Guilt

Chapter 3

"Turns out it was Hope's history teacher." Ruby's eyes widened as she listened to her friend's story. If there was one person Emma shared everything with, it was Ruby. The girl always managed to make her smile when she needed it, but she was also able to soothe her whenever she felt sad.

Emma bit her lower lip and looked away from her friend. She didn't feel embarrassed that often and until she shared the story with her friend, she hadn't felt that ashamed, but now that she saw Ruby's expression, she felt her cheeks turning red.

"So, you slept with your daughter's history teacher?" Ruby asked. She leaned with her hand palms on the counter and was slowly shaking her head.

The brunette was supposed to work and she was dressed in her waitress outfit, but as the Diner she worked in didn't have many customers, she'd managed to free some time to talk to her friend.

"That's quite messed up. How'd you find that out?"

"She requested a talk with me, about Hope. It's not that messed up, though, we actually had a good conversation."

Ruby pursed her lips together and averted her eyes. She had no idea how the conversation between Emma and Regina had been, but she couldn't imagine it going as well as Emma described.

"Anyways, I'm meeting up with her on Sunday."

"You what?"

"We weren't done with our conversation, so she offered to continue it some other time. I just called her and we planned on meeting Sunday at my place. Hope's not home, so she won't be bothered by Regina's presence."

Ruby looked in dismay at her friend, who casually gazed back. Emma had weighed all the pros and cons and frankly, she couldn't see any reasons not to meet up with Regina anymore.

They were just going to talk and if it sucked, she never had to see the woman again, and if it didn't, she'd made a new friend. It wasn't that complicated.

"And you're sure you're just going to talk?" Ruby used air quotes on the last word and stared at Emma as if she was the dumbest person presence.

"What do you mean?"

"Honey, you two fucked. Don't you think there's even the slightest chance that she - or maybe you - wants to do that again?"

"Well.. no. She's my daughter's teacher, that changes everything. Plus, I don't want to fuck her anymore, which means we're not going to." A confident smile appeared on Emma's lips and Ruby merely shrugged.

"Alrighty," Ruby said and exhaled loudly. "I need to go back to the customers, but you'll have to let me go how it goes on Sunday. Don't do anything stupid," Ruby said and retrieved her small notebook from her pocket before she walked away to a table.

Emma grabbed her things and left the diner. Her talk with Regina had been a week ago and every so often she thought back of their conversation. She and Hope barely talked about the accident anymore. Not with each other, at least.

Of course, Emma saw that Hope was still hurt and she did want to help Hope, but the girl wouldn't let her. Hope was the only one who knew what Emma was going through, but she was closed off and grieved alone.

Emma wanted to talk to someone about everything, but not to a therapist. She didn't want to share her feelings and work with them, she wanted someone who understood her and who understood how awful it was.

If the only person in town who was willing to do that, was one she'd fucked, she didn't mind talking to her hook-ups anymore.

She arrived by her apartment and looked confused up when she heard voices coming from inside. She opened the door and saw Hope smiling broadly.