Ruby sidled up behind them, and immediately noticed Emma's expression of shock, "Emma, omg! Is that her?"

"Yep," Emma confirmed dejectedly. Of course, Regina would be at this stupid ball, she seemed to get around to all of them. Suddenly, Emma remembered it was December 20th, Regina had asked her to accompany her to this ball on their first 'date' fiasco. She was probably trying to ask her again when she had texted.

"I'm going over there," Ruby brushed past Emma and Mary Margaret, her tone was all too gleeful, but Emma didn't have time to stop her. She watched from the side of the tent, out of Regina's line of vision as Henry, emerged from under Regina's table and barreled into Ruby's knees. She almost spilled her whole tray of ginger marinated ahi tuna crisps on the little boy. Regina appeared to have a word or two for her too.

Emma was filled with conflicting emotions. She was surprised and excited to see Regina, and she was a wonderful sight to see. Her ball gown was gorgeous from what Emma could tell. She licked her lips and willed her to stand up so she could see how the bodice cupped her breasts. On the other hand, Emma was dragged down by the same feelings of inferiority she couldn't help, but feel from the divide in their classes. Here was Regina in her exquisite dress and Henry in an adorable tiny tuxedo the same shade of crimson to match his mommy, holding court: Regina was working this event. Here was Emma, a bit of hummus smeared on her dress slacks, and a sweaty sheen on her forehead: she was really working the event.

Ruby returned wide eyed, "Wow, your woman is a piece of work. She's asking for you to go over to her."

"You didn't tell her I was here, did you?" Emma asked aghast. The last thing she wanted was to go talk to Regina in front of her equally regal and bitchy looking friends.

"Oh, she knows you're here," Ruby winked playfully. "She's really hot, Em. And man oh man is she into you. I say pump her for all she's worth. Oh, and her kid is pretty cute too."

Rolling her eyes, and debating how she could delay the inevitable, she decided she needed to talk Regina to find out why she had been so mean to Mary Margaret. This was about to get interesting. Emma wiped off her forehead and hand her fingers through her hair. Regina made her nervous, but she still wanted to look as good as possible around her. She psyched herself up before she could chicken out and made a beeline toward her table. Regina saw her coming and put her hands flat on the table. A huge beautiful smile transformed her face from her previous mask of disinterested disgust.

"Ms. Swan, here you are!"

"Hey," Emma couldn't help, but return the smile, even as she kept her greeting curt. She stood uncomfortably as not only Regina's eyes, but those of the other three women at the table, raked over her up and down. It was almost worse than having her ass grabbed.

"You look lovely, dear. May I introduce you to my friends?" Regina stood up and gestured to the group of expectant ladies, but all Emma noticed was the wide expanse of skin ranging from Regina's bare arms down her collar bone and the way her cleavage was up and out.

"Hi," Emma smiled tightly and waved at the group as Henry popped out from nowhere and wrapped his arms around Emma's legs in a tight hug.

"Ms. Emma! I missed you!"

"Hey, kid," Emma was genuinely touched that Henry remembered her. "Um, Regina…" using her first name didn't come naturally, she'd always referred to her as 'Ms. Mills', but she couldn't bring herself to do it right then. "…can I have a word with you in private?"

Regina looked like she was going to swoon, or something, "of course, dear."

Her friends made a sort of clucking noise, which Emma found really disturbing almost like they were very familiar with her. The blonde woman wearing a royal purple dress pulled Henry onto her lap and winked at Regina, shooing her along encouragingly. Had Regina told her friends about her? Emma realized she was on the verge of hyperventilating, and even though Regina was acting nice at the moment. She knew that condition of 'nice' could upgrade to the emotional equivalent of a 5 Hurricane very rapidly.

Regina cleared her throat and when Emma didn't extend her arm, Regina latched onto it anyway and they exited the tent, walking out onto the green. Stroking her arm, Regina pressed herself close and purred hotly into her ear, "It's so good to see you."

This just wouldn't do.

"First off, I'm working right now, so I can't talk for long. Second, why did you hurt my friend's feelings? She said you insulted her bangs. What the hell?" Emma didn't look at the woman next to her as she spoke. She couldn't bear to see the startled hurt expression in her brown eyes.

"I—you don't know what that woman did to me! You haven't heard my side of the story," Regina immediately grew defensive, pulling away and taking a step back. She turned around and her mouth fell open as if she'd been slapped.

That's rich. Emma rolled her eyes, "What could she possibly have done to you? Offer a beef wellington bite when you wanted a jumbo shrimp? Never mind, just answer this question for me seriously: did you know that I was going to be working here tonight?"

"I didn't…" Regina squirmed in her billowing dress, she wanted to reach out to Emma and pull her close. She was lying. She kind of did know that Emma was going to be at the event tonight. In fact, she'd tried to ensure it. Ideally, she'd wanted to bring her as her date to the ball, but when Emma declined and said she was busy Regina figured she'd be working at the restaurant.

Earlier that day, she'd gone to pay a visit to Mr. Gold at his golf pro-shop and she was in the mood to make a deal. Henry had not been handling the departure of Belle very well at all, and she would do anything in her power to make her little prince happy. Regina never did find out what irrefutable offer Gold had made her former nanny in order to steal her away, but she was prepared to offer whatever it took if Gold would let Belle visit Henry. When she'd tried Belle's phone, she found it had been disconnected so she knew she had to go to the source.

Mr. Gold was intimidating, but Regina was equally so and it was just her luck that the she had arrived just as he was firing his event caterer. It was a simple deal, Regina offered Gold a caterer: Skewers, and he allowed her to bring Henry to the ball so he could spend some time with Belle.

Technically, Regina hadn't been a hundred percent sure that Emma would be there tonight, but she the chances had been in her favor. She was getting upset as this wasn't going the way she had envisioned it at all.

"Look, I don't think it's wise for us to talk to each other tonight. Your friends seem nice and all, but there's no reason for me to meet them and…." Emma was getting worked up. She didn't know why she was babbling and Regina was just standing there looking tense and sad.

"Enough, Ms. Swan, I clearly upset you a great deal and for that I'm sorry. I have to attend to Henry now. Have a good evening." Regina schooled her features and brushed past Emma, leaving her standing alone near the crocodile pit.

That didn't go well…Emma thought about Regina's strange lemons, a mix of sweet and bitter, but balanced so perfectly it was addictive. Her night had just gone from decent to ass in flash.