I have this Golden Lace idea that I will probably never write, so here is it.
Lacy works as Golds maid/secretary/whatever and they kinda get along? Lacey swears they flirt but maybe its just because he is kinda nice to her. she literally knows nothing about him other than that he owns the shop and is her landlord.
but she crushes on him hard.
one day a woman shows up in the shop she has never seen before and wants to talk to him in private and gold is PISSED she showed up. Lacey eavesdroppes and the woman calls him pops? and says her son henry wanted to celebrate with his granddad?
but she is like, only ten years younger than gold so wtf?
(in that AU Regina is a kickass laywer in Maine. Cora had her as a teen and when Rum started his on off relationship with Cora in his early twenties he was a much better parent to Regina than Cora ever was.)
so Lacey starts snooping around and finds nothing, until a young man called neal shows up, looking for his dad? (During an „off“ phase with Cora Rum slept with Milah. She got pregnant and they married because thats what you did back then. they got divorced after two years and he got only saw neal on the weekends. thats when he moved to storybrook, but he went to see his son every weekend and was an amazing dad)
And thats how Lacey gets caught in Neals and Reginas plan to force Gold to celebrate his 50th birthday, even though he doesnt want to.
(also, they find all of his old college and work friends he lost contact with over the years and invite them)
Feel free to use this, but tell me so i can fangirl over it