The short elevator ride to Regina's room was quiet. Emma seemed pensive, and Regina suspected that Hook's visit was the reason why their conversation—once vibrant and full of witty banter and revealing truths—now stalled and stuttered.
Regina had no master plan. She had no idea how she was going to find the slip of paper Hook had given Emma in her absence. Worse yet, she didn't know if Emma even had the note on her. She could have balled up the paper and thrown it away or used it as a cocktail napkin and left it on the table at the bar.
Regina used her keycard to gain access to her hotel room and promptly tossed her jacket onto the king-sized bed in the center of the room.
Emma's black wool trench joined Regina's on the bed, and she strode purposefully towards the miniature refrigerator. Still teetering on spiked stilettos, Emma dipped low and became eye level with the mini bar. Regina sat at the edge of the mattress and did her best not to notice how the bottom hem of Emma's dress hiked up her upper thighs and shapely backside with the movement.
With her eyes trained her eyes on the crouching woman, her hand moved toward the pile of winter jackets, but she jerked her hand back when Emma spoke.
"Poison of choice?" Emma asked, inspecting the contents of the mini bar.
"Vodka will be fine." She slipped out of her skyscraper heels and rubbed at her arches.
Emma grabbed an assortment of miniature booze bottles and lined them up on the top of the fridge. She disappeared momentarily into the bathroom and retrieved two clear glasses. She seemed to know her way around a mini bar and hotel, an observation Regina kept to herself.
Emma emptied the contents of two miniature bottles into two glasses and handed one to Regina. There was no other place to sit in the room besides the floor, so she sat next to Regina on the bed.
Emma raised her glass in salute. "What should we toast to?" she asked.
Regina raised her own glass. "I have no idea."
Emma clinked her drink against Regina's. "To new friends," she decided on.
"To new friends," Regina quietly repeated.
Regina observed Emma over the top of her glass as she sipped her vodka drink. There was only one way she was going to be able to thoroughly inspect Emma's jacket pockets and find Hook's note without the other woman knowing: she'd just have to out-drink her.
"So tell me more about this Walsh of yours," Regina began to pry. "Have you been together very long?" She didn't want to tip Emma off of her suspicions, but as this was to be their last night together, she felt safe in doing a little digging.
"Just a few months," Emma noted. "Henry and I had just moved to the city and I needed furniture. I wasn't looking for a boyfriend, just a new couch, but somehow I ended up leaving his store with both," she chuckled.
Regina tilted her head to one side. "It happened that fast?"
"No, no. I exaggerate. But it feels that fast," she admitted with a push of air out of her lungs. "I haven't had anyone in my life…in a long while…so even though we've been dating a few months, it all of feels like uncharted territory."
"I don't suppose you did a background check on him?"
Emma ducked her head. "I might have." She worried her glass between two hands. "But I've got to give the guy credit. Single mom? That's a lot to take on. Plus, let's be honest; I'm no walk in the park, either."
"You shouldn't say things like that," Regina chastised. "Don't sell yourself short, Emma."
Emma shook her head. "You don't even know me."
"I know enough. I know you're an unselfish person who puts her son's needs before her own. I can see how hard you work, how protective you are, how thoughtful you are." Not even one drink in, and Regina already felt her tongue loosen. Her eyes trained on the delicate slope of Emma's shoulders and the graceful stretch of neck. "You are exquisite."
Emma looked suddenly shy. "What, this old thing?" she demurred.
Regina wet her lips. This was decidedly a bad idea. But she'd already established that she'd never been good at denying herself what she wanted.
The sounds of New York in the morning filtered through the closed hotel windows. Car horns sounded their complaint, police sirens howled in the distance, and construction workers jackhammered at concrete sidewalks below.
Inside Regina's hotel room, the mixed cacophony of noises threatened to split her head open. She rolled onto her back and groaned. The room was blanketed in darkness, but a sliver of sunlight pushed through the mostly drawn shades.
In the adjacent bathroom, she heard the faucet turn on and off. Her once heavily lidded eyes flipped open at the sound. She wasn't alone.
Emma, in the green dress from the previous night, exited the bathroom. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and she held a glass of water in one hand.
"Drink it all," Emma instructed.
Regina, for once, didn't put up a fight. "Good grief, what did I drink last night?"
"Besides half of your minibar?" Emma chuckled.
Regina pressed her palm to her forehead, a momentary reprieve from the throbbing in her cranium. "If you drank the other half, how are you so chipper?"
Emma shrugged. "Good genes, I guess. I've always been able to hold my liquor."
Regina finished the remainder of the water. She couldn't recall if either Snow or Charming had had a talent for binge drinking.
"And for the record," Emma continued, "you took off your own clothes."
Despite feeling groggy and disoriented, Emma's words had Regina snapping to attention. "I did what?"
She pulled back the top cover to discover she lay in bed in only her bra and underwear, both black and lacy. She quickly jerked the blankets back in place to cover herself up to her neck. She felt like burying her head entirely beneath the covers. "How? Why?"
Emma grinned, looking far too amused by the situation. "A few vodkas in, you said something about being too warm and that your dress was too tight, and the next thing I knew, your dress was on the floor."
This time, Regina did pull the covers entirely over her head to hide her embarrassment. She felt the corner of the mattress depress as Emma sat down at the end of the bed.
"And then you started complaining about leather and corsets," Emma continued, "and I kind of zoned out because you stopped making sense."
"What else did I say?"
"I caught something about royalty in sweatpants." Emma shrugged. "Honestly, I couldn't keep up." She grinned broadly. "You're a pretty fun drunk."
Regina felt the need to defend herself, but she had no more armor, no weaponry to even mass a counter attack. Her final scrap of pride or propriety was a rumpled dress on her hotel floor. She had invited Emma up to her room to discover what had been on that scrap of paper Hook had given her, but she'd only embarrassed herself in the process.
"Don't worry about it," Emma said, interpreting Regina's silence. "It happens to the best of us."
"Not to me, it doesn't," Regina mumbled from beneath the blankets.
The covers slipped down as Emma gave a gentle tug, and Regina's head popped back into view.
"It's good to let go every now and again, Regina," Emma remarked. "You can't be perfect and have everything together all the time. If I'd done that, Henry wouldn't exist."
Regina felt the hard look on her face soften. "No, I suppose you're right."
"Besides," Emma said with a cheeky grin, "you've got a rocking body, girl. If you've got it, why not flaunt it."
Regina cleared her throat uncomfortably, acutely aware of the blush on her cheeks. "Thank you, dear."
Emma bounced to her feet, looking refreshed and recharged. "I should probably be headed back. Henry gets home from his sleepover party in a little while and I should be there when he gets home."
"Right. Of course."
"Besides, I'm sure you want to be on the road soon so you can get back to Storybrooke at a decent hour," Emma remarked.
Regina chewed on the inside of her lower lip. "Mmhm."
Emma hesitated on her feet. "It feels weird leaving with you in bed. Like we had a one-night stand and I'm taking off the morning after."
"Oh. Let me just...find some clothes..." Regina scanned the room with her eyes, but found only her dress from the previous night.
"No, no. You don't have to get up on account of me," Emma insisted.
Regina smiled weakly. "Thank you for sticking around at least until morning."
"I'm glad we met, Regina," Emma said in earnest. "If your mayoral duties ever have you coming to New York again, I hope you'll call." She thrust her hand out for an awkward handshake.
Regina took the proffered hand and held on. "Of course. And thank you for your hospitality, Miss Swan. Tell Henry..." She paused and swallowed down difficult emotions. "Tell Henry I said goodbye."
The hotel room door quietly clicked shut with Emma's exit, and Regina rolled over in bed. She felt overwhelmed by circumstances. She still didn't know what business Hook had with Emma, and she needed to connect with Ursula to decide what should be done about Walsh. She pressed her face into her pillow and made a frustrated noise.
The pillow smelled like Emma Swan.
TBC