Thank you for the nice feedback :-) for people who are wondering if someone is going to die, well this is a drama. But if there are people who would also like to read a happy ending, I'm considering right two endings, just let me know if you would like that.
"Rise and shine cupcake!" Emma shouts at Regina and jumps on the bed even though it doesn't do anything. Regina groans and turns around not wanting to get up just yet.
"Come on Regina! I know you don't sleep in so get up and make yourself some breakfast, we got a lot to do today." Regina pushes her hair out of her face and watches Emma.
"Are you serious?" Regina asks falling back into her pillows.
"Yeah so get up or you're not getting my heart!" Emma walks out of the room to give Regina her privacy while she starts getting ready.
Freshly washed and with a full stomach Regina finds herself standing on the sidewalk waiting for Emma's instructions for today. It's early and she doesn't feel rested but she's ready to go and listen to Emma throughout the day. She has made up her mind last night after she had gone to bed, she was going to do what Emma's says without complaining. Or at least not that much of complaining.
"So what are we going to do," Regina asks raising her eyebrow and putting her hands in her pockets to keep them warm. Without saying anything Emma starts walking and the only thing Regina can do is follow and roll her eyes.
"Today you are going to do some random acts of kindness."
"What? Why? What kind of random acts of kindness." Regina asks looking left and right before she crosses the street and catches up to Emma.
"Just random! Like…" Emma looks around and it doesn't take long for her to see what she has been looking for. Emma stops walking and turns towards Regina.
"I want you to take some money and give it to this homeless guy." Emma says pointing at the little old man sitting on his knees with his face looking down and a cup in front of him.
Regina frowns. The man is dirty and is hair is messy. She's sure he hadn't showered in days and did she just see some flees in his hair. Regina felt disgusted in the man's place.
"Why do I need to give him money? Don't you think that's a little easy for him. Why doesn't he go and find himself a job instead of sitting here all day and begging for only a scrap of money." Regina reasons with Emma.
All her life she had to work hard to get where she was now. She had earned her money and now Emma wanted her to just give it away like that. Who knows maybe this man didn't deserve the money, maybe he deserve the life he was living.
"Just do it Regina!" Emma says firmly. Regina huffs and walks over to the man. She opens her wallet and sees two bills in it. One of twenty dollars and a one hundred dollar bill. She takes out the one hundred dollar bill and puts it in the cup. She turns around and murmurs to herself. "At least people can't say I'm cheap."
Before she can walk away a hoarse voice calls her attention. "Excuse me ma'am but I think you have mistakenly put a large bill in the cup." The old man says holding out the bill for Regina to take it back.
"No, it's not a mistake." Regina replies giving him a reassuring smile. The man eyes widen and starting to get moist. "Thank you." He whispers, his voice full of emotion.
Regina nods politely feeling a little uneasy, due to the man's gratitude. "Don't mention it." She says and straightens her pants before walking back towards Emma.
"So how did it feel?" Emma asks grinning. She had followed the whole interaction and was pleasantly pleased with Regina's actions.
"It felt alright." Regina says looking down not ready to fully admit that seeing the emotions in the man's eyes felt really good.
"Come on Regina! You're feeling good!" Emma pushes her shoulder but of course nothing happened. Regina looks at her shoulder and starts laughing.
"Did you really just tried to push me?" Regina asks chuckling.
Emma rolls her eyes but can't help but smile herself. "Oh shut up! Let's go to the next stop." Regina keeps chuckling but follows Emma.
"Oh and before I forget! I want you to smile all day long and smile at people."
"What!" Regina eyes widen. "Why do I need to do that?"
"Because I like your smile, it's beautiful and I think people should see it." Emma replies honestly but as soon as the words leave her mouth Regina loses her smile and blushes furiously.
"Well…..I …..thank you." Regina mumbles taken back by Emma's compliment. No one has ever given her a genuine compliment like that and she feels uneasy.
"Hey don't lose that smile now!" Emma says and Regina can't help when she feels herself smiling again.
The next stop they were making made Regina really nervous. The building they were walking into was very familiar to her and the large white letters of Mills publication were staring at her while she bit her bottom lip. She liked doing these random acts of kindness but this was her workplace and people knew her here in a very different way.
She is for many of her employers the scary heartless boss that no one likes. What if Emma asked her to do something that will embarrass her. She needs to be taken seriously or her business will suffer.
"Please Emma don't make me do something that will make me appear weak. I still have to manage these people and I can't do that if you make me lose their respect." Regina says stopping Emma from going inside.
"Alright, why don't we go somewhere quiet so we can talk." Regina nodded, they left the lobby from the building and headed towards the bathroom. Regina check the bathroom but luckily for them no one was in.
"So….." Emma says crosses her arms. "Why are you so nervous? Please tell me what 's going on."
Regina looks down and pulls her sleeve. "I used to have a lot of problems when I first started as CEO. My father originally started the business and when I finished college my father died suddenly. Ironic enough he had a heart problem, maybe that's why I'm in this mess right now. I knew that one day I would inherit all of this but I hadn't expected it to be right after college. All of the sudden I'm the boss of so many employees and they didn't listen to me. They took advance of me, they made deals that got me into lot of trouble, legally and financially. I even got sexually harassed at one point but I don't like to talk about that." Regina whips away the tears that were falling down her cheeks.
"So I broke down, I had a complete nervous breakdown. I left the office for two weeks and got better. I knew I had to change, so I put on my walls and created this heartless workaholic bitch. And somewhere along the line I forgot that I'm not really that person. I want to be good and nice again but I don't want the problems to come back." Regina went into a toilet stall and gathered herself some paper to blow her nose.
"O god, I can't believe I'm crying right now." Regina mumbles.
"Hey! It's okay, you are allowed to cry. And thank you for telling all of this because from the moment I saw you I didn't believe this mask you were putting on, this bitch. I just didn't know why it was there in the first place and now I know, thank you." Emma steps closer to Regina. She wants to hug her but knows that she can't. Regina won't even feel it.
"You know what. I'm going to hug you. I know that you won't feel it but try to imagine it." Emma closes the space between them and puts her arms around Regina.
Regina sees Emma's arms around her but she doesn't feel the contact. She wished she could, she wants to feel Emma. She wants to feel her skin and her warmth. Regina closes her eyes and tries to imagine. She imagines how Emma would feel, how soft she is and how she would smell. It comforts her and she feels so much better.
"And don't worry. I'm not going to ask you to do anything that will embarrass you. We are here for something totally different." Emma whispers in Regina's ear before pulling back from the hug.
"I know you love your job but I also know you want something more than your job." Regina nods in agreement.
"You want to date, find someone to love and maybe even start a family. But a family takes up a lot of time. Time you don't have at the moment because of your job. So you are going to need some help. You need someone to take up some of the work you do. Let's go upstairs so I can tell you more about my plan." Emma says and points to the door.
They leave the bathroom and Regina leads them to the seventh floor. The moment Regina arrives on the floor and people see her things change. Regina's small smile disappears immediately and makes place for a frown. She doesn't walk but strides through the room towards her office. People look down at their computers trying to look as busy as possible. But the moment Regina's back is towards them they stop working and you see people relaxing again. Emma walks a little quicker to catch up with Regina.
"Hey Regina, calm down a little and don't forget or deal! Smile!" Regina stops for a second and gives Emma a little nod. She had forgotten herself for a minute but she wants to change so she starts smiling and nodding towards people in greeting.
"Good day miss Mills. I didn't know you were coming to the office today. Can I do something for you?" Charlotte asks looking up from her desk.
"No thank you Charlotte. I'm just going to do some work." Regina says giving her a genuine smile and stepping into her office. It's a large office, black and white colours are dominating and in the middle there's a large black desk. Regina takes a seat behind her desk and breaths deeply.
"So what's the plan?"
Emma doesn't take the seat in front of Regina's desk but goes over to sit on it. "Alright I want you to promote someone. Someone you can trust and can take up the work load and manage the office every time you want some free time." Emma explains and Regina listens.
"And you think you have found someone that can do that?" Regina asks raising her eyebrow in question.
"Yes I think that your assistant Jessica would be perfect. You don't know this but she has a degree in business and she respects you even though you scare her a little."
Regina frowns. "Jessica? I don't have an assistant named Jessica? My assistant's name is Charlotte."
Emma chuckles. "No, her name is Jessica. She has just never corrected you."
Regina mouths fall open. "O god! Really?" Regina feels guilty for not even knowing the girls name. "But are you sure that she can handle the job. If she doesn't even correct me with her name, what if she needs to make a deal and she let people walk over her." Regina asks sceptical.
"Yes that's true but if you maybe make her your something like an apprentice. You can teach her these things. You can help her built up her self-esteem. And she's really good at doing paperwork and organizing things. That's the person you need, someone to do the things that take up so much of your time."
Regina nods and brushes a hand through her hair. "I don't know….This….." Regina points around her. "This is my life…what if she ….."
Emma holds up her hand. "Yes I understand you and your totally right but if you want a life aside from this. That is what you are going to need to do."
Regina looks down and bites her bottom lip. She not sure.
"Alright don't do this because I asked you to but do this for yourself. Give yourself a change at a family. Who knows what you can do with more time. You could meet someone or if you want have a baby or adopt one."
Regina looks Emma in the eyes before nodding and reaching for her intercom button.
"Jessica can you please come in here for a second."
It didn't take long for Jessica to come in with her mouth dropped open. "Miss Mills? Did you just call me Jessica?" The girl asked looking at her boss with wide eyes.
Regina wants to roll her eyes but Emma catches her attention and points at her lips. "Smile." She says and Regina smiles back.
"Yes Jessica. That is your name, right?" Regina says.
"Yes but you normally call me Charlotte."
"Yes and I think it's time to change that." Regina says an points at the chair across from her. "Please take a seat, I need to discuss something with you."
Jessica takes a deep breath and sits down. "Am I going to be fired?" The girl asks nervously.
Regina laughs and shakes her head. "No of course not. You're here because I like to promote you. I want to offer you the job of becoming my apprentice. I would like to teach you how to manage an office like this and how to make the right deals and after that when you're ready I like to make you co manager of Mills publications."
Regina finishes and looks over at Emma who is giving her the thumps up and Regina can't help but smile even more.