The Most Resilient Heart.

What the Universe Wants.

Number 3: 

She hurried from the wardrobe to the kitchen then again upstairs having forgotten her shoes and then back down to grab a purse. How had she slept in so much? She couldn’t afford to lose ten minutes! She would miss him-

“Regina-”

She almost crashed into Emma on her way out the door. “Emma? What are you doing here?” She stops at the bottom of the stairs looking up at the visitor.

“I just came to see if you were okay…” Emma looks at her strangely. “Are you in a hurry?”

Regina stares at her for a second without answering. “No… Of course not… Where would I be hurrying to at this time of day?” She straightens herself up pulling her short, provocative dress down a little, trying to make it longer. It was a Friday.

“Yes, my exact question.”

Emma raises her eyebrows as her eyes trail down Regina’s body. Regina feels like slapping her own forehead. How could she have been so stupid? Emma could tell when someone is lying. Even a brilliant liar such as Regina herself.

“Where were you just off to exactly? If it would be okay for me to ask…”

Great. She couldn’t lie this time. “To Granny’s.” Regina says as if it was something absolutely normal, which it was I suppose.

“To Granny’s?” Emma raises her eyebrows again. She had seen this before. “May I ask that if at seven each morning I would find you at the exact same place?”

Regina goes pale.

“Would I find you at Granny’s every morning at seven? And maybe… would I find someone else?” Emma shakes her head.

“Maybe.” Regina’s voice is small. Emma was onto her. She had probably already figured it all out.

Emma smirks and scans the body of the woman in front of her again. “Such a lovely dress.”

Regina’s cheeks change to light shade of red this time.

This time Emma looks into the other woman’s eyes sternly with a tinge of worry. “Regina, I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing… but you need to stop this. Don’t you think?”

Regina nods. “I think I might get breakfast at home… Or maybe Granny’s can wait…” She walks slowly up the stairs back into her home.

“I think that’s sound like a good idea.” Emma smiles encouragingly. “Wait! Regina?” Regina turns around at the doorway. “I also came to give you this.”

Regina takes the envelope from Emma’s hands.

“It’s a ball.” Emma winks at her friend and then turns to leave.

“Thank you.” Regina says softly and receives a polite nod from Emma before shutting the door.

A mascerade ball.

***

So Regina walked into Granny’s at seven thirty, a time they would both usually be gone by. She walks in and there he is. Sitting there at the bar. He turns and catches her eyes in his own for a second before she turns and runs out. She had to escape before she tried something incredibly inappropriate. He looked incredibly handsome. She wouldn’t have been able to keep her hands off him. Especially not in today’s rushed state.

“Regina! Regina!” She can hear his voice getting sterner. She turns to face him. He runs towards her desperately. She pulls her dress down forcefully, embarrassed.

“What do you think you’re doing? It’s seven thirty!” She shouts exasperatedly, head spinning.

“What am I doing? What are you doing?” He stands there; trying to take in long breaths but only manages quick, reckless ones. She is just so… “Beautiful.” He whispers not realising that his thoughts were coming out in words.

“I’m trying to avoid you!” She shouts before realising how incredibly rude it sounded. “I mean…” She trembles realising how unbelievably gorgeous this man was. “I can’t see you any more…”

“I was trying to avoid you.” He whispers.

He moves towards her slowly and she shudders more violently. She could smell his marvellous cologne and it stopped her hands from pulling her dress down letting it bounce back up to just below her arse.

“Why do you go to Granny’s every morning at exactly seven?” There was a trace of hope in his voice. She can feel his eyes on her own but she doesn’t look into them just yet.

“I don’t know, why do you?” She lies.

“To see you.”

Silence. Her hands shake vigorously as she tries to hold them back.

“I just think… that it would be best if…” Her eyes linger on his lips for a while and she feels her lower lip tremble remembering what it felt like to kiss him.

“If?” He raises an eyebrow and continues to walk towards her.

She looks into his eyes and almost faints right there on the spot. The Evil Queen was never one for fainting but these were dangerous circumstances. “If we just kept avoiding each other…” She didn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe it but it was something she had to do. She could never look at him in any other way.

“I don’t think the Universe wants that, Regina.”

Her name on his lips sounded amazing. It had been too long since she had heard it pronouced like that. She followed his eyes as they moved towards her.

“Just look at what happened this morning.”

He stops right in front of her, smell of cologne stronger than ever. She didn’t know where he had found cologne that matched his exact smell of forest but there was no denying that she loved it.

“Tell me,” She says softly, never taking her eyes off his. “What does the Universe want?”

She might as well have said show me.

And he moves in towards her, placing his lips on hers. He pulls softly against her lips, a hand placed by her neck. It was a soft kiss, only getting fiercer by the second, their bodies pressing even harder against the other’s. Soon it wasn’t only the dress pushing up against her arse.

Little did they both know a woman sat in a car not far away. A woman with worry written all over her face. A woman with lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony and skin white as snow.