It's Just Casual

Chapter 6

We both didn't move until Mal was out of sight, but as soon as she'd gone around the corner, I removed my arms from Regina's body and hissed in disgust.

"Yuck. I did not plan on hugging you tonight," I said. I thought Regina would come back with some snappy comment, but she merely smiled.

"Thank you so much for doing that," was all she said. "I won't ask to put my hand on your ass again. That was highly inappropriate and I apologize for my behavior. As your superior, I should contain a purely professional relationship with my employees and I wouldn't want to misuse my power. It won't happen again."

"I'm totally telling everyone you grabbed my ass."

"No, you're not," Regina said and flashed me a stern look as we got inside the restaurant. The waiter led us to our table and once we both sat down, Regina continued, "Emma, I'm serious. Will you keep that to yourself. I'm embarrassed enough as it is."

"Fine. I'll just tell Ruby," I joked with a sigh and from the way Regina looked at me, I could tell she knew Ruby was a big gossip. "Okay, I won't tell anyone, if you explain in vivid detail to me what just happened."

"That's blackmail."

"Very much so, but you're using your powers as my superior to silence me, so I guess we're even."

"You're no delight, Miss Swan."

"Of course not. I'm not here to be your friend, I'm here for the food. And the juice."

Regina grabbed a menu, but kept looking me right in the eye. "Okay. What do you want to know?" she asked and I could tell she was nervous.

"Who is Mal and what happened between the two of you?" I had many questions, but I guess this one was the most obvious that would also answer a lot of my other questions.

"Mal is the woman you just saw and we used to be friends. With benefits, I suppose. Lovers, maybe, but we weren't romantically involved," Regina replied. "Was that all?"

"Oh, no, definitely not. I think the rest of dinner is going to be you answering my many questions," I said with a smile, but Regina clearly didn't like it. I didn't care, though, I was really curious to know more. "How and why did it end between the two of you?"

The waiter arrived, so we both ordered what we wanted. Regina didn't drink alcohol, I knew that, but before tonight I hadn't known that she'd spent some time in rehab. So, it felt wrong for me to order an alcoholic drink, though I desperately craved something to get me more comfortable.

"It ended because I ended it and I did that because she's a narcissistic fuck," Regina said.

"I don't care for such profanity," I said mockingly, imitating Regina's voice. She clearly didn't appreciate it and her cheeks turned a light red. "What'd she do?"

"I think that's a story for another time," Regina replied and she looked at me. It still felt weird to have all her attention on me.

"Okay, then tell me why you went into rehab," I tried, but I already knew it was in vain. Regina was done talking, which was pretty disappointing. I'd hoped to have gotten more out of her.

"On second thought, Miss Swan, I think I'd rather have you tell all of our colleagues I grabbed your ass than that I spill all my secrets right now. Maybe it's time we dig into your past," she said with an amused smirk, but I wasn't scared. I didn't mind sharing things with others.

"What do you want to know. I'm not secretive about my past," I replied, casually. She didn't have anything on me.

"Other than you needing to know my first name, what bets have been made among the teachers?" Regina asked and with this simple question, she'd shattered my confidence, because this was the one thing I didn't want to share.