Note:

I want to thank my awesome Girlfriend who lovingly endures my daily rambling about new ideas I have 3

Thanks to Nicole M. F. for correcting this chapter :-)

Yellow Car - Chapter 1

Regina was silently cursing the heavy rain, she had forgotten her umbrella and was running late for a dinner with her mother. The last five minutes she had tried to get a cab, but either they hadn't saw her, in this already dark evening, or they already had passengers inside.

Regina was running down the street with her purse over her head as she caught a glimpse of a yellow car at the sidewalk. Happy to finally get a shelter from the rain, she ran towards the car, opened the co-drivers side and sat on the seat, closing the door behind her.

"89 Charles Street" she said, while getting raindrops off of her purse and her coat.

"What?"

"89 Charles Street" she repeated with a side glance to the driver. It was a young woman, long blonde hair and a very confused look on her face. "Call your headquarters if you don't know the route, but start driving. I'm going to be late for a dinner." Regina grumbled, annoyed.

At the corner of her eye she saw the blonde smiling, without saying anything further, she started the car and hit the road. They didn't drive more than a hundred meters when Regina's cell phone rang.

She sighed as she saw the caller's ID. "Hello Mother."

"Where are you?" she heard the impatient voice of her mother asking.

"I'm on my way, I just got into a cab and I will be there in a few minutes."

"You should have been here three minutes ago" her mother complained.

Regina suppressed another sigh, but started to rub her temple with the hand which didn't hold the phone. Her mother was never really patient or friendly when someone didn't meet up to her expectations. She had learned that the hard way.

"My meeting went longer than expected and I..:" she started to explain, but her mother interrupted her.

"Excuses, excuses, excuses. Spare me the details, dear." After that, the only sound Regina was hearing was the disconnected signal. This time, Regina didn't suppress a sigh. Her mother was, to say it friendly, a handful.

"Problems with your mother? Wanna talk about it?" the blonde asked with a smirk on her face.

"Some people may mistake you with a psychologist, but I don't. You are getting paid for driving, not for listening."

"I can do both." The blonde reasoned.

"I don't pay you for…where's your taximeter?" Regina asked confused, looking at the space where the device usually was.

The blonde chuckled. "Broken?"

It was said as a question and it irritated Regina. If the driver didn't even know where her taximeter was, how on earth would she know where to drop her off. "You don't know what happened to it?"

"So, you have some issues with your mother?" the driver asked, but Regina ignored her. "How I'm supposed to pay you if you don't have a taximeter? If you think I will give you more money than you normally get just because you hid your taximeter you are mistaken. I should get paid to even ride in this car. How can you expect your customers to ride in this messy car? There are bags of junk food in the back! I should call your boss and report this…this… barbarous condition."

She didn't expect the laughter that came from beside. "Your mood is even worse than the weather outside." the blonde said between her laughter.

Regina raised both of her eyebrows. "Now you're insulting your passenger?"

"Just trying to warm up to you." the blonde said while looking at her and winked.

"Eyes on the road." Regina instructed. She heard another chuckle from the blonde, but heard no further remarks or got any more side glances. They drove in silence for only a minute, the car had turned onto Charles Street and the driver slowed down the car in order to see the numbers.

"You have to drive forward at least for three or four crossroads." Regina said slightly annoyed "you're not very good at your job, you should consider a change."

But nothing Regina said seemed to ruin the sunny nature of the blonde, she just kept smiling whatever unpleasant sentence Regina said.

"You can pull over here." Regina said while pointing towards an empty space. As soon as the car stopped Regina questioned "How much do you get?" Mentally preparing for an outrageous number.

The blonde scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Regina. "What's this?" she asked, but the moment she hold the piece of paper in her hand she saw the phone number written on it and a Name: Emma Swan.

"Why would I need your phone number?"

"So you can call me and invite me for coffee or dinner or something else." The blonde said with a gorgeous smile.

Regina let out a dry laugh. "And why would I do that?" The blonde raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to say something, but Regina cut her off before she could even start to talk.

"You are lucky I don't call your boss and tell him about your uncomfortable car and your incorrect behavior. See my generous attitude for not getting you fired as payment." With that she slipped out of the car without sparing another glance to the driver.

She heard the blonde calling after her. "Just so you know, this is not a cab."

Regina turned around right after she was standing safe under the roof of the restaurant. She stared back at the yellow car, which had already started moving. Regina's knee almost gave in as she indeed saw that the car was not a cab. She had driven with a total stranger. A stranger who was nice enough to drive her through the city, despite the insults she had thrown toward her. At least she now knew why the blonde had laughed about all the job insults she had said.

Regina glanced at the piece of paper in her hand. She needed to do better than just a coffee to apologize to Emma Swan.