It took them a while to unpack everything they'd brought with them. Especially Regina, who seemed to have packed for three months instead of a week, but after a while they were both finished.
There were three bedrooms in the beach house, which gave them plenty of opportunities to divide the rooms. Both Emma and Regina had a preference for the bed they used to sleep in together, but eventually Emma caved and chose one of the other beds.
She liked the room, though. It gave her a perfect view of the garden, which was filled with colorful flowers and plants.
Regina knocked on Emma's bedroom door and once Emma had allowed her inside, she entered the room. Emma had to admit it felt strange to have to give Regina permission to enter her bedroom.
They were divorced for four months, but especially now that they were just the two of them, it felt even more unnatural.
"My mother is asking for a photo. I sent her a picture of the house, but she wants to see a selfie. If she keeps saying things like this, I'm going to block her," Regina said. "But for now, are you okay with taking a selfie in the living room? She'll have something to show to the children."
Emma nodded and got up from the bed. She'd started reading a book, because she didn't really know what else to do.
She walked with Regina to the living room and went to stand close to her, to fit both their heads in the photo. Emma's arm was touching Regina's and she tried to stay casual for the photo's sake, but she hadn't touched Regina in any way for four months.
A smile appeared on her lips to finish the photo and Regina took it. Emma sighed relieved when Regina lowered her hand to show the photo moment was over, which Regina heard.
"I think this is the only photo we have to take and you look gorgeous, by the way," Regina complimented as her eyes moved from the screen to Emma.
"Oh.. thanks," Emma replied with a pink hue on her cheekbones. She cursed herself in her mind for allowing herself to blush at a comment Regina made, but there was nothing she could do to change the red color on her face and it was evident Regina had noticed it.
Fortunately, Regina saved Emma from embarrassment for the second time that day, and she didn't go further into it. Instead, she cleared her throat and put her phone in her pocket.
"I think I'm going to do some grocery shopping. Do you need anything?" she asked and Emma shrugged.
"I don't think so.. uh.. oh, maybe a carrot cake?" she said with a serious tone. It was her favorite food and she couldn't ever get enough of it. Something Regina didn't appreciate at all.
"You're joking, right?" Regina asked, but Emma's confusion on her face, gave away that she wasn't joking at all. "Oh, I get it.. since sex is off the table, you find pleasure in eating disgusting pies. That's fine. I'll buy one for you. Do you need anything else?"
Emma shook her head and smiled. She knew Regina still couldn't even hear the word carrot cake, because she accidentally had yelled that during sex. Yes, that was probably the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to her. That, and the time she'd refused sex to keep eating her pie. Regina liked to tell that story to everyone she knew as well.
"It's Wednesday, right?" Emma asked and nodded slowly. "Nope, I don't need anything. What are we going to eat for dinner?"
~~~~
They were eating dinner in silence. Emma truly felt like they had absolutely nothing to talk about and Regina was desperately searching for a topic as well.
Emma had read her book the entire day and Regina had been busy with shopping for the rest of the week and had eventually picked up a book to read as well.
"Nice dinner. Thank you for cooking," Regina said as she twirled her fork in the spaghetti. She had to fight the urge to comment on the fact that Emma was cutting her spaghetti in the smallest pieces, to make it easier to eat. "And it's got vegetables. Yay for us."
Emma rolled her eyes as she put her fork in her mouth. She'd hoped for a good comeback, but when she'd swallowed her food, she still didn't know what to say in response to that.
"Have you ever.. thought of claiming full custody of the children?" Regina suddenly asked, taking Emma by surprise.
"No. Have you?"
Regina shook her head. "No, of course not. But I mean.. it would be very easy for you to get full custody, I suppose. You're the one that carried them," Regina explained.
Emma swallowed thickly and looked in utter confusion at Regina. "As much as we have our differences and fights, I'd never forbid you from seeing our children. They are as much yours as mine, despite who carried them. I wouldn't do it to the children either. Were you.. afraid I was going to do that?"
Regina shrugged. "Not really, until my mother recently reminded that you could easily do that. After I told her about our vegetable discussion. I'm sorry for that, by the way. I should have just let you do whatever you want. After all, you still somehow manage to keep an admirable figure"
Emma felt a blush creeping up for the second time that day, but she ignored it as well as she could. "Regina, I am never going to do that. I wished we didn't even have to share them. It pains me so much every time I drop them off."
"Me too," Regina agreed. "It's awful to get home to an empty house."
They looked each other in the eyes for a moment. It was very intense in some way and Emma had the strange feeling that Regina saw everything that was going on inside her mind, so she averted her eyes to her almost empty plate.
"I'm wondering.. are we using our time correctly or do we have certain obligations of your mother?" Emma inquired before she sipped her water.
Regina shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. I think the main reason she put us here is to make sure we won't fight in front of the children anymore. Here, we can yell at each other as much as we'd like."
"Funnily enough, we haven't had a single discussion since we got here. Though it's just the two of us," Emma remarked and looked at her ex-wife. "Why is that?"
Regina shrugged again. "Maybe that's the reason it all went wrong in the first place," Regina said and ate some of her spaghetti.
"What do you mean?"
"Well.." Regina said, once she'd swallowed her food. She dabbed the corner of a mouth with her napkin and looked at Emma. "How do you see the last three or two years of our marriage, compared to the others?"
"Uh, I don't know.." Emma admitted and looked confused at Regina. "We were fighting constantly, the way I remembered it. About all kinds of things."
"But why.. after fifteen years of being happily together did that suddenly happen?" Regina asked. Emma didn't know if Regina knew the answer to that question, and whether she was just asking Emma to test her, but Emma had no idea what to respond to that.
She figured it was just what happened after being together for a long time. Frankly, she'd never given it a lot of thought. She'd wondered countless of times how she'd managed to end up as a divorced mom, but she'd never paid any attention to the reason behind their fighting.
Emma's long silence told Regina that she didn't know the answer. "I've come up with a theory," Regina said eventually.
"And what is that?" Emma asked.
"I started working more hours and your work schedule changed as well. We barely saw each other anymore. I got home late, you were gone early. And the times we did see each other, we didn't talk about anything but practical information. Plans, our schedules, rules, whatever. I think the one thing lacking our relationship was the emotional contact. It's easier to fight with someone you feel drifting away."
Emma listened intently to Regina and she had to admit that it made a lot of sense. They'd separately been there for the children and when either of them had had a long day at work, they hadn't had the energy to do anything but complain.
"You think a quick getaway could have saved our marriage? A short trip?" Emma questioned. She felt like there had to be more depth in their divorce, but apart from Regina's cheating, there was nothing to add to the story.
"No," Regina replied. "You probably haven't forgotten the part where I slept with someone else and made matters even worse."
"Yes, but.. why hadn't you immediately told me you slept eight times with her. I really thought you had an affair where you slept with her at least once a week for two years straight," Emma said.
Regina smiled and chuckled softly. "That wouldn't have changed anything, dear. I doubt you would've heard me. You were pretty angry. Justly, of course," she said and kept quiet for a moment. "I actually still have a card for a hotel that allows me and one other person three days away to Boston. I'd purchased it for us, but then we got divorced and well.."
"Wow.. darn it, now I passed on a nice weekend at a comfy hotel. You could have told me. We could've postponed the divorce a week," Emma joked and chuckled softly.
"It's still valid. If you want to go, you can have it."
"And go alone? No, thank you."
"You can take Killian," Regina suggested. She knew she'd never use the tickets anyway and it would just be a waste of money if no one used them. She could just as easily give them away to someone who might enjoy that.
"Ohh no.. yuck," Emma said, causing Regina to raise an eyebrow. "He's nice and all, but no," she added.
This didn't clear the situation up for Regina, but Emma had decided that she certainly wouldn't ever go to a hotel with Killian. "Are you angry that I started dating him? I mean.. it's not that long ago that we got divorced."
Regina smiled and reached out for Emma's hand, though she didn't know why. Yet, when their hands almost touched, she retracted her arm and put her hands on her lap.
"I'm angry that you started dating him. I don't care about the dating in general," Regina said. "Have you slept with him?"
Emma quickly shook her head. "No, of course not. We've only gone on two dates and one of them was with you and Ursula present," Emma said and laughed softly.
"Well, we slept together on the first date, so it's not that weird to think," Regina remarked and smiled smugly.
"Oh, that's right. I remember. That was our first time together. That was amazing, with all the candlelight," Emma reminisced. She smiled at the memories and bit her lower lip. "Hey, if this week works out, maybe we could still go to that hotel together. You know, as friends and ex-wives, co-parents, however you want to call us."
Regina swallowed and nodded slowly. She had a good feeling about the upcoming week and she started to enjoy it more as time passed, but she didn't want to make future plans yet. What if some big fight would come up again and they'd be right where they started.
"Perhaps," Regina said and her eye caught the empty plates. "I think it's time for the dishes. Shall I do them? Or do you want to do them together?"
Emma shrugged. "I got nothing better to do, so sure."
It didn't take long before Regina was rinsing the plates and Emma was drying them with a dishcloth. Regina handed Emma a plate to dry, but when their fingers touched, Emma shuddered. Regina released the plate, assuming Emma had grabbed it, but it fell and shattered on the floor.
The blonde gasped and grabbed Regina's hand on instinct when she heard the loud sound of the plate collapsing on the ground.
"Sorry, I'm so clumsy, I wasn't holding it yet," Emma said and she looked disappointed at the broken china. Regina looked at Emma and then at her hand, which was still in Emma's tight grip.
"But you are still holding my hand," Regina said and Emma quickly released it. She wiped her hands on her shirt and inhaled deeply. "Are you okay? What just happened here?"
"I don't know. The plate was probably just slippery," Emma said before she walked away to gather things to help clean up the mess.
She knew why she'd dropped the plate. The little touch of Regina's hand had had a way too big impact on her, for literally no reason, and she hadn't been able to grab the plate on time.
But of course she wasn't going to tell Regina that.