"Are you okay?" Paige asked, looking deep into Emily's eyes, her hands still on Emily's shoulders after she released her from the hug; her eyebrows knit in concern. Emily nodded, with a small smile. Paige closed her front door and pointed Emily towards the couch. As Emily headed over, Paige handed her the cup of tea that she had prepared for her after they spoke on the phone.

Emily managed a smile and held took the cup in her hands as she took her seat the couch. "I'm fine," she said, taking a sip. "It was... long overdue."

"What happened?"

"That's what I asked you," Emily said with a slight laugh.

"Oh, pssh." Paige rolled her eyes. She had almost forgotten her thing, her focus solely on what had happened to Emily. "She just told me to back off from you. Accused me of plotting something. Used some inappropriate language."

Emily sat with her mouth open in shock. Paige tried to laugh it off.

"Your ex has a real Jekyll-and-Hyde thing going on, you know. It was... unnerving."

Emily set her cup in its saucer on the table in front of her and took a calming breath.

"It... it wasn't the first time," Paige said softly, with a shrug.

Emily stood and pinched the bridge of her nose, her back turned to Paige.

"I... I'm sorry, Em." Paige stood, maintaining a couple of steps' distance between the two of them, giving Emily some space rather than reaching her hand out to comfort her. "I should've said something."

Emily turned, smiling darkly and shaking her head. "No. You shouldn't have had to. I should've been able to admit it to myself. When someone tries to be that controlling and manipulative - plus, she comes between me and my friends..." Emily lowered her head, resting her forehead in her palm. "Well, I should've paid attention. I should've listened to you and Hanna."

Yeah, you should have. It would've been easy for Paige to lecture Emily about how she should've picked up the signs and listened to her best friends. But she didn't have it in her to do that. Even though it had been a bad relationship, it was still a relationship that Emily had been emotionally invested in. The only thought in Paige's mind was protecting her and helping her to heal.

"Well, sometimes, it hard for us to see something that's right in front of us," Paige said, without a hint of irony. "Sometimes, it's only when we're able to take a couple of steps back that we can truly see what's been going on all around us."

Emily turned around, her arms outstretched for a hug. Paige gathered her in eagerly. For Emily, the hug was a thank-you to Paige for always being there; being whatever she needed. Paige took it as simply Emily's need for comfort and a connection. She led Emily back to the couch and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, silently, patiently waiting for Emily to signal whatever she needed next next. Emily, worn out by the weight of the thoughts that were swimming around in her head, scooted away from Paige so that she could lie down. She put a pillow in Paige's lap and laid her head down on top of it.

Lying there made her feel emotionally vulnerable. She was suddenly overcome with the intense desire to cry. She wasn't sure why. It certainly wasn't Ashley; at least not sorrow over Ashley. It may have been relief over Ashley. Or, perhaps, it was the feeling of safety and comfort as she lay there and Paige smoothed a hand over her hair.

Emily was glad that she had gone to see Paige instead of Hanna. The scene would have been quite different, had Hanna been involved. Hanna would be celebrating the breakup, saying, "I told you so," and talking smack about Ashley. At some point, Emily would need that, in order to be able to move on. But, at that moment, she needed to mourn her failed relationship; to wallow, for a minute. And Paige was there, as always, being exactly what Emily needed. She wasn't saying a word. She was just being the same steadying, calming influence that she was with the swim team, when nerves threatened to get the best of them in an important competition.

Emily didn't know how long she'd been lying there. She wasn't even sure that she was awake. All that she could say for certain was that it felt appropriate; right, somehow, for her to be there – in a way that it never had with Ashley. She knew what Hanna would have had to say about that, if only Hanna had been able to see her at that moment. After a couple of fist-pumps, some giggling, and a hand-clap, Hanna would nod her head in Emily's direction and tell her to go for it. Emily's heart raced at the thought, and Paige's hand stopped, coming to rest on Emily's arm; almost as if Paige had sensed the change in energy.

The moment felt right. Emily pushed herself up from the pillow on Paige's lap. "Paige…"

"Shh," Paige whispered, softly easing Emily's head back down and resuming the movement of her hand over Emily's hair. "I know," she said quietly.

And that's when the tears took over. She knew. Of course, Paige knew. Emily had never been subtle about what she felt for Paige. Paige knew, but Paige wasn't interested. As close as they were in that moment, emotionally and physically, Paige was still just a friend, comforting her as a friend.

Paige hoped that Emily hadn't heard the tremble in her voice when she replied; that Emily couldn't feel the tremble in her limbs. She was overwhelmed with a feeling of guilt. Emily had come to her at her most vulnerable time, and all that Paige could concentrate on was the weight of Emily's head on her legs; the softness of Emily's hair underneath her fingers; the tight grip that Emily had on her other hand. If Emily had known what was going through her head, she would probably have slapped her in the face, and never spoken to her again. (Well, no, Paige realized. Emily would forgive her, eventually. That's the kind of person Emily was.)

And yet, Paige knew that she wasn't taking advantage of the situation. Being honest with herself, she knew that she was doing the things that she was doing purely for Emily, and not for her own desire. Paige knew where she stood with Emily; that she would never have Emily's heart; would never be promoted from the friend-zone. She was trying to be okay with that. But there, in that moment, with Emily's muffled sobs in her lap, it wasn't about being okay. It was only about being there.

Emily wasn't ready to face Hanna yet. She had been through enough emotions for one day. Paige fed her dinner and offered her Pru's room for the night, since Pru was away for the weekend. Emily nodded and started towards Pru's room but turned around, on the verge of tears again. She didn't have to say a word. Paige knew that Emily couldn't sleep alone that night.

"Have you told Hanna?"

Emily shook her head.

"I should let her know that you're okay."

Emily nodded. "And you can let her know," she said weakly, "about the breakup."

Paige nodded and dug up something for Emily to wear. While Emily got changed in the bathroom, Paige texted Hanna.

It was hard for Paige to sleep that night. She and Emily had become very close, but nothing prepared her for lying in bed so physically close to Emily, holding hands across Emily's waist, their bodies pressed together. As she lay awake, there were times when she wanted to roll over onto her back and take a breath, to relieve some of the tension of. But she stood her ground. After all that had happened, she would not risk having Emily wake up in the night and think, even if only for a moment, that she was alone.

The next morning, Paige walked Emily to her apartment, hugging her before she went inside. Hanna greeted her on the other side with another hug. She held onto Emily's hands and asked how she was.

"Fine," Emily said and meant it. She added, in the biggest understatement of her life, "Paige helped."

Emily filled her in about lunch and the breakup. She told her the truth - that she had gone to see Paige to make sure that Paige was okay. And she told her that Paige let her cry on her shoulder and made dinner for her, and left it at that. She didn't mention that she had almost confessed her feelings for Paige, or that they had shared a bed. Paige had made it clear that she didn't return Emily's feelings, and Emily didn't want to hear Hanna say otherwise.

The end of freshman year couldn't have come fast enough for Emily. She was so ready to get away from campus and get back to Rosewood. Even though going away to college and living on her own had been as new and exciting as she had anticipated, she needed a break: a break from her studies, a break from the workouts (although she still had summer training to keep up with), and a break from the drama.

Emily realized that she needed to take her own advice – the advice that she had given Ashley about not trying to find completion through somebody else. Looking back, she could admit that she had only been with Ashley because she didn't want to be alone, and that she had put up with a lot of things that were obviously unhealthy just so that she could hang onto that relationship.

Hanna had been right when she told her that she deserved better than Ashley. In the end, Emily learned that, sometimes, it's better to be single; that having nothing was better than having something negative. She began to embrace her single life and enjoy being who she was.

So, summer, couldn't have come at a better time for her. It would have been harder to convince herself that being single wasn't so bad if she were still on campus, where she ran into Paige all the time. But, even though she didn't have that distraction, she still had Pam Fields to contend with.

Pam was a natural matchmaker, but, not only that; she had become accustomed to seeing Emily with someone. In high school, the times when Emily was unattached were few and far between. Also, with her only child away at college, and her husband on duty in Texas, things got to be pretty lonely for her in Rosewood. It gave her too much time to dream.

When Emily tried to tell her mother that she no longer had relationship goals, Pam was skeptical. "I used to say that, too," she said, with the wisdom and condescension that come with being a mother. "But it's okay to admit that you want someone to cuddle with, to watch bad, predictable romantic movies with, to stay up all night on the phone with…"

Emily sighed, and looked up at the ceiling, trying to come up with a way to say what she was feeling in a way that her mother would understand. "I'm not saying that I'm anti-relationship, Mom. I'm just saying that, after Ashley," (Pam rolled her eyes at the mention of her name.) "I just need a break. I'm enjoying life. I've learned that I don't need a girl to make me whole. I can be whole all by myself."

"Okay, but if the right girl came along…" Pam smiled mischievously. "Someone like… Paige?" Her words were heavy with insinuation, and she hugged Emily from the side as she said the name.

Emily was confused. "Paige? Why would you say Paige?" She had talked with Pam about Paige before, of course, but she thought that Pam had dropped that idea after Thanksgiving - especially since Emily never really talked about Paige after that weekend.

"Because!" Pam was still smiling like someone who was in on a secret that she wasn't supposed to know. "I've seen the pictures of you two and the way you look at each other, and all the fun you have together…"

Emily sighed. "Mom, Paige and I are…" She groaned, turning her head and gesturing with her hands towards no one in particular. "Look, Paige doesn't think of me that way. Trust me."

"Well, Emmy, maybe you can't see it. Sometimes, it's hard to see what's right in front of you. But, if you showed Paige some interest…" Pam raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Emily chuckled bitterly. "I did," she said, tightening her lip. "I invited her over and made her dinner, I asked her out. I even…" Emily rolled her eyes. "… shamelessly flirted with her the first time we met." She shook her head, embarrassed at how she had just thrown it out there, only to watch Paige walk away. "Trust me," she repeated, "Paige isn't interested."

Pam tensed up in shock. "Really?" Emily shrugged her shoulders. Pam reached for a lock of her hair, straightening it with her fingers. "What's wrong with this girl?"

"I don't know," Emily put her hands up in frustration and let them drop against her thighs with a loud slap. "Maybe she doesn't like girls! Maybe I'm not her type!"

"Oh, Emmy!" Pam released the strand of Emily's hair and pulled her in for a hug. "As Hanna would tell you, you're every girl's type!"