Miles To Go

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Regina fidgeted with the keys to the studio apartment in Boston while Emma showered. She stood up from the bed and started pacing, double checking to make sure she hadn't forgotten to pack everything. She'd be leaving in just a few short hours and over the past five days, she still hadn't told Emma about the apartment.

"Hey," Emma smiled as she slipped into the bedroom with just a white towel wrapped around her body. She shut the door with her hip and walked across the room towards Regina and stopped short. "Gina? Hey, what's wrong? Are you suddenly regretting your refusal to join me in the shower?"

"No," she said as she clenched the two keys tight in her fist as she sat down. "There is something that I need to talk to you about before I leave and I really hadn't meant to leave it to the very last possible moment to tell you."

Emma's happy face suddenly fell and she swallowed hard. "Um, okay."

"It's not what you think," Regina said as she reached out with her free hand and pulled Emma down gently to sit next to her on the bed. "It's something good, darling."

She smiled, watching Emma relax just a little bit and she knew she had to just come right out and say it, tell her about the studio apartment that would be theirs for however long they would keep traveling hundreds of miles to spend weekends together.

"I'm quite a bit nervous," Regina admitted and she didn't take her eyes off of Emma's, finding herself drowning in those green eyes she could stare into for eternity. "I recall when we were discussing this in the summer that you were a little bit uneasy about the whole thing."

"What thing?"

"I wanted a place we can call ours," she continued. "A place in Boston, a place we can spend our weekends at that is wholly and completely ours."

"Regina..." Emma trailed off as Regina uncurled her fist around the keys and placed it in Emma's hand. "No, are you serious?"

"Very serious, Emma."

"This is kind of a big deal," Emma said quietly, looking down at the two keys for a moment. She sighed heavily, her emotions unreadable and while it was rare that Regina couldn't read her like an open book, she was very nervous about Emma's reaction. "Is it a rental?"

"No, it's ours," Regina said quietly, loving the way it felt to call it "ours" because it didn't matter that she was the one who bought it, it was for both of them. "Emma?"

"I can't afford to help you pay for the mortgage," Emma replied in a rush, panic washing over her otherwise shocked features. "I can barely pay the rent here as it is right now—"

"Emma," Regina shook her head, taking both of Emma's hands in her own, holding the one with the keys just a little bit tighter. "There is no mortgage. It's paid for. It's ours."

"You can't be serious!"

"Are you upset?" Regina asked carefully, still trying to gauge her reaction.

"This is too much, Regina."

Regina's heart sank as Emma pulled her hands away from hers and let the keys fall to the bed. Regina's heart was racing in her chest as she watched Emma stand up from the bed abruptly and held the towel to her body before it fell. Regina felt like maybe she had made a mistake, a huge mistake. Maybe it was too much, maybe a rental would've been less intense, less of a commitment, but she only just wanted a place that was theirs and theirs completely.

"Emma—"

"How could you afford something like this?"

"I have money."