Good morning everyone. Finally last day of EC week is here. I didn't do Day 7

because the prompt didn't inspire me. I hope you'll enjoy it. See you at the end of the chapter.

Day Eight: Choose any of the prompts that didn't make the list. Free Day!

Online dating

She didn't know how she had let herself be convinced that this was a good idea.

It wasn't. Not at all. It was a terrible idea.

Regina sighed as she looked at the screen of her computer, more precisely at her profile page on that online dating website her twelve year old son, Henry, had convinced her to check out.

"Come on mom. Give it a try. Nobody enjoys being alone all the time. He had said, fists on the hips, pursing lips and knowing look. If her father had still been alive he would have pointed out how the young boy was her spitting image.

It was true. This whole attitude he was showing was definitely something he had taken from her.

Anyways, she had bit back to his statement. Of course she had. While stirring the soup, she had looked over her shoulder to glance at him in the eyes and had said: "I already have someone in my life."

To which Henry had sighed heavily and replied. "You know what I mean. I love you mom and I want you to be happy but one day I will go to college…I don't want you to be alone."

The college thing had been a smart move. The second the word left his mouth she realized that her son was already twelve and that too soon he would be, indeed, off to college probably in another state.

She had bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. Then she had turned completely, to face him.

"Look! I know very well that you will not live with me forever sweetheart. You will go off to live a life of your own and it's fine. If I'm feeling too lonely I will take a dog." She said with a shrug, a smirk displayed on her face to hide the fact that the thought of her son leaving her hurt well too damn much.

It worked because Henry had chuckled shaking his head. "Well at least think about it."

She had. Thought about it. For days, weeks, months. But here she was, regretting having clicked on the button and saved the profile with that picture of her that she didn't even like and a description that wouldn't even have her checked her own profile.

This was a terrible idea.

Suddenly a little sound was heard then a few others followed and she realized that it was because someone was checking her profile.

Despite herself, a smile crept onto her lips as her heart fluttered and heat reached her cheeks. She waited patiently for someone to message her, hoping it would be someone remotely good looking and also someone nice. Nice was important. And also who likes children but that last one was already specified in her profile. She wasn't saying that she had a son, (maybe she should have had) but she was saying that it was important for her to find someone who liked and enjoyed children's company.

Minutes went by and then an hour and there was nothing. She kept hearing the bip but as much as she was having a lot of visitors on her profile, no one seemed to find her interesting enough to get to know her.

Regina let out a loud sigh cursing underneath her breath before closing her laptop and going straight to her bed. This had been a bad idea since the beginning anyway.

…

The next morning had gone on as usual and she had even managed to completely forget about the previous night's disaster. She had gone on with her normal activities that was cooking breakfast for her son, waking him up and making sure he was fed and cleaned up before dropping him at the bus station so he could go to school. As for she, she headed towards the other side of the town to the Primary school at which she was the headmistress.

Around four, classes were over and she was back home while Henry was still at school having his every-two-days soccer practice.

She took advantage of being alone to do some cleaning and afterwards she gave herself a nice and long bath that ending just when she heard the front door opening as Henry had just been dropped off by Jefferson, the school's coach whose daughter was in Henry's class.

"How was your day?" Regina asked as she arrived in the foyer, to greet her son, an oversized sweater and a pair of cotton short on along with a pair of socks at her feet.

"Good." Henry said with a smile, his hair still wet from the shower he had taken after practice.

The brunette answered to the smile. "You go put away your things and start on your homework while I get dinner ready.

"Mmh." The boy said heading towards his room.

She did exactly as so and around 7 they sat down to dine, a plate of vegetables with steak facing them. Then once the cleaning was done, Regina allowed Henry one movie before going to bed and –of course- he chose Harry Potter for the nth. They had watched the entire saga so many times that Regina almost knew every line by heart.

When the ending credits appeared on the screen, Henry took the DVD off the player before kissing his mother cheek and heading to bed.

The brunette, as for she, stayed for a little while in the living room watching some TV while she finished her second cup of tea, then she shut the TV off and went to her bedroom. She grabbed her laptop from her desk and got under the covers. She set the device on her lap and opened it before entering her password.

A brief moment of confusion later during which she wondered what the hell she was doing with an online dating website on her computer's screen before remembering that she had just created a profile on said website, she realized that she had five notifications.

At first she thought it was nothing important but as she clicked on it, she noticed with joy that she had received messages from potential contenders. (That sounded way too reality TV). The brunette let out a small chuckle before going through the message.

The first one she read was sweet. From a man named Sydney who was currently unemployed but was unfortunately living in the other side of the country.

The next two were a complete disappointment and downright creepy and she was close to just delete the two unread messages that followed from fear of reading another stranger talk about how much he would like to go down in between her legs.

Nevertheless, she opened the fourth message. From David Nolan. He was a sheriff in a small town not far from Boston which was a good point. And had she mentioned that he was quite the nice looking man?!

"To be honest, I was forced by my best friend to create this account. Well not forced but he gently pointed out that I had been single for over five years and apparently that is considered to be a very long time.

I have actually been on this website for quite some time but I have never messaged anyone because I didn't seem to have anything in common with them. However there is something about you that (I swear!) has nothing to do with this beautiful profile picture of yours," Immediately, redness reached Regina's cheeks. At least someone liked her picture. "That makes me want to know you a little more. I hope you will be as interested as I am. At least enough to message me back."

She didn't even bother looking at the last message. To be honest she had even forgotten that there was another message.

"At least it was your best friend who forced you into taking actions and change your single status, not your twelve year old son."

She had hit the sending button before realizing what she had just written. She sighed. One way or the other she would have had to tell him that she had a son and if that didn't work for him, she might as well know it before anything between them started.

She was about to close her computer when she realized that she had opened it initially to check her mail. She didn't even have time to load her Gmail box that she received another notification from the dating website. She frowned and a large but surprised smile appeared on her face.

"Ouch! Let's say that he just wants his mom to be happy. What's his name?"

The brunette bit her lower lip, unable not to smile before replying.

"Henry."

A few minutes went by then his answer arrived.

"Nice name. I don't hear it a lot nowadays but it has some kick to it. Do you have any other kids?"

"I named him after my father that's why. No. Just one. One very-concerned-for-his-mother's-eternal-single-status teenage boy." She wrote smiling sweetly. What about you? Do you have any children?"

"Well I would like to thank him for his concerns. It got me to meet you. And no. No kids yet but I love children. My best friend, Killian, has a daughter and I'm her Godfather. She might not be mine but she is the light of my life."

Regina chuckled, blushing slightly at his first words and her laugh faded into a soft grin over the last words. He was almost too perfect.

"Do you have any defaults or are you actually just perfect."

"Oh I'm actually perfect. They call me Prince Charming –or maybe it has just to do with my blonde hair and blue eyes, who knows?!"

"As soon as you don't ask me to be your Snow White. She is just boring."

"Well who would you like to be then?"

Regina thought for a moment then a smirk appeared on her face. "The Evil Queen, of course!"

"This is the best thing. The Evil Queen and Prince Charming succumbing to each other's charm via an online dating website. (Do you think they had one of those in the Enchanting Forest?) Who would have thought?!"

"Who says I'm succumbing to your charm?" She replied still smirking. Oh she was! She so was. "(I don't know. They should have though. It would have kept Charming from wasting his time with Snow White, wouldn't it?)"

"My bad. Maybe it was my imagination. However, you might not be succumbing to my charm but the same isn't true." Regina's heart almost missed a beat. "Good point for the Enchanted Forest online dating website. Maybe we should give a call to Disney."

"I think we should do that and for the record…you're not that bad to talk to."

"Well you have me flattered. I'm glad you enjoy talking to me. I enjoy talking to you as well. A lot. I think it would be nice to do it again."

"You think?"

"Yeah. We could put that on our to-do list just after 'giving a call to Disney' of course."

"Well I put it down then but personally, I'll put it just before the whole Disney thing."

"I'm so glad you're saying that."

"Same time tomorrow?"

"Same time tomorrow."

"Goodbye David."

"Goodbye Regina. I guess I'll have to thank my friend for this."

"No. You manage that all by yourself." She answered and before sending it she even added a smiley.

"Thank you. I cannot wait for tomorrow."

"Neither can I."

"Greet the boy for me." And those last five words were enough for her.

She closed her eyes before replying with a smile. "Will do."

I hope you liked it. Don't forget to review.

Big announcement here. No pleasant though.

I have decided to close this OS collection (at least for now) because I am not as involved into it as I used to be.

I really want to focus on my multichapters and maybe one day I will reopen this OS collection.

Thank you all for reading and the reviews and everything really. You guys are awesome.

Xo Ella