Chapter Eight
Rumford hummed quietly to himself as he flipped through a tourist book of all the restraunts in Storybrooke, trying to decide where he would take Belle.
Maybe he could take her to the Italian Buffet 6 place down town, or perhaps the Chinese resteraunt up town? But what if she doesn't want to go to a high class resteruant? Maybe Grannies would be better . . .
He groaned softly, and rubbed his temples, "You're overthinking this thing Rumford," he told himself, yet he couldn't help it. He'd already had plenty of relationships that had gone wrong, mainly the one with his ex-wife, Milah.
Rumford sighed and reached for his phone, thinking about calling Jefferson to ask since he had dated far more woman and had more luck then Rumford himself had, even though he was older. He decided against it though upon remembering that Grace had just recently arrived at her father's house yesterday.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Rumford startled as his phone began going off in his hand, alerting him that someone was calling him. He smiled as his son's face showed up on his iphone's screen.
He slid his thumb across the screen and put the phone to his ear, "Hello?"
"Hey Dad," Neal's familiar voice washed over him.
"Hey son, how are you?" Rumple asked, happy to have a chance to speak with his son. For the last two days, he'd been nervously debating on whether or not to call and tell Neal that he had a girlfriend and was going to have a date with her on Monday.
"I'm great," Neal replied cheerfully, "And I have even better news, I'm moving back to Storybrooke!"
Rumford' heart nearly burst out of his chest in sure happiness, "You are! That's great son!" Rumford told him earnestly, "But what about your journalism career in New York?"
"I was getting kind of home sick, so I called Sidney Glass up, you know, the guy that runs the newspaper in Storybrooke, and we got to talking, and I mentioned that I was wanting to move back home, and he told me that two of their reporters retired, so he can hire me. Isn't that great? I start two weeks from now, on Monday," Neal gushed, and Rumple smiled, imagining his son's face lit up by excitement, "So what have you been up to?" Neal asked.
"Oh nothing much," Rumford smirked, "Just helped Jefferson open up a new Nightclub, and on the opening night I asked someone to go on a date with me".
There was about five seconds of silence while Rumford's news sank in before his son gave an excited whoop.
"Are you kidding me? Who'd you ask? How'd you meet? When can I meet her?" Neal instantly started gushing.
Rumford chuckled softly, "Her name's Belle French, she's my handy-man Moe French's daughter. I met her when her father went on vacation, because she was standing in for him. And if all goes well on Monday, you can meet her when you get here".
"Great, I'm going to start packing right now! I'll see you in a couple of days Dad!" Neal said, "Goodluck!"
"Thanks son, love you," Rumford said, smiling so widely that his grin nearly split his face in two.
"Love you too," Neal responded happily.