When he touched her shoulder, she turned back around. He was smiling, that was a good sign that she hadn’t made a complete idiot of herself. At the mention of cocoa, she let a tentative grin slip up. ”Yeah, that sounds good.” At least then she could put the cup in her mouth to stop talking. She walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. ”It’s weird being at the apartment, it’s completely empty. It’s hardly ever empty, it used to make me crazy, but it’s too quiet now.”
She never thought she’d get used to a crowded place, but it had grown on her when the midnight noises was just David up for a midnight snack and the burning smell in the morning was always Mary Margaret because she couldn’t make toast to save her life. And Henry was always talking. It was the sweetest thing that could bug you, he always had a question or something to comment on.
For home and family purposes, the inn rooms weren’t set up for sustained living, one bed and and bathroom a house did not make. ”So were you thinking of finding somewhere more permanent or did you have to go back to Manhattan?”
“You’re always welcome to stop by, y'know, if things get too quiet.”
He didn’t say it out loud, but Neal knew how awful the silence of an empty apartment could be. Back in Manhattan, things had been lively; even though he’d lived by himself, the neighborhood was quite noisy, so he’d never really spent an awful lot of time in complete silence. In Storybrooke, however, things were much quieter, if you weren’t out on the streets or spending time at Granny’s Diner.
When Emma posed her question about whether he was going to find something more permanent, Neal had to think for a moment, and he did so by looking through the inn room and studying its small, sober setup. If he wanted to stay longer, perhaps something permanent would be a good idea, especially since staying at the inn wasn’t all that cheap compared to renting an apartment on the long term. But whether or not he would be staying was entirely up to Emma; if she didn’t want him around her or Henry, there was no point for him in staying, really.
“Well—I’ve kinda been thinking about it. But I’d need to find a job, too, and I wasn’t sure if you guys wanted me around that permanently.”
