Emily took a few calming breaths. Nothing to be afraid of, she reminded herself, hoping to retain her new-found boldness even though she was now far away from the comfort and security of the water. When she saw Paige come out of the building a moment later, she honked. Paige smiled and waved, gesturing to her own car as she headed that way. "The Brew?" she called out, and Emily gave the thumbs up.
"Okay, so, first of all," Paige began as they settled into their booths, "I've got to know. Why an apple?"
Emily smiled. "Apple for the teacher?" she was about to apologize for the corniness when Paige fist-pumped as if she'd just set an Olympic record.
"Yes!" Paige shouted. "That's what I told Shana!"
Emily laughed inside at Paige's show of enthusiasm. It felt good to know that Paige had been talking about her with her friend. "So you knew all along that I was the one responsible for it?" Emily was trying not to let her embarrassment show.
"I hoped," Paige corrected, being honest. "But I couldn't figure out how you knew about Penn State, unless..." Paige dropped off and Emily gasped, covering her mouth with her hand and then burying her face in her hands. "So, Shana was right!"
Paige gently pulled Emily's hands away from her face, smiling reassuringly at her. "I wasn't checking you out, I swear!"
"Of course not," Paige replied, leaning back in the booth, her smile turning cocky.
"I swear, Paige! I was so embarrassed by what you overheard Hanna and me talking about that I couldn't even look at you." Emily shyly tucked her hair behind her ears.
"Hey," Paige said, tilting Emily's head up so that she would face her. "You don't have any reason to be embarrassed. Okay?"
Emily nodded, really wishing that the upholstered booth would just swallow her up. At that moment, Paige found it almost impossible to resist the urge to kiss her. Emily picked up the look in Paige's eye, and the way that her gaze had drifted ever so briefly down to her lips. Paige licked her own lips with a shy smile before she finally looked Emily in the eyes again. Emily grinned back at her knowingly, her confidence given a boost by the cues that she had just picked up on.
"So, you're a swimmer?" Paige asked, rapidly trying to move on from what she had been caught doing.
"Yeah. I hope. I mean, I swam in high school, but I messed up my shoulder during my senior year. I worked with a physical therapist the rest of the year and all last summer, and I hope to be able to transfer into a school with a swimming program. Stanford would be my dream, but, really, just anywhere where I could get back to swimming competitively and, you know, help pay for college." Emily picked up on the expression in Paige's face and realized that she had been going on and on. She dipped her head apologetically. "Sorry – I didn't mean to launch into all that," she said, throwing up her hands in contrition on the last syllable.
"It's not that," Paige said, and hesitated. Emily looked at her questioningly. Paige paused and sighed before she continued. "It's just that I was kind of thinking that you were going to be around here for a while," she said, not looking Emily in the eye.
Emily smiled and reached for Paige's hands. "Well, maybe I will," she said coyly. "I'm also looking at Penn, and Danby," she continued, pausing before she added, "if there's a reason for me to stay in the area." She smiled, biting her lip, mildly proud of herself for daring to be that bold.
"So, I've got nine months to give you a reason to stay in Rosewood?" Paige asked.
Emily leaned across the table, staring directly into Paige's eyes. "Somehow, I don't think that you're going to need nine months." She tilted her head, leaning back over to her side of the booth. She was enjoying this light flirtation. She was never like this, but, with Paige, it felt natural; unforced.
"Do you have any more tattoos?" Emily rushed to voice the question before she could chicken out.
"Nope! That was a one-off. It was a swim-team thing. We all got them to psych ourselves up for a big meet." Paige picked up on a slight change in Emily's expression. "Don't look so disappointed," she smiled, sending Emily into a furious blush.
"What brought you to Hollis?" Emily said, desperately trying to move on from that line of thought.
Paige sighed and thought it over. "I guess I wanted something a bit smaller, you know? Penn State was great, but it could be a little overwhelming. Not just the size of the place, but it's just so Penn State. I mean, everybody was rabidly 'Penn State.' I am, too – don't get me wrong – but I just wanted a taste of something different."
Emily nodded in understanding. "So, why Hollis?"
Paige shrugged. "My friend, Shana, moved here after Penn State, so I figured what the hell? Hollis seemed as good a place as any."
"Yeah, I've seen Shana around The Brew a couple of times." After a silence, Emily asked, "So, are you two roommates?"
"Housemates," Paige clarified. She didn't want Emily to get the wrong impression, or to think that she was the kind of person who would ask a girl to coffee when she was already in a relationship. "Her aunt had the house in Rosewood. When she retired, she turned the business and the house over to Shana."
"The business?"
"Rosewood Costume Shop."
"Huh. Weird." Paige raised her eyebrows, not sure what Emily found weird. "No," Emily explained, "just that she has a degree from Penn State and she's working at a costume shop."
Paige laughed lightly. "Not 'working at,' 'owns,'" she clarified. "At least till she finishes her MBA. Then she may look into expanding the business or selling it."
"I didn't know that Hollis had an MBA program."
"Shana's doing it on-line, at Penn State."
Emily nodded. She was learning a lot about Paige's roommate, but there was really only one thing that she wanted to know about Shana. She took a deep breath before she asked. "So, do you two have a history?" She grabbed the zipper on her warm up jacket as soon as the words were out of her mouth, fixing her stare upon it as she slowly slid it up and down its tracks. "I mean, not that it's any of my business…"
Paige smiled. "You can ask me anything, Emily. And, yes, we do have a history. A brief history. Ancient history."
"Sounds awkward," Emily offered.
Paige shrugged. "We were friends before, and we're friends now. It was just one of those things that didn't work as more than friends." Emily nodded. "How about you? Any roommates that I should know about?" Paige asked with a smile.
Emily smiled, suddenly playful now that Paige was the one probing for information on her situation. "Well, I'm actually living with someone, right now." Paige was caught off guard, but she tried to look happy for Emily. "She's older. I've known her all my life. I guess you could say that she's always been there for me." When Emily figured that she had teased Paige enough, she reached for her hand and confessed, "It's my Mom, Paige! I live with my Mom." Paige pretended to wipe her brow in relief. "You didn't really think that I'd let you take me out for coffee if I were involved with someone, did you?"
"No. Well, I really hoped not. Unless you didn't think that this was a date."
Emily smiled to herself at the confirmation that she was on a date with Paige McCullers.
Paige noticed a light flick off in the back room. She looked around and saw that they were the only ones left in the place, other than the impatient girl behind the counter who had been trying to give them subtle hints. Paige looked at her watch. "Holy crap – I had no idea that it was so late!" Emily checked the time on her phone, also stunned by how long they had been sitting there. "I'm so sorry, Emily. I didn't mean to take up your whole evening."
Emily stroked a finger across the back of Paige's hand. "It's not as if I had anything better to do."
"Are you kidding me?" Paige smiled. "A beautiful, single girl like you?" she added softly.
"Well, maybe I'll have something better to do from now on?"
"I can pretty much guarantee that." Paige stood up and offered Emily a hand. "Come on. I'll walk you to your car."
"Oh, that's so chivalrous of you," Emily mocked, "considering that it's parked right next to yours!"
Paige walked Emily out to the parking lot. When Emily hit the button on her key fob to unlock the door, Paige reached around her and opened the door for her, closing it behind her once she was inside. Emily rolled down her window when she saw that Paige was just standing there staring down at her like an idiot, with a faint smile on her face. She smiled back at Paige and quirked her eyebrows, wordlessly asking what was up.
Paige shook her head rapidly. "Is it weird?" she asked. "I just – it feels as though we've known each other all of our lives."
"Yeah?" Emily said, staring at her fingers, which she was tangling and untangling in her lap. "Then I guess that it wouldn't be awkward if you gave me a good night kiss," she said, looking up at Paige ever so briefly before she returned her gaze to her lap. Paige opened the door and took Emily's hand to help her out of the car. When Emily was standing in front of her, Paige closed the car door and grabbed Emily's other hand as she leaned in for a kiss. It felt soft and delicate, as if Paige were pressing rose petals against Emily's lips. Emily let go of Paige's hands so that she could grab Paige around the waist. She didn't pull herself in any closer. She just rested her hands on Paige's waist. Paige picked up on the cue that Emily was in no hurry to end the kiss. She parted their lips only long enough to tilt her head for the next one.
Emily couldn't control the way that her hands roamed up and down Paige's back, and when Paige mirrored the movements on Emily's back, Emily moaned into Paige's mouth. She quickly backed away from the kiss, and Paige panicked. She had let things get too heated too fast. "I'm sorry, Em," Paige said sincerely. "I just got lost in the moment, there, for a second." Paige had retreated fully from Emily's body and was nervously trying to find something to do with her hands.
"Paige," Emily said breathlessly. Paige dipped her head, ready to take the verbal chastisement that she had earned. "Do you think that you could give me a ride home?" Emily asked, putting a hand on Paige's shoulder. "I can pick up my car in the morning."
Paige didn't answer. Instead, she grabbed Emily's hand and virtually ran to her car, helping Emily inside and getting into the driver's seat. She was about to pull out into the street when she realized that she had no idea where she was going. "Left out of the parking lot," Emily offered, pointing in that direction. She told Paige her address and gave her directions as they went.
Paige pulled into Emily's driveway and turned off the car. She took off her seatbelt and took Emily's hand in hers. She wanted to be sure that they were both on the same page. Emily gave her a smile and unbuckled her seat belt with her free hand. Before Paige knew it, she was making out with her freshman student in the moonlit driveway.
"Oh, shit!" Emily said when she heard the front door open and peeked out of the windshield to see Pam Fields step outside. Pam's arms were folded in front of her, and she was on her tiptoes, trying to get a look into the strange car that had been parked in her driveway for the past twenty minutes.
Emily gave Paige a quick kiss. "I've got to go! Bye!" she said as she opened the door and marched briskly toward her house with her arms crossed in front of her and her head down. Paige got out and walked behind her. She knew that Emily and her mother would need to talk, but she didn't want to make an even worse impression on Emily's mom by dashing off without a word.
"Good evening, Mrs. Fields," she said, extending her hand to the shorter woman. Well, at least this stranger knows my daughter's last name, Pam thought.
"My name is Paige McCullers," Paige continued, "and I'm a graduate student at Hollis. I'm sorry for keeping your daughter out so late tonight. We were out for coffee, and I kind of lost track of time."
"It's nice to meet you, Paige," Pam said, not releasing Paige's hand. "And I'm sure that there's a clock on the dashboard of that car of yours," she added, giving Paige a pointed stare.
"Yes, ma'am, there is. I'll be sure to use it next time."
"All right then." Pam had made her point. There were no hard feelings. She was really happy that Emily had met someone. Especially someone with the good manners – and good sense – to come and introduce herself to her date's mom. "You have a nice evening, Paige."
"You, too, Mrs. Fields, Emily," Paige said, nodding her head in Emily's direction. Emily shrugged her shoulders slightly and gave Paige a shy wave. She and Pam watched Paige drive off, and Pam put her arm around Emily's waist, turning her around and walking her inside the house.