Emily perked up when she heard the bell over the door jingle, signaling that a customer had just walked in. She was grateful for the distraction. It was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays at The Brew were always slow. She looked up on reflex to see who had come in. When she caught sight of the girl, her stomach fluttered. This girl was a vision, with auburn hair, fair skin, and a white tank tucked into a tight pair of jeans underneath a denim shirt. She had the confident look of someone who knew exactly where she was going - surprising, because Emily was certain that this person had never set foot in the restaurant before. Emily would have seen her, or someone would have mentioned her.

When someone that beautiful comes in, people talk.

Emily tucked her hair into place and smoothed out her the apron over her khaki shorts, all of a sudden grateful that she had chosen to wear shorts that morning. All those years of swimming had been good to her legs. She didn't have to force the smile onto her face. It had shown up all on its own. There was no way that she could stop smiling. She actually had to tone her smile down a bit: She was going for confident and friendly, not creepy and weird. She took a moment to steady her breathing before she sauntered over to the table in the corner where the vision of loveliness had settled in.

No sooner had Paige sat down than she noticed that the table which she had chosen had a wobbly leg. Great! she thought to herself, as she reached into her backpack and pulled out her notebook. She ripped out a sheet of paper and folded it over several times, then bent down underneath the table to shove the wadded paper under one of the table's legs, smiling to herself at the problem solved. "Thank you!" she heard, as she was about to get back into her chair. Still hunched underneath the table, she looked over at a pair of ballet flats at the base of a perfect set of bronzed legs that seemed to go on forever. As he followed them with her eyes, she momentarily forgot where she was and banged her head into the table-top as she straightened up. Serves me right for leering, she thought.

Emily covered her mouth and tried to stifle a laugh. She placed a sympathetic hand on the woman's shoulder and apologized. "I'm sorry for laughing," she said, still smiling. "Are you okay?"

Paige was dazed, but not from the collision with the table. It was the face of the angelic creature before her, framed by bouncing waves of raven hair, that had scrambled her brain; not to mention her lilting laugh and the soft, persistent grip of her hand on Paige's shoulder. Maybe it was the bump on her head, but, more likely, it was the lighting in the room and the angle at which she was looking up at the woman, but Paige could've sworn that she saw a halo above that golden, smiling face.

"I'm good," Paige finally managed to say, desperately trying to get her swagger back.

"Thank God," Emily said, the laughs starting again, "because, if I lose another customer, it'll probably cost me my job!" Paige laughed, too, and Emily internally sighed in huge relief that this beautiful stranger had a sense of humor. "I'm Emily," she said, in a tone that she tried to convince herself was merely friendly, not flirty, "And I'll be taking care of you." Paige got caught up in those words, wanting, at that moment, nothing more than to be taken care of by Emily. "So, are you meeting someone, or…" It wasn't Emily's usual way of greeting her customers, but she justified it to herself, just this once. It was, after all, a reasonable question for a server to ask.

"Nope! I'm flying solo, today," Paige said, immediately cursing herself for not being able to come up with any better way of saying that.

"Okay, well, can I start you off with something to drink?" Emily asked, looking the girl in the eyes before she realized what a mistake that was. God, those eyes! Fortunately, the stranger's eyes dropped down to the menu as soon as Emily's locked with them.

Paige looked at the half-page cardstock menu that listed the drinks, but it was all just a big jumble. There was no way that she could concentrate under the gaze of Emily's beautiful eyes. She scrunched up her lips as she tried to focus her thoughts. "Should I give you a minute?" Emily asked, tilting her head.

Paige chuckled. "I'm not usually this indecisive," she found herself saying, idly waving her hand in front of her.

"Take your time," Emily said, not realizing that her own hand had found its way back onto the beautiful stranger's well-toned shoulder. This chick obviously works out, she thought. "Just give me a wave when you're ready, okay?" she advised, tilting her head toward the direction of the counter. Her customer flashed a smile and nodded her head. Emily couldn't resist squeezing the girl's shoulder before she took her hand away.

When Paige was sure that Emily was out of sight, she was finally able to exhale. She held the menu in front of her face to hide her growing smile. She was definitely going to like it here in Rosewood.

As was typical for a Wednesday afternoon, Emily wasn't too busy. She kept stealing glances at the woman over in the corner who, almost every time Emily looked over, was quickly looking away from her. The woman certainly didn't seem in any hurry to leave. Emily wasn't in any hurry to see her go, but her shift was almost over, so, reluctantly, she headed over to leave the check on the table. "No rush," she assured the girl, "I can take this whenever you're ready."

Paige smiled when she looked at the check. At the bottom, in red ink, Emily had written, "Have a nice day!" with the two exclamation points forming the eyes over a smile that Emily had drawn underneath. She signed her name, "Em," with the "E" looking more like a backwards number three. No, Paige thought, A sideways "m." How cute, she thought, but not as cute as the name itself. "Em." She couldn't help whispering it out loud to herself.

Em had said that she would come back for the check, but Paige decided to go up and pay. She had been reading the signals all morning. She was going to introduce herself to Emily properly, and, maybe, even, ask her out. As she gathered her things, she heard the bell over the door ring and watched as a woman who looked slightly older sauntered in the door and up to the counter, greeting Emily with a kiss.

Yikes! Paige thought, Saved by the bell! She was relieved that she hadn't moved a minute earlier and embarrassed both herself and Emily. I guess they're just really friendly in Rosewood, she thought, disappointed. She was sure that she had been picking up on something more from Emily. She put it down to wishful thinking. And to how tired she was of being single.

Paige, still embarrassed at her misunderstanding, left a generous tip out of guilt for anything inappropriate that she might have said or done before she knew that Em was seeing someone. While Emily was distracted by her girlfriend, Paige quietly gathered her things and made her way out of the door.

A/N – This story is based on a prompt that I received from lovepaily (thanks!) (and happy birthday!) when I was starting to think that my days of writing fanfiction were over:

Emily is in a relationship that is going down hill and then she meets Paige and SLOWLY gains feeling for her

I may take a few liberties with the prompt, but I'll try to stay faithful to the gist of it. Please check back tomorrow for the next installment...