A/N: This is going to be my first paily full length fic, I've been sort of playing with the idea for a while and decided to start it. Anyway, this is a post college fic set in Philadelphia. Thanks for checking it out.

Paige's POV

I'm sort of a disaster. My friends think it's cute, most people call me a failure, but honestly, I couldn't be happier. Which is stupid, because I probably make 300 dollars a week, which is enough to pay rent and buy Ramen noodles. But I like Ramen noodles and I like my crappy studio apartment, it's cozy and I have a small balcony that looks out into the back of a Vietnamese restaurant. Balconies make everything better, I learned that from HGTV.

Back to me being a disaster. I'm holding four leashes but only three dogs, Snowball the poodle had gotten away.

Normally I'm pretty calm about these things. All the dogs I walk are relatively well trained, and none of them have peed on me this week, but Snowball is kind of insane. And I mean that in the most puppy friendly way possible.

If you've never seen a 24 year old dork chase a 6 month old poodle while holding three other dogs on a leash and running through a crowded park, then I'll tell you myself: I looked like an idiot.

Luckily I didn't trample any children, next to getting burned alive and sea otters, trampling children is my biggest fear. The thing with poodles that no one, except me apparently, understands is that poodles are evasive and they think everything is a game. They're like vindictive ninjas, except with more fur.

"Snowball would you get your ass back here!" I slowed to a stop when I saw the horrified look on an elderly woman's face. She was sitting on the bench feeding birds, but according to the look of absolute revulsion on her face, I think my use of the word ass either nearly caused a stroke or was going to very soon. "Sorry, sorry I meant butt…or you know what? You're like 90 I'm sure you heard the word before." I ignored whatever facial expression she wanted to throw at me, didn't she see that I was chasing a poodle. "Snowball!"

I chased him down, Lily the beagle wasn't exactly helping in the speed department, but I still managed to track Snowball down on one of the trails on the woods. At least my embarrassment could only be noticed by the trees and a few joggers passing by, which was a little more in my comfort zone. "Snowball, if you come back here I will pay you…in treats…or cash. Whichever you prefer." Snowball just looked at me and wagged his tail rapidly, proving even more that he was enjoying the hell out of myself.

If I didn't have to get all these dogs back to their houses in 15 minutes then I probably would've been having fun too. "I will sell you my soul if you come with me." Snowball ran over and sat down in front of me; I put her leash back on and looked at her oddly. "Just for the record, you're not Satan are you?" Snowball just started jumping around which was my cue to leave the park and take the dogs back to their rightful homes.

It was a chore in itself. Mindy owned Lily, she was nice enough to leave my check on the counter, but she was never nice enough to be around when I needed to talk to her. She was just as evasive as Snowball.

Sara owned the black lab, she was incredibly uptight and religious, which is saying a lot considering she's cheating on her husband with a bank teller who wears plaid shirts everyday. I caught them last month, we never speak about it.

Tess was awesome, seriously awesome, she was a painter and she owned Snowball the poodle and Mustard the golden retriever. She was always busy working in her apartment, so that's why she hired me in the first place, but every time I came to drop the dogs off, she was more than willing to invite me in to chat.

I found her laying in the middle of her floor staring up at her fan with a paint brush in her hand. "Um, is this a bad time?" She laughed and sat up for a moment before laying back down. "You okay?"

"Head rush." She got up, slowly this time, and walked over to give me a hug. "Give me good news; I'm drowning in painter's block." She rummaged through her refrigerator while I gave the dogs treats.

"Painter's block? Is that a thing you just made up?" Tess nodded as she pulled out a beer. "Tess, it's eleven in the morning, I don't do liquor before the p.m. hours." Tess stared at the bottle for a moment, as if she were having an internal debate.

"But it's light beer, that's got to count for something." Tess opened the beer anyway and took a sip before handing me the paintbrush. "Here, you do something with it. I'm fresh out of ideas." I twirled the brush in my hand all while waiting for Tess to get herself together.

"Can I paint my face?" I asked playfully.

"Ugh, I always forget you're like 12." I smiled as Tess took back the paintbrush and walked over in front of her empty canvas. "Here's my big issue Paige, I'm not a free spirit, I know it looks like I am due to the fact that I'm a freelance painter, but really I could use a nice big pile of cash. You know what I mean?" I shrugged and stood beside her staring at the blank canvas too.

"Money isn't everything."

"You're ridiculous and I sort of hate you." Tess said nudging me in the side. "When are you going to do something real in your life? Like get an actual job…or by a car?" I laughed, Tess couldn't be serious. She knew a lot about me, not all, but a lot, and she knew I liked my life just the way it was no matter what anyone thought.

"I hate cars." I told her.

"Untrue, you just can't afford one; you've created a delusion that you hate cars." Tess replied. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Spending my paycheck on sushi, Sara over paid me." I pulled the check out of my back pocket and showed it to Tess who gasped.

"Looks like she's playing you to keep your mouth shut about the boinking incident." Tess sat down on a stool while I checked my phone for messages. "Oh god, what was that? Did something happen last night?"

"Nothing ever happens any night, I was just checking to see if I was needed at the café." I put my phone back in my pocket.

"You have like 30 jobs, how do you even keep track of them all?" Tess questioned.

"I don't, hence the phone and the rattled exterior." I explained. "And as it turns out I am needed at the café, barista duty, which is about 24 percent better than garbage duty, so I'm feeling pretty positive about that."

"Do you actually work there?" Tess asked seriously.

"No, not really. They just pay me less than everyone else, and give me a nametag that said Page until I scribbled an i on it with a pink sharpie. They just call me in when they need me." I pulled on my jacket. "I'm like Batman or something."

…

"One time when I was 5 my mom took me to see Sesame Street live and afterwards we were all allowed to go on stage. The Cookie Monster kneed me in the face, seriously, no bullshit this time, and he didn't even apologize. Can you believe that?" I didn't know what I could or should believe anymore. The only things that I was paying attention to right now were the facts.

Fact: Collin had come to work stoned, and although I was intrigued by his Cookie Monster story, he's already broken three coffee mugs and that was not coming out of my paycheck.

Fact: I don't do well with aprons, even if it's those small ones that only cover your lap. That was the whole reason barista duty stressed me out, because I looked like and felt strange in aprons.

Fact: The steam from the espresso machine was the absolute vain of my existence. And not only that, but they also fogged up my glasses, and that was never fun.

"Collin, as much as I'd love to listen to all of your insanity and maybe write a biography of your life, you've got costumers waiting at table four." Collin shrugged and fixed his shirt before hopping over the counter and greeting the two women sitting at the table.

I'd noticed them as soon as they walked in, hard not to, when our favorite hipster hangout café, didn't exactly moonlight for a conference room. Most of our costumers smoked pot on weekdays, and wore beanies. These two women wore business suits, and ordered something just as bland from the looks of it.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but with the way Collin typically tried to flirt with everyone, I didn't foresee this going too well for him. Collin walked behind the counter and dropped his notepad in front of me, sliding it over all while trying to contain his laughter. "What'd you say to them? Did you use pick-up lines? Cause it's really embarrassing when you do that. I have a serious secondhand embarrassment problem, remember? I told you that."

"I didn't say anything, but check out what they ordered. Two Black Eyes. I think they're both insane. They won't be sleeping for the next two days, I mean look at them. Uptight business types, they're all the same, vanilla as they come. I expected them to order hot chocolate honestly." There was no point in looking into it, Collin believed that you could tell a lot about a person by their coffee intake, I just made the coffee; there was no interpretation necessary for that.

"Maybe they have an international meeting via Skype or something. Maybe they have to stay up all night. Who knows?" I started making the drinks while Collin continued to look at the two women. "Who cares?" I mumbled shortly after.

"Let me ask you something Paige. Why are you and I, two amazingly talented, witty, and charming people, single? What's our flaw?" Collin asked as I finished making the second drink.

"Well your flaw is that you're a pot head." I told him. "And I haven't quite figured out my flaw yet, but when I do, you'll be the first to know." I promised him.

"You give them the drinks; the one with the briefcase gave me the chills." Collin was notorious for getting out of doing work; I was notorious for letting him. I put the two drinks on a tray and walked around the counter and towards table four.

"Two Black Eyes?" They both looked up at me, I could tell I'd broken up their conversation, which I immediately felt bad about, but quickly tried to cover up. "You know if you walked down the back alley, you could get a black eye for free." Neither one of them smiled, and my first thought was to just pass out, that way I could be embarrassed by something I couldn't control rather than my inability to tell jokes.

"Those our drinks?" Collin was right; the lady with the briefcase was kind of intense, to the point where I almost got uncomfortable.

"Are you two sure you want these drinks? They're basically pure shots of adrenaline." Again, briefcase girl didn't break eye contact with me.

"That's what we ordered, didn't we?" That was all the answer I needed. I set their drinks down in front of them and started back tracking towards the counter. "Um…Pai…Paige, is it? Your nametag is sort of…" I looked down at my nametag and saw that the pink i had been smudged. "Well, either way, do you guys sell donuts?"

"Um…ironically we don't, but we have muffins, croissants, pie, banana bread, scones, cookies, cinnamon rolls and …brownies, but no donuts." I rattled off.

"But there is a donut place down the street…" Briefcase lady might have been actually been insane. Which to be fair happens to a lot of people when they drink too much caffeine. I was just stuck on the fact that she was asking me to go buy her a donut, that's a new one.

"Spence, you can't ask her to buy you a donut. She works here." The other woman said. Finally, a name to a face, so I guess briefcase lady was Spence or more accurately Spencer.

"Wait so let me get this straight." I started. "You're asking me to leave work, go down the street, and buy you a donut?" Spencer nodded. "So you're insane?" She nodded again. "What kind?"

"Blueberry." Spencer replied. She reached into her wallet, pulled out two dollars and handed it to me.

"Collin, I'll be back in a second." A second was mildly accurate. It took me about 323 seconds, but when I came back Spencer seemed to be impressed. The other woman she was with looked…annoyed? I wasn't sure why, and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. "No one can ever say we have crappy service here, then again I technically don't work here." That got both of their attentions.

"You don't work here?" I looked to the woman across from Spencer, her stare wasn't intense, just curious.

"Well I sort of do, it's complex and probably illegal and…it's just sort of a side thing for me, apart from my real job." They both looked at me now.

"And what's your real job?" I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a business card.

"Paige McCullers dog walker, at your service."

…

"Isn't that dangerous?" Tess said from where she was perched atop a bench, smoking a cigarette and looking through her binoculars. I watched her with my arms crossed, wondering why she dragged me all the way out here to people watch when it was dark, and this could've waited another day. I also wondered why I was still walking Snowball when I wasn't even getting paid for this.

"Isn't what dangerous?" I questioned.

"Cheating on someone." I nodded wondering why she suddenly decided to bring up Sara's infidelities again. "I mean sure it's wrong and all, but juggling two people's hearts at once, that's dangerous."

"I wouldn't know, the only heart I have to juggle is my own." Tess let out a puff of smoke and pulled the binoculars away from her face.

"That's so sad." Tess said. "I'm setting you up with someone."

"No. What? You can't….no, please don't do that." I pleaded with her.

"I wasn't asking, I was just informing you." Tess said with a grin. "Plus, you'll like her, and if you don't you can blame me."

"Why do I always let you get me in these stupid situations?" Tess shrugged. "I'm gonna take Snowball on the back path, I'll be back in fifteen." I started walking, drowning out Tess' protest about how she didn't want to be left alone. All I wanted tonight was some fresh air, and silence.

When I reached the back trail, I stood still. It was actually pretty amazing back here, serene and quiet, the exact place I craved throughout my childhood. I could stand here for hours, and I would have but I heard slight movement behind me.

My first thought was that my life story was about to become a Law and Order episodes, one of those ones where the body gets found on a bike trail. My second thought was turn around you idiot.

I turned as saw a tall slender figure, a woman, not just any woman, she looked familiar. As she moved closer, I began to make out her attire, tennis shoes, athletic running tights, a slim blue zip up, she was definitely a runner. When I focused less on her clothes and more on her eyes I realized where I knew her from. "Oh hey you're donut girl's friend." She laughed, I'm not sure at what, maybe it was my description of her friend.

"Yeah that's me…sorry if I scared you. You just looked like you were having a moment or something." I looked around us, nothing but dirt, trees and darkness.

"I tend to keep my spiritual revelations to the daytime hours." I tugged Snowball back so that she wouldn't move closer to the woman. "But what about you? What's your excuse for running this late at night?"

"Work takes up a lot of my time; sometimes this is the only time I can run." She explained. "What about you? Are you working now?"

"Um…" I looked down at Snowball. "Sort of."

"Well I um…I'm sorry." I didn't know what she was apologizing for, not in the slightest. "For my friend…Spencer, the donut girl."

"It's okay-."

"It's not; she can be like that sometimes. Spencer thinks the whole world revolves around her, but she's not like that all the time. It shouldn't have happened." Was I supposed to say something to that? Her words were genuine, but they didn't feel sincere, it was odd. "I should get home, it's late." The woman jogged off before I could say anything else, I guess that was for the best.

"Who was that?" Tess asked.

"Dunno, just another suit, there's a million of them in this city." Tess walked over and stood by my side, shoulder to shoulder.

"What do you know about painting?" Tess asked.

"I know it requires paint and a brush." That was essentially the extent of my knowledge in that area.

"Well I need you to help me on a job tomorrow." Tess started.

"Tess, I'm not a painter."

"I know, but like you said, it's just paint and brushes, plus the payment is crazy good." Tess could be pretty convincing sometimes, and this was one of those times. "So are you in or what?"

"Where's the job?" I asked.

"Up on Lee Avenue, in one of those skyscraper buildings, the types were everyone's a suit." Tess clarified.

"You are so lucky that I'm poor." I assured her. "What would you do without a sucker like me?"

Tell me what you think.