Thin Walls

Chapter 1

Though, usually it was very calm in Granny's, the one day I actually needed it to be vacant was the day that it was busier than ever.

Ruby and I had managed to find a booth, but we were lucky, because every seat in the diner was in use now. We hadn't talked in a while and the desire to catch up with my friend had grown bigger over the past days.

I really needed to ask her something, but I didn't quite know how. She was the absolute opposite of me, but I cared about her a lot. Ruby was free spirited, careless and chaotic, whereas I was anything but.

My fingertips tapped lightly against the table and I noticed that it was annoying Ruby, but I couldn't stop it, until she exhaled loudly, rather exaggeratingly in my opinion, and rolled her eyes.

"What's making you so anxious?"

I swallowed thickly and straightened my posture. "I want to ask you a question," I said, softly, making sure no one could hear me, except Ruby.

"What is it?" The woman spoke loudly and clearly didn't take a hint.

"It's quite personal," I said. "It's about.. sex." I almost mouthed the last word, afraid that someone else would hear me. I didn't need to have everyone in town know the mayor asked her friends filthy questions.

Ruby grinned widely. "I don't think I've ever heard you say that word out loud," she quipped and drank the last drops of her smoothie. A loud slurping sound caused a few people to turn their heads towards us and I gave Ruby a scolding look. "Don't get pressed, Regina. It's just people. What did you want to ask me?"

"Do you.." I inhaled deeply. "Do you enjoy having.. sex?" I was whispering, but Ruby definitely heard me. She stopped moving for a moment, but then nodded profusely.

"Robin not giving you the attention you need?"

I wasn't sure what she meant, exactly. Robin and I had been married for almost three years and we had made love plenty of times. I'd just never figured out why he or other people liked it. It was just a lot of sweat, groans and moving, and it didn't do anything for me.

"He's not ignoring me, if that's what you mean."

Ruby chuckled softly. "That's not what I meant. Does he know how to pleasure you?" she asked and I gasped softly. No one had ever asked me such a question before and though I'd led the conversation in this direction, I didn't really want to go into the depths of it.

I kept quiet, not really knowing how to continue this talk and Ruby noticed. "Prude," she muttered. "You know what you should do? You should go to that new store in Main Street."

"What?" I asked. "Are you talking about that.."

"Sex shop, indeed," Ruby said, when I didn't finish my sentence. Of course I'd heard someone had opened a erotic store in Storybrooke, but I'd tried to stay as far away as possible from it. I didn't want to be associated with a business like that. "The owner is really nice and she'll educate you on anything you need to know."

I shook my head and smoothed my skirt. "I'm not going to such a place. I don't support businesses like that."

"You don't support proper sex education?" Ruby asked, in slight dismay. This certainly was a topic where our opinions contrasted each other's. I'd always been taught not to talk about sexual acts and I stood by that. It was something between two people in the bedroom, not anyone else. This question had been the first I'd ever asked Ruby about the way she experienced such activities.

"It sounds harsh when you say it like that, but sex is between a man and a woman in the bedroom. No one needs to talk about it, but them." I said with a shrug. My mother had said that to me over a thousand times.