Chapter Text
Tuesday 1st November.
Regina Mills rested her chin on the palm of her hand as her eyes wandered from the empty word document in front of her and settled on the daily bustle of the people outside of the window. She hovered her hand over her now lukewarm cup of coffee and lazily watched as businessmen dressed in suits and carrying briefcases scurried past the window, all of whom seemed to be in a hurry and appeared to be entirely too stressed out for this time in the morning.
People watching was one of the many tactics she used to try and draw inspiration. Being a free-lance writer was great for the majority of the time but when she had three strict deadlines all of which being for the end of the day then that, that wasn’t so great.
Her daydream was suddenly shattered by the abrupt opening of the door as a clumsy blonde bustled through the doorway with her phone in one hand and a pile of manila folders in the other. Regina gave her a small glare for ruining her concentration on the outside world and watched her as she made her way to the counter at the back of the café. Dolly’s had always been her café of choice, it was never as busy as the mainstream coffee shops and it always offered the most divine selection of cupcakes which she, of course, only allowed herself to have once a week when all of her projects had been completed.
“Thanks.” She heard the blonde woman call out as she dumped her handful of folders onto the empty table beside her and poured an excessive amount of sugar into her takeaway coffee cup. Regina couldn’t help but glance over at the folders that were now scattered and left half open on the table top. She couldn’t make out many of the words but the few words that she could see had words typed across them such as ‘blunt force trauma’ and ‘evidence inconclusive’. An eyebrow was raised as she mentally narrowed down this woman’s job to be in one of either the legal sector or the police sector. She gave the blonde a once over: scuffed boots, faded denim jeans, and a red leather jacket; she certainly wasn’t a lawyer.
“Shit.” She heard the woman mutter under her breath as a pile of sugar now resided on the table beside the steaming coffee cup. A small grin hesitated over her lips as she watched the woman, who she presumed to be a detective, brush the sugar into her palm and toss it into her coffee cup. She certainly must have a sweet tooth. The blonde then stuffed her phone into the back pocket of her jeans, scooped up her folders and grabbed her coffee cup before jogging out of the door.
Regina looked up at the softly ticking black clock residing on the wall which read 9:05. She presumed the detective started work at 9 and she also presumed that she was stationed at Kensington which was about a ten-minute walk from here. Time management was obviously something that she wasn’t the best at. She chuckled to herself; this woman would make a perfect character for a novel. She could picture it now, ‘The many adventures of a disaster-prone detective solving the heinous mysteries of London town’.
She took a gulp of her coffee which was shortly followed by a wince as she realized just how cold she had let her drink get. With a sigh and the gentle closing of her laptop, she stood up from the stool that she had been sitting on for the past hour and decided that the only thing that would bring about any type of inspiration would be a change of scenery. She packed away her laptop and waved to the barista behind the counter; next stop: the library.
A pair of eyes continued to follow her as she stood up; the same pair of eyes that had been observing her as she woke up that morning, had gotten dressed in that grey pantsuit that she insisted on wearing even though she never went to the office on a Tuesday and those very same eyes that had been watching every sip of coffee that she had just taken.
They stood up, making sure to leave a sufficient amount of space between her and them; they were a professional after all and didn’t have any plans on getting caught. They followed her out of the small coffee shop which had become a familiar haunt to them both and they shivered as they were met with the bitingly cold autumn air. They wrapped their arms around themselves and found a crowd of people to blend into, their eyes never leaving her as they followed behind. She never turned around; she never checked over her shoulder, she was used to the congested city and the busy hordes that it always attracted. This made their job so much easier, she never suspected anything and even if she did turn around all she would see would be another face in the crowd.