This is a happy story

Chapter 9: Mal

"Ever since the moment I met her, I hated Emma's guts." Mal says it with the utmost sincerity. She sits across me, with her hair tied in a low bun and a grey skirt that fits well with her black blouse.

Her words hurt me. I don't like people speaking about Emma that way. "Maybe tone it down a tad," I reply and look at the rolling camera. "I'm quite sure her children will see this."

Mal squints her eyes and crosses her legs. "Okay," she reluctantly mutters. Her demeanor doesn't change. "I met Emma after Regina and I had been fucking like bunnies all night and.."

"Like I said, Henry and Hope will see this. Perhaps you could use some euphemisms?"

It takes everything in Mal not to roll her eyes, but she obliges.

——

I met Emma after Regina and I had been reading the Bible all night. She was very good at reading the Bible, knew exactly what my favorite verses were. It was clear she had a lot of experience reading Bibles.

Regina was breathtaking. I first saw her in a bar about sixteen years ago. I'd observed her for a moment and could tell that she was upset, given the tears on her face and the amount of alcohol she consumed.

I walked over to her and then I recognized her as the woman on the posters that were hung all over town. She was running for mayor and it was obvious she was going to win. There was only one person running against her and he was so old he probably wouldn't make it in time for the elections.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Regina moved her head to look at me and she nodded with an evidently fake smile.

"Yes, I am doing.." she sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, no. I'm not okay."

I took the stool beside her and looked quizzically at her. "Want to talk about it?"

"No," Regina replied with an exaggerated sigh. "It's just odd. Two weeks ago, I was engaged to the woman of my dreams, the woman I'd been in love with since I was seventeen, with whom I've spent my entire adult life and now I'm single, living with my mother. God."

She looked as though she could burst out into tears at any given second now. "What happened?"

"On second thought, I still don't want to talk about it. I just want another drink." Regina looked at me with her beautiful big, brown eyes.

"Let me buy one for you." I ordered two beers from the bartender and he put them in front of us.

"I've been moping around for the past two weeks, it feels horrible," she admitted before she took a sip from her beer. "I miss Emma so much and meanwhile I'm enraged, which are very conflicting thoughts."

"Whatever happened, it's over now," I replied, trying to console. "It's easier to get over someone than to be stuck in a toxic, untrusting relationship. Believe me."

"It sounds like you're speaking from experience." Regina was prying for more, I could tell, and I surprised myself when I realized I wanted to continue talking to her. My initial goal had been to sleep with her, she was very attractive after all, but now I also wanted to get to know her.

"I've had my fair share of sucky relationships in the past and even when those relationships broke up I felt horrible. That's the thing about toxic people, if you love them, it hurts just as much to lose them non-toxic people."

Regina tapped her red nails on the bar and sighed. "That's even worse. Emma is not a toxic person, she.. she's an amazing woman. No one, not even my own parents, has ever made me feel as loved as Emma did. But it makes it so much more painful when people you love betray you."