The Feud

Chapter 14

Regina Mills was always perfectly on time. She found it important to be punctual and found it rude to be late. However, today she'd purposely arrived an hour late to the reunion.

She didn't know how long it would last, but when she entered the bar, she saw that lots of people were still present. She guessed no one had even left yet.

"Regina Mills!" She heard the voice as soon as she closed the door and a smile immediately appeared on her face as her old friend came hurrying towards her.

"Hi, Ivy! How have you been?" Regina asked and all her insecurities over the party washed away. Just seeing her old friend made everything good again.

"I've been great!" she exclaimed happily. "This is Henry, my husband," she said as she pulled a man closer towards them.

Some more people gathered around them. Regina hugged many people that she hadn't seen or thought about in years and felt her heart swelling up.

Many people were already quite tipsy and everyone was very loud. Regina talked to almost everyone at the party. Almost, because she'd still avoided one person as if she was invisible.

She did it as subtle as possible, but one time, she couldn't take it anymore and she glanced Emma's direction.

The woman looked breathtakingly beautiful. She was wearing a simple, light pink dress and had her hair loose over her shoulders, slightly curled. Her toned arms were bare and Regina swallowed when she saw them.

Emma was in a deep conversation with Ariel, but she glanced Regina's way. For a brief second, they had eye contact and Regina automatically smiled, cursing herself inside. Emma had quickly averted her eyes, causing Regina to do the same.

Killian was standing next to Emma and sometimes looked at Regina to see how she was doing. When he saw her smiling in a conversation he himself smiled too, he knew it'd been a good idea to get Regina here.

"So, mayor, huh?" Elsa looked intrigued at Regina and the woman nodded.

"That's impressive, especially at such a young age," Jack added and Regina smiled lightly. "What did you study?"

"I studied both English and political science," Regina replied. "But what are you all doing nowadays?" she asked the three people around her.

"I'm working on opening my own ice cream shop, here is Storybrooke," Elsa said.

Regina wondered why she'd never run into Elsa in the town, but it hadn't been the first person at the party who turned out to live in Storybrooke that she didn't know of.

"That sounds great!" Regina exclaimed with a genuine smile. Mulan and Jack nodded agreed.

"Right now, I'm in between jobs," Jack said. "I'm still not sure where I want to go with my life, but right now I temporarily work in a candy store in Boston."

Everyone replied excitedly. For the first time this week, she felt herself being genuinely happy. Even though Emma was present, she barely thought about the woman anymore and she was glad to have finally found something that took her mind off of everything.

Emma felt the same way. She loved catching up with the people she'd once known so well and it actually went easier than expected to avoid Regina.

She'd been talking to Ariel for quite some time and was intrigued by all her stories of her life as a marine biologist. Killian, Belle, Ruby, Charlotte and her husband Edmond were also standing nearby them.

The blonde looked surprised up when she noticed her husband calling someone. She wondered who'd be calling at this hour and her first thought went to the kids.