That One Second

Chapter 9

When Lily left a few hours later, Emma felt the alcohol buzz in her body. Lily had been cautious to leave her alone, but Emma had assured her she'd be fine. Emma never drunk when she was sad and she didn't feel particularly sad when the door closed, she just felt conflicted.

It was well past midnight and Emma had accepted the fact that Regina would spend the night with Robin and though it made her sad, she didn't want to feel sad, because she refused to be drunk and unhappy at the same time.

She went upstairs to the bathroom and turned on the bath, hoping she wouldn't wake the children with the sound. She just craved something that would make her feel clean and refresh her mind.

Having Lily around had brought some light into her day and now that she was gone, Emma felt really alone. She knew it was weird to befriend her child's teacher, but right now, Lily was one of the few that really seemed to care about her and the children.

She'd spoken to other friends about her issues, but most of them were also friends with Regina and picked both sides, meaning they didn't give Emma any advice, but just told her to suck it up and accept the fact that Regina worked a lot. Others were extreme and had suggested she'd leave the kids with Regina and find a place to live for herself. Neither opinions appealed her.

Emma softly lowered herself in the bathtub. She liked the stinging of hot water against her skin and a soft groan escaped her lips as she inhaled the sweet scent of patchouli. Her whole body relaxed in the water and she felt herself calm down and be less upset immediately. She tried to forget about her failing marriage, tiring job and exhausting schedule and it almost worked.

She felt herself almost dozing off in the bathtub and because she wanted to prevent herself from giving into the temptations of just keeping her head underwater and doze off forever, she got out of the bathtub and dried herself.

Emma did feel better than before, less intoxicated, too. When she was dressed up and ready to get in bed, she heard the front door close. The door was heavy, so no matter how softly you tried to close it, it would always be audible to the people upstairs.

For a second, she thought someone was breaking in. She'd already opened the bedroom door, ready to face whoever was trying to disrupt their peaceful home, but then she heard the familiar clicking of her wife's heels and she relaxed slightly, though the hurried pace of Regina got worries creeping up as well.

Whenever she finished with work this late, she never got home. Past eleven o'clock, Emma could always say with certainty Regina was spending the night somewhere else, but it was about three a.m. now, so it didn't make sense.

Regina came upstairs and Emma realized she was still standing in the middle of the corridor, ready to face the intruder. Regina gasped when she saw Emma and when Emma saw her wife's face, her eyebrows shot up as well.

Her wife barely cried, but she now evidently had, a lot.

"What are you doing up?" Regina asked and wiped her cheeks. Emma just stared at her wife, feeling her mind spin as she searched for something to respond.

"I thought you were breaking in," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you drunk?"

"No. Why are you home? I figured you'd be with Robin?"

"I was," Regina said and started walking to the bedroom. "But I realized he expected different things from our relationship than I thought."

Emma grabbed Regina's hand. Alcohol always made her crave someone's touch more than usual and she wanted to hold Regina against her own body.

"Like what?" Emma asked, though she had some inclinations. She kept holding Regina's hand as the woman started dressing down. Regina retracted her hand to take off her shirt and Emma glanced at Regina's exposed chest and pushed up breasts, feeling a slight smile appear on her lips.