It's Just Casual

Chapter 16

I'd labelled Regina and myself officially as friends with benefits. I hadn't told Regina that, though, because I wasn't sure she'd like the title. We did it too often not to label anything.

Every Monday, Luke went to his aunt and Henry went to his grandparents, which Regina and I had planned to give ourselves some time to work, but now it'd become time to meet one another in Regina's office.

It'd become a regular after I'd thanked her for bringing back Cupcake Friday. She'd reduced it to only celebrating it every last Friday of the month, but it was better than nothing. That had been all I'd planned to do in her office, but I could've known better at that point. Now, I didn't even pretend to be coming to her office for something else.

We only did when we were certain the school was empty and no one would discover. There were no windows in Regina's office that would make it possible for anyone to notice from outside what we were doing, given the fact that it was on the second floor.

It was our secret and it was surprisingly well hidden. No one noticed something was up with us, which made it easier to pretend nothing was going on. After all, emotionally it didn't mean anything, it was just nice to have someone to be able to contact if I wanted some physical touch.

Regina and I didn't talk about anything, though. I'd tried to start conversations about us or her life, but she wasn't very interested in engaging in such conversations.

That was why I thought she'd immediately leave, after she'd seen Luke and Henry being picked up by Neal, but she didn't. Everyone was okay with him going over to Neal with Henry another time and the three of them had just left my apartment. Regina hadn't, yet.

She just looked around the apartment, not moving anything but her head. I fumbled with my hands, because I had no idea how I was supposed to react to her behavior. It seemed like she wanted to get something off her chest, but I didn't want to push her.

"I want to talk to you," Regina said and she took the liberty of sitting down on my couch. I swallowed and sat down across her, in my chair. "Do you feel like I'm using my position of power to get you?"

I frowned. "No. I don't," I said.

Regina looked at me and showed a genuine smile. Just for a second, though, because God forbid she showed emotions for longer than that.

"Okay. That's.. good. I was worried for a second," Regina said and inhaled deeply. She rubbed her lap and stared at the clock. "Well, I don't want to bother you any longer."

"You're.. not. I don't have anything to do anyway, it'd be nice if you stayed for a bit," I replied, though I didn't really know why. I didn't want to be around Regina, but I really didn't want her to leave. "Do you want to eat dinner together?"

Regina didn't seem very enthused by this idea, but nevertheless she nodded. "It's a bummer you and Neal broke up," she said, once we were in the kitchen, "it looks as though you were really great together."

I shrugged and scanned the cabinets for food to eat. I noticed some pasta we could cook and I figured it sufficed. "Honestly, I think we're better off as friends. We've both changed a lot and I feel like we're handling things really well right now."

Regina showed a weak smile. "That must be really nice."

I turned to her and leaned against the counter with the pack of pasta still in my hands. "Will you finally tell me the whole story of you and Luke's dad?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm interested," I said, "and because what happened between the two of you is clearly one of the reasons you're so distant towards all of us."