Chapter Seven
"How's this look?" Belle asked Ruby as she walked out of her small closet where she had previously been changing.
Her best friend, Ruby was laying on the bed, her head propped up by one hand, while she flipped through the pages of a fashion magazine.
The women were in Belle's apartment bedroom, getting ready for the grand opening of Jefferson's nightclub, the Enchanted World. Jefferson had changed the name from what it had originally was going to be.
Now, both women were going through Belle's clothes, and the ones Ruby had brought over, to decide what they were going to wear at the grand opening tonight. It hadn't been difficult to pick something for Ruby to wear, the wild waitress had gone for a sparkling, knee length, strapless dress, and a pair of red high heels.
"Look's good; but you need to look even better if you're going to impress Mr. Gold tonight," Ruby said. She closed her magazine and rolled to the edge of the bed before hopping off and walking over to stand in front of Belle's closet.
The red head, while making sure not to mess up her dress, quickly went through Belle's selection of clothing, and after a moment exclaimed, "Aha," before pulling out a dress.
The dress, though simple, was enchantingly beautiful, and Belle thought, would make Gold blush quite a bit when he saw her. Which in any case was even better, because she loved it when he blushed, he always looked so cute.
GOLD'S P.O.V.
"You've got quite the turn out Jeff," Gold said, smiling as he and his best friend watched from the stage as people swarmed in.
The stage was at the back of the room, in the shape of a half circle, with lights flooding down onto it. Directly off to the left of the stage, closest to the stairs was the bar area, where Will Scarlet, Arial Fin, Anastia Hearts and a man named Robin Hoodson were working.
Along the left wall were the booths and a few tables where costumers were already nursing a few drinks. The rest of the main room was dedicated to being a dance floor.
"Yeah, even the Sheriff and Mayor showed up; wonder who's baby-sitting their son." Jefferson added, pointing to the two women.
The mayor was a stern woman with black shoulder length hair, and brown eyes named Regina Mills; while the sheriff was a blonde hair woman with hazel eyes named Emma Swan. For the last two years, the two women had been sharing custody of Emma's biological son, ever since she had decided to come back into his life after actually meeting Henry, their son.
With the two women was Emma's close friends Mary Margaret and David Nolan, along with Killian Jones, a man Gold wasn't quite sure he liked. Three years ago, Killian had gotten drunk at the rabbit hole and had sexually harassed Gold by quite openly kissing him. After the event, Killian had been mortified and had paid the fine. Now, despite seeing each other quite often, due to Killian being a renter of Gold's the two acted like the accident had never happened.
"You ready for that little chat you promised Belle," Jefferson asked, while he readjusted the microphone that was set up on stage.
Rum tucked his hands into his pants pockets and shrugged, "Just make sure I don't run out screaming when the girls come in, kay?"
Jefferson looked back at him, and nodded, grinning, "Don't worry, I won't let that happen". Apparently satisfied with the way the microphone looked, Jefferson patted Gold on the back reassuringly and headed down the stairs. Gold left the stage and followed him over to where his friend was now giving instructions to the four bartenders.
While Jefferson talked with the bartenders, Rum turned his head to look in the mirror that rested on the wall just behind the bar, and quietly observed his reflection.
Rum was wearing something a little different than he normally did and he hoped Belle liked it. He was wearing a dark green polo shirt with a purple tie, and a dark purple suit jacket, and a pair of black jeans with black and white sneakers.
He was also freed of his cane for tonight since he was wearing his leg brace that now fit snugly against his bad leg, helping to support his weight. The leg brace was also the reason he was wearing jeans. If he wore it with his dress pants, the dress pants more than often ripped, and he didn't feel like replacing them tonight.
A sudden hand on his shoulder scared him, and caused him to jump a little; but it was just Emma.
"Don't think I've ever seen you this casual Gold," Emma said; her hands in her red jacket's pockets.
Rum smiled, shrugging, and he motioned to the ice blue, knee length dress Emma was wearing underneath her jacket, "Don't think I've ever seen you this fancy," he said with a raise of his eyebrows.
Emma smiled, and shrugged, "I have a date tonight," she said simply, and nodded to where Killian was chatting with Robin at the bar.
When Emma had first come to town and she and Regina were butting heads, Gold had helped Emma out on several occasions, and now, they were friends, not that Gold would admit it.
Not that he would admit that he and Mayor Mills got along quite well too now, either.
"Alright, sorry about that love, I just had to make sure Robin knew the new working schedule at the loading docks," Killian said, walking up to them. He paled a little when he noticed Gold, but nodded politely at him. Rum returned the favor.
"I'll see you later Ms. Swan," Gol told her and walked back over to where Jefferson was waiting for him, leaning against the bar.
"Ready to go find the girls," Jefferson said, and Gold nodded.
It didn't take them long to find them, mainly due to Ruby's easy to recognize dresses. Within moments the two men had made their way over to them.
"Hi guys, great party you've got going," Ruby said when they'd made their presence known to the girls.
Rum missed Jefferson's reply, too taken with how amazing Belle looked to pay much attention to his friend or anything else for that matter.
She was wearing a simple sky blue, knee length, strapless dress that sported hundreds of tiny sparkles that made parts of the dress gleam silver and white when she moved.
Her hair was done up in a ponytail, and with the tiniest bit of make-up enhancing her already beautiful features, she was probably the most enchanting thing he had ever seen.
He was so preoccupied that he didn't even hear Ruby's question until Jefferson elbowed him in the side, saving him from an embarrassing silence by saying, "Would you two mind if Ruby and I go off and play DJ for a little while?"
"I don't mind," Belle said, and she looked at Gold, who quickly nodded, and told them that that was fine.
For a moment, Belle and Rum watched Jefferson and Ruby make their way towards the side of the stage where the DJ was stationed before turning back to face each other.
Rum swallowed hard once, his eyes flickering from Belle's eyes to the floor and back again, "Do you want to have that talk now?" he asked softly.
Belle nodded, and together they made their way over to one of the booths.
Just as they reached their chosen booth, Belle gave a little gasp and placed her hand over her mouth, staring wide eyed at him in surprise.
Gold cocked his head to the side in confusion, "What is it?" he asked.
Belle pointed at his leg, "You're not using your cane". Looking at her surprised and absolutely adorable expression, Gold wanted to do nothing more than scoop her up in his arms and kiss her.
Rum tapped his metal leg brace, "If I wear my leg brace I can get away with not using the cane," he told her with a smile gracing his features.
"Oh," Belle smiled and blushed, "That's makes sense". She then slid into the booth, and he slid into the one opposite of her, still smiling like an idiot.
Rum placed his hands on the table and folded them together, suddenly unsure of how they should start. Luckily for him, Belle seemed to have thought of that.
"So, you know things have been pretty weird between us for a while right?" Belle said, looking expectantly at him, but unfortunately it seemed some magically being had stolen his voice.
Rum nodded, not wanting her to think he wasn't listening when his brain seemed to have forgotten how to speak.
He glanced down at the table, squirming now that he was suddenly unable to speak. He had imagined himself leading this conversation, but that little fantasy was nothing like right now. He just hoped Belle didn't think him an idiot.
Suddenly, warm fingers brushed against the skin underneath his chin, and lifted his head up a little, making him look Belle in the eye. She was smiling sweetly at him, causing his cheeks to warm; and with a quickening heartbeat, Gold realized that he was blushing very obviously.
"Do you remember when you took me home?" Belle asked him, removing her hand from underneath his chin, only to use it to brush his hair out of his face before resting it against the side of his face. "When it was raining; and we were standing outside the library apartment talking, and I kept leaning towards you".
Gold nodded, and to his disappointment, Belle removed her hand from his face, but then rested it on his hand.
Belle took a deep breath, clearly nervous, before she continued, "Well, that was me trying to get you to kiss me. But you left, and I thought that maybe I scared you off and that you weren't interested in me, so I figured maybe we could just be friends. But when we met up at the Nightclub to finish it, and we started talking and joking around, I thought that maybe you were flirting with me."
Belle took another deep breath and went on, watching him carefully, "But other times you acted totally disinterested and I was starting to get really confused. So at the nightclub on Thursday, I was just going to grab you by the front of your shirt and kiss that act away, because I just couldn't take not knowing if you feel the same way about me. But I thought better of it because I thought I might spook you , so I thought having this talk would get everything out in the open, so here we are I guess".
Still too choked with emotion to talk, Rum moved his free hand over Belle's hand that was still resting over his other hand.
With butterflies storming around his belly, Rum carefully took Belle's hand between both of his and lifted it to his lips, his eyes never leaving her face as he dipped his head a little to plant a small kiss on the back of her hand.
"I feel the same way," Rum said softly, still blushing quite furiously.
Belle took her free hand and cupped the side of his face with it, and leaned forward. She stopped just inches from him.
Slowly, uncertainly, Rum leaned forward the rest of the way, and kissed her.
Her lips against his were soft, but demanding, and he found that he enjoyed the combination quite a bit.
When they pulled apart, both were smiling. Rum still held her right hand in both of his, keeping it close to his chest, while her free hand petted the side of his head and face.
Then as if on cue, the song, which had been Firework by Katy Perry turned to a country song, I don't dance by Luke Brian to be exact.
"Would you like to dance," Rum asked her, and she nodded.
Rum led her out onto the dance floor and let go of her hand which she quickly placed on his shoulder, with her other hand in his. Rum placed his remaining hand on her waist, pulling her close.
And they danced.
After the slow song ended, they kissed again, and Rum could've sworn his world was catching on fire.
"Belle," he murmured when they'd pulled apart again.
"Yeah," she looked up at him with impossibly innocent blue eyes.
He swallowed nervously, and rested his hand against her face, his thumb rubbing her cheek, "Will go to dinner with me on Monday?" he asked hopefully.
Belle smiled, "I'd love to".
A few hours of dancing and hanging out with Belle, Jeff and Ruby later, and the girls were leaving while Rum helped Jefferson close the place up for the night.
"So, how'd it go?" Jefferson asked, sticking the key into the door knob and turning it. The knob clicked, announcing it was locked.
Jefferson turned to face Gold, shoving the key into his pocket as he did so, his Cheshire cat smile back.
"You purposely changed the song to a slow song didn't you?" Rum said, suddenly realizing that Jefferson and Ruby had been watching him and Belle.
"Mm," Jefferson's smile broadened, "Maybe".
Hope you guys liked the chapter. It took forever to write.