Emily's tired, it's the end of a long post-school shift at The Brew. It hasn't been the usual busy Friday afternoon and the manager's had time to gripe at her about everything. Plus, she's got stuff on her mind to do with Paige. Tonight is supposed to be a 'girl's night' but she really doesn't want to discuss what she's got on her mind with all the girls – last time that happened – thanks to Hanna – disaster. So when Aria walks in with 20 minutes of her shift still to go and then another hour or so until they're supposed to meet up at Spencer's, she takes it as a sign.
Aria wanders over to the counter, catches sight of Emily and smiles a big, warm smile. Aria leans over the counter towards her,
"Hey, Em. Can I get a skinny latte?"
Emily turns to start making the drink, practiced now, so she can hold a conversation and complete a drinks order. She looks back over her shoulder at her friend,
"To go? Or?"
"No, stay in."
"Cool, um, Aria? Do you have to rush off?"
Aria takes a quick sip of her drink, hands the money to Emily and looks at her, a little concerned,
"No, I just wanted a coffee before we go to Spencer's. You ok?"
"Yeah, I just wondered, look, my shift ends in about 20 minutes. Can you hang around till then?"
Aria taps the book she's holding and nods,
"Sure, I can hold on." Smiling as Emily's attention is taken by her manager, Aria heads over to one of the booths at the back of the café.
Twenty minutes later and Emily's there, pulling off her apron, sighing and shaking out her hair, clutching a cup, she sits down on the sofa next to Aria.
"Rough shift?"
"You could say," Emily chuckles, "oh nothing bad, you know. Just quiet really, more boring than anything." She waits a beat, takes a sip of coffee, "Aria? Um, can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure, what's up?"
Emily isn't sure how to begin, isn't quite sure what she wants to say. Sometimes, with some things, Hanna's bumbling in makes things easier. Aria is looking at her with such focus it's making her nervous.
"Um, it's about Paige."
"Is everything ok?" Aria sounds genuinely concerned and Emily breaths out a sigh in relief. She's still not totally sure how the girls are with Paige – except Hanna, and even she was thrown off by seeing Paige with Shana.
"Yeah, no, things are cool. Great. Really." Emily looks away, "it's just," she laughs self-deprecatingly and shakes her head, "um, I'm not sure how to. … I really want to talk to her, about, us."
Aria makes a confused face, but waits for Emily to continue.
"What about, Em? Talk about what?"
"Well," Emily blushes slightly, dipping her head so her hair falls partially over her face to cover her embarrassment, "you know, about, taking things further."
Aria suddenly gets it and smiles at Emily,
"Oh!" Aria waits a beat, "Ok, I kind of thought that maybe you already had? You seem so, close, I'm kind of surprised." Emily looks away and huffs. "Why? Is it a problem?"
Emily scrunches up her face and shrugs,
"Kind of, but only cause I don't know, if, if,"
"If, Paige?" Aria leaves the obvious question hanging.
"Yeah, but the worse thing is, if she has or not, you know, I kind of want to know? If she has, with Shana?" Aria nods, "she said her and Shana had 'hooked up' but wouldn't tell me what that meant. And Shana spoke to me the other day—"
"Shana spoke to you? About what?"
"Well, you know, she just said some things about her and Paige that made me wonder."
Aria doesn't say anything for a moment, and Emily panics that she shouldn't have spoken to her about it. And it's true, Shana did speak to her and implied some stuff about just how intimate she and Paige had gotten. Plus some other stuff, about how much fun Paige is and how much of a laugh they have together and how well they get on. All the things just designed to push Emily's buttons.
"I'm sorry, Aria, I just thought it might be easier talking to you on your own. Hanna's been amazing about the whole 'gay thing', but last time we spoke about anything intimate, she just hi-jacked the whole conversation," Emily sighed in exasperation. Aria starts laughing,
"Yeah, I remember! Em? it's ok, but I really think the only person you can talk to about this is Paige." Emily sighs. "Em? Is it a deal-breaker if, you know, she has? You weren't together at the time."
"No, I know. And I had just 'friend-zoned' her."
"Yeah, plus, she had to stay on the sidelines all the time you and Maya were together." Aria says sympathetically placing her hand on Emily's and giving it a quick squeeze. "Look, do you think maybe Shana was just trying to push some buttons?"
Emily pushes her hair away from her face and sighs,
"Well, it worked."
"Look, if it's any help, me and the girls were talking about you and Paige and the whole Shana thing after Hanna saw them at the club."
Emily sighs in frustration, she really doesn't want to hear what Spencer has to say about her and Paige, they just seemed to be coming to an understanding of sorts. Emily loves her friends, she loves her family, she even loves Rosewood, but sometimes she just wants some time out, some time where her and Paige can just be together, without all the crazy in the world, to figure out what they can be to each other.
"Oh, great, I bet Spencer had some things to say about that!"
Aria smiles,
"You know, Spencer was actually the one who most rejected the idea of Paige cheating, she wouldn't hear of it at all, kept saying there must be another explanation," Aria holds Emily's eyes, "and there was. She and Paige are more alike than you think, you know."
Emily takes a moment to let that sink in. Waits a beat, then continues,
"Ok. But what about Shana?" Aria takes a moment to think, then shrugs,
"I don't know her. I don't know anything about her, but I'm guessing if she's still into Paige, and from what Hanna said that's a possibility, then, I would be inclined to be a little wary over what she says to you. She knows who you are, right?"
Emily nods, "yeah," and lets the comment sink in. Aria quickly checks her watch,
"Em? We should go if we're going to get to Spencer's on time. Look, you should just talk to Paige and I'm sure things will, um develop, if that's what's going to happen. Surely it doesn't matter if she has or hasn't?"
"Yeah, I know, but maybe, it may mean," Emily smiles, looks away and blushes again, luckily Aria seems to get the point,
"Oh, sure." She nods and grins, eyes widening for emphasis, "just in case you get the opportunity." Emily finally laughs. "Em, just talk to her, ok?"
The next afternoon, and Paige rolls up to Emily's house on her bike. Leaning it against the side of Emily's porch, she mounts the steps, fiddling with her hair that's come loose from an already messy bun as she cycled over. She knocks the door, trying to control the grin that tugs at her lips at the prospect of an afternoon with Emily.
The door's opened by Emily's mum, who smiles in greeting,
"Hi, Paige, Emily just asked me to answer the door, she's just getting ready."
"Hi, Mrs Fields."
"Paige, please, I've told you, it's Pam, Mrs Fields makes me sound so old."
"Uh, no, not at all, but thanks, Pam." And Paige flashes her such a genuine smile that for a moment, Pam can see why Emily seems quite so smitten with this girl.
A couple of seconds later Emily bounds down the steps into the hallway, eyes all over Paige. She brushes past her mother and leans down to give Paige a quick kiss on the cheek. Pam Fields smiles at the girls and turns to go back inside.
Paige looks up at Emily, not speaking for a moment. Emily leans in towards her ear and whispers,
"Hey, that's a real breakthrough, you know. You and Pam."
Paige laughs and curls her fingers round Emily's giving them a squeeze.
"Ok, well, good." She smiles, "it's a good day, Em. What do you fancy doing?"
"I don't know, I'd like to go out for a walk, or something?"
"Well, if you want to go somewhere, I brought transport," she says, grinning and motioning her head towards the bike.
"Paige, I am not riding shotgun on your damn bike. Again."
Paige pulls Emily down the doorstep onto her level until their bodies are flush against one another. At the sudden move, both girls catch their breath at the closeness of the other. Paige runs her hand over Emily's side and up towards her shoulder. She tugs her closer and whispers into her ear,
"You know, you can really hurt a girl's feelings." Emily laughs, pushing her playfully away,
"Come on, lets walk, I just want to spend some time with you."
Emily wants to talk to Paige privately, somehow, but without any suggestions, like a bed in the way. She waits for Paige to catch up, then catches her hand, lacing their fingers together and she hears Paige's breath catch in her throat and she smiles, wondering how on earth anyone could doubt Paige when she's so transparent. Paige in turn looks down at their hands, linked together and smiles widely.
Paige is quiet this afternoon, not talking so much, listening to Emily, whose constant chatter is trying to belie her nerves. They walk on through the town, grabbing a couple of coffees to take away, until Emily stops them by a bench in the park. It's the bench furthest away from anyone, nearer the woods than the town, partially hidden away. She sits down and pulls Paige with her, turning slightly towards her, resting their linked hands on Paige's knee. Emily's talking about their latest swim meet, the form of the team, the possibility of scouts coming to watch them. Paige is taking it in, she always listens when Emily's talking, but she's playing with Emily's fingers, waiting for a natural break in the conversation. She's so tuned in to Emily that she's very aware there's something off about her today, a nervousness underlying their interactions. As it becomes fairly apparent that Emily isn't about to stop, Paige decides she has to break the tension.
"Emily?"
Emily stops what she's saying,
"Mhm?"
"What's going on? You're kind of on one today?"
"What do you mean?" Emily is well-aware of what Paige means, but she's nervous, unsure where to start, she's just realised she's kind of scared about where this conversation could go.
"I don't know, but, you're worrying me." Emily finally looks at Paige for the first time this afternoon.
"Sorry, I don't mean to. I – I want to talk to you and I'm not sure where to start."
Emily feels Paige stiffen and tighten her grip on her hand. She needs to relax, she realises she's worrying Paige unnecessarily. She leans in and kisses Paige gently, her left hand touching the back of her neck. She pulls back and sees Paige still with her eyes closed. Paige opens her eyes and smiles,
"Ok, that makes it better."
"Yeah?" Emily grins, still so close to Paige that she feels her breath across her lips as Paige exhales.
"Yeah."
Emily pulls back a little, dropping her hand from Paige's neck and resting it on her forearm. It's warm and the feeling calms Emily a little, she takes a deep breath and,
"Paige, I spoke to Shana the other day." Paige groans and drops her head dramatically to her chest.
"Aww, Em, not this again. I told you, I only spent time with her –"
"Yeah, 'cause you were Batman-ing, I know that." Paige cocks her head, smiling cutely,
"Um, is that even a word? Cause, you know, you could be spending too much time with Hanna."
Emily's glad of the break in tension and relaxes. She and Paige have been properly together a few months now and she's aware that she's building this whole scenario up in her head. She was thrown when she realised how jealous she was of Paige spending time with Shana and in some ways, for her, this is about bringing them closer than ever. She wants Paige, she feels ready to take the next step with her, but she wants it to be about the both of them and she doesn't want to pressurise Paige.
Paige suddenly realises something and looks at Emily with a puzzled expression,
"Wait, you spoke to Shana the other day? I didn't know you knew her." As she reads Emily's expression, Paige's eyes widen and she becomes more agitated, "Ok, what did she say?"
"Well, she implied, urgh," Emily sighs in frustration as she tries to find the right words. She grips Paige's hand more tightly, retains her light touch on her forearm. "Ok, Paige, please don't get mad, or upset. I'm just going to say what I need to say and then we can figure it out ok?"
Paige looks at Emily askance and then nods slowly. She's good at listening and picking through what people are saying, but she knows she can also react sometimes before she's really thought things through. But she loves Emily, and she's becoming more confident in the fact that Emily loves her, so, she agrees to let Emily speak.
"Shana implied that, you'd been, you know, intimate together, and –" Paige blushes furiously and groans, unable to look Emily in the eye.
"Em, I don't know what she said, but – look – we - um – never - you know. She wanted to and before you came back, she'd been implying that we should, but, I don't know. You came back, you came over, you kissed me and, I guess I didn't have to think about it anymore."
"Did you want to?"
"Emily, please." Paige is practically squirming in embarrassment now. For all that she expected the conversation to be hard, she didn't expect it to go this way. But Emily was still looking at her, she'd managed to avoid answering the question when Emily asked it before, but this time there didn't seem to be any hope of that.
"Ok, yes. I did. I was seriously considering it. But," she shrugs.
Emily looks past Paige's shoulder, a little embarrassed and unable to look her in the eye. She runs her hand up Paige's arm and back down to gently take her other hand. She wanted to know, she asked the question and now she has the answer but she realises it's not quite the answer she wanted. A stab of jealousy, she wants to be the only one Paige looks at like that and yet, she knows that's not fair.
They're quiet for a moment and then Paige chuckles,
"Ok, well, that was awkward." She gently shakes Emily's hand to pull her back to her attention. "Emily? Why do you need to know so badly? I know you and Maya slept together, it's not a deal-breaker, unless-." A beat. "Oh." Paige drops her head, her blush spreading,
Emily's head snaps back to look at her,
"What?"
"Um, are we talking about what I think we're talking about, because - do you think I don't want to? With you? Because, Emily, I really, really do. But, we've never talked, or, you know, been in the situation and…Could you join in here, because I'm really struggling."
Emily laughs, pulls Paige towards her and kisses her – it's not soft, or gentle but it's full of how much she loves Paige and how much she cares about her and as her tongue brushes against Paige's lower lip, how much she wants her. She pulls back and Paige is looking at her with so much love and so much desire that she's not sure why she ever needed to question Paige in the first place, she leans back in towards her and kisses a spot at the side of her mouth gently before moving her lips close to Paige's ear. Paige's breath hitches and she closes her eyes,
"Yes, Paige, this is what we're talking about."