Turn for the Worst

Chapter 57

"Is it Robin again?" Mary Margret asks, raising her eyebrow and patting Jacob on the back to burp him.

Regina just has to smile to confirm it.

"What's going on between you two?" the teacher asks.

"Nothing is going on between us," Regina says firmly.

"Really?" Mary says in surprise.

"Yeah, we're just friends Mary, nothing else."

"Really?" she repeats. "Because it seems like more than that. I mean you bought him a Christmas gift."

"But so did you."

"It was a watch, a very expensive watch I might add. That's usually something a girlfriend might get for a boyfriend."

Regina rolls her eyes. "We're not dating, we can't. It's too complicated already."

"Just because he's getting divorced and has a child doesn't mean you two can't go out for dinner or something. Besides, didn't your relationship with Graham fall through?"

Regina swallows a lump her throat. After she started seeing Robin, she kind of neglected Graham and it didn't help that he was all over the city for his gigs. She wanted to talk to him about whether there was a future between them, which she didn't see going anywhere anyway. It was mostly just sex and an occasional drink, but both had been so busy that when they did meet up one last time, the break-up was mutual. Both apologized to the other and then went their separate ways. Regina knew that neither of them felt anything for one another, except mutual physical attraction. She was happy that for once, one of her break-ups wasn't completely devastating or ended in divorce.

"Yeah, but it was kind of mutual."

"I know, but don't you think you should at least consider going out with him?" Mary Margret asks, rocking her son in her arms.

The real-estate agent shrugs and stares at her phone. Her heart soars in excitement at the thought but then the picture of her sister and the shadow of Robin's elusive ex crosses her mind again. She wanted to date him, more than anything... it was just hard.

"And don't you deserve to go out and relax, I mean you've been working so hard and sacrificing so much for Henry."

Regina stares at her reflection in her phone. She was hardly the pretty, dark and confident woman she once was. Ever since her friend had disappeared, she was slowly unravelling at the seams. Her eyes had bags under them, her hair had lost its shine, her body ached all the time and she wasn't happy at all. She hadn't had a night of fun since New Years, and even then, it wasn't that fun. There was this gloom hanging over her, gloom and uncertainty.

"I guess..." Regina mumbles. "But what would we do?

"Just keep it simple, dinner and a movie, that's it. Just ask him."

"You don't think that will come off as desperate?"

Mary Margret shoots her a look before picking up Jacob to put him in the bassinette.

"Just ask him, the worst he can do is say no."

Regina bites her lip as she's left alone in the kitchen. She stares at her phone for a long time, running through every possible scenario in her head. She did want to ask him out, very badly, but she was afraid of the answer. Slowly, she picks up her phone and begins to type.

Know this is out of the blue, but would you like to have dinner sometime this week?

Her finger hesitates on the send button, but she forces herself to press down.