Only You

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The alarm clock went off the following day, startling Emma out of a sound sleep. She groaned loudly as she rolled over, attempting to make the noise stop without breaking her cell phone. She curled back up under her blankets and attempted to warm up her feet that were still frozen from her patrol through the Commons the night before. As her mind slowly woke up, she suddenly remembered her encounter with Regina, smacking herself in the head when the memory of making a total fool of herself in front of the amazing woman flashed through her mind. She knew that Regina had no intentions of calling her; she was only being polite last night when she had accepted the crumpled piece of paper with her phone number scribbled on it. Surely someone as beautiful as Regina wouldn't be single.

Emma dragged herself out of bed, mentally chastising herself for making such a colossal fool of herself in front of Regina. Nearly tripping as she attempted to stick her frozen feet in her worn out slippers, she started to make her way to the kitchen to start the much-needed coffee. She forced her brain to stop thinking as she watched the coffee drip into the carafe below, already knowing a very angry email from her boss was waiting for her on her computer. As soon as her coffee was ready, she poured herself a large mug, drowning the bitter liquid with cream and sugar, bringing the mug with her to the living room where her computer was already on and waiting for her. She placed her mug on the table next to the computer and turned on the TV, settling on an old movie to keep her company while she continued the work that she abandoned the night before in search of much needed sleep. Sure enough, as soon as she opened her laptop, an extremely angry email was waiting for her, demanding that she finish her nightly reports and submit them ASAP. Emma responded to the email, promising to have her reports finished before nightly assignment emails were sent out.

Taking one last sip of coffee, she went back to work, her fingers typing like crazy, attempting to reach her self-imposed deadline. She sent the last report just as her email inbox chimed, indicating her assignment email had just arrived. "Oh great," she said out loud. "Cemetery duty again." Clearly, this was a punishment for being late with her reports again. Her boss could be quite petty when she wanted to.

She was able to watch the very end of the movie before she needed to get ready for her night at work. She was busy dipping her knives in holy water, letting them dry in the drainboard, when her phone chimed from its spot on the coffee table. Emma stared at it in confusion. No one texted her. No one even called her for that matter, unless it was work related. She picked it up as if it were a live grenade, turning on the screen carefully, greeted by a new text message from an unknown number.

"Good evening, Miss Swan. It's Regina Mills from last night. I hope I am not catching you at a bad time. I just wanted to let you know that I would be honored to join you for coffee sometime. Let me know when you are available, I am flexible." She had to read Regina's message a few more times, unable to believe what was written on the screen in front of her. Her fingers began to type wildly the moment she hit the reply button.

"Hi, Regina. No, you didn't catch me at a bad time at all. I'm so glad you texted me. How does tomorrow sound? I'm off so I'm free anytime you are." She stared at her phone for what felt like eternity until she saw the bubble appear on the bottom left corner, indicating that Regina was already typing a new message.

"I am available in the evening, say around seven-thirty, if that's not too late for you."

"Seven-thirty is perfect. There's a cute little coffee shop a few blocks away from the Commons that has the best house blend."

"Looking forward to it," Regina texted back immediately, causing a smile so wide to form on Emma's face she was sure her skin was going to rip. Emma tucked her phone into her pocket as she went back to the task of getting ready for her night of patrol. Suddenly, cemetery duty didn't seem so bad after all; at least it gave her the opportunity to think about Regina and imagine what their date the following evening would be like.