A/N: Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and safe NYE. Here's a little New Year's Day treat for you, before we all go back to the realities of work tomorrow (or today, if you don't get today off). This is maybe the shortest update I've ever done in any fic, but I wanted to post something since I made you wait so long before the previous update. Since I'm still revising the chapter after this one, it was either wait several more days to combine them into one, or post a short bonus update today. This one has a natural ending point anyway, so splitting it into two just made sense :)
"Oh, good! You two know each other," Mary-Margaret says as she looks at me and then Regina.
The older brunette's lips are pulled into a tight smile. "We do," she confirms, looking at Mary-Margaret and then back toward me, but she refuses to meet my eyes.
"Yeah, she, uh, was my boss at Enchanted Education," I tell my friend, hoping that maybe if we just lay everything out we can get past the severe awkwardness of the situation.
"Oh," Mary-Margaret frowns as she looks between us once again.
Oh, it's awkward. So very awkward.
"So…" I continue, looking at Regina and hoping to push past the tension. "How are things in Chicago?"
"Things are good," she shrugs, which is a bizarre gesture coming from Regina. She is always so confident and put-together, so a nonchalant and common mannerism just looks wrong when she does it.
Mary-Margaret excuses herself to go check on some of the other families, leaving me alone with the woman who fired me. Awesome. At least when she was here I had a buffer.
I look around and notice Regina is by herself, which confuses me, because the math doesn't add up. Mary-Margaret had said there would be 15 guests checking in today, and with the last family to arrive and Regina, that only brings the guest list to 12. Clearly missing from the party are Robin and their two kids. Regina must notice the change in my expression, because she answers it with her own look of confusion. "Where's the rest of your brood?" I ask.
"Oh," she says, hesitating slightly as she crosses her arms and tilts her head as if she's cracking her neck. Her non-verbal signals are all so perplexing today. But, clearly I struck a nerve with my question. "Robin's sister just had surgery, so he and the boys went out to her place to help out for a few days while she recovers."
I don't know why, but I feel the need to ask more questions, even though I can sense her growing discomfort. Perhaps it's a weird form of payback for my termination. "And you didn't go with?"
"His sister and I have never gotten along. The last thing she wants is me hanging around while she's bedridden. Plus, we had already booked the cabin for the weekend and it's non-refundable, so I figured there's no sense in it going to waste," she explains.
"Ah, makes sense. Well, I hope his sister is okay."
"She'll live," Regina says, almost callously. "Excuse me, I'm going to go get something to eat."
"Of course," I nod as I step aside, letting her walk past me toward the grill, where David is flipping another batch of burgers.
*.*.*
As the evening goes on, things become even more uncomfortable, which I didn't think was possible. None of the other guests pick up on it, which is a good thing. This big welcome cookout is new for Mary-Margaret, and she's only doing it because so many new families arrived all at once. I don't want to ruin that by causing a scene with my former manager, or by bailing on the event all together, so I resign myself to sticking around but avoiding Regina at all costs. I'm trying my hardest to be friendly and social with the other families at the cookout, and generally make conversation with anyone who isn't the older brunette.
And it works, for the most part. I manage to avoid interacting with her again during dinner, and at times I become so engaged in conversation with other guests that I manage to forget she's even there, at least for a little while. But then I'll see her out of the corner of my eye, and then I'll remember and get frustrated all over again. Since arriving two months ago, I've almost completely forgotten about the events leading up to my abrupt departure from Chicago. I hadn't thought about Regina at all since coming up here, and seeing her pisses me off more than I expected it to. I should be used to dealing with her — after all, I worked for the woman for a year — but back then I had my work mask on and my guard up. Here, I'm comfortable and relaxed and completely unsuspecting, and then she showed up. I wasn't prepared for the bitterness seeing her brings out in me.
We all eventually relocate from the deck down to the fire pit closer to the lake, but still on the Nolan's personal property. David has started a bonfire, and I'm impressed by the height of the flames. It's clearly well-controlled, but it's still a little unnerving. "Emma, come sit by me!" I hear Ava, an eight year old girl who is here with her brother Nick and their parents, call out to me. I turn around and smile, and graciously sit down on the log next to her. Ava wants to be a writer when she grows up, so as soon as Mary-Margaret introduced me to their family, Ava has been asking me all kinds of questions. I don't mind, because it helps me pull my focus away from Regina.
After I finish my second s'more and take the last sip of my beer, I happen to see Regina in my peripheral vision. She seems stressed, not to mention alone, and she's been keeping to herself all night. She's not just avoiding me, which I would certainly understand, but she's not really talking to any of the other guests. There's some guy sitting on the next log over from her and talking incessantly — I think I remember his name being Sidney — and I can tell she's barely paying attention to him as he chatters away. Occasionally she'll nod or send him a forced smile, but I can tell she's miserable. And goddammit, it doesn't give me the satisfaction that I would have thought it would. I'm apparently too nice of a person to find joy in the pain of someone who screwed me over.
I watch her finish the beer in her hands, tilting her head back until it's empty and then setting it down upright on the ground next to her feet. I walk over to the cooler David has dragged over to the fire pit clearing and grab one for myself, along with a second beer. "Here," I say as I come to stand in front of her, holding the bottle by its neck in a sort of peace offering.
She looks up at me with a quizzical look in her eyes, almost as though she's trying to assess why I'm being nice to her. I know she thinks I should hate her — and I probably should — but I can't bring myself to. After what feels like minutes, she wraps her hand around the base of the bottle and says "thanks," a half smile on her lips. But, it's at least a genuine smile, so I'll take it.
I stand there awkwardly for another few seconds, debating whether I should return to my log and begin another in-depth discussion with Ava on the merits of the Harry Potter universe post-book seven, or if I should engage in conversation with the one person I've been purposely ignoring all night in hopes that maybe we can reach a point where the rest of the long weekend won't totally suck for both of us. Against my better judgement, I choose the latter.
I open my mouth to speak, but then pause, really observing the woman sitting in front of me. It's clear she doesn't want to be here, like she would rather be getting a pelvic exam at the gynecologist than be sitting out here by the campfire. She's wearing a simple black quarter zip fleece and dark grey leggings — not the plain cotton ones that regular people lounge in, because truthfully I doubt that she would ever own a pair of those, but those cute, overpriced Lululemon herringbone leggings that look like they're incredibly warm — and I'm completely shocked to see her in something so casual. Even when we were working late in her hotel room at the conference back in July, she was always dressed like she was ready to attend a business meeting at a moment's notice. I'm glad that she's at least making an effort to not be such an uptight bitch here…or, at least not dress like one. (She probably still is an uptight bitch, because a change of clothes isn't going to change her personality.)
"What?" Regina asks me, pausing with her beer partway to her lips as she looks up at me, the expression on her face reading equal parts confused and irritated.
I realize I must be staring, so I quickly drop my eyes to the ground before looking back up to meet her intimidating glare. Shit, have her eyes always been that shade of brown? They remind me of a caramel mocha. Wait, where the hell did that come from? I shake my head to clear my very random thoughts. "Do you want to talk?" I timidly ask, correctly predicting that my offer would not be met with appreciation.
Her expression goes from that blend of confusion and irritation to just pure annoyance. "Why on Earth would you think I want to talk to you, Miss Swan?"
I roll my eyes. "Sorry, I just thought you looked like you might need to talk to someone. But, I should have known better…you're not one for talking. I'm more than happy to leave you alone. Enjoy your stay," I say, turning around and starting my walk back to Ava and her family.
I take four steps before a voice stops me. "Emma, wait."
A/N: So, apparently I'm starting to enjoy leaving chapters on cliffhangers. Thanks for reading and reviewing! The next chapter will be twice as long and will be up later this week, and all will be revealed.
