Chapter 38

Emily walked around the kitchen making dinner for her and Paige. If they dined in, the chef of the house was usually determined by who would be home first. Tonight it was Emily. That was just a well; Paige was a terrible cook though she tried valiantly. Emily would never tell her that her skills in the kitchen were more suited towards clean up.

Emily was trying her best to multitask between prepping ingredients for dinner and talking to Hanna on the phone. She had her iPhone setting on the counter while Hanna ranted on speaker phone.

"Emily, I cannot deal. Why did I decide to live with a BOY," Hanna said in an overly aggravated tone of voice.

Ever since Hanna and Caleb moved in together, Hanna had been slow to adjust to the new living arrangement. This line of conversation was not new to Emily. At least once a week Hanna had a new grievance.

"Because you love Caleb, Han and he asked. Not to mention, he also asked you to marry him. Which you also accepted," Emily reminded her. "You have to learn to compromise some. You're going to be married in six months."

Hanna sighed. "Why am I even talking to you about this? You're in domestic bliss with Paige; you can't relate to my suffering."

Emily laughed out loud. Sometimes Hanna was too much. "Socks on the bathroom floor, three open, half drank bottles of water in the refrigerator and the fact that he doesn't like the same cereals as you are not hardships."

Hanna used her best pouty voice, "But its annoooying, Em."

Paige had just arrived home and walked into the kitchen. She caught the tail end of what Hanna said through the speakerphone. "What's annoying," she asked.

"Oh, is that 'perfect Paige' I hear in the background now?"

"Hey, what did I do," Paige asked, as she made a face and held her hands up in the air.

"Nothing," Emily said, wrapping Paige in a brief but tight hug. "Hanna is just in a mood." Emily then turned back towards the phone as she rinsed off lettuce in the kitchen sink. "And no one is perfect, Han. Not Caleb, not Paige, not me…not even you."

"I take offense to that; I AM in fact perfect. Anyway, you can stay, Paige as long as you don't jump in to defend Caleb," Hanna declared.

Paige ignored the fact that she was standing in her own home and did, in fact, intend to stay. "What's he done," Paige asked turning to Emily.

"Hanna's just overreacting again," Emily supplied.

"Ok Miss cross between Pam Fields and Spencer Hastings! I'd think you of all people could sympathize with my necessity of an uncluttered and kept up home."

Paige nodded her head in agreement; Hanna had Emily there. Emily shot a look at Paige before turning her attention back to Hanna. "Ok, so you said he also leaves his computers laying around on the kitchen table, coffee table, bed and stuff?" Emily wanted to help talk her friend through this if she needed to vent.

"Yes! It's like every available space becomes his desk. There's practically a laptop in every room. I can't escape them and they're always in my way. And who even NEEDS that many computers anyway?"

Paige chimed in before she could stop herself, "He kinda does. He's a software engineer, Hanna. And he works from home. You need to pick your battles. This isn't one of them."

Hanna said in typical smart-ass fashion, "Is this you not defending Caleb? Cause you suck at it."

Paige puffed up her cheeks and blew out a breath through her mouth. When Hanna was like this it was best to just let her go. Paige and Caleb had always gotten along really well together. But she wouldn't just take his side just to take it. If she thought Hanna had valid points she'd say so. In this case though she felt Hanna was going a little overboard. And so must have Emily.

Emily stopped cutting the carrots for the salad and set down the knife. "Ok, I think this has gone on enough." She walked right in front of the counter that the phone was sitting on and looked down at it. "Hanna, you love Caleb, yes?"

"Well yeah." Emily could picture Hanna rolling her eyes as she responded.

"For the most part, it's nice living with Caleb? You like having him to come home to?"

"Sure. He makes the best coffee in the morning. And he writes these cute little notes and sneaks them in my attaché sometimes."

"And you're going to marry him in six months? Happily ever after and all that?"

"Em, you're my maid of honor. Yeah, there's a wedding coming for sure."

"Ok, then." Emily ticked her points off one-by-one on her fingers though she knew Hanna couldn't see this. "You love Caleb. It's nice living with him. And you will soon be marrying him. Paige is right. You need to pick your battles and this petty nonsense isn't it."

Emily and Paige could hear the lightness in Hanna's voice again. She was back to herself. "Thanks guys! You two keep me sane. Ok, well I gotta go…love ya, bye!" And suddenly, like a summer storm that blows in and out of town without warning, the line went dead.

Paige slumped on the center island she was standing near. "She's exhausting. I'm worn out just from talking to her."

Emily laughed. "You? I was on the phone with her for 15 minutes before you even got here!"

Paige walked over to Emily and kissed her on the cheek then patted her on the top of her head like you would a young kid you were complimenting, "Awe, you're a good friend."

Emily swatted her on the ass then grabbed the bowl with the salad she had just finished preparing. "Ready to eat?" Paige nodded her head yes and helped carry everything else over to the kitchen table.

Like most people with dining rooms, they didn't eat in there much; only when they had guests over. Typically they ate their meals either outside on the back deck or at the pub table in the kitchen.

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Paige and Emily enjoyed dinner together. They talked about their day. What all they had going on that week. They discussed what they might want to do that weekend. The conversations weren't too involving. Just the normal stuff you talk about at the end of the day with your loved ones.

As they were cleaning up the kitchen and washing and drying the pots and pans that couldn't go in the dishwasher, Paige brought up something she was curious about. "So, you mentioned to Hanna that no one's perfect."

"Yeah...," Emily drawled, wondering where this was going.

"Well I'm just curious. What annoys you about me," Paige asked, feigning nonchalance.

"Paige, let's not do this," Emily warned. This was not a topic of conversation that she viewed as a good idea.

"I wanna know," Paige said. Emily shook her head no and pursed her lips. Paige poked her in the side. "Tell me. What annoys you about me?"

"Well this is starting to," Emily remarked.

"I'm being serious."

So am I Emily thought to herself. Paige kept staring at her. She was actually expecting Emily to answer this terrible question. "Fine. It annoys me when you set a drink on a magazine or book in the living room."

"That's ridiculous. And I doubt I do that often," Paige defended.

"You do." Emily pointed at an imaginary coaster on the counter. "There can be a coaster literally sitting right NEXT to a magazine, and what do you do? You set the drink on the magazine ev-er-y time."

"So. Why is that annoying?"

"A magazine isn't a coaster, Paige. A COASTER is a coaster! Plus, the condensation from the drink eventually gets the magazine cover wet and then the pages get all wrinkly."

Paige waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss Emily's annoyance as trivial. "I'll tell you something that annoys me about you now."

"Paige, I don't think this is a good idea. It's going to cause an argument for no reason," Emily pointed out.

"No, this is good. We can share this stuff with each other and that's that. Like Hanna and Caleb probably should be doing but aren't. And that's why you get weekly calls from her."

Emily sighed. This was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not. "Fine, whatcha got?"

Paige thought for a moment. "Ok, it annoys me when you leave your shoes by the door in the middle of the walkway when you get home from work."

"That's not fair. All I want to do when I get home is take my Godforsaken heels off and relax," Emily said with her brows furrowed.

"Fine, take them off. That's not the problem. The problem is when I trip over those 'Godforsaken heels' because you leave them where they lie, which is always in the walking path."

Emily got a devilish smirk on her face. "Well, if they're always there then it seems to me that you should expect them there and learn not to trip over them."

"That is so not the point," Paige shot back.

"What IS the point of this," Emily asked.

"We're airing stuff out," Paige answered. "It annoys me when you turn the light on in the bathroom in the middle of the night. It wakes me up every single time. It's like the brightest beacon of light in an otherwise black night."

Emily put her hands on her hips. "I have to see to use the bathroom, Paige. What would you have me do? Guess where to go when I get in there?"

"You put an extra strength nightlight in there, Em. I'm pretty sure my 90 year old great aunt with cataracts would still be able to see in the bathroom at night."

Voices were getting a little louder now and shit was gettin' real. If this is what Paige wanted to do Emily was armed and ready. "It annoys ME that you can't seem to keep any water in the sink when you wash dishes. I come in here afterwards to find puddles of water everywhere that you've failed to notice or clean up."

Paige dipped her hand into the water in the sink that they had yet to drain. "You mean like this," she asked while splashing Emily.

Emily gasped in shock. "I cannot believe you just did that!" She threw the wet dish rag that she had in her hand at Paige.

It landed across Paige's face. "Ewww," she said and flung the rag across the room. "That's gross!"

"And dirty dish water all over me is better?"

Paige started to dip her hand back into the water. Emily lurched for the sink at the same time. Before they knew it they were both splashing the water at each other. Soon the shrieks turned into laughter. Emily turned on the water and grabbed the little spray nozzle. "Oh no you don't," Paige said leaping towards Emily.

Paige wrapped her arms around Emily, trapping Emily's arms at her sides. They were soaking wet, breathing hard, smiling and staring into each other's eyes. The inevitable happened of course. Soon they were kissing, groping, moaning, licking, biting…they couldn't get those wet clothes off each other fast enough.

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Several hours later, after a heated kitchen floor sexcapade, mopping of the kitchen floor and showers for both girls, Emily and Paige were lying in bed.

Paige ran her fingers through Emily's long, dark hair. "I love you, you know?"

"Annoyances and all," Emily asked in a sort of mocking way.

"Yes." Paige thought for a moment. "Let's not call them that. It sounds too negative. Let's call them quirks. You love me despite my quirks and I love you despite yours," Paige suggested. She continued, "Do you think Hanna and Caleb get into arguments often?"

She felt Emily shake her head that was lying in the crook of her neck. "No, I don't think they do. I mean, they may have disagreements like most couples do, but they're solid. Like us. We're solid as a rock."

"Yep, even with our quirks," Paige teased.

Emily laughed. "Hey, don't put that on me. You started that whole thing."

Paige nodded her head, "yeah, but it was worth it."

"I'm not sure it was worth the frustration, however, it was definitely worth the sex." Emily ran her hand down the valley between Paige's breasts as she spoke.

"Mmmmhhmmmm," Paige agreed with a hum. "I can't believe Hanna and Caleb are getting married in six months."

"I know," Emily chimed in. "With Hanna you know it's going to be the wedding of the century. I see this going one of two ways: either Hanna will be extremely chill on her wedding day or complete bridezilla."

Paige shuddered in a teasing way. "Don't scare me like that right before I sleep."

Emily switched gears. "They make a great couple. And Hanna will be a beautiful bride."

Paige squeezed Emily tighter to her. "You would too, you know?" Emily angled her head to look up at her in question. "Be a beautiful bride," Paige clarified. Emily smiled brightly at that. "Have you ever thought about it?"

Emily shrugged the shoulder she wasn't laying on. "I guess like most little girls I thought about my wedding. Wondered what it would be like. I never did picture the groom though." She smiled. "I guess we know why now."

Paige bit her bottom lip. "Would you, um, ever see the potential of us getting married some day?" They had alluded to conversations like this, saying things like, 'we know where we're headed' and stuff like that but never really delved further than that.

Emily kissed Paige quickly, lovingly. "I wouldn't be a bit surprised. I think the only reason I could never picture who I would marry is simply because I hadn't met YOU yet."