"Hey, Paige!" Emily smiled into her phone as she lay on her stomach, amid a collection of textbooks on top of her bed. "How's it going?"

"Not bad, Em. How are you?"

"I'm good." Emily moved to a sitting position, her legs crossed, her mood improved by the unexpected call from her girlfriend - and the unplanned break from studying. "What's up?"

"What are you up to tonight?"

"I'm just finishing up some homework. Why?"

"Just something that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh, sure, I can take a break."

"… but, I don't really want to do it over the phone, you know? I was kind of hoping that you could come over tonight, but, since you're working…"

"Where are you, Paige?"

"I'm in the garage, picking up my car." Emily heard the squeak as Paige hit the button on her key fob, as if in confirmation of that fact.

"Well, I can finish up and get over to your place before you get back to Rosewood?"

"Are you sure? I don't want to keep you from your studies!"

"I'm almost finished, Paige, honestly. What did you want to talk about?"

"Oh, just some news."

"Good news or bad news?" Emily was getting a little apprehensive.

"Eh," Paige shrugged. "I don't know that it's either. It's just information, I guess. It's neutral." The line went silent, so Paige revised her answer. "I mean, it's good, if anything. But, I guess that you'd have be the judge of that."

"Paige!"

"It's good, it's good," Paige affirmed, hoping to calm her girlfriend. "Just, you know, more than I can discuss on the phone. Especially when I'm driving."

"Can you at least tell me what it's about?"

"Well," Paige started but then hesitated. "You know what? Once I start, I'd just end up trying to tell you the whole thing, and it'd really be better face-to-face."

"Ugh!"

"It's nothing to worry about, really, Em. I'll see you really soon, okay?"

"Yeah, fine, Paige." Emily tried not to sound too frustrated. As soon as the call ended, she said to her empty room, "I swear, she can be so annoying sometimes!" She was smiling when she said it.

Before she finished taking notes on the final chapter of her assignment and put everything away, she walked quickly downstairs, hoping to catch her mother before she started dinner, to let her know that she was going to go over to Paige's house.

"No problem," Pam said. "I'll just heat up some leftovers for myself tonight. What's going on? Last minute date?"

"No, Paige just has some news that she wants to tell me face-to-face."

"What kind of news?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

"Is it about her job?"

Emily shrugged.

"Is it good news or bad news?"

Emily shrugged.

"You didn't even get a hint?"

"Not because I didn't try, Mom!"

Pam gave her daughter a hug. "Your Dad can be like that too," she smiled. "It can be really…"

"Annoying," they both said together.

"Well, listen, text me when you find out whether it's good or bad, okay? I don't need the details. I just need to know that you're all right - that you guys are all right."

"Of course I will, Mom."

"She's not being transferred again, is she?"

Emily frowned at her mom. It wasn't as if Emily was the one who was holding back information.

And why did her mom have to put that thought in her head?

Paige entered her house to the smell of dinner. Emily came bounding out of the kitchen, drying off her hands with a towel, as soon as she heard the key in the door.

"You cooked?" Paige said, leaning in for a kiss.

"Ha ha, very funny," Emily deadpanned. "I stopped off at The Grille on my way over." Emily wanted to make sure that dinner was on the table when Paige got home, so that there could be no excuses for further delays in getting to the big news.

"Ooh – did you get those broccoli bites that I love?" Paige pleaded eagerly.

"Of course!" Emily's tone betrayed more annoyance than she had hoped to let on.

"You're an absolute angel," Paige said, giving Emily a hug and another quick kiss.

"Yeah," Emily said flatly, pointing with her head and her index fingers to the dining room, trying to hurry things along. "Anyway, it's on the table, so…"

"Okay!" Paige said excitedly. "I just need to get out of my work clothes. Two seconds!"

"Fine!" Emily called out behind her. "I'll be in the dining room!' When Paige disappeared into the bedroom, she called a little louder (and a lot more sarcastically), "Take your time!"

"It's not as if anyone ever actually died from worrying," she muttered to herself.

"So," Paige said, with a big smile and an over-abundance of enthusiasm when she sat down to dinner, "you'll never guess whom I ran into at lunch today!" Emily gave Paige an I'm-so-not-in-the-mood-to-guess-after-waiting-all-this-time glare, but before Paige could even pick up on the look, she shouted out the answer: "Samara!"

Emily gasped, recoiling a bit in her chair. "Samara?" She still didn't know whether the news was good news or bad, but Paige's smile and eagerness told her that it couldn't have been too bad.

Paige decided that she needed a break from the office, so she headed out to eat at lunchtime, ending up at Corner Bakery, a few short blocks away. As she lingered over her panini, she felt a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, she heard, "Paige? I thought that was you!" from Emily's smiling ex-girlfriend.

"Samara," Paige replied, her expression blank, not knowing what to make of the encounter or of Samara's apparent happiness at seeing her.

"I can't believe that we haven't run into each other over lunch before," Samara chuckled.

"Well, I don't venture out that often at lunch, but it's nice out today, so…" After a pause, Paige added, "Would you care to join me?" and Samara sat on the other side of the booth, placing the card with her order number in the holster.

"So, how's Emily?" Samara asked. She seemed surprisingly upbeat.

Okay. We're jumping right into this, I guess, Paige thought. "She's… good." Paige didn't quite know how to answer that question. Things were great with Emily, but is that what one says to an ex? "We're good, I mean," she added. For some reason, she wanted to make sure that Samara knew that they she and Emily were solid.

"Well, that's… good." Samara and Paige both laughed. "I'm really glad for her – for you. For both of you."

"Well, thanks," Paige said, trying to mute her smile.

"Please don't wait for me," Samara said. Paige hadn't realized that she had stopped eating until Samara made that comment.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm in no rush."

"You know," Samara leaned into the table and folded her hands, "Emily deserved more than she got out of our relationship."

"Samara, we don't have to do this…"

"No, I'm not putting myself down, and I'm not going to get weepy. We were just at different stages, you know? I'm the kind of person who's content enough with stability, and routine, and I know that it made things hard on Emily. And I tried to change, for her sake, but, you know what? Sooner or later, we all revert to type. I knew that, in the long run, I wouldn't be what Emily needed. I mean, I could've lived with the status quo, but, deep down, I knew that Emily was going to need more. Anyway," Samara smiled, aware that she was saying way too much, "I still care about her, and I can't tell you how happy I am that she's found happiness with you."

Paige smiled and dipped her head.

"You're good for her, Paige. And I'm not just saying that. I used to see how happy she was after her lunches with you, and it made me happy. So, if it couldn't be me, and I know that it couldn't," she said, holding her hands up, drawing a smile from Paige, "I'm really happy that it's you."

"Wow," Paige said, overwhelmed. "I don't know what to say."

"I know, right? What do you say to that?" Paige couldn't believe how happy Samara genuinely seemed. "But, would you do me a favor? Would you just let her know that I'm really very happy for her, and that I don't have any bad feelings or bad memories from our time together?"

"Sure, Samara. I'll definitely tell her," Paige said in a deep, serious voice. "I know that she doesn't have any bad feelings, either."

"Whew! What a heavy lunch conversation, huh?" Samara laughed. "So, where do you work?"

"And after that," Paige told Emily, "we just exchanged small-talk and casual chit-chat. We exchanged numbers, too. She said that we should get together for lunch more often, and I honestly think that I'll take her up on it."

Emily, who had been listening in open-mouthed silence, suddenly burst out laughing. Paige looked at her, puzzled and slightly nervous. She didn't really know how to read Emily's reaction, but she worried that Emily was laughing at the absurdity of Paige thinking that it was okay for her to plan to have lunches with her ex. Paige didn't want to be in the position of having to figure out how to tell Samara that they couldn't have lunch in a way that didn't make Emily look paranoid, jealous, or possessive.

"Oh, my God, Paige," Emily explained, "When I was dating Samara, you and I used to meet for lunch, and now that I'm dating you, you and Samara are going to be meeting for lunch!"

Paige gave Emily a half-smile. "You're okay with that?"

Emily grabbed Paige's forearm and gave it a squeeze. "Yeah, of course I am, Paige. I just think that it's weird how we both ended up having lunch dates with you!"

Emily burst into loud laughter again.

"What's so funny?" Paige asked, smiling in anticipation.

"I guess Sam and I are finally on the same Paige!" Emily barely got the words out through her convulsions of laughter.

"Oh, yeah," Paige said, flatly, ignoring Emily's hysterics. "Good one. I haven't heard that one like a million times over the past 26 years!"

"Just admit it, Paige: I'm hilarious! You love me!"

"Well, you're half right," Paige conceded. As they began eating, Paige asked, "Have you talked with her?"

Emily shook her head. "Not since we broke up."

Paige nodded in understanding. "Have you thought about it?"

Emily shrugged. "Not really."Paige didn't seem to be insecure about the prospect of Emily talking with her ex. She certainly didn't need to be. Still, Emily wasn't sure how it would sound to say that she had thought about contacting Samara. Her reply was honest, though. She hadn't given any serious thought to contacting Samara. There was no reason to contact her.

"Well, I don't know how you feel about it," Paige said in an even tone, but with a piercing gaze, "but I think that Samara wouldn't mind hearing from you - just to know that you're okay, and that there are no hard feelings." she let Emily digest that before she added, "I think she wouldn't mind being friends.

Emily set down her silverware and tilted her head, half-smiling as she stared at Paige. She held the gaze for a second or so before she picked her silverware back up, shaking her head as she started eating again.

"What?" Paige asked with a smile.

"Oh, come on, Paige. You've got to know that it's weird, having my girlfriend telling me that I should try to be friends with my ex!"

"I guess," Paige said skeptically. "Still..."

"I'll call her, I'll call her," Emily assured her, popping a broccoli bite into her mouth.

Emily waited until dinner was over and she and Paige were clearing the table to spring her own news on Paige.

"Well, I have some news of my own," she said playfully.

"Yeah?" Paige's eyes widened eagerly.

"Yeah," Emily said flatly. "Big news. Huge. But I can't tell you till tomorrow."

Paige laughed lightly. "Well, that gives me something to look forward to!"

"Damn it, Paige!" Paige was confused. "It doesn't bother you that I'm not going to tell you till tomorrow?" Emily wanted Paige to see for herself how it felt when someone teased a big news story and then made the other person wait, but she was foiled by Paige's natural lack of curiosity.

"I guess... but you'll tell me when the timing's right. Right?"

"Ugh!" Emily smiled, putting her arms around Paige's neck and pulling her in for a kiss. "Sometimes," she said, pulling Paige in for another kiss, "you can be," one more kiss, "so frustrating!" She punctuated the last two words by squeezing Paige's cheeks between her hands.

"I'm sorry?" Paige breathed out as best as she could, with her lips contorted by Emily's hands.

"I just wanted to show you that you can't tell someone that you've got news and let her worry all evening about what the news is. But, the joke's on me, I guess, because you obviously have no curiosity!"

"Sorry," Paige said, shrugging her shoulders and arching her eyebrows, leaving her shoulders raised as she continued, "I guess I have the accountant's low-key attitude."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Well, it's annoying," she scolded through a smile.

"So, do you have news?"

"Yes," Emily sighed. "And I'd make you wait till tomorrow, but it would be kill me to have to wait to tell you, whereas you would be fine with it!" Paige shrugged and raised her hands, tilting her head as if to say, "What can I say?"

Emily's eyes widened and her lips spread to a smile. "My Dad's coming back to Rosewood!"

Paige gasped in surprise and excitement. The next thing either of them knew, Paige had grabbed Emily, lifting her off of the ground and spinning her a full 360 degrees before she set her feet back on the kitchen floor and held her close for what felt like several minutes. Paige moved her hand to the back of Emily's head, caressing it lightly before she spoke. "Like, for good?" Emily nodded her head, her teeth on display as she smiled. "Emily, that's huge!"

Emily, grateful for Paige's enthusiasm, replied, "Right? I've missed him so much!"

"So, you'll be spending more time at home, I take it?"

Emily looked down, nodding slowly. She was about to speak, but Paige cut her off. "No, of course, Emily! You don't need to explain - or to feel guilty."

"Only for a little while," Emily explained anyway, sadness tinging her words. "I really miss him, you know?"

Paige nodded. "Of course, you do. And he misses you, too. God - I'm so happy for you and your mom."

"Maybe you can spend some time at our house, too?" Emily offered, suddenly shy. "Like, dinner and stuff? He's dying to meet you..."

"Yeah, of course, Em!" Paige smiled to hear that Emily's father was looking forward to meet her. "I can't wait to meet him, either. And I'd like to have you guys over here, sometime."

"Thanks," Emily said, lightly grazing Paige's cheek with her fingertips. Her body jolted with a burst of anticipation. "I can't wait for him to get here!"

"When is he getting in?"

"End of the month."

"Well, if you need a ride to the airport or anything, just let me know. Depending on the date, of course. You know how crazy my job gets around the end of the month."

"Thanks, Paige," Emily said with a kiss. "I think that my Mom and I have it covered, though."

A/N - I just realized that I've had Emily say, "Damn it, Paige" in my last three Paily fics... (: