Chapter Seven

"Is everything okay?" Emily asked Paige, who was just joining her girlfriend and her friends at their table at the Apple Rose Grille.

"Yeah, sorry, it was just my parents telling me they were going out tonight," Paige said softly. She didn't meet Emily's eyes; she hated lying to her. "Hi, Spencer." She gave the tall girl her best smile, still not able to read her, even after dating Emily for months.

"Hi, Paige," Spencer answered, her tone as unreadable as her face. Without missing a beat, Spencer turned back to Hanna, who had apparently been in the middle of telling her about their coffee shop encounter. "Start again, don't leave anything out." Now her tone was readable, and it was hungry for information.

"We got totally ambushed by secret agents! They knew Emily's name and probably way more that they weren't telling us."

Spencer raised an eyebrow. "Secret agents?" She looked to Emily for clarification.

"Secret Service agents. So they said."

"That doesn't make sense. There's no one in Rosewood worth Secret Service protection." Spencer's voice was sharp and accusatory. Paige was glad Spencer wasn't there when they had first met Agents Bering and Wells.

"They also said they dealt with...unusual cases."

"What does that mean?" Spencer asked pointedly.

"It means they probably know we've been stalked by an anonymous freak who either thinks they killed our best friend or wishes they did and somehow knows things that are impossible to know," Hanna said with exasperation. She surveyed the varying expressions of shock on her friends' faces. She shrugged. "What? I'm just saying. A lot of weird shit goes on in our lives, in case you haven't noticed. And they made it sound like maybe they'd actually believe us for once."

The girls considered this for a moment. Paige was fidgeting silently in her seat.

"What if A is behind this, somehow?" Spencer's question was soft and distant. Almost as though she were asking it out of obligation more than by choice.

"I don't know, they seemed legit." Hanna shrugged again and picked up a menu, even though they had been there enough times to have it memorized by now.

Emily gave Spencer a look that said she agreed. "They genuinely seemed curious, Spence."

Spencer nodded slowly. "Okay. We should meet them together tomorrow. I want to see what these...Secret Service agents are all about."

Spencer, Emily and Paige also busied themselves with menus when suddenly Aria appeared beside them, slightly out of breath. "Hey guys! What'd I miss?"

The four seated girls exchanged exhausted glances, but Spencer took the lead. "We'll tell you later. We were just about to order."

"Great!" The tiny brunette bounced into the open seat and picked up a menu just as the waitress approached the table.

After lunch, the girls said their goodbyes and parted ways. Emily climbed into Paige's car and asked, "What time did you say I should come over?"

"My parents won't leave until 8, so maybe come over at 8:30, just to be safe? You know they're still uncomfortable with the idea of us being alone in the house together." Paige rolled her eyes. "It's like they think we can get each other pregnant."

"It's kind of sweet, in a weird way." Emily's smile made Paige's heart do flips. She tried to concentrate on the road as she drove her girlfriend home, but she couldn't help but steal glances at the stunning brunette in her passenger seat. Especially when she declared her love for the song on the radio and turned it up, singing along and bopping her head to the beat all the way to her house.

When Paige pulled over in front of her house, Emily unbuckled, but turned to face Paige instead of getting out of the car. "Lunch was nice, wasn't it?" Emily's eyes were so hopeful they were almost pleading. Even if Paige had disagreed, she would have said it was nice. Luckily, she also felt like the meal with Emily's tight-knit, normally closed-off group of friends was actually fun. Once Aria arrived and regaled them with her brother's latest misadventures, even Spencer loosened up and they all started sharing fun, silly stories about relatives. For once, even though it was only for an hour or two, it actually almost seemed like they were normal teenagers.

"It was very nice," Paige assured her girlfriend.

Emily leaned over the center console for a kiss, but instead of her usual peck goodbye, she let her lips linger on Paige's for a moment. She pressed her forehead against Paige's and whispered, "I love you, you know that?"

Paige's breath caught in her throat and she reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind Emily's ear. She pulled back a little so she could look Emily in the eye and answered, "I love you, too." The two girls kissed until they were out of breath, and even then they stayed close enough that they could feel the heat radiating off of one another's skin. Paige inhaled through her nose. "You smell like coffee," she exhaled happily.

Emily giggled and pulled back. "Burnt coffee, probably. I should go shower. I'll see you tonight."

Paige beamed as she watched Emily pull her duffle back from the backseat and somehow still exit the car gracefully. She waited until Emily used her keys to open the front door, paused, and turned back to wave before waving and driving away.

When she pulled into her driveway and turned the engine off, she sat in her car for a moment, letting the silence envelop her. She had a few hours before the Secret Service agents arrived. A few hours to decide whether or not she really believed that she saw Maya St. Germain.