Looking For A New Life Chapter 10
It was the night before Thanksgiving, Ali was in the kitchen of Jason's house. She had just gathered the ingredients to make pumpkin pies. Emily was out on the porch talking on the phone.
Emily said into the phone, "How things going at the boarding house?"
On the other end of the line, Aria said, "Things are going well. We are all booked up and Samara has gotten everything ready for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner."
Aria asked, "How is your mini-vacation in the Big Apple?"
"It has been going fine." Emily said. She hated not telling Aria everything. But she had previously promised Ali not to mention the DiLaurentis mob family to the friends in Rosewood.
"You deserve this Emily. I'm so glad Ali came into your life. I like seeing you smile more."
"Alison has made me very happy. I''m also happy that I came here with her. She deserves to see her brother and Hanna." Emily said.
Emily and Aria chatted about a few other things related to the boarding house, before hanging up.
The brunette headed back into the house and started helping Ali with the pies. Emily enjoyed making the pies with Ali. It reminded her of her past when she helped her mother make various food dishes.
Alison had her iPod on a speaker dock and her favorite songs were playing. A total of eight pies were made. The blonde always liked going overboard with pumpkin pies. After putting the pies away, Ali and Emily headed to their bedroom to watch a movie.
Emily said to Ali, "Despite what happened last night, I've been happy here with on this trip, despite what happened last night."
Ali said put her hand underneath Emily's chin and said, "I'm sorry about what happened. It is part of my family's lifestyle. I am happy with my decision to leave that lifestyle behind."
The brunette asked, "Do you think you will never miss your parents a lot. Not having your parents around can be hard."
"I can't imagine how it was to lose your parents Emily. But my situation is different, my parents don't want to accept what I am and who I love. For the holidays, you, Jason, Ashley, Hanna, and those in Rosewood are my main focus. I told Jason that I'm spending Christmas in Rosewood with you." Alison said.
"You don't have to do that." Emily said.
"I've already made the plans to spend our first Christmas together in Rosewood."
The next morning, Emily awoke before Alison and began to think about Christmas. She had not really decorated the boarding house since her parents' death. She had spending Christmases with the Montgomerys and sometimes the Hastings family if they were town in for the holidays. She then decided that she would bring back the tradition of having a real tree and Christmas decorations in the boarding house.
Ali awoke later. The two showered and dressed for the day. At 9 am, Hanna and Ashley arrived with some ingredients as well as bagels and coffee.
The women got to work on preparing Thanksgiving dinner. They had the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the TV. They occasionally watched the parade.
Several hours later, everything was ready on the table.
Jason lead the family in a short blessing. They began eating.
Halfway through dinner, Hanna said, "Ali, my mom and I are thinking about going to visit you and Emily in Rosewood sometime before Christmas."
Ali immediately smiled at that and said, "That would be good. You two have to stay at the boarding house."
Hanna said, "We plan to."
It was Saturday afternoon, Emily and Alison were entering Rosewood. They had left New York earlier in the day. Emily noticed a Christmas tree lot with a sign that read, "We do deliveries."
She pulled over.
Ali was a bit surprised and said, "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to pick out a tree and have it delivered to the boarding house." The brunette said.
The two walked around the lot, before Emily picked out a tree. She talked with the tree lot manager and paid him cash for the tree and the delivery fee. He told her that the tree would be delivered in a few hours.
Emily and Alison then headed to boarding house.
Ella was behind the front desk. She went over and hugged the young woman.
Emily hugged her and said, "How was Thanksgiving?"
"Everything went well here. The guests loved Samara's cooking." Ella said.
"That's good. I was worried how this place would be without me. I'm planning to decorate for Christmas. I'm going to the storage shed out back to get the decorations out. I was thinking maybe we could decorate tomorrow." Emily said.
Ella was also a bit surprised, "That would be fun. I'll tell Aria, Byron, and Mike."
The next day, the Montgomerys, Emily and Ali had fun decorating the boarding house and setting up the tree. Emily pulled out handmade ornaments that had been in her family for a long time. She told Ali the story of each ornament.
The next few weeks went by. Emily was walking through the annual Rosewood Winter Crafts Festival. She was attending mostly because Ali and Laurel had a booth up and also because Ella also had a booth to selling some paintings. The brunette went up to the refreshments booth and ordered a cup of hot chocolate. She paid the vendor and she turned around, she saw her ex-girlfriend Paige McCullers walking towards her. Paige was smiling. Emily had not seen Paige in three years. Their breakup was painful due to Emily being in the hospital and also Paige wanting to honor her swimming scholarship to Stanford.
Paige got close first and said, "Hi Emily. It's been a long time and you look good."
Emily was a bit nervous and she said, "You look good too. I have read up about how you have been doing at Stanford. I'm happy for you. Let me guess you are back in town for winter break."
"Yup. It's my first Christmas back here in Rosewood since high school. The first two years, my parents flew out to California. I decided to come back to town this year."
Emily said, "Let me get you a hot chocolate and we can talk."
"Sure."
Emily headed back to the refreshments booth and a bought a hot chocolate for Paige.
The two found an empty table nearby and sat down.
Paige looked right at Emily and said, "I'm sorry about things ended with us. I should have kept in touch with you. I heard about the surgeries that you have had."
Emily was a bit puzzled and asked, "Who told you?"
"Some of the girls we swam with in high school. You know Bridget Woo and Sydney Driscoll." Paige said.
"Oh yeah. I occasionally keep in contact with those girls. The surgeries and other treatments have helped a lot. I know I might not ever look normal." Emily said.
"You are still beautiful Em." Paige said as she put her hand on-top of Emily's.
The two continued chatting about other things.
Elsewhere in the festival, Aria and Alison were walking and looking around for Emily. From a distance, Aria spotted Emily first. She immediately recognized Paige sitting with Emily. Aria began to wonder if Ali would be jealous. Ali then saw Emily sitting at a table with another woman.
She turned to Aria and asked, "Who is that with Emily?"
Aria said, "That is Paige McCullers. Emily's ex-girlfriend."
Ali and Aria continued walking towards the table. Ali then remembered Paige's face from some of the pictures in the scrapbooks Emily had. She remembered hearing about Paige and Emily's breakup.
Emily noticed Ali and Aria coming towards them. She got a bit nervous and started to dread the interaction of her current girlfriend with her last ex.
Aria said as they got close to the table, "Oh hi Paige. Long time no see."
"Aria, it is so good to see you. I saw your mom's paintings earlier and they are amazing. How is Hollis?" Paige said.
"It is going good. I enjoy the small college atmosphere. How is Stanford?"
"I like it a lot. Their swimming program is top notch." Paige responded.
Emily noticed the look of discomfort on Ali's face. She got up and stood next to Paige..
She said, "Paige, this is Alison DiLaurentis, my girlfriend."
Paige got up and held out her hand and said, "I'm Paige McCullers. Umm, Emily and I…"
Ali said, "It's ok I know that you and Emily were together in high school."
Paige sensed Ali's irritation and said to Emily, "It was good seeing you. Thanks for the hot chocolate. Take care, Em."
Paige said bye to Ali and Aria.
As Paige walked away. Ali said to Emily, "I can't believe you were so nice to her, buying her a hot chocolate after how she dumped you while you were still in the burn hospital."
Emily responded, "That was in the past. I will never hate Paige."
Ali said, "I would. She hurt you Emily."
Emily snapped and said, "Damn it. I got over Paige a long time ago. We were just having a friendly chat catching up on each others lives."
The blonde realized that she was being jealous and said, "I'm sorry Em. I guess the jealous bug came out in me."
"It's ok, Ali." Emily said.