Guest. I'm not *that* bad. lol. I promise it will be less than 30 chapters before you get another hot Paily moment.

Nyxxyn. Same. I'm Paily all the way but that doesn't mean that Sabrina deserves to be hurt. Still, she's got to go. I hope you like the way I handled it. Thanks for your review. I always look forward to hearing what you think.

Chapter 4

Emily paused just inside the doorway of The Brew and took a moment to glance around. Almost immediately she caught site of Sabrina sitting by one of the tables by the windows, sipping absently at her drink as she doodled something on the order pad open on the table in front of her. As if sensing Emily's gaze on her, she glanced up, her face lighting up in a grin. Emily's heart dropped. She forced an answering smile on her lips, though she was sure it looked more like a grimace.

She nodded her head towards the counter, indicating that she was going to order and then slipped into the back of the line. Her gaze flicked over listing of drinks and pastries written in chalk on the board behind the counter, though she couldn't focus long enough to take any of it in. Not that it mattered. Her stomach was churning too much for her to actually consume anything. This was just a stall tactic

She knew that things had not progressed far enough for this conversation to be heartbreaking. But that didn't mean it wasn't going to be hard. She didn't relish the thought of hurting a very sweet woman who had been nothing but kind and caring.

The line inched forward, and all too soon, Emily was at the front of it. She stepped forward and placed her order, her request coming out on autopilot. A couple minutes later she had her drink in hand and no more excuses not to over there and face Sabrina.

She made her way over, taking the long way around, weaving around tables, until there was nowhere else for her to go but directly forward. Right into Sabrina's waiting arms. She had risen to her feet as Emily approached, and now hugged her lightly. Emily's arms came up to return the embrace. Her actions more reflexive then deliberate. Sabrina brushed a kiss to her cheek as she pulled back, and then dropped back into her seat. Emily followed suit, fidgeting to get comfortable in the wooden-backed chair.

"Is everything all right?"

Emily hadn't realized they had been sitting in silence, sipping their coffees, until Sabrina put hers aside and leaned forward. She reached out across the table and took Emily's hand.

"Yeah. Fine," Emily muttered, before remembering herself. "Actually. Its...Sabrina, we need to talk." She leaned back in her own seat, her hand sliding from Sabrina's gasp in the process.

"Okay." Sabrina drew the word out, suddenly sounding wary. The open expression dropped from her face, her features growing guarded. "What is it?"

Emily sighed and ran a hand through her hair. There was no easy way to stay this. She didn't want to be blunt. To be brutal. But she also didn't want this to become a protracted discussion.

As cruel as it might seem, any emotional investment she had in this relationship vanished the moment Paige had stepped back into her life. Even if nothing came of their relationship, she knew that she couldn't continue seeing Sabrina. It felt dishonest.

"I don't this this is working out," she said softly, as gently as she could. "I don't think we should see each other anymore."

"I..uh..." Sabrina blinked, looking stunned. "Is it just me, or did that come totally out of left field?" she asked, clearly trying to sound measured though Emily detected the occasional tremor in her voice. "I thought things were going well."

"They were," Emily reassured her as best she could. Though she wasn't sure how reassuring it actually would be for Sabrina to know that while she was fine, Emily had her set on someone else. "It did come out of left field. But, it's also been a long time coming."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You know I told that some things in my past were complicated?"

Sabrina nodded. "One of those complications walked back into your life, didn't they? Your ex?"

"Yeah." Emily hadn't gone into much detail about things with Paige. She and Sabrina weren't at that point in their relationship where they shared the intricacies. But she had mentioned that she'd had a complicated past relationship, one that had a lot of things unresolved. "She's moving back to Rosewood." Or, thereabouts. The exact location where Paige ended up wasn't really the point.

"And, you guys are getting back together," Sabrina stated.

Emily shook her head. "No. We're not," she stressed when Sabrina arched an eyebrow at her, clearly skeptical.

"But you want to?"

"Honestly? If she'd have me, yes. But, this," she said, gesturing back and forth between them, "isn't even about that. Whether Paige and I get back together or not, seeing her again, it made me realize that I'm not ready to be with anyone else."

Sabrina hummed softly in the back of her throat, but didn't say anything.

Emily sat quietly, giving her a few minutes to process before speaking. "I'm sorry. I never meant to lead you on." This time she was the one to lean forward, wrapping both of her hands around Sabrina's and giving them a gentle squeeze. "Or hurt you. I really did enjoy spending time with you. It just..."

"Wasn't right." Sabrina offered up a soft, sad smile. "I can't say that I'm not dissapointed. But, I get it. I enjoyed the time we spent too."

Emily felt like a horrible person, but she was relieved that Sabrina seemed to be taking it well. And that she hadn't, at least so far, cried.

Sabrina opened her mouth to say something, but before she could her gaze drifted past Emily, focusing on something behind her, distracting her. Emily turned to follow her gaze and felt her heart sink when she spotted Paige standing, frozen in place, a few feet away. She had a coffee in one hand, and a muffin on a plate in the other. Their eyes met, and it was like getting kicked in the gut watcing the emotions play out across Paige's features, sadness, pain, anger, before she shuddered her gaze. She set the coffee and plate down on the table next to her then turned and walked out.

Emily's first instinct was to jump up and follow her out, to race after her and explain. She was almost on her feet, ready to chase her, when she remembered Sabrina. She dropped back into her seat and turned to her. She opened her mouth, to explain, to apologize, she didn't even know, but to somehow smooth over this situation. Sabrina shook her head, offering up another sad smile.

"Go," she said softly.

Feeling guilty, but also grateful, she lept to her feet and hurried after Paige. She exited The Brew and glanced wildly around, then spotted Paige a few stores down. She caught up to her in a few long strides.

"Paige. Paige. It wasn't what it looked like." She reached out, snagging Paige's elbow and spinning her around.

"You know what, it doesn't even matter," Paige said, her voice wavering, her words clipped and angry even as she tried to appear calm, nonchalant. But Emily knew her well enough, could read her well enough to see past the feigned neutral expression and unthreatening posture to recognize the tightly clenched jaw, the hunched shoulders, the hands shoved deeply into her pockets. "We're not together. You can see, you can do, whatever you want."

"It does matter. And you know it," Emily said gently, her hand still on Paige's arm. She rubbed up and down, hoping to sooth her.

"Maybe. But, it shouldn't."

"And, yet it does.."

"It's not...I just...It certainly didn't take you long," Paige snapped. "Did you even bother to change the sheets before calling your girflriend?"

"She's not my gilfriend." It had become reflexive for Emily to say that. The words were out of her mouth before she realized that wasn't the part of Paige's statement that needed to be addressed.

"Well, I guess that makes it so much better than." Paige shook Emily's hand off her elbow and spun around. Emily leapt in front of her.

"That's not fair," she said, feeling a surge of anger of her own. "You're the one who decided that things were done between us."

"Things have been done between us for a very long time, Em."

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't be so upset right now."

"I don't know what you want from here, Em"

"You know what I want." She had made that very clear earlier this morning, only to be shut down.

Paige shot her a look.

"Sorry," she muttered, raising her hands in surender.

"I'm not trying to be that girl," Paige said. "The one who says she wants to be friends and then gets all controlling and jealous of her ex."

Emily flinched at the use of the word ex, even though she knew that's exactly what they were.

"It's just, harder than I thought it would be seeing you with someone else."

"I'm not with her. That's what I was trying to tell you. What you saw back there? That was me telling her that things were over."

Paige frowned at her words, which wasn't eactly the response Emily was expecting.

"You shouldn't have done that?"

'What? Why not?"

"You know why."

"It's not even about that." Emily was only half lying. Deep down she had known that things with Sabrina weren't heading anywhere, but until Paige had come back into her life she had been willing to pretend otherwise.

"Really? So us...doing what we did last night had absolutely nothing to do with you ending your relationship with Sabrina this afternoon."

It was Emily's turn to frown. She knew she couldn't answer that in a way that would satisfy Paige. And Paige knew it too, Emily could see it written all over her face.

"I have to go," Paige said, stepping around Emily. "I just...I can't deal with this right now."

Emily stood rooted on the spot, watching her walk away. Her head spun with confusion as she tried to piece together the conversation. One minute Paige was mad at her because she thought Emily was with Sabrina, the next she was angry because she wasn't. Sighing, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed.

"How'd it go?" Hannah asked in greeting, her tone soft and soothing.

"It was a mess," Emily said, begining to walk. She didn't know where she was headed she was just overcome with the need to be moving.

"She didn't take it well?" Hannah clucked sympathetically.

"Oh, no, Sabrina took it fine. But Paige showed up in the middle of it and..." she trailed off and let out an aggravated sigh. "I tried to explain but I think I made things even worse." She gave Hannah a quick run down of events, growing more and more agitated as she remembered the hurt and anger on Paige's face, and the way her words cut deep. "I've really screwed things up. What do I do?"

"You know, I seem to remember you having a lot more game than this."

Hannah's amusement grated for a moment, and then her teasing tone washed over her, soothing some of her frazzled nerves.

"I mean, you used to smile and have girls falling all over themselves to get your attention. A few words and you could charm them out of ther panties-"

"Hannah," Emily protested, but it was mostly by rote. Her friend's lack of filter and propriety didn't really bother her anymore. She knew what Hannah was trying to do. And it was working. She was already feeling calmer, her head clearer. "Those girls..it didn't mean anything. It was just a game." She knew how that sounded. Just as she also knew that Hannah wouldn't judge her for it. "This is Paige. She..." means everything.

"I know, sweetie."

"So, what do I do?"

"Call her. No. Text her. Smooth things over. But don't get into. Just, nice and easy, y'know?"

Emily was nodding at Hannah's words, even though her friend couldn't see her.

"You're the best, Han."

"I know."

"And so modest." Emily chuckled and then said her goodbyes.

She paused, taking a moment to think about what she wanted to say to Paige, then composed her text.

I don't like how we left things, she typed, then hit send.A moment later her phone buzzed in her hand with Paige's response.

Me either. A smile played on Emily's lips, both at the prompt reply and that Paige seemed to be in agreement.

Can we meet? She typed. I think we should talk.

Yeah. We probably should. Again, Paige's reply came quickly.

Coffee?

Okay. But, not The Brew.

Chuckling, Emily sent Paige a laughing face emoticon. Agreed. I know a place. She added after a moments hesitation, then texted Paige an address. She held her breath, waiting. After what seemed like an eternity but was only sixty seconds, her phone buzzed with a reply.

8:00?

Relief flooded through her. See you then.

A beat, and then a happy face appeared in a dialogue box. The smile that blossomed on her own face no doubt matching the goofy cartoon grin as she tucked her phone back into her pocket and resumed walking.