The Divorce

Chapter 20

It was a cold morning, but drops of sweat rolled down her face. Emma was breathing heavily as her feet landed on the ground. She easily avoided any obstacle that came on her path, though she did have one cut just above her ankle, because of a branch sticking out of a bush.

She continued the road through the forest and tried to concentrate on running. She wanted her mind to be solely focused on the road ahead and not on the activities from the previous night, but accomplishing that was much harder than she'd hoped.

Emma slowed her pace and panted as she leaned with her hands on her knees. She had no idea what time it was, but she figured she'd been gone for over an hour.

She truly wanted to feel regret. She wanted her mind to know that what had happened last night was a mistake, but she couldn't.

Somehow, Emma couldn't regret kissing Regina. She couldn't regret taking the woman's clothes off, because she'd enjoyed it. She'd loved being intimate with Regina again.

Emma had always pitied people who returned to their ex. It never ended well, but now she was one of those people. And she knew one of them was bound to get hurt.

She returned to her hotel room and swallowed thickly when she saw Regina in the kitchen. She'd hoped the woman was still asleep.

"Good morning," Regina greeted her. She was in their small kitchen preparing tea, in her bathrobe. "You went for a run, I see. How was it?"

"It's so beautiful outside," Emma said with a slight smile as she leaned with her back against the door and relaxed for a brief moment.

"I didn't make reservations for breakfast here, because I didn't want to rush, but maybe we can go into town and buy some food," Regina said. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"I think I'm going to take a shower first," Emma responded. "And I'm starving. I don't care where we get our food, going to the store sounds good. Do we have any other plans for today?"

Regina shrugged and shook her head. "Not anything specific." She observed Emma for a moment. "You look tired. How did you sleep?"

"I didn't," Emma curtly replied. "But I'd like to see you after you've run for more than an hour. It would be unhealthy if you didn't look tired," Emma quipped and smiled slightly.

Regina turned off the stove and grabbed two plates. "I think I'm going to take a quick shower first," Emma said and wanted to leave the room, but Regina cleared her throat.

"Just so I know, are we ever going to talk about what happened yesterday?"

"Nope," Emma replied. "It was a one time thing and we're just going to pretend it never happened."

She wanted to shower, but she knew Regina had more to say, so she waited for the woman to speak. Of course, Regina wanted to talk about their activities from the previous night, but Emma really didn't want to.

Emma knew what they'd done was wrong. They'd gone into it without thinking of the consequences and though that had made the night better, this day would be much worse.

"You think that's the best idea? Don't you think we have to work things out, because.."

"I don't think there's much to work out. Things go back to the way they were. We made a mistake, we were vulnerable and it was in the moment, but that doesn't have to change anything."

Regina didn't say anything for a moment. "Do you regret it?" This was the one question that Emma didn't want to answer. It had been a mistake, but not because it felt wrong, but because it wouldn't lead to anything.