A Fairytale for Christmas

Chapter 8

There had been many times that Regina had wished she could stop time. As the days grew even shorter, Christmas movies played nonstop and she couldn't go anywhere without hearing Christmas music, she grew acutely aware how soon Christmas Eve really was. She wished she could give herself more time to figure out her situation but it seemed like luck was not on her side.

But since her rather disastrous first date with Keith, there were times where she wondered if it would be so bad being married to him after all. He had apologized the next day and explained that he had been nervous, which was why he had put on a rather arrogant persona. After that, he seemed more like the man she had met at her party and Regina almost found herself falling in love with him.

Yet something still didn't feel right.

And she couldn't stop the niggling feeling in the back of her mind that Robin, not Keith, was really Shakespeare.

"You're not going to like this," Mary Margaret said, coming into Regina's home office. With the wedding getting closer and closer, she had started working from home more and more to get everything finished.

Regina frowned, leaning back in her chair. "Like what?"

"Someone leaked the proposal to the media," Mary Margaret said, sliding her phone toward Regina. "And by someone, I mean..."

"Mother," Regina said, picking up the phone. The video showed the gazebo in the town park all decorated for Christmas with red ribbons and evergreen boughs. Regina and Keith stood in the middle, believing they were alone. Whoever was filming this clearly did a good job hiding themselves as Keith dropped to one knee and gave Regina a ring he admitted her mother picked out. He promised that once they were married, he would get her one that better fit her.

She wasn't too sure about that. Keith insisted he was only pretending to go along with Mother's plans to make sure everything went smoothly but her gut told her that he really agreed with her mother. The last thing she needed was to be married to someone who would just be her mother's lackey.

"Great." She sighed, handing the phone back to Mary Margaret. "Will I ever have a moment of privacy?"

"Probably not until after the wedding," Mary Margaret said. "Unless Keith or your mother sells your honeymoon pictures."

Regina groaned. If even her assistant – who saw the best in everyone – knew that Keith was bad news, why did she even continue with this charade?

Because otherwise Mother would destroy your life along with Granny's and Mary Margaret's.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Regina said, both to Mary Margaret as well as to herself.

Knocking interrupted their conversation and Regin's heart skipped a beat when she saw Robin standing in the doorway with his tablet in hand. He smiled sheepishly as he apologized for interrupting. "The baker is here to discuss the cake," he said.

"Oh, sounds like fun," Mary Margaret said, her eyes lighting up. "Have fun."

Regina stood, her stomach twisting in a way she wasn't sure from excitement or dread. "Is Keith here?"

"No," he replied as Mary Margaret left the room. "He's with his groomsmen getting fitted for their tuxes. He said he'll be good with whatever you decide."

"You mean whatever Mother decides," Regina muttered, walking past Robin. So far, the only major battle she had won had been to have the wedding at Mist Haven. Her dreams of a traditional Christmas wedding were dead as Mother had insisted on ultra-glamorous and ultra-modern, insisting the colors were to be white and gold as they were classier. And she was handling the seating arrangements, dismissing the suggestion of open seating. Keith seemed to fight Mother on their decisions but Regina never felt his heart was in it. That maybe his own desires was more in line with Mother's than her own.