AN: Hi everyone! I struggled with writer's block for a week due to things happening in my life, that's why this is a little late. It's quite short as well, but it contains all the scenes I had planned for it, so, oh well xD
And yay! 80 followers! You guys are amazing! Together with the 23 subscribers this story has on AO3 (assuming it's different people) I've reached the 100-marking now and I'm so happy that you seem to like my fic :D
Merry Christmas to you all! ^_^
After the After Hours
Ruby immediately hurried over to me, busting with questions, under the guise of picking up dirty tableware.
"Oh my God, Emma, why did you sit with her?"
"Well, there was an actual empty seat here?" I tried.
It wasn't the whole truth but I was reluctant to reveal the other reason behind my choice of dining company. I wasn't even sure how to explain it. Saying nothing seemed like the easiest option.
"But you could've just asked me, I would gladly have squeezed you in with some nice people," Ruby gently admonished.
"Her kid seems nice," I said, feeling an urge to defend him.
The mayor was apparently about as popular here as at the office but her son shouldn't have to suffer because of it. The waitress let out a small sigh.
"Yeah, he's the sweetest kid, but... No one around here interacts with the mayor unless they absolutely have to. I'm sure you understand why, taken that you just endured half a meal with her."
She gave me a meaningful look which I responded to with a vaguely affirmative nod. The mayor had actually been pretty tame today, especially in comparison to her usual office demeanour, but I knew things would've been different if Henry hadn't been here. She probably would've left the very moment I voiced my not so appropriate comments.
Thinking more closely about what Ruby had just said, I found myself wondering how this infamous woman had come to be in such a powerful position.
"But if you all dislike her so much, why did you elect her mayor?"
"Well, first of all, not everyone has to put up with her snappish attitude on a regular basis. Most people only know her public persona and that's a rather good one, I'd say. She knows how to put on a show. Pity she doesn't have that show going on more often cause she'd be a lot more pleasant to deal with then."
But neither of them was her true self, I thought. The haughtiness and the false smiles, they were both just different facades. Different layers. I hadn't imagined that genuine moment in her office last week, somewhere deep down there ought to be a real and loving human in her. She clearly cared for her son. Was I actually defending her in my mind? It needed to stop. Her actions and words were still hers, and they were rarely kind.
"To begin from the beginning, our former mayor was getting old and had decided to retire," Ruby continued. "There weren't many contestants to take his place and most of them were pretty bland, except for Regina Mills. She was fairly young but so confident, coming from this renowned New York family. They threw one hell of a campaign and she totally crushed the competition. Heck, even I voted for her! Then she got reelected last fall because, well, no one even tried to run against her..."
This meant the mayor first got elected over four years ago. Four years, and she had been like this all that time?
"Anyway, she's done well with the town, nothing to complain about there," the waitress concluded. "But personally? Just do yourself a favour and try to stay out of her way, because trust me, you don't want to get on her bad side."
If only she had known...
My first 40-hour work week at the office turned out pretty okay, actually. I was mostly able to avoid Hooker and his irritating comments, and the mayor appeared content with giving me occasional inhospitable looks whenever she spotted me. No vengeful moves were made. For my own behalf, I settled on ignoring her, sneaking glances only when she wasn't looking.
However, when those forty hours had passed, I was still sitting on the floor outside one of the smaller conference rooms, resting my head against the wall. My shift was technically over but this last meeting seemed to be going on forever. I had to wait and finish up, since it was the last day before the weekend. Who would even order a meeting like this on a Friday night? The question was not difficult to answer, it seemed likely that the mayor would enjoy to trap her poor employees late at work on the day they wanted to go home most of all. Perhaps this was part of my punishment?
I tiredly closed my eyes, trying to pick up some clues on what was going on in the room behind me. From the way their voices were raised I could tell that they were disagreeing about something – which probably was the reason it was taking so long – but I couldn't distinguish their words. Then they suddenly quieted, the following sound of chairs scraping against floor being like music to my ears. Finally!
The door opened and I quickly got up on my feet and grabbed my cleaning trolley with both hands. I let the small group of businessmen exit before I stepped into the room, noticing a familiar figure sitting by the far end of the table. She was propped up on her elbows, forehead resting in her palms, and I heard her let out a deep sigh.
"Why does everybody hate me?"
I was momentarily confused by the unexpected question, even more so by the whiney tone it had been asked in, but then I realized that she probably wasn't even aware of my presence. Unable to keep myself from replying, I pulled the trolley over the threshold.
"Well, that's not...entirely true," I corrected.
The mayor looked up, her initial surprise quickly replaced by a sarcastic smile.
"And you would know, because you have such insight in my life, Miss Swan."
"Mr Humbert doesn't hate you," I pointed out with a shrug, getting started with wiping the table.
I didn't need any insight in her life to tell that the chief of staff had feelings for her, after being given the information I had definitely noticed it myself. His eyes betrayed him, and the way he talked about her... He seemed blind to her faults. Also, as I had found out, the flowers had indeed been an apologetic gesture from him. She practically had his heart in her hands, free to do whatever she pleased with it.
The way she now groaned and rolled her eyes didn't indicate that she was opting for any 'happily ever after' with him, though, and if I wasn't mistaken, it was also a hint that nothing was going on between them.
"Well, he'd be the only one," she muttered.
I smirked, recognizing her reaction too well. I had had a fair share of unwanted attention from males myself, Hooker being my latest pursuer. He was annoying, yet to say rude, and he really hadn't gotten the mayor's message. He just wouldn't accept that there were plenty of other people – females – whom I would rather do, one of them sharing airspace with me right now.
"I don't hate you."
I held my breath for a few seconds, focusing very hard on my hand's movements on the table. Had those words really come out of my mouth? I dared a quick glance at the mayor and her questioning look confirmed my suspicions. Dammit, couldn't I have mentioned Henry instead? And why was I trying to comfort her? Pretending to seem disinterested in any reply she might give me I continued with my task, steadily working my way toward her.
"Really? Because that's not the impression I got the other week."
That was...she was stealing my lines.
"Or this week, for that matter. The signs are pretty obvious."
"Well, maybe you're reading them wrong," I retorted, immediately regretting my choice of words at her quizzically raised brows.
If I didn't watch my tongue she would figure it all out and that would give her a powerful weapon against me. I could not let that happen.
"I'm just not much for hating people," I said airily, trying to shrug it off.
But she didn't let me get away that easily.
"Not even when they fire you just for the satisfaction of bringing forth that devastated look on your face?" she questioned calculatingly and my eyes snapped back toward her.
Was she being serious? She couldn't be that vicious, she just couldn't. I had gotten the job back, after all, and even though it hadn't been her doing she had at least let me keep it this time. I had mostly, mostly, made peace with the firing by now but there was one thing that still bothered me. I wondered if she had known...
"On my birthday," I said flatly, not letting any emotions show.
Her brows furrowed.
"It was your birthday?"
"It was," I confirmed, and a smug smile appeared on her face.
"Too bad I didn't know. Would've made it even more satisfactory."
I pressed my lips to a thin line and shot her a dark look, not finding her joke particularly funny. If it had even been a joke. Why was I even trying to be nice? It was obviously not working.
"You know, I kinda got the impression you didn't want everyone to hate you," I said sharply. "Guess I was wrong."
"It's not that simple."
"Isn't it? Isn't it, in fact, that simple?" I shot back. "Ever heard of the Golden Rule? 'Treat others the way you want to be treated'? Maybe if you tried being nice to people they would be nice back."
"You clearly have no idea what you're talking about," she scoffed. "You don't know me, and you don't know what it's like to be the mayor and on top of that a single mother every other week. To make it all work. Sometimes I wonder which would actually be harder, being a full-time single parent or, like now, just see my son one week at the time. I mean, when he's not home I-"
She abruptly quit her rant, as if she had said too much, and attached a reassuring – but not convincing – smile to her lips.
"I'm fine," she declared as she arose from her seat, grabbing her things. "And this is none of your business."
Then she promptly walked out of the room, thereby ending the conversation.
I didn't move for quite some time, just stood there dumbfounded while trying to sort things out in my mind. Not for a second did I believe she was fine. This thing with her son obviously troubled her and it explained some of her irrational behaviour. But not everything. It didn't explain everything.
Confusedly shaking my head I resumed cleaning. I would probably never fully get to know what was going on behind those dark brown eyes, but my curiosity was growing for each passing day.
When I was exiting the building later that evening, a single black car in the office parking lot caught my attention. I stopped with my hand at the door handle, furrowing my brows. The unmistakable top modern Mercedes-Benz was parked close to the entrance, as usual, but it shouldn't still be there. Why hadn't she left yet? I could think of exactly zero reasons for anyone to stay even after the after hours.
Unable to ignore my sense of duty, I gave a sigh and reluctantly went back inside. Maybe she had suffered a fatal heart attack and Storybrooke was now finally free from her cruel regiment? I chuckled quietly to myself as I entered one of the elevators but then felt a bit guilty. Ruby had made it clear that she was good for the town and that most residents were unaffected by her unfriendly manners.
The sun had just settled below the horizon, leaving the unlit building dim and gloomy, but I didn't bother to turn the lights on. It wasn't completely dark and I knew my way around. A faint glow was coming from the windows in the mayor's office door and peering through them I saw her sitting in the light of her desk lamp, gazing far into space. She startled when I tapped at the glass and her eyes shot to the door.
"Who's there?"
Her tone was wary and I realized she probably couldn't see me very well, at the most distinguish a murky shadow. Right outside her door. For all she knew I could be a rapist or a serial killer as well as anyone else.
"It's just me!" I called reassuringly.
"Swan?"
"Yeah," I said and entered without further encouragement.
"Well, just...barge in," she muttered with an eye roll.
"What are you still doing here?" I questioned, ignoring her comment.
"I could ask you the same."
"Well, I just finished working," I informed her. "Then I noticed your car was still here and found it a bit odd. I mean, it's Friday. Shouldn't you be home with, like..."
She tensed and I trailed off, realizing I was breaching that sensitive topic again. No need to rub salt in the wounds of someone who was unpleasant to deal with in the first place.
"My son?" she finished my sentence, her tone dangerous. "Henry is with his father until next Friday."
"Oh," I said, unsure of how to respond. "I'm sorry."
She gave me a look of disbelief.
"You? Are sorry?"
"Yeah, I mean... It must be difficult."
The disbelief lingered on her face for a bit but then she pursed her lips and straightened in her chair, her expression stern.
"What is it that you want, Miss Swan?"
"I don't..." I began confusedly, frowning.
"Well, you're not playing nice for no reason, are you? Hardly your...style."
Right, I guessed she had reason to doubt my sincerity. But I was not here to play pranks on her this time.
"Look, I just went back to make sure you hadn't died or anything, okay?"
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously while she seemed to contemplate this.
"So you're not, let's say, trying hitch a ride home again?"
"No," I said defensively, because that was absolutely not what I was doing.
"Good, cause you're not getting any."
Sex, my mind immediately took the liberty to translate it to. I'm not getting any sex...with her. Unable to conceal my amusement I averted my gaze and licked my smiling lips. A different kind of ride, that.
"What?" the mayor demanded.
"Nothing," I hurried to say with feigned innocence and cleared my throat. "I'll...get myself off then."
I turned toward the door but froze almost instantly, mortified. Had I just...? No. What the hell was wrong with me tonight? First I had blurted out that I didn't hate her, then that maybe she was reading the signs wrong, and now this? The part of my brain that controlled my speech was clearly and severely malfunctioning.
"Th-the premises," I stuttered in an attempt to remedy my dreadful blunder, awkwardly turning to face her again. "Get myself off the premises..."
The mayor looked unimpressed, her brows arched, and I tried an alleviating smile.
"Bye!"
Then I fled the room.
AN: I'll try to post chapter ten on January 1st but Christmas celebration might steal away my time, so in case I won't make it: Happy New Year!
