The Heart That Beats For Her

Chapter Six

Her palms are clammy, hopefully she can get that under control before the woman arrives. Her mouth is watering like a damn fire hose from all the anxiety pulsating through her blood and the way her stomach is in knots. She's pleading with herself not to vomit. So, she swallows again, rubs her hand furiously against her thighs, hoping the denim will absorb the moisture and inhales a slow breath to calm her nerves.

She hears the little bell above the diner, forcing her neck to snap up her heavy head to discover if it's the woman she has been obsessing over for two weeks now. Her face falls when she locates her best friend's long mane peeking through the door like some cheesy sitcom. When agitated green eyes meet ecstatic emeralds, Emma groans and Ruby beams brighter than a headlight in the dead of the night.

"Rubes," she hisses as her friend scurries across the diner and plops down in the booth that is supposed to be reserved for her guest.

"Hey-"

"Get out," she growls, "come on, I'm nervous enough. I don't want you hanging around and spying on us."

"I know. I know. And I will. Promise. I just want to sneak a peek. I'm so curious."

"No," she firmly demands, but then her voice is flicking to whiny in an instant. "Please, just go. I don't want it to seem like I need you for emotional support."

"You do need me for emotional support," her best friend deadpans. "How clammy are your hands? Maybe don't shake her hand, keep them busy, so she won't have to touch them."

"Ruby!"

"Alright, alright, I'm gone."

"Yeah, right. You better not spy through the window."

"I won't," Ruby slyly claims, but Emma just glares at her, sensing the inflection in her voice and noting the mischief twinkling in those eyes, accompanied by the smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Through squinted eyes, Emma observes as Ruby stands from the booth and doesn't head for the door, but sashays toward the back of the restaurant. Her heart sinks.

"Where are you going?" She demands to know, but Ruby shrugs noncommittally and peeks over her shoulder.

"It's not my fault Granny is short for the dinner shift."

"Bull!"

And with that, Ruby winks and disappears into the kitchen, leaving Emma a floundering mess that is somehow, even more jittery than she was when she arrived. A high voltage of anxiety poisons her blood, sparking and buzzing just as bad as the day of her surgery. She immediately slaps her palms down against her jeans and scrubs away the nervous sweat.

She quickly checks her phone, her mind barely registering that it's one o'clock in the afternoon, exactly when they had agreed to meet two weeks ago, because she knew Granny's diner would be dead for the next four hours until the dinner rush hits. That offers them plenty of time to speak with some privacy and safety for Emma.

But Emma's a hot mess inside. After she and Regina agreed on a time and place, their emails completely stopped. She's not sure why Regina stopped communicating with her, not that she owed her anything, their conversation was technically over. However, Emma missed the one email she received a day that broke up the monotony of her painfully boring life. She wanted to reach out, just to keep the steady flow between them, maybe that would have eased away some of the tension knotting in her stomach right now, but she couldn't find the courage. A part of her felt like she would be pestering the stranger and she definitely didn't want to keep speaking to the woman if it brought up bad feelings about her deceased husband.