"Where the hell have you been?" Graham hissed under his breath when Ruby stepped into the bullpen. "Sheriff's been asking about you, and I had to tell her you went to check on a reported prowler up by old Goldie's mansion. I'm pretty sure she knew I was lying."
Ruby grinned sheepishly as she took a seat behind her desk. "Sorry. I was taking care of business," she said much too casually.
Graham perked up. "Business? Like, Mayoral business?" he asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ruby teased, but she was the one who blushed and Graham laughed at her.
"Nicely done, Lucas. Nicely done. You think you can focus enough to get back to work now though? Emma's not too happy at the moment and I don't want both of us getting our asses fired because you couldn't keep it in your pants."
Ruby just rolled her eyes and stuck Graham the finger, and Graham answered by sticking his tongue out at her in a very mature and manly fashion. Ruby brought her chair closer to her desk and picked up a file, opening it on her desk and pretending to work on it.
Really, she was too busy thinking about all the things she was going to do once she got Regina alone again to pay any attention to codes and regulations.
She had finally managed to break through that hard, icy facade Regina used as a defense mechanism. They had both made progress, and it helped to strengthen Ruby's resolve. She still had much, much more to explore; so much more to learn and discover about the mayor. What made her smile, what made her laugh, what made her angry, or drove her to tears or fits of giggles that she couldn't contain no matter how hard she tried. She hoped that at least now, Regina would be willing to let her find these things out for herself.
And even if it was still difficult, even if it didn't all come as naturally to Regina as it did to Ruby, even if they fought or argued over it, Ruby knew she was far beyond the point of being deterred by that. She was still going to enjoy every minute of it.