Chapter 53
Their lunch went by quicker than they thought. The awkward silence would drape over them, but Emmet would bring up random topics to keep their conversation going. Emmet decided to keep the topics light and simple, trying to get Regina to open up to him little by little. He knew it was going to take time but for the time being he would be happy to know the little things she liked and disliked.
Soon they were heading back to mansion. Even though Regina had wanted to take a cab back to the house Emmett insisted on dropping her off himself.
"I won't be long at the office. Would you like to have dinner together?" Emmett asked as hope filled his eyes.
Regina had already gotten out of the car. She leaned forwarded to look at Emmett through the car door window. She noticed the slight smile on Emmett's face. And decided to shake her head in agreement. She stood up and started to walk toward the door and once she was inside Emmett reversed out of the driveway to head back to work.
"Sooooo what happened?" Ruben asked as soon as Emmett stepped inside his office and took his seat.
Emmett looked at him with a serious look and pretended to look for a file to busy himself.
"Fine, you don't have to tell me. I'll be next door if you need me" Ruben finished as he started to walk out of the door.
"Alright, come back." Emmett finally gave in. Ruben quickly darted himself off the door and sat opposite of Emmett waiting excitedly for the details.
Emmett let out a defeated sigh at the look on Ruben's face. "I think it went well. We didn't share too much about each other, but I think we covered the basics." Emmett finished with a proud smile on his face.
He looked at Ruben to gauge his reaction but noticed the excitement leave his face.
"That's it? Last time I checked you went to have lunch with your wife not a freaking client of yours, Em. What the hell?" Ruben said trying to keep his frustration at bay. He looked Emmett dead in his eyes and said, "You are a lost cause, my friend."
"What does that even mean, Ruben?!" Emmett asked trying his best not to get riled up at the reaction of his best friend.
"It means you will never be able to get Regina to fall in love with you, my friend." Ruben said with his head hung low in defeat.
"You know what! Get out. I don't want you spoiling my mood right now. I am having dinner with Regina later tonight and I need to finish my work." Emmett responded back as he grabbed his friend and threw him out of his room and closed the door behind him.
"Make sure you don't fuck up this time again" Ruben spoke from the other side of the door. Emmett waited a couple of seconds by his office door to make sure Ruben was gone. When he didn't hear him outside, he turned around to get back to his work.
The moment Regina went inside the mansion, she ran past the maids and the butler in a hurry to the restroom. As soon she entered the restroom in the bedroom, she puked her guts out into the toilet. She noticed the food from her lunch with Emmett right in front of her. She quickly flushed it down as another wave of nauseousness came over her and she puked again. Finally, after couple of minutes of waiting if she was going to puke more she got up from her knees and flushed the toilet the second time. She approached the sink and looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't help but break down in tears.
Her moment was broken as she heard a knock at the bedroom door. She quickly wiped away at her tears and cleaned herself up. As soon as she was done, she went to the door to open it, slightly. She poked her head out to see who it was.
"Mrs. Swan, what would you like to have for lunch?" one of the maids' asked. At the mention of lunch, she felt nauseous again. She covered her mouth quickly and looked at the maid.
"I won't be having lunch, but could you please bring me some lemon tea." She requested. The maid nodded and left. As soon as the maid left, Regina closed her door and went to sit on the bed. She looked around the room. This was going to be her life now. She did not know what to make of this situation.
'Was this the only way to get her mother to back off? Has she made a mistake marrying Emmett?' these questions were running through her mind as she tried her best to stop crying. She didn't want the maid to come back and find her this way.
She went back into the restroom to wash her face off. She quickly cleaned herself up and went to lay in bed. She didn't know why but she felt exhausted already from the day. She was just about to lay on the bed when she heard another knock on the door. She called to the person to come in and it was the maid back with her tea. She placed the tea on the table next to Regina's bed. Without saying anything else, Regina dismissed the maid without requesting anything else except for everyone to leave her be.
Once the maid was gone, Regina took a sip of her tea. She felt the warm liquid sooth her insides. She took couple of more sips before she decided to lay on the bed. Without even trying to, her eyes closed off on its own and before she knew it, she was asleep.
There was a scent in the air Regina didn't recognize right away. She slowly opened her eyes and looked to her left to check the time. It was already past six in the evening. She quickly got up from the bed and went out the door. The moment she opened the door, the scent hit her strong in the face. She went down the stairs to notice Emmett with an apron and cutting up vegetables on the kitchen counter. It stopped her right in her tracks. 'Dinner?' she questioned with confusion on her face. She didn't know Emmett wanted to make dinner for them tonight. It really caught her off guard. Before she could make her presence know. Emmett called out to her.
"Oh, you are finally awake. I didn't want to wake you up when I came back from work. So decided to work on dinner for us tonight. I am not the best cook, but I still hope you enjoy it." He finished with a soft smile on his face. Regina opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She decided to get down the stairs and moved towards the counter where Emmett was preparing their dinner. She looked around trying to figure out what he was making.
Currently he was cutting up vegetables for a salad.
"You know you could have had the maids cook dinner for us." Regina said as she turned away from the counter to go sit on the dining table.
Emmett stopped what he was doing and looked at Regina. His smile fading away.
"Well, I wanted to surprise you." Emmett with a hopeful voice. "If you like I can order you something else if you don't want to eat what I made for us." Emmett proposed with a defeated look on his face.
Regina couldn't help but feel bad, she didn't mean to come off so rude. She quickly got up from her chair and smacked her palms on the table. "You don't have to do that!" She almost screamed out. "I mean….it's fine. I just feel bad that you are making dinner after coming back from work." Regina spoke as she made it sure to direct a small smile at Emmett.
"It's alright. I am fine if you are worried about me." Emmett said as he winked at Regina. Regina couldn't help but blush at the action. She turned her face to the side and mumbled quietly so Emmett couldn't hear her. "Who said I was worried about you?"
She took her seat again on the table and waited patiently as she watched Emmett prepare their plates with Chicken Alfredo pasta and salad.
After couple of minutes, he placed Regina's plate in front of her and placed another place on the table across from her. He brought the bowl of salad he had prepared and put it in the middle of their plates. Regina assumed now that their food was on the table Emmett would take his seat but no he went back into the kitchen to grab something from the freezer.
Emmett walked back with a chilled bear bottle in his hand. He raised it up with a smile on his face.
"Couldn't forget this. Now let's have dinner shall we." He announced as he grabbed his fork and was about to dig into his pasta.
"Excuse me for a second." Regina said as she quickly got up from her chair and headed toward the downstair restroom down the hall.
Emmett didn't even have a chance to say anything or do anything as he got up looking at Regina's back rushing towards the restroom.
"Is it that bad?" he questioned himself as he looked down on his food. He grabbed a bite with his fork to taste it. "Hmm…there's nothing wrong with it. I made sure to follow the recipe to the point."
He sat down confusion written on his face and then suddenly it clicked in his mind. He quickly got up as well and headed toward Regina's direction.
