Emma was woken by the sound of her parents' chatter.
It was way too early for her to wake up, especially as she had been lying awake half the night.
While the volume of their voices slowly died down, she heard footsteps coming up to her room.
They stopped right in front of her door, which she expected to open soon. But it didn't.

"I am awake." Emma finally offered. "...and alone."

The door opened and Snow stuck her head around the corner.
"Hi."

"Hi." The lovesick woman replied.

"How did it go?"

The blonde pulled the sheets over her head. "Awful!"

She felt her mother sitting down beside her, before she laid her hand on her back.
Even though she hated the idea of Regina being her daughter in law, her heart broke seeing her 'little' girl like this. "What happened?"

Emma gave her the short version of their evening. Including the part where Ruby decided to play matchmaker.

"It doesn't sound all bad, honey. It sounds like you had quite a nice evening. Well besides Ruby's part." She gave a chuckle. "But even if she doesn't feel the same way about you, a friendship might not be all that bad right? Especially for your son."

She saw the sheets moving, and figured her daughter was giving her a nod in agreement.
"Come down for lunch. We brought some fresh fish."

The idea of fresh fish made her stomach turn. She couldn't eat. She didn't want to open her eyes. She just wanted to stay in bed, and wallow in her own misery.

"Where's Emma?" David asked his wife.

Snow didn't tell him anything about what had been going on. They hadn't mentioned Emma's dating habits after the last time Snow brought it up. And she honestly thought it would be a bad idea to worry him when nothing was going on between his daughter and their nemesis.

"She will probably be down soon."

When, after an hour, there was still no sign of Emma, David stood up to see what was wrong.

"No just leave her!" Snow told him.
"She's probably not feeling well."

"Then I will ask her if she'd like some tea." He continued to walk towards her room.

"Just leave her!"

David heard the panic in his wife's voice. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Just leave her. Please." She took a deep breath before finally explaining; "She's lovesick."

That made him turn back around again to take a seat next to his wife. "Who broke her heart?"
He sounded overly protective. Like a true king standing up for his little princess. Nobody was allowed to hurt his daughter.

"Nobody. It seems to be unrequited love."

David calmed down, and made a sad face.
"Poor girl. The guy is a fool not to fall for her." He expected his wife to give him some more information about the subject, but instead she jumped up and grabbed her coat.

"I gotta go! I forgot I was meeting Ruby."

"Hey Hon." The happy waitress hopped towards her dear old friend.
"What brings you here? Did you see Emma already?"

Snow gave her a playful smack on her arm with her handbag.
"What the hell were you thinking?"

"Hey, a simple 'yes' would have been sufficient."
She started massaging the place where the bag had hit her.

"Emma is lovesick. The poor girl." She seemed honestly sad about it.

"Isn't that what you kind of wanted?" Ruby reminded her truthfuly.

"Too see her like this? Absolutely not."

"Poor thing indeed." Ruby leaned against a table, letting her mind ponder over her next awesome matchmaking move.

"Don't you dare!" Snow knew her friend like the back of her hand.
"Just let them figure this one out for themselves. True love will always find it's way."

"True love eh? You really think that's what it is?"

"It would make sense." Snow met her eyes. "For once the whole damn thing would make sense."

When hunger started to kick in, Emma finally managed to drag herself out of bed.

"Hey you're up!" Her father folded his newspaper and put it aside. His daughter needed his full attention.

"Yeah, I'm hungry."

He got up and made his way into the kitchen.
"Sit down, I'm going to make something for you. Comfort-food."

Emma got a bit scared by that idea. Not only the food-making part. But the part where he thought she needed 'comfort-food'. What did he know?
"Thank you." She replied neutrally, hoping he would leave it at that.

While he started taking out pots and pans, he tried to talk some sense into her.
"You know. This guy, whoever he is, is a real idiot for letting you go."

"What guy?" Emma replied automatically. She met her father's eyes and suddenly realized what he was talking about. "You spoke to mom."

"Yes she told me. You know, maybe it's not as easy as talking to your mother, but you can tell me stuff as well."

She felt awful for lying to him. But she didn't want him to know she loved the woman who ruined everyone's life. Especially when her love wasn't being answered anyway.
"I know. I'm sorry. But it doesn't matter anymore. I'm fine." She tried to convince him with a smile, which was answered by him while he put down a nice bowl of soup.

"Come on. Let's eat."

Emma felt a lot better after her lunch. They talked about the camping trip, and it made her forget about 'whatshername' completely.

She hit the shower and metaphorically washed away her troubles.
After that she got dressed, and went outside to visit the library.
It was a perfect day for reading a good book in the park., and for forgetting all about Regina.

Belle had done a great job on renovating and re-opening the library. It looked amazing.
There was a lovely lounge corner with an espesso machine. Which was great for rainy days. And she had a cute little kids corner with toys and childrens books.

She looked at the sign on the wall, and decided to pay a visit to the detective section.

"Emma!"

She turned around to face her friend who was carrying a large pile of books.
"Hi Belle."

"How is it going?" The library owner asked the blonde, while putting back the books in alphabetical order.

"I'm fine. Just finding something to read in the park."
She started browsing the shelves for something she hadn't read yet. Since they couldn't leave town, there had been no new books for the past 28 years.

The other woman didn't reply. Instead she was in deep thought about something that had happened earlier. "Emma?" She finally started. "What is Granny's club-night?"

Shocked, Emma dropped a book she had just been about to open.
"Excuse me?"

"This morning Regina came over to return some books. She told me something about Granny's club-night, and that she got it from you."

Emma had completely forgotten about that.
"Right. You don't know? I ehhh...I completely forgot to do something. I ehhh...I'm sorry Belle. Gotta go." Without further thinking she ran out, still holding a few books in her arms.

"You have to check those out at the front desk!" Belle yelled after her.

Emma was lost in her own thoughts, completely ignoring Belle.
She crossed the street and went over to Granny's in one straight line.

"Ruby!" She opened the doors to the diner.
She came to a halt in front of the waitress. "We have to organize a club-night."