CHAPTER 3
Amy looked at her phone and sighed. In all the excitement of the previous day, she had completely forgotten to turn it off vibrate, and her friends had been blowing it up with calls and texts. Ruby was the culprit of most of them, though Ashley had left several messages too. She decided she had better find them both and assure them she was alive and well.
She had already dropped Mr. Gold off at his shop and was driving towards the grocery store, but she decided to make a quick detour at Granny's Diner. She knew Ruby would definitely be there and Ashley likely would be, and besides, she was hungry again. The cereal and toast she had eaten two hours before were only a distant memory, and she was craving a stack of Granny's pancakes. I've got to stop pigging out like I have been, or I'll be as big as a house by the time I deliver, she thought. She had already paid a steep price for last night's Chinese food, awakening in the night with a monster case of heartburn and again that morning with a savage, but mercifully brief bout of morning sickness. During the siege of vomiting, she hadn't imagined she would ever feel like eating anything again; but within half an hour she had sat down to the breakfast Mr. Gold had already had waiting and devoured every bite.
She parked in front of the diner and got out of the car Mr. Gold had given her for her use, a black Mercedes XL. He had told her she could use it for any personal errands as well as trips to the dry-cleaner's and the grocery store, and had presented her with a charge card with which to buy gas. No doubt about it, he was a most generous employer, but she had no intention of taking advantage of his generosity. She didn't plan to use the car any more than she had to.
As she walked to the diner's front door, she realized Ruby had already seen her through the plate-glass window. She hauled ass to the door (Amy was always amazed that she could move so fast in stilettos) and was holding it open for Amy by the time she reached it.
"What the hell, Amelia!" she exclaimed at top volume. "Why wouldn't you answer your phone yesterday? I called, I texted, I drove around looking for you…then Sheriff Graham came by and I was so freaked out I told him you were missing. He told me he knew where you were and that you were OK but he wouldn't tell me anything else. I kept trying to get in touch with you all last night, but you never answered. Granny's been worried to death, too. You know how she is; anytime someone's missing for more than five minutes she thinks they're stone cold dead in a ditch. Shit, I was starting to think the same thing. Then you pull up in the most badass car in town besides mine and just stroll in like nothing ever happened! What is the deal, girl?"
"Hello, Ruby," Amy said dryly. "It's good to see you too. To answer your first question, I had my phone on vibrate and didn't know it. I just saw all the calls and texts this morning. I figured I better come by and make sure you and Ashley hadn't put out an APB or anything."
"Nuh-uh," Ruby scoffed, shaking her head so that her long black-and-red hair flew around her face. "I'm not buying that. Since when do you forget to check your phone? You practically have the thing grafted to your hand."
Amy raised her eyebrows. "Well, Rube, if you recall I've had some…rather major issues lately."
Ruby stared at her blankly for a moment before it dawned on her. "Oh!" Being prudent for once, she grabbed Amy's hand and tugged her over to a booth in the corner. Once they were seated, she whispered, "I figured it was something to do with…the baby. What happened?" Her eyes widened. "Don't tell me your dad found out!"
Amy's expression was all the answer she needed.
"Holy shit!" Ruby hollered. Heads turned to stare at them. Ruby's hand flew to her mouth; Amy tried to make herself as small as possible in the booth. "Sorry," Ruby whispered. "But…oh my God! I can't believe your old man found out! How'd he find out? What did he do?" Her eyes narrowed. "Is that where that place on your cheek came from?"
Amy sighed. "It's a long-ass story, Rube," she said. "And I'm famished. But if you'll get your granny to throw a short stack on the griddle for me, I'll give you the Cliffs Notes version while we're waiting."
By the time Granny brought her pancakes out, Amy had patiently gone through the entire story twice—once for Ruby, and then for Ashley, who'd showed up just as she was finishing telling Ruby about the previous day's events. By the time she completed the second telling, Ruby and Ashley were sitting across from her in the booth, hanging on every word. If their mouths dropped any further, Amy thought privately, their chins would hit the table.
Still, she was glad to have her two best friends with her. The three girls, just a few months apart in age, had known one another all their lives. They had gone through school together. Last year, their senior year at Storybrooke High, Ruby had been voted Biggest Flirt, Ashley had been voted Friendliest, and Amy had been voted Shyest. That, she thought, pretty much summed them up.
"So let me get this straight," Ruby said when she could finally speak again. "Your dad threw a shit fit and kicked you out of the house. Then Mr. Gold showed up out of nowhere and offered you a job and a place to live."
Amy laughed. "Pretty much."
"And you took it?"
She shrugged. "What other choice did I have?" she asked. "I'm broke, Todd is history, my father made it clear he wants nothing more to do with me, and I had nowhere else to go."
"Not true," Ruby said indignantly. "Why didn't you come to Granny and me? You know we would have let you stay at the inn as long as you needed to. You could have worked for us there, or here."
"I couldn't ask your granny to do that," Amy protested. "I know y'all are barely scraping by as it is. I wasn't going to ask her to take me on."
"Don't be stupid," Ruby snapped. "Granny's crazy about you. All my life I've heard 'Why can't you be more like Amy?' she would have been glad to let you stay with us. Instead you went with"—she shuddered—"Mr. Gold."
Ashley spoke up. "He's not that bad, Ruby," she said. "I admit, I was nervous about working for him at first. Hell, I still am. But Amy's right, he's not really the big bad boogeyman people make him out to be. He didn't fire me when I set the kettle on fire or dyed his shirt pink. I even offered to let him take the kettle and the shirt out of my salary, but he didn't. He said 'Nonsense, dear. Accidents happen.'" Amy appreciated the vote of confidence, but couldn't help groaning inwardly at Ashley's terrible imitation of his Scottish brogue.
Ruby tossed her head. "I don't care what you say," she insisted. "Mr. Gold is creepy. Granny's scared to death of him, and on that one thing I agree with her. I'd be terrified to work for him. And I can't even imagine sleeping in his house!"
"Well, I don't know why," said a new voice. "You certainly don't have a problem sleeping anywhere else…except maybe your own bed."
The trio looked up to see Ruby's grandmother standing there with Amy's order of pancakes. Her voice was tart, but her elderly face was filled with kindness and concern. "Are you all right, honey?" she asked Amy.
Amy rose and hugged the closest thing to a mother she'd ever known. "I'm fine, Granny," she reassured the old woman.
"Well, you had this granddaughter of mine worried sick," Granny said. "I told her now she knows how it feels. But you had me worried too, sweetheart." She dropped her voice. "And how's your little package?"
Amy glanced at Ruby, who looked sheepish. "Sorry," she said. "She got it out of me last night when I was so scared."
"That's all right," Amy said. "Pretty soon everyone will know anyway. My—ah, package is just fine."
"I have to say, darlin', you're the last one I thought it would happen to," Granny blurted. Ruby rolled her eyes. "Did I hear you say your daddy kicked you out?" Amy nodded. The old woman's eyes grew dark. "Shameful, just shameful. Not your situation, honey," she added hastily. "These things happen. But it's shameful the way he treats you. I've always thought so. I always wanted to tell him, but I was afraid he'd fire me and then you'd be all alone in that house. When he did fire me you'd better believe I gave him a piece of my mind." She chuckled, then was serious again. "I only wish he'd listened. Honey, if you need anything, anything at all—"
"I don't need a thing, Granny," Amy smiled.
"She's OK, Gran," Ruby seconded. "She's playing house with Mr. Gold." The black-haired girl's eyes sparkled with mischief.
Granny gasped and took a step back. For one second, Amy thought the woman was going to drop her short stack. But that quickly gave way to worry that the old woman would suffer a heart attack. She'd had one just a few months earlier. "Damn it, Ruby, it's not like that," she snapped. "Granny, are you OK?"
Granny managed to catch her breath. "I'm fine, dear," she said. "Just…not what I was expecting to hear, that's all." Amy glared at Ruby, who had the grace to look guilty.
"God, Ruby," Ashley said mildly. "That really wasn't the best way to put it."
Ruby flushed. She knew she'd gone too far. "Sorry guys," she muttered sullenly. "Sorry, Granny."
"Amy's working for Mr. Gold now, too, Granny," Ashley explained. "And since her dad kicked her out, he's letting her stay at his house."
"Yes," Amy continued. "There's a little apartment in one wing. Probably built to be the servant's quarters, but it's really nice. I'm staying there for now." She added, "Mr. Gold's really been very kind, Granny. He bought me some clothes and arranged for the sheriff to get my things from my father's house. He's even going to pay my bills for…you know."
"WHAT?" Ruby exclaimed. "You didn't tell us that part!"
Amy shrugged. "I forgot."
Granny seemed to be fully recovered now. "Well, perhaps he's not as big am ogre as he seems," she said, clearly not believing it. "And I have to admit, as much as I'd love to hire you on I don't have the money to do that and pay my bills too. That's one thing Mr. Gold has plenty of that I don't—money." She reached out and gave Amy's shoulder a squeeze. "Just be careful, honey. I don't think that man ever does anything kind without thinking about what's in it for him. And if you should change your mind, my door's always open. We'll figure out a way to make it work." She gave Amy one last shoulder squeeze and returned to the kitchen.
Amy dug into her pancakes. They were a little cold by now, but still delicious. "Damn, girl," Ruby said. "I thought you said the meals came with."
"I can't help it," Amy whined. "I did eat breakfast, but I'm so hungry all the time." She paused. "Except when I'm hurling of course."
"Ugh." Ruby wrinkled her nose.
Amy decided to torture her a little. "Yeah, you should have seen the barf fest going on this morning," she said. "I swear I think I threw up the ghost of meals I haven't even eaten yet."
"Oh, that's disgusting," Ruby wailed. She was notoriously squeamish; Amy would never forget the time she had fainted while they were dissecting a fetal pig in biology.
Amy shook her head with mock sadness. "And it's only gonna get worse from here on out," she said somberly. "I hear pregnant women usually get hemorrhoids—"
"Oh, God, cut it out, Amelia!" Ruby squealed. "You want me to spew all over the table?"
Amy grinned, triumphant. "I really wish you'd stop calling me that," she said. Her name wasn't Amelia and Ruby well knew it. She had given her the nickname in middle school when the three girls were going through a Victorian novel phase. "Amelia is an old-
fashioned name and you're an old-fashioned girl," she'd said. "You even look like an antique porcelain doll. You were born in the wrong century, I swear." The Victorian phase hadn't lasted but the nickname had.
"It's not even appropriate anymore," she continued, pushing the last bite of pancakes around her plate to soak up all the syrup. "Amelia's a prim-and-proper sort of name, don't you think? I don't think a girl named Amelia would have gotten herself into my present situation. You'll have to start calling me Hester." At her friends' blank looks she sighed. "You know, Hester Prynne? The Scarlet Letter? We had to read it in English class our junior year?"
"Oh, yeah," Ashley finally said. "Wasn't Demi Moore in the movie?"
Amy barely refrained from rolling her eyes. She loved her two best friends dearly, but sometimes she wished she had someone to carry on an intellectual conversation with.
"Amelia still fits you, anyway," Ruby grinned. "You still have that pure, untouched air about you. You always will. If I didn't know better I'd think you'd gotten pregnant by osmosis or something." Amy had to smile at the scientific reference. Ruby was a lot more intelligent than she liked to let on.
She'd finished her pancakes by now, but the trio continued to linger at their booth. Soon Ruby would have to go back to waiting tables, but right now, in between the breakfast crowd and the lunch rush, the diner was mostly empty. There was something Amy needed to get off her mind.
"Listen, Ash," she said. "I hope you don't mind that Mr. Gold offered me the apartment. I'm sure he would have given it to you if you didn't already have a place to stay—"
"Oh, no," Ashley interrupted. "You need it way more than I do. I wouldn't want to stay there, anyway. It's too far away from my other job"—Ashley worked evenings at the bowling alley—"and Sean." She giggled.
"That douchebag," Ruby grumbled. "I don't know why you bother with him. He won't even give you the time of day unless his daddy isn't around."
Ashley waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, I'm just glad he didn't fire me when he hired you. I know you're much better at housekeeping than I am. But this way we get to work together."
Ashley wasn't the brightest bulb, but she was sweet. "I'm glad we'll be working together, too," Amy said, smiling at the pretty blonde.
"Well, well," said a familiar voice, "if it isn't my two newest employees."
Amy jumped. "Oh, hey, Mr. Gold!" she said. "I just stopped in to let Ruby and Ashley know I was still alive. I forgot I had my phone turned off last night, and I had about a million texts and calls from them this morning."
"I see," he said, smiling down at her. He acknowledged the two other girls in the booth. "Ashley, Ruby."
"Hi, Mr. Gold," Ashley squeaked. Ruby muttered a hello and jumped up.
"Can I get you your usual, Mr. Gold?" she asked. Amy and Ashley exchanged amused glances. Ruby took her sweet time waiting on most people. Only Mr. Gold and the mayor could make her hop to.
"Yes, dear," he said, barely glancing at her. "To go, if you don't mind. I'm afraid I'm rather busy today." Ruby scurried over to the counter.
Amy couldn't shake the feeling she'd been caught slacking on the job—and on her first day, to boot. "I was just getting ready to head to the store," she informed Mr. Gold. "I'm glad you're here, because I was going to come by your shop first. We forgot to go over a menu for the week."
"Anything you want to make is fine, dear," Mr. Gold said. He looked especially elegant today in a black pinstriped suit, black dress shirt and red-and-black jacquard print tie. "As I said, it's been a while since I've had a home-cooked meal, and I'm not a finicky eater. I'm sure whatever you decide will do nicely."
"Well, is there anything special you'd like to have?" Amy nearly chirped. She was aghast to feel herself flushing to her collarbone. She didn't know why she was so nervous; he was perfectly relaxed as always, and hadn't intimated by so much as a glance that he thought she was shirking her duties. Perhaps it was just because this was her first public interaction with him. Ashley was oblivious to Amy's high color and too-bright voice. Ruby, busily preparing Mr. Gold's order behind the counter, noticed, but she had her own thoughts on the matter.
"I'll tell you what, dear," he said. "Why don't you make your favorite meal for me tonight? I'm sure I'll enjoy it. As far as the rest of the week goes, just get the things you're most comfortable making."
"I can do that," Amy said gladly. "I don't even need a recipe for my favorite meal. I know the ingredients and the steps by heart. It's—"
"Oh, no, dear," Mr. Gold interrupted smoothly. "Why don't you just surprise me?" Ruby dinged the bell on the counter. "Ah, there's my order," he observed. "Amy, I'll be closing the shop at six tonight. I should be home no later than seven. Why don't you try to have dinner, whatever it might be—" his dimples flashed—"ready about seven-thirty? Oh, Sheriff Graham will be coming by with your belongings this evening as well."
"Sounds like a plan," Amy said cheerfully. She had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. She told herself it had everything to do with pregnancy and nothing at all to do with the sight of those dimples.
Ruby knew better, however. As soon as Mr. Gold exited the diner she fairly flew back to the booth. "Oh my God," she blared. "You totally have a crush on Mr. Gold!"
"Ruby!" Amy cried, mortified. She was glad the diner just happened to be empty at the moment. "I do not!" even as she denied it she blushed red to her hairline.
"Oh, yes, you most certainly do, Amelia," Ruby said smugly as she slid back into the booth. "'Is there anything special I can do for you, Mr. Gold?'" she mimicked in a high falsetto. "'What's your favorite, Mr. Gold? How about if I just get bare-assed and hop up on the table and lay there waiting for you, Mr. Gold? Will that be OK?'"
"Stop it!" Amy cried, tomato-red by now and convulsing with helpless laughter. She couldn't help imagining Mr. Gold's reaction if she were to do exactly that. Not that she would ever want to do such a thing, of course.
"I can't believe you, Ruby," she said when she finally gained control of herself. "Mr. Gold is old enough to be my father. And I'm working for the man, for God's sake! I would never do anything like that!" She struggled for a severe tone and failed miserably. She could just picture Mr. Gold standing there, his mouth hanging open with shock, his cane dropped forgotten by his feet. He would probably sprint to the nearest phone, his limp be damned, and call the local mental hospital. Or else he would shuck his clothes as fast as humanly possible and join her—Oh, no. Not going there, not going there. Jesus, what's the matter with me? I know pregnancy causes your hormones to go nuts, but this is ridiculous!
"Oh, stuff the puritan act, Amelia," Ruby said. "You've proved once and for all that you do, in fact, have the fire down below. I think it's cute. He may be a creep, but he is kind of sexy in his own weird way. And what's more, I think he likes you too."
Now Amy was the one with her jaw practically hanging to her chest. "Ruby," she began, "you can't possibly think—"
"Oh, hell, girl, I don't mean he wants to jump your bones," Ruby interrupted. "But I really do think he likes you." She grew serious. "I was watching him with you. He's nice to you. Really nice, not that fakey kind of nice he is with most people. I'm sure Granny would argue with me, but maybe he did take you in out of the goodness of his heart." She paused. "I hope so."
Amy felt a rush of love for her friend. As wildly inappropriate as she was sometimes—OK, most times—Ruby was as loyal and caring a person as there was. "I think so, Rube," she said. "I wouldn't have agreed to this otherwise."
"I know," Ruby said. "Just remember what Granny said: If you change your mind you can always come stay with us." She paused again. "I just need to ask a favor of you."
"OK, shoot," Amy said, walking right into the trap.
"If you ever do—ahem, make sweet sweet love with Mr. Gold, will you tell me how he is? I'm kind of curious now."
That did it. Even Ashley, who had looked as if she wanted to crawl under the table during the whole exchange, had to succumb to the hilarity. The three of them sat at the table and roared with laughter until Granny bellowed from the kitchen, "Girls! That's enough! Anyone would think this place was a lunatic asylum!" That set them off yet again, for that was exactly what she'd always said during their younger years when they were creating too much of a ruckus.
When Amy left the diner, she felt better than she had…well, in a week. Even with the betrayal of her ex-boyfriend and her father's abandonment, she felt cautiously optimistic about the future. She had a job, a roof over her head. She was going to have the best medical care for her baby. She was still conflicted about what she would do once the baby was actually born, but she trusted herself to make the right decision when the time came, whatever that would be. And most important of all, even if the two main men in her life had deserted her, she still had her friends. She was loved, even if she forgot that sometimes.
Amy caught herself whistling as she got into the car. Wow, I really am feeling better, she thought happily. Then she realized she was whistling the old Bob Seger tune, "Fire Down Below", and groaned out loud.
"Away with that," she told herself. "Away with that, Amy Miller. The fire down below got you in a whole mess of trouble. The only thing you need to worry about right now is pleasing you new employer." She paused as she realized how that sounded. "Oh, shit."
Yes, it was a little fluffy and didn't have nearly enough Mr. Gold, but there's Chapter 3. Don't worry; he'll be onstage for most of Chapter 4. By the way, Ashley Boyd is not pregnant in my story, but otherwise I'm going to try to stick pretty close to canon. (I figured one pregnant maid was enough for Mr. Gold to deal with.) And the story is set several months before Emma's arrival, but she'll be a part of it when the time comes. Also, since we don't know Granny, Ruby, and Doc's last names yet I just used ones I felt were appropriate. If we do find out their Storybrooke surnames I'll adjust my tale accordingly.
I forgot to mention in the last two chapters, I only own my OC (but as one of my reviews pointed out, she's not really an OC is she?) Everything else belongs to Disney, ABC, et cetera.
Once again, thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Oh, and if anyone is curious as to what Mr. Gold's house looks like, just Google Eleutherian Mills. It's part of the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware, and was one of the ancestral homes of the du Pont family. I saw a picture of it while I was flipping through a magazine, and the first thing that popped into my mind was "That's Mr. Gold's house!" I borrowed most of the description from Wikipedia.
Until we meet again!