Thanks for all the reviews, everyone. I get so excited when I see people are reading/liking my story. Enjoy the next chapter. :)

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"Have I mentioned that I don't like this plan?" Aria says, folding her arms.

"I'm not so comfortable with the idea either," Hanna adds, looking a little bit distressed.

"Do you have a better idea?" Emily presses, doing her best to sound simultaneously firm and sympathetic.

Aria sighs and reaches for her cell. "Fine. Let's just do this."

"Wait." Emily grabs Aria's hand. "Not yet. We need to make this look unconnected. If they know I talked to you about this, we're in trouble. So wait until I go, then wait a while before you call him. He'll call me about it, so it'll look like I found out from him. If we can pull this off, you'll be free from Jason and maybe Mona will trust me more."

"And if it doesn't work?" Hanna asks.

Nobody has an answer for her.

"We can't think about that," Emily says at last. "Let's just do this and hope for the best."

She reaches for the door, knowing that once she walks out she'll have set in motion a plan that could have serious consequences for all of them.

"I'll see you guys soon, I hope," she says.

"Emily -" Hanna says, reaching for her.

She turns back, and Aria tactfully chooses that moment to go back to the kitchen, leaving Emily and Hanna alone to share a brief but passionate kiss. Emily pulls away, knowing if she stays a moment longer she'll surrender entirely to passion and never leave.

"Be careful," Hanna whispers.

If Emily had known what was to come, she might have said those words back to her. But now she just nods and steps outside, closing the door behind her. She wanders aimlessly for a while; there's nowhere she needs to be yet, and there's nowhere she wants to be besides in Hanna's arms. For now she just has to be patient and wait for the call from Jason. It occurs to her that she shouldn't be wandering alone after dark, especially in Rosewood. You never know what kind of danger's hanging just around the corner. But she doesn't care. She isn't even safe in her own house, so why should she worry about what's lurking out there in the dark?

She ends up at a playground, one she and her parents used to go to when she was younger. She'd been terrified of heights, but her father had mastered the art of pushing her just high enough to be fun but not high enough to get scared. She missed those days, when if she was upset she could go running into her mother's arms or collapse into her father's embrace and know that everything was going to be okay. She's aware now that things probably aren't going to be okay.

The sound of her phone ringing reminds her just how bad things are. "Hello?" she says tentatively, even though she knows who it is.

"Aria called," Jason says, not even bothering to greet her. "She wants to meet me for a late dinner."

"Right. And you're thinking tonight is the perfect time for me to make sure she breaks it off with you?"

She can picture him nodding as he says, "Yeah. We're meeting at this little diner a couple of blocks from her house. Denny's or something like that. You know it?"

"Yeah. I know the place."

"Great," he says. "So can I assume I'll be seeing you there?"

"You can," she says. "And this is how it's going to go down…"

After she finishes explaining he's silent for so long she thinks he hung up. But then, to her surprise, he laughs.

"It's so simple!" he exclaims. "It'll get her to break it off with me, and stop talking to you. Mona will be happy about that."

"Let's hope so," Emily says nervously.

"So I'll be getting there in about fifteen minutes," he says. "Aria should be a little later. I'll see you there?"

"Yeah." She hangs up at the same time as a text message comes through.

Wren's okay. Out of hospital and heading home. Thought you'd need some good news. Good luck tonight.

She smiles, partly because of the good news and partly because it's a message from Hanna. She takes a second to reply to it before she gets to her feet and starts walking towards the diner. She knows where it is; since it's close to Aria's house the girls had often gone there during night-time study sessions. She reaches it with ten minutes to spare, so she goes inside and sits down.

It's crowded tonight. A murmuring fills the room, the sound of happy people catching up and hanging out. Apparently nobody else is here on a covert double agent mission. She'd never been great in crowds, and tonight is worse than usual. The sounds wash over her, wearing her away like waves on sand until she wishes there was some kind of mute button for the room.

To give herself something to do she orders a milkshake, and while she waits for that she fiddles with the napkin. By the time the waitress delivers her a tall glass of vanilla-caramel goodness, the napkin is in tatters. The waitress gives her a strange look, but Emily just smiles until she goes away.

Then she sips her milkshake, and she waits for the moment she knows she's going to have to face. Sure enough, almost exactly as she finishes her beverage, the front door of the diner opens and in steps Jason. He spots her immediately even through the crowd and comes over to her.

"Is she here yet?" he asks.

She shakes her head and he visibly relaxes. Emily hopes she's not expected to fill the intervening silence with awkward smalltalk, so it's almost with relief that she sees Aria enter the diner.

"She's here now," Emily says, quickly turning her focus back to Jason. "Don't look."

He looks into Emily's eyes like she's the only girl in the world, and she clenches her fist to stop from flinching. It's just an act. They're both pretending. She just needs to act like she's into him, for just long enough for Aria to see and catch on. She runs her hand up his thigh, leaning into him. He starts playing with her hair; she wants to slap him, but the mission is more important. She forces herself to keep looking at him, but out of the corner of her eyes she sees Aria staring at them.

If they're going to do this, she has to make it convincing. Jason can't know she's playing him. So she leans closer to him, and he leans into her, and then they're kissing.

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Good guess, guest! You were right. I love how you're all speculating and wondering about what's going to happen. It makes it so much more fun to write.