The next morning Emma appeared slightly hangover, but with a big smile at the breakfast-table.

"Good morning" Snow said.
"You were home quite late last night. I started to doubt if you would come home at all."

Is she waiting up for me now? Is she catching up on my teenage years?
The annoyed expression on Emma's face was not something she was bothering hiding right now.
"Why wouldn't I have come home?"

They were interrupted by James who suddenly noticed the absence of Emma'a yellow Volkswagen.
"Where is your car? Did you walk home last night?"

"I had too much to drink. Left the car at Regina's and will pick it up later."
Emma's mind suddenly wandered off to her clothing collection. What should I wear?
Wait...why do I even care? Just jump into some old pair of jeans an get the damn car.

Snow noticed Emma's inner debate, and watched her daughters expression for a while.
As soon as her husband went into the bathroom, she tried to give the conversation another go.
"So, anything interesting happened last night?"

"Interesting?" her daughter replied while snapping out of her daydream.
"What do you mean?"

"Well, you did have dinner with Regina after all. I can imagine things might have been...tense?"

Emma looked at her puzzling.
"Tense? No not at all. We actually had a really nice time. In fact, we're gonna do it again soon."

Snow recognized the expression on Emma's face.
And no matter how much she wished she was wrong, she couldn't deny the fact that Emma seemed to have a thing for Regina.

"Emma, sweetheart..." she began carefully "...listen. Do you and...do you..." She just couldn't find the right words.
She took a deep breath and tried again.

"Have you ever..."

Emma was saved by the buzzing sound of her phone.
She grabbed it with the speed of light, and walked off towards another room.
"Sorry Snow, work! Might be important!"

Leaving a still speechless Snow White behind.

She saw the name of her friend, along with some stupid photo appear on her screen.
Note to self: get another photo of Ruby.

"Hey Rubes, what's up" Emma answered.
"...sure, I'll be there in an hour"


By the end of the morning, a morning where Emma tried to avoid her mother at all costs, she met her friend at Grannies.

"Where's your car?" the red-addicted waitress asked.

"I left it at Regina's last night. Too much wine." she pulled a face which didn't need any further explanation.
Too much wine indeed.

"So you're hangover, without a car, and yet you're smiling like a mad woman."
"Did she poison you?" Ruby laughed at her own joke. "Sorry...too soon?"

"She might have. I somehow can't stop grinning ever since yesterday."
Emma showed Ruby her grin, which was met by a scared expression from her friend.
"I guess I'm just glad to see Henry happy."

"...and to see Regina" Ruby added with a slight hint of wake up and smell the coffee.

"What?!" Emma suddenly dropped 6 feet down from her cloud.

"Come on Emm, I know that look"

"What look?!" Emma jumped to her own defense.
"I don't have a look! I'm just like you said...hangover"

"Sure, you keep telling yourself that hon. But I'm not stupid. I'm a wolf and I know when it's mating season."

"Ruby shut up!" Emma laughed quite painfully.
"I don't have to listen to this. We're gonna have lunch, and we're not going to mention Regina, Evil Queen OR apples for the next 30 minutes. After that...I will pick up my car."

"Sure" her friend replied in defeat" do you want some apple-pie with that coffee?"