She wasn't responding to any of my calls or texts. The night she'd confessed her feelings to me, she hadn't returned home and if it hadn't been for me seeing her yellow bug drive around town earlier today, I'd have figured she was dead.
"I'm very content with it. Next Friday, I'm holding a house warming party for my friends," I said excitedly, though I knew I still had loads of boxes to unpack before then. It'd be a challenge, but I'd decided the living room and hallway were the only places that really needed to be ready. No one cared about the rest.
"I bet they'll be so jealous of you. It's wonderful. Don't you think you'll get a bit lonely in this big house, though?"
Emma had worried about that as well and if I hadn't felt this much at home, maybe she'd been right. I just couldn't imagine living anywhere else now and I didn't need anyone to share this place with. I would have liked for Emma to see it, though.
"You sound just like Emma," I said, "and you're both wrong. I haven't felt lonely for a second since I got here and I don't imagine doing so in the future."
"I hope so," my dad chimed in with a sweet smile. "How are things between you and Emma?"
I shrugged and sighed softly. There was not a bone in my body that wanted to discuss my love life with my parents, but even after I'd ranted to Ruby about everything, I still felt the need to complain about it to someone.
"She told me she loved me and I just said "no"," I said, softly. "I haven't seen her since, so it's not really going well, no."
"Do you miss her?"
"It's only been three days, not a decade."
"Still." My dad cocked his head and I shrugged, before I offered him a curt nod.
"I suppose. We spent the last weeks constantly together and now she won't even respond to my texts. So, yeah, that sucks, I guess." I felt horrible talking like this. I didn't know what conflicted feeling I was supposed to take seriously, so my mind had been a mess ever since Emma had stormed out of that door.
"I think it'll be alright," my mother said, after a moment of silence. I shrugged. It didn't even matter what happened, if it just got this awful feeling away from me.
~~~~
"I'm going to marry you and then murder you so that I have this house all to myself." Ruby had obviously drunk a little bit too much, but it was rather amusing. She kissed my cheek and wrapped an arm around me. "I'm so jealous, Gina."
"I'll take it as a compliment," I said with a soft chuckle and took a bite of my toast. There were quite a few people in the living room, but given the amount of space I had, it didn't seem stuffed at all.
"I did notice the unpacked boxes upstairs, though. Need any help?"
"You've been snooping around upstairs? I told you, it was off limits," I scolded, but I knew Ruby and of course I'd known beforehand she'd take a peek to see what the rooms upstairs looked like.
"Wanted to see your bedroom," she said. "Your bed's very good. You and some dude or chick will have great sex there," she added and I automatically blushed, though I had no reason to. There was no one I was interested in apart from Emma, but she'd still been ignoring my texts. I'd invited her to come tonight, but I had no reason to expect her. "Is Emma coming?"
I shook my head and realized that it actually really bothered me, the way Emma had just started to ghost me. I'd thought of going to her store or apartment, but she'd made it quite clear that she wasn't interested in talking to me, so that wouldn't be any different in person.
A few plates with food were already empty, so I excused myself to take them to the kitchen. One that made it hard not to distract me from all the work I was supposed to be doing, because the only thing I now constantly wanted to do was create new meals and recipes.
The door opened behind me. "I'm sorry, the kitchen is n.." My words just disappeared when I saw Emma, looking better than ever, standing in the doorway. It'd just been a little over a week since I'd last seen her, but she appeared different. 
"Oh," I said. "I hadn't thought you'd actually come."
She stepped closer to me and shrugged. "Have you ever not made me come, Regina?" she said, with a sly smile, and though I didn't want to, I felt my cheeks heating up for the second time this evening.
"You can stop with the jokes. You ignored me for a full week, why are you suddenly here?"
"To apologize," she said. "I shouldn't have ghosted you like that, but I think you understand why I didn't want to see you for a moment."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "Quite frankly, no, I don't. You really had no right to say what you said."
"Oh, wow, sorry for expressing my feelings. You know damn well I hadn't intended to say it. I'd just blurted it out," she said, raising her voice.
"Well, what'd you think I'd respond?! I'd been divorced for like an hour. You know I said we'd work things out, but not in a rush."
"I never expected you to say it back, but I'd expected you to at least be nice about it. Not reject me in the worst way possible."
She'd come closer during our conversation and I could see she was getting upset, as was I. Heat was radiating off of her and she looked angrily at me, but still all I could think about was that pretty set of lips that was coming closer with the minute.
"It was not the worst way possible. I could've shot you, that would've been worse," I replied and stepped closer to her. "Emma, I know I should've handled it differently, but you didn't even give me a chance to mend things. I'd been divorced for a week, I couldn't have said anything better back. That's just.. not the way you do things."
"You never seemed to care much about such protocol. Need I remind you that my fingers were in your cunt while you were still "happily" married to that guy?"
"Don't use such language," was all I could say, because she was right. She sighed, evidently annoyed, and I could see she had to keep herself from rolling her eyes. "I'm going to kiss you now," I said and before I could lean in to connect our lips, Emma had slammed hers against mine, demanding dominance.
"We've both been stupid," she said, after my lips had finally tasted hers again.
"You were stupider. We could've made up like this a week ago," I muttered against her cheek and puckered my lips to place a soft kiss on her skin.
"I was embarrassed, Regina, and you hurt me. It was really shitty, the way you responded."
"I know and I'm sorry, too," I replied and grabbed her hand. "Just.. in the future, don't run away whenever things get hard. I wanted to apologize sooner, but you didn't let me."
"At least I came here tonight," she replied and I captured her lips in a soft kiss.
"Hmm, we'll see about that. Maybe I'll just tease you and leave you begging all night."
Emma chuckled and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "It's cute how you think you're in control. Touching, almost," she said and just like that, our fight had ended.