed the empty glass on the bar.
Automatically, Emma took it and put it into the rack for dirty glasses behind her before turning back to Ivy.
"I just don't understand what's going on," Emma said, just as quietly,
Ivy glanced around and noted that Henry was talking to Remy and Roni was still sweeping the glass up. She reached into her handbag and slipped out an index card and a pen. After scribbling something down, she slipped it to Emma.
"Meet me here tomorrow at noon, please," Ivy instructed. "I'll tell you everything."
Before Emma could ask anything further, Ivy turned and weaved through the crowd, walking straight out the door and into the night.
Completely confused, Emma needed to distract herself. She slipped the card into her back pocket before she crouched back down to help Roni as best she could, as it was her fault, picking up the larger pieces of glass. She blushed again when she realised just how far the glass had shattered.
"Be careful!" Roni cautioned. "I am too tired to take you to the ER."
Emma chuckled as she placed the final shard she could see into the pan before she sighed. "I'm so sorry. I'm not usually that clumsy."
"Like I said, it happens all the time." Roni's tone was calm, she clearly wasn't annoyed. If anything, she found it a little amusing. She smirked at the blonde before sweeping up the final few shards.
The two then stood up and Roni went to rid them of the broken glass and Emma was left face to face with Henry as Remy had to go back to serving customers.
"Are you alright?" He asked, his face full of concern. "You look a little shaken. It was just a glass. I've broken a couple of bottles before now and Roni has never gotten angry."
At that moment, Emma cursed how well her son knew her, even when he didn't remember her. She faked a smile. "I'm fine." She nodded to his empty bottle. "Want another?"
Henry shook his head. "No, I'd better be getting home. Hopefully Victoria will have left by now so the coast will be clear."
He laughed nervously but Emma tried to understand his expression. Clearly Henry wasn't a fan of the woman who was supposedly his mother in law, well not supposedly at all. If Ivy was his real partner, Victoria would be his mother in law then. The biggest question was who was this Jacinda? However, before Emma could say anything, Henry was speaking again.
"Tell Roni I said goodbye."
Emma nodded and wished him on his way, but she was more than relieved when he walked out the door. She couldn't believe how much he'd grown. It was crazy.
What was more unbelievable was the fact that Ivy had called him her fiancé. Ivy clearly had some of her memories, whether she had them all was a different story. Emma was already itching to see her the next day and find everything out. Ideally, she had wanted to spend the day with Lennie as she missed her, but she could always take her with her.
When Roni returned, she called for the final round but not many people took advantage of it, simply slipping out of the door. Once everyone left, Emma automatically started going around the room and picking up the empty glasses and passed them to Remy who was stacking the dishwasher while Roni cashed up.
Once everything was done, Remy slipped on his jacket and bid the two goodbye before leaving through the front door. Emma went to the back to get her jacket and was about to make her leave too when Roni called her back.
"Fancy a post shift drink?" She asked. There was a slight shake to her voice, showing she was a little nervous to ask the question which made Emma's decision even easier to make.
Emma nodded, no hesitation whatsoever. She quickly pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket as she placed it on the stool beside her. She saw that Cora had text her to say Lennie went to bed about half an hour after she'd left and that Cora was settling in for the night at about ten. Glancing at the time, she saw that it was getting on for half past two, but the time had flown so quickly, she was half convinced it would only be midnight. Sure, she was pretty tired, but she couldn't not spend a little more time with Roni, she was too inviting.
Roni shuffled behind the bar for a few moments before she came back to the side Emma was resting on with two full glasses.
"A Jack and coke for the lady," she murmured as she passed the blonde her favourite. Emma couldn't help the grin as Roni remembered her tipple of choice despite pouring so many that evening. "I have a good memory," she added at Emma's impressed expression.
"So it would seem," Emma commented as she took a sip before sitting down on the nearby barstool. "That was quite a shift to restart my bartending career."
Roni chuckled as she sat beside her. "It was one of the busy ones, I'll admit." She then sighed sadly. "I'll miss it. I love this place and the people. It's my home."
"You don't have to give it up," Emma said softly. "She can't force you to."
At that, Roni laughed humourlessly. "You're new around here, you don't know her like we do. Victoria Belfrey has a way that if you're against her you're out."
Emma's eyebrows furrowed. "Surely she can't do that. What authority does she have?"
Roni took a sip of her drink before sighing. "She's the CEO of Belfrey Towers and seems to think that means she owns everything and everyone Hyperion Heights. She has the entire town wrapped around her bony, perfectly manicured finger. Ivy, who you met earlier, is her daughter and assistant but she's very closed off compared to Victoria. Anyway, it's no secret that if you annoy her, you end up 'mysteriously'," she held up her fingers in quotation marks, "disappearing. Take my sister for example. Kelly was against her and now she's gone." She then pulled a face. "Though that was partially my fault."
Now that piqued Emma's interest. Surely Roni sister's counterpart, Kelly, had to be Zelena, right?
"What happened?" Emma asked, not just wanting to keep Roni talking to find out more, but because she could see that the brunette clearly needed to get the this off her chest. No matter how false the storyline technically was in reality, to Roni in that moment, it was the truth.
Roni took a few more, rather large, sips of her drink before she placed the glass on the counter. "You know I said my niece used to work here?" Emma nodded. "Well I'm the reason she doesn't anymore. She was attending the local college studying things she didn't care about just to make her mother happy and she was miserable, so I told her to leave and live. I gave her the money she needed, plus she had a decent wage from working here, and she went backpacking." Roni then slipped her phone out of her pocket and pulled up her pictures. "She's been through Europe. Her first stop was Amsterdam, then what seemed like every city before ending in Moscow before heading to South America. Last I heard she was in Peru. She's having a blast by the looks of things."
When Roni turned her phone to the blonde, Emma knew exactly who the young woman in the picture was despite the age difference and round glasses. Emma couldn't help it when her eyes started to tear up as she recognised Robyn. She looked like she was in her early twenties at least. She looked like Zelena with wide blue eyes, but with Robin's hair colour and chiselled chin. She was so beautiful, and the glasses bizarrely suited her. However, Lennie would definitely be in for a shock when she met her cousin again and they'd gone from a two-year age gap to at least fifteen. The thought of it was a little upsetting as the two had been so close, but things never turned out perfectly.
Fortunately for Emma, she recovered over her feelings before Roni looked up. The next photo on her phone was of Roni and a woman who must have been Kelly because Emma would recognise that blazing red mane anywhere. It was Zelena in all her glory. Roni shut the photo down immediately as if it burned her eyes before slipping her phone away.
"How come you fell out with Z-Kelly?" Emma asked. If Roni heard the slip up in name, she didn't show it.
"She didn't want Margot to be so far away from home," Roni sighed. At first, Emma didn't know who Margot was until it clicked that it was Robyn's cursed name. It wasn't the name she'd have chosen but it suited her. "We ended up having a big fight, screaming at each other. I'm pretty sure things were thrown and our past with our mother was brought up." Roni shivered, making Emma want to ask what the story with her mother was but clearly Roni didn't want to talk about it. "I was about to go to her and apologise to her a few days afterwards because at the end of the day, she's my sister and we fight but we love each other, but Victoria told me she'd gone and decided to live in San Francisco of all places! I know my sister like the back of my hand, she wouldn't have left town and gone that far away if she hadn't been pushed by Victoria. The two have always hated each other though I'm not a hundred percent sure why." She sighed again and Emma hated that she sounded so sad. Clearly Roni really missed her sister. "Anyway, I've tried to call her and tell her to come back but she's either changed her number or just doesn't want to talk to me."
At that, Emma reached out and squeezed Roni's hand softly. "She'll come around one day," she soothed. "She'd be crazy not to want someone as amazing as you in her life." She blushed as she heard the compliment before quickly continuing to cover it up. "God knows I've had enough family trouble to last me a life time."
"Oh?"
Now it was Emma's turn to take a deep breath. She took a few sips of her drink before placing it on the counter so that she could cross her arms over her tummy. She was so overcome with memories that she hadn't realised she was still resting her hand over Roni's and had started absentmindedly stroking her thumb over the smooth skin.
"I grew up in the system," she revealed. "My parents sent me away when I was born." It was essentially the truth. "I found them a few years ago and they said they never wanted me to go but they had to for the 'greater good'…don't ask," she added when Roni went to. Naturally the woman wouldn't believe the truth and now was not the moment to start talking about Fairy Tale characters if she wanted her to like her, though to what capacity, she currently wasn't sure. "But since I found them, my mom, my real mom Mary Margaret, just didn't know what to do with me. I was twenty-eight when I finally found them, and it was like she was expecting me to still be the baby they gave away. My dad, David, was able to get used to the idea more and we get on quite well but then it all went to shit when Cora came to town. She had history with Mary Margaret, but I never really had an issue with her personally."
She then picked her drink up again and slowly finished it, trying to figure out how to tell Roni how Cora helped her with the pregnancy while making it seem like she was with a woman as she'd said Lennie had another mother. Plus she wanted to share her abusive marriage but couldn't. God it was going to be difficult. Then again, she realised it was probably better to tell the brunette about Hook when she was Regina, knowing she wouldn't be too impressed that Emma told the cursed version something that important.
"You don't have to continue if you don't want to," Roni murmured softly, misunderstanding Emma's silence. "I mean we barely know each other."
Emma smiled at the other woman and truthfully said, "I feel like I've known you forever and that I can talk to you but do tell me to shut up if I'm oversharing."
Roni laughed and picked up Emma's now empty glass, automatically going to make her another. It was only when she moved that Emma's hand felt cold. She snatched it back to her side and slipped it into her pocket.
"I'm a bartender, we're uncertified therapists," Roni chuckled as she handed Emma the new drink.
"True. Thanks," Emma murmured as she accepted the glass. "Cora was there for me during my pregnancy when my mom wasn't. She had all of these little tips and tricks she did when she'd been pregnant that my mom didn't think to share with me as I'd been pregnant before." Emma bit her lip. "I had a rough childhood and gave him up for adoption. I was barely eighteen, I couldn't look after both of us. Anyway, I've met him since and he was adopted by an amazing woman who I get on with really well, well, most of the time," she added, chuckling a little at her inside joke about the woman right in front of her. "Aside from that, literally the night I gave birth to Lennie, my mom asked me to chose between her and Cora and I chose Cora because to me, she is my mother. She's saved me from things I never realised I needed saving from."
"Sometimes you can pick your family it seems," Roni muttered quietly.
Emma then glanced up from where she'd been staring at the floor and realised that Roni was closer than she last thought she was. The last time she'd been this close to the brunette they'd ended up kissing after many more drinks than they'd had that evening.
Being this close again, that night flashed before Emma's eyes and she finally knew the answer to the unasked question of who kissed who first.
Once they had decided to go back to Regina's when the last round had been called, the two had stumbled their way through the town. Emma was past caring what people thought of their Saviour and Sheriff these days. They had crashed through the front door of the mansion, both giggling loudly, cheering at the fact Henry was at Violet's so that he wouldn't overhear them, before Regina went to get them her decanter of cider while Emma took a seat in the living room.
She flung off her red leather jacket so that it landed on the floor and shook her shoes off, knowing the haphazardly placed items would wind Regina up but the mayor simply rolled her eyes at it as she entered the room, levitating two glasses in front of her and holding the decanter. Quickly the glasses were filled with cider and she took a seat beside the blonde, far too close than was really necessary but neither were complaining as they felt the heat radiating off the other.
For a little while, they just sipped their cider as Emma glanced around the room before her eyes settled on the photos on the fireplace. Sure, she'd been in Regina's living room before but only for a few minutes here and there. Looking now, she saw that the mantelpiece was covered in many photos of Henry at different ages but in the centre was one taken a few weeks ago by David at Granny's. It featured Regina, Henry and Emma, sitting at a booth laughing about something. Regina was looking at her son, her face filled with happiness, but Emma, while still laughing, was staring at Regina.
"What were you thinking then?" Regina murmured, seeing what had taken Emma's attention.
"Honestly?" Emma asked quietly, placing her drink on the table and crossing her arms. It was a habit she picked up whenever she was slightly nervous, despite how drunk she was. Regina nodded, following Emma's movement and placed her drink down. "I wanted to kiss you."
The room went silent but to Emma, all should hear was her beating heart going crazy. She glanced at the floor, not wanting to see Regina's reaction to her confession
"Why didn't you?"
Emma's head snapped up and her green eyes met Regina's chocolate ones. "We were in public and I was engaged."
"And if we were in private, like we are now?"
Emma had no idea where this conversation was going, she was both terribly nervous but slight excitement was starting to bubble up. "We've had too much to drink, Gina, we'll regret this in the morning."
Regina was quiet for a moment before nodding and picking up her glass once more. The two were silent again, the alcohol still pumping around their bodies. Emma glanced at the woman beside her and decided to throw caution to the wind. The woman beside her was the most beautiful woman she'd ever laid eyes on, she was the other mother to her son and her best friend. She was the most important woman in her life and in that moment, she knew what she wanted. However, her next action could either be a recipe for disaster or a blessing in disguise.
For the first time in her life, Emma decided to follow her family's belief and just hope. She turned to Regina and took the leap of faith.
"Henry has a–"
Whatever Regina was about to say was cut off by Emma's lips pressing softly against hers and she could feel her heart sing when Regina started to reciprocate within seconds, tangling her fingers into Emma's hair, before the two ended up making their way upstairs.
"Emma?"
The blonde was brought out of her memory by the woman who was featured. Roni had all the same qualities that Emma adored in Regina. She was beautiful, she always would be, especially in the tank top she was wearing which showed off her arms which Emma had never seen before except for that night. She was sassy as hell and confident. Roni was aware that she was sexy and good looking and used it to her advantage. On top of everything, she was also kind and light-hearted, a side that Regina kept hidden except to a select few. Emma counted herself lucky that she was one of them.
What Roni was that Regina wasn't was that she was open and laidback. Emma had always wanted the mayor to just relax a little bit and enjoy life and finally she was doing. It was just upsetting that it had to be by being cursed.
"Sorry," Emma murmured. "I got lost in my head for a moment."
She looked up and met Roni's eye and saw the attraction and lust that she was sure would be reflected in her eyes. It would be so easy to just close the small gap between the two of them and seal their lips together. In actual fact, there was nothing more she wanted than to taste Regina's lips again and feel them against hers.
Roni's chocolate eyes kept flicking between Emma's eyes and her lips, before she subconsciously licked her lips, moistening them a fraction. Unable to help herself, Emma's breath hitched at the movement, the brunette's now wet lips were calling her even more and she felt herself moving forward.
Literally seconds before their lips touched, reality hit Emma like a tonne of bricks. As much as Roni looked and acted like Regina, she wasn't her, not really. She didn't want her next kiss with the woman she loved to be while she was cursed. She couldn't help herself.
Slowly, and regretfully, she pulled back and cleared her throat, completely ruining the moment. "I should be heading home. I have a seven-year-old who gets up early."
Confused by the clear rejection, Roni nodded before standing up to create more space between them. "Yeah," she said absentmindedly when Emma could see that her head had gone into overdrive. "I'll text you when I've worked out next week's roster."
"Thank you," Emma replied as she picked up her jacket beside her and slipped it on. "And thanks for the drinks."
Roni smiled but Emma could see the disappointment in her eyes. "Goodnight, Emma."
Forcing herself not to hug her as she wanted to cheer her up somehow, knowing if she got close to her, she would cave and kiss her, Emma headed towards the front door and went into the night without looking back.
All throughout her walk home, Emma couldn't get Roni's expression out of her mind. She genuinely looked upset that Emma didn't want to kiss her. She completely understood why. There was a clear connection between the two of them, whether it was the fact that they already knew each other, she didn't know. If the roles had been reversed and Roni had pulled away from her, she would have been just as devastated. They had shared some of their past with ease when neither were known to do so and they had laughed and joked as if they were old friends, which they sort of were. It was so confusing and it was driving her up the wall. If it hadn't been the middle of the night, she would have screamed.
Once she got home, she snuck in the front door, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could. On the way to her room, she peaked into Lennie's bedroom and saw that she was out like a light, snoring slightly. With a soft smile, Emma backtracked and went into her room.
She had never been so grateful to see her bed. She slipped off her clothes, not bothering to put any pyjamas on, before she flopped into bed, sleep overcoming her immediately, but the image of chocolate eyes and brunette hair weaved into her dreams.
