The List

Chapter 22

"I kissed Regina!" I frantically slapped the table to irritate everyone into listening to me. I slid inside the booth and bumped against Belle. I'd called everyone for an emergency meeting at Granny's and Graham, Ruby and Belle had all come. I loved them.

I kept pounding my hands against the table, until Belle stopped me by putting hers on top of mine. "WHAT?!" Ruby asked, in utter shock. I nodded heavily.

"I know. I KNOW! Last night, she came to my apartment and she told me it was New Year's Eve, so I was like, "what are you talking about?" And then she was like, "I want to celebrate it with you too", and then she kissed me."

Belle and Ruby gasped in sync and Ruby started tapping her fingers against the table too. "Emma, I'm so happy for you two. I'm very, very jealous, but mostly, so happy! You really deserved that after Killian."

"It's really cool, Emma. I'm really happy for you," Graham said, with a sincere smile. "What happened after you kissed?"

"We confessed that we like each other." Belle and Ruby gasped again. Graham seemed happy, but he never audibly voiced his joy.

"What happened then?" he eagerly asked. Ruby and Belle seemed curious too. "Is it official, are you two dating? What's the situation?"

I bit the inside of my lip, because I knew they'd be very disappointed once they heard we hadn't discussed anything. We'd spent the entire night kissing, smiling and being there just the two of us, but I hadn't yet wanted to tell Regina I wasn't ready to have a relationship. I hadn't wanted to ruin the perfect moment we had.

"You didn't talk about it, did you?" Belle asked. I gritted my teeth and giggled nervously. Graham and Ruby both rolled their eyes and Belle just looked at me as though I was the dumbest person alive.

"I just didn't want to ruin the moment!" I defended myself, but the excuse clearly wasn't good enough.

"How could you ruin a moment by communicating clearly?" Ruby asked.

"Many ways, many, many ways," I replied. "Especially by telling her I don't want a relationship."

The door of Granny's opened. I turned around in confusion - no one ever entered Granny's past opening hours - but when I saw Regina my heart fluttered.

"Hi, sorry, am I interrupting something?" she asked. Given the fact that we lately often invited her too, when we hung out as a group, it was clear we'd been talking about her.

"No, not at all, we were just leaving," Belle said and moved her body against mine, to push me out of the booth. I looked confused at her, and at Ruby and Graham, who were getting up as well.

"Bye, Em, see you tomorrow," Ruby said and kissed my cheek.

"Guys, I wasn't fin.."

"Yeah, you were. Communicate, babe, that's the answer. Always," Ruby cut me off and the three of them hastily left the diner. The little bell jingled softly.

I looked at Regina and I couldn't suppress my smile. It made me happy to see her. I knew I should've felt embarrassed by the way my friends had made it so obvious we'd been talking about her, but I wasn't. Regina never made me feel embarrassed. Killian had, a lot of times. Often, I'd been ashamed of something, because I knew he'd tell me countless times it was embarrassing.

"I sent you a text, but you didn't respond and I figured I'd see if you were still awake. It wasn't my intention to make your friends leave," Regina softly spoke. "I do think it's important we talk."

I nodded and gestured at the booth. "Do you want anything to drink? Or eat?" Regina shook her head no. We both sat opposite one another in silence. I had no idea how to start this conversation. So, I kept staring outside, through the window.