Miles To Go

Chapter Six

Hours of waiting for that phone call from the man at the hardware store had ended up with her getting touch with a man named Marco and after some negotiations, she ended up driving back to the cottage with Marco following in his truck, the replacement window safely strapped down in the bed of the truck.

"So, who is that lady, Mom?"

Emma swallowed thickly as she gripped on to the steering wheel. "I don't know where to start."

"The beginning is always a good place to start when you're telling a story."

"Okay," Emma said, nodding as she took a deep breath. "I just graduated high school and I let Ruby talk me into going to this party, but it wasn't—it wasn't the kind of parties I was used to going. The people there, they were older, in college and I knew nobody there but Ruby." Emma paused as she glanced over at Henry and he was staring at her, waiting for her to continue her story. "I met her, Regina, standing in line waiting to use the bathroom and we kind of just...hit it off right away."

"You mean as friends, right?"

"No, Henry, not as friends," Emma said quietly. "Regina and I were never friends, but we were close for a little while."

"If you weren't friends, how could you be—oh," Henry's voice pitched a few octaves as the realization hit him. "She was your girlfriend?"

"For a few months, yeah, and it was really intense and I loved her. She's the first person I ever fell in love with."

"What happened? Why didn't you stay together?"

Emma gripped at the steering wheel harder. She didn't think that far ahead. "Sometimes things happen," Emma said after a moment. "We were happy and in love, but it just...wasn't meant to be, I guess."

"You broke her heart, didn't you?" A statement, not an accusation or even a question.

"Not on purpose."

"Did you try to tell her that?"

"Yeah," Emma sighed sadly. "She wouldn't listen then and she won't listen now. Sometimes, kid, when a heart is broken, it stays broken. Doesn't matter how much time has passed, it's that pain that you feel so deep that keeps you from moving on. You won't get it now, but you will one day when you fall in love."

"And earlier when you tried to talk to her?" Henry asked and Emma nearly missed the turn into the driveway. "She didn't want to listen, did she?"

"No, she didn't."

She could already see the gears turning in her son's head and while she knew whatever he was trying to come up with was paved with good intentions, he didn't know Regina and he didn't understand how broken and betrayed Regina still obviously was over her. What had surprised her more was how well Henry had taken her confession of having been in love with another woman, but then again she'd raised her son to have an open mind and an open heart, so it shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did.

Emma pulled the car to a stop, looking in the review mirror are Marco as he pulled to a stop behind her. She looked over at Henry and smiled just as a few rays of sunshine poked out from the dark clouds that had started to break apart in the sky.

"I have an idea," Henry said as his hand lingered on the door handle.

"I know all about you and your ideas, kid..."

"Hear me out, Mom, please?" Henry asked and Emma nodded as she slipped the key out of the ignition. "What if you wrote her a letter, explaining everything? If she won't listen to you, don't you think she'll at least give a letter a chance?"