Author's Note: Welcome! I'll be updating this weekly, or biweekly, depends on how much downtime I have at work. But nonetheless, enjoy, review or something, too. Thanks :)

Came Along

Chapter One

Free Wine and Entertainment

WORST. DATE. EVER." Emily Fields huffed as she slid into the booth with her best and favorite friends. Three pairs of eyes stared at her curiously, waiting for further elaboration, and, as Emily stripped of her wool coat and scarf, she explained. "First, she shows up over forty minutes late," A waitress passed, and Emily flagged her down.

"What can I get for you?" The waitress asked with a tired, forced smile. Emily tried to smile back, but she grimaced unintentionally. It had been a terrible night for her.

"Can I have a vodka and cranberry?" She requested quickly, and the waitress nodded, turning quickly on her heel and headed towards the bar. Emily redirected her focus back to her small group of friends, "So, she's late, and I didn't mind because traffic can get bad or whatever, but she actually tells me that she just overslept and forgot that we had a date tonight" Hanna was the first one to frown, but bit her tongue as Emily continued, "I mean, I should have saw the red flag right there, but I just… I don't even know. She took me to that one Mexican restaurant… the one right off…" Emily snapped her fingers a few time, a habit when she tried to remember something in particular.

"By the old high school?" Spencer offered, nursing on her drink.

Emily nodded, "Yeah, that one"

"I thought that place got shut down" Aria commented. Truthfully, the restaurant had been shut down a few times, and everyone knew this. Well, almost everyone.

"It did, but it's open again, and she insisted that we have dinner there," The waitress returned with Emily's magenta colored drink, and Emily smiled – finally, something to take the edge off, "Thank you" She appreciated the waitress, grasping the drink in her hands and taking a large sip, "god, that's good. So, anyways, we're there, and it's still as awful as before," She took another sip, "She insists on ordering for her and I… and she orders this… ugh… I don't know what it was, there was a lot of chili and ground beef… some cheese… it was all too greasy. I didn't eat any of it, but she was woofing it down like she hadn't eaten in days…"

Hanna felt sympathetic for her best friend, "Please tell me that this story is coming to an end soon" She groaned

Emily was already halfway through her drink. She was probably in need of ordering another one soon. "Oh yes, it is. She ate through most of it, and then she stopped – ran to the bathroom" Emily was frowning, "Twenty minutes later, she's telling me that food was giving her… well, stomach issues, and that she needed to bail… and just happened to leave her wallet at home, too"

"She made you pay for it?" Hanna asked incredulously, "That's bullshit"

"Tell me about it" Emily sighed, "I'm going to be single forever" She moaned, "Is it really that hard to just find someone? I mean, I'm going to be thirty years old in less than two weeks, for crying out loud, and it's been – what – four years since my last relationship?" Empathetic eyes all around, and Emily hated that, "I'm not being picky," She relented, "I've even lowered my standards… but I think it's just me, I'm doomed"

Her friends gazed at each other, each of them trying to figure who would be best to reply to Emily's statement. Aria spoke first. "You're not doomed" She said as Spencer glanced at her, eyebrows raised as if she were asking 'that's all you got?', "There's tons of people out there for you, you just haven't found them yet…"

Emily shrugged, finishing off her drink. Yeah, she definitely needed another. "Right… or maybe it's just me, and they're all finding each other"

Aria was shot down. Spencer and Hanna looked at each other. Who would try next? Hanna shrugged, "Being single is great," She started, her voice light and full of optimism, "You can date whoever you want, come and go as you please"

"Advice from a married woman…" Emily murmured, and Hanna scoffed, "I'm sorry, guys, I'm such a downer about this" she sighed. Maybe it would be best if she skipped out on that second drink, "You know what, I'm just going to go home, get some sleep,"

"No, stay, Em!" Hanna protested, but she knew that it wouldn't be much to sway Emily's decision. "Well, fine," she huffed, as Emily slipped on her coat and wrapped her scarf securely around her neck, "Will you at least call when you get home?"

"Of course," Emily said. She fished in her coat pockets for spare cash

"This is on us," Spencer queued in, "We're not letting you pay for your drink after your night"

Emily gave a small smile, "Thanks guys. I'll call you when I get home" Their goodbyes were short and sweet as always, and Emily left the booth, walking out of the small restaurant in the chilly weather. November generally was one of Emily's favorite months – she loved the cold, dry air, the crimson leaves, and most certainly of the festive decorations for the holidays.

But she had spent most of her time alone. She wasn't desperate, that was one thing she knew for sure, though she didn't the mind the idea of having someone to talk to that wasn't among her friends or family – someone to cuddle with during the cold weather, spend her time with. But it didn't seem likely and she didn't know why. Emily was attractive, educated, hardworking, and she had so much love to give, yet no one worthy to give it to.

It was unfair - definitely unfair.

There was only a short distance of walking before Emily would make it to her small apartment complex, and she managed to make it there in fifteen minutes. As she walked up the first flight of stairs to her apartment, she heard a door open. The person jumped at the sight of Emily, "oh man, you scared me" She said with a smile and Emily stopped, returning the smile

"I didn't take you as the type of person who gets scared easily" Emily replied. She earned a scoff.

"Whatever" She said, rolling her eyes, "so, I'm going to take out my trash," She held up the small black garbage bag in her hands, that Emily didn't initially see, "Do you want to stay over for wine or something?"

"That kind of depends, Paige"

Paige raised her brows, "Oh really?"

"Do you still have that Brunello wine you let me try last week?"

She smirked, "Of course I do" Paige stepped into the hallway, leaving her apartment door open, "you can wait inside, if you want. And I already know that you know where I keep all of my wine, so you can pour yourself a glass while you wait, too"

Emily felt grateful, "Thank you"

Paige shrugged. It was the least she could do, "I'll be right back," she quickly headed down the stairs, leaving Emily to her apartment. Emily had been in Paige's apartment numerous times, especially since Emily had to pass by Paige's apartment to go to the next floor, where her apartment was technically located.

Emily personally loved Paige's apartment – it was smaller than her own, but tastefully and personally decorated. Emily appreciated the quality and the thoughtfulness of everything. She walked to Paige's kitchen, opening the fridge and taking out the half-full bottle of wine.

She reached for glasses in Paige's cabinet, just as Paige walked back into her apartment, "I just remembered… didn't you have something to do tonight?" Paige asked

"I had a date"

Paige uncorked the wine bottle. Emily held out the glasses as Paige poured the wine, "How did that go?"

"Terrible"

"yeah? I'm sorry to hear that. So, feel free to have as much wine as you want… have the rest of the bottle if you want"

Emily smiled. "Thanks" Paige languidly gulped her wine from her glass, "Were you going to do anything tonight?"

She shrugged, "No, not really. I was going to find some movie to watch on Netflix or something… and probably get some sleep in, too. Work has really been kicking my ass"

"Do you want me to leave?" Emily had asked, though she hoped that Paige would say no.

Luckily, Paige shook her head. "No way, you being here is probably going to be the highlight of my night"

"really?" Emily said out loud, which she had meant to think rather than say. She found it interesting that someone like Paige didn't have anything else to do. It was nothing against her character or what she discovered of her during the last few months of them living in the same apartment complex, but she thought of Paige as an attractive woman, who obviously could have anything or anyone that she pleased.

And, what surprised her was that Paige actually wanted Emily there to probably be the highlight of her night.

"Mm-hm" She remarked, "If you stay, I'll let you pick whatever movie that you want"

"any movie?"

"Should I be worried?"

Giving a sly smirk, "I don't know, should you?"

"okay, your movie privileges have been officially revoked, Emily" Paige snatched the remote from Emily's grasp, "I thought that you said that you were good at picking movies,"

"I never said that!"

"You could've at least told me that you were awful at picking movies!"

"You didn't ask!"

"I didn't think that I would have to!" She flicked through a few movie selections on the television screen, "You had to have picked all of the worst movies on here"

"All of the storylines sounded really good though, and you said that I could pick any movie"

"I should have clarified: any decent movie"

Emily scoffed, "It wasn't that bad"

Paige smiled. Of course, it wasn't that bad. In fact, Paige was completely enjoying herself, "No, it wasn't, but still…"

"Still what?"

"Awful selections"

Emily bumped Paige's shoulder with her own, "Lets see you pick a better one"

Completely transfixed on picking a good movie, Paige searched through the movies, "Oh I will, trust me"

A couple of minutes passed by in silence, and Emily smiled, seeing the struggle Paige was having trying to pick a movie, "Kind of difficult, isn't it?"

"No… there are a lot of movies… to pick from…"

"yeah, or maybe, you know, it's harder than you thought to pick a movie"

Paige exhaled exasperatedly, tossing the remote to the other side of couch "actually, I think it's pretty late"

"Oh?"

"I mean, for another movie," she quickly corrected, "I like spending time with you"

"So do I," Emily replied truthfully, "What would you like to do?"

Paige shrugged. She really hadn't thought too much of what they could do together, and she didn't quite know exactly how comfortable Emily felt around her. She had an idea, many ideas of their level of comfort around each other, but never accurately knew. "Want to talk about how your date went…?"

"No, not really," Emily said. The last thing she wanted to talk about was that, "It's not that I'm secretive or anything," She started to explain, "It's just that it was that kind of date that you would want to try to forget as soon as possible"

"That bad, huh?"

"Probably one of the worst dates I've ever been on"

"Yikes" Paige commented

"Yeah, but," Emily waved her hand nonchalantly, "It's fine. I got free wine and entertainment in the end"

"I'm glad that I could assist with that"

"Me too,"

They fell into silence; unvoiced questions lingering between the two of them. Emily stole a glance at Paige – as usual, she hardly wore any make up, and, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and Emily was able to see the angular features of her face. Paige was beautiful, and that was a fact that Emily had always known, but she was also fairly certain that Paige wasn't interested in her.

The trill of a phone ringing, interrupted the silence, and Emily recognized the ringtone of her phone. She quickly pulled her phone from the pocket of her jeans, looking at the caller ID, "Hello?" She answered

"Are you okay? Are you home?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, I'm sorry that I forgot to call, Han"

"Well, as long as you're all right"

"And I am, I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"Well, don't forget"

"I won't, I promise" She ended the call, and sighed, directing her attention back to Paige "I probably should head up now" She didn't want to though.

And neither did Paige, "Yeah. I'll walk you up"

"You don't have to"

"No, really it's fine, plus, you've had a few drinks with me, and I want to make sure that you get in safe"

Emily smiled, "You had a few drinks too," She pointed out, "How will you ever get back?"

As Emily stood and took her coat from the arm of the couch, Paige stood, "I'll be a-okay" Emily walked to the door, and opened it, with Paige following closely behind, closing the door when the two were in the vacant hallway. She took the stairs up to her floor, stopping at the last door to the left – her apartment.

"Well, you have safely delivered me to my door," Emily joked, gaining a small chuckle from Paige, "Thank you"

"It's no problem,"

Before either of them could register what was happening, Emily leaned in close, pressing her lips to the smooth skin of Paige's cheek. Maybe it was the alcohol that made her slightly bold, maybe the terribleness of her date, or even just the fact that Paige was attractive – but once when her brain caught up to her actions, and the unreadable expression on Paige's face, she flushed, quickly taking out her keys and turning around to unlock her door. "Thanks again, Paige" She said hastily, almost immediately disappearing into her apartment closing the door behind her, and leaving Paige by herself.

"What just happened…" She asked herself quietly, touching where Emily had kissed her, as if she had been branded. She smiled toothily.

And that was definitely and undoubtedly the highlight of her night.