You and Tequila

Chapter Fifty-Four

"After Regina Mills' public interview exposing her struggle with alcoholism and coming out to the public, the idol has been ghosting society. Not even one photo has been leaked in the last two months-"

Regina flips the television off the moment she hears the doorbell echoing through her little ranch in upstate New York. A giddy grin is already blossoming across her face as she pads across the living room to answer, knowing exactly who is behind her door. The doorbell rings again, which honestly throws her off a moment before she swings the door open.

"Emma, why didn't you just use-" her words fizzle out against her tongue as her eyes roam over a very different blonde fidgeting on her front porch.

"Hello-" the woman hardly finishes the small word before Regina is moving to slam the door in her face and hoping maybe that thick wood will crash into her nose for sticking it where it doesn't belong. "Wait, Regina! Please! Just hear me out!"

"I have nothing to say to you, Kathryn, and if you do not vacate my premises in the next ten seconds, I will call the authorities on your pathetic-"

"It was Cora!" She hysterically bellows before Regina shoves her down the front steps. "I swear!" Regina actually is taken back for a moment as she just blinks at the woman before her. "Please, can we take a moment to discuss this. I want to explain the truth," she pleads and maybe Regina's a sucker for torment, but she steps back and allows the blonde to cross the threshold.

She softly closes the door, her knuckles curling with rage, eliminating any blood flow through her digits and painting them a ghostly white. "I want to know every detail," Regina growls over her shoulder before she inhales a calming breath and leads the way to her kitchen.

She doesn't even have to glance in Kathryn's direction to comprehend how nervous this woman is. She can practically feel the anxious energy rippling off the blonde in waves and crashing all around her.

"Please, take a seat," she politely instructs, even though her insides are coiling with spiteful vengeance. "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Yes, please," Kathryn sheepishly replies, even though it's apparent that she already consumed her fix of caffeine this morning, along with the entire town's.

Regina nods curtly before she spins on her heels and retrieves two mugs. Even though it's six o'clock in the evening, she just prepared a fresh pot knowing Emma was coming over straight from work and would be sleepy from her fourteen hour day behind the scenes. They only spend one night a week together, so she needs to keep her girlfriend up somehow tonight.

"Look, Regina, I really am so deeply sorry," Kathryn whines and if Regina would take a moment to glance over her shoulder, she would witness the distress tearing at Kathryn's face, but she can't find the strength to even look at the woman who double-crossed her.

"Then why would you do it?" Regina bitterly snaps without a moment of hesitation.

"You know how your mother is," the blonde vocalizes just barely above a whisper with shame lacing her tone.

Regina sighs, turning around and gently placing a steaming cup of coffee down directly in front of Kathryn. The blonde whispers her gratitude, but Regina doesn't even bother with words. She eyes the woman who was by her side for eight years and wonders how she could be the one that screwed her so tragically in the end?

"Regina, please listen to me. I never wanted to do any of this. You have got to believe me. I hated it, every time those pictures were sent to my phone, I would feel sick to my stomach and I promise you that most of the time, there were a hell of lot worse pictures that I would erase immediately and pick the least incriminating to leak."