As the stood in Emily's door way lost in the heat of the moment of the searing kiss that oozed with desire, Emily began to drag Paige further inside the house. They were both completely lost in the moment, it felt like they were 16 again, all the heat and passion still remained and was now total consuming them both. As Emily's hands slid up under the hem of Paige's shirt, making contact with her skin, Paige suddenly became very aware of her senses and how steamy this kiss had become. Paige pulled away from the kiss, breaking all contact with Emily. Emily froze and stared at Paige in confusion. Paige was the one that had kissed her in the first place and now she had just gone cold on her. Paige immediately saw the hurt and confusion in Emily's eyes. She stepped closer to Emily who averted her eyes to the floor. Paige grabbed Emily's hands and dipped her head to try and get her attention.

"Em, please Em look at me. Let me explain." Paige said in a soft and comforting tone that made Emily peek a glance at her, Paige stood before her with pleading eyes. Emily nodded for Paige to continue.

"I think we have a lot we need to talk about and work through before we can open up to each other like that. I had to show you how I felt because you haven't given me a chance to explain since I got here." Emily shot Paige a look at the accusation, although what Paige was saying was true, Emily still had a long way to go before forgiving Paige. Emily put her defences up immediately and pulled her hands from Paige's grasp.

"Hey, I'm not saying I don't deserve the way you've treated me Em, I know I've hurt you. But I needed to get your attention, I needed you to understand how I felt and coming here and showing you just seemed easier than trying to get your guard down long enough to explain." Paige pleaded, searching Emily's eyes for a response.

Emily could see Paige's point. She knew she had made things very hard on Paige since they saw each other at the engagement party, but it was mostly to guard her own heart from more hurt. She put up a front since seeing Paige but that wall was slowly beginning to crumble down.

"Please don't be mad at me for kissing you Em…or for pulling away." Paige added in, more in search of a response from Emily. Paige could have swore she saw disappointment in Emily's eyes at Paige breaking the kiss before things got out of control, or was Paige simply imagining it was disappointment.

Emily still stood there not saying a word. She imagined for Paige it must look like she was mad, but in all honestly Emily was just trying to process what had just happened and how it left her feeling. Emily was thinking of just how a couple of hours ago she was curled up in the foetal position balling her eyes out over having convinced herself that things with Paige were finally over. Yet here now she stood in front of her ex with a burning desire to just grab her and kiss her.

"I'm going to be blunt here Em, and you can get mad at me if you want, I don't care. I'm just going to put it all on the line. The way I see it, we have two options. One, you can chose to continue to hate me and I'll leave right this minute and never bother you again. Or two, we can sit down and try to work some of our issues out. I'm personally really in favour of the second option." Paige added with a nervous laugh, not knowing how Emily was going to react to the options Paige offered her.

Emily looked up into Paige's pleading eyes. She couldn't deny the love she felt for Paige. The feeling was as strong as it was five years ago and had never diminished. Maybe it was time she put the past behind her. She spent five years blaming Paige for the hurt she felt, but what was all that anger and hurt achieving? It was consuming her and had changed her as a person these past few years. She had become cold and distant to everyone around her. She knew it wasn't healthy behaviour, but was it so easy to just put that all in the past?

"Paige, I don't hate you." Emily said, speaking for the first time since the kiss ended. "I do think we have a lot to talk about"

"Do you think you're ready to talk about everything?" Paige asked hopefully, finally seeing a softer side to Emily since her return to Rosewood.

Emily looked at Paige, she knew it was time to talk everything through. Whatever happened afterwards, she knew they had to face their issues, it wasn't going to be easy but even if they could salvage a friendship from it then it would be worth it.

"I think it's about time we did, so yeah." Emily said nervously, her heart beginning to race as she became anxious as to how this conversation was going to go.

"Okay, great. So maybe we could meet up tomorrow? I don't want to just ambush you right now, it'll give us both time to think exactly what we want to talk about and say. Sound good?" Paige asked anxiously, Emily finally seemed to be able to tolerate her some bit, she didn't want to push her luck by forcing the issue right now. Some time to think seemed the best option.

Emily nodded in response giving Paige a small smile. They arranged to meet at noon but didn't decide on a location. They agreed they needed somewhere that was quite enough and secluded so they could get everything off their chests, even if it meant raised voices or tears. But they also agreed it should be somewhere neutral so Emily's house and Paige's room at the Radley where out of the question. Paige said she would text Emily tomorrow with a place to meet. After sharing an awkward hug Paige left and Emily stood in her hallway lost in thought. She knew that staying her thinking about her impending meeting with Paige would drive her crazy, she had to get out of the house. She pulled out her phone and sent a group text.

SMS: Cocktails anyone?- Spencer, Aria, Hanna.

An hour later Emily found herself sitting on one of the large couches at the Radley sipping on a cocktail. It was like déjà vu. 24 hours ago she was sat her oblivious to the fact that her world was going to be turned upside down by the return of the love of her life. She could always rely on Hanna, Spencer and Aria to be there for her in a time of need. She didn't specify to the girls what exactly had happened but they knew it was to do with Paige. Spencer and Aria knew better then to not push the subject further but Hanna never knew when to keep her mouth shut.

"So are you going to tell us what this emergency meeting is about then?" Hanna pleaded to Emily.

"It's not an emergency meeting. Do I need a reason to see my 3 best friends?" Emily shot back, not sure how much of this evenings events she wanted to share. Everything was still so unresolved that there really was nothing too share.

"Of course you don't. We all didn't get to spend too much time together at the party lastnight so it's nice we get to have a drink together now." Aria piped up before Hanna decided to quiz Emily more.

Curiosity was beginning to get the better of Spencer about what happened after she left Emily at the bar with Paige last night. "How did your talk with Paige go Em?" Spencer asked cautiously.

Emily shot Spencer a look, she expected Hanna badgering her but it was unusual for Spencer too, although she had always been fierce protective of all the girls.

"We didn't really talk." Emily said tentatively, the moment she said it she realised how it must have sounded and looked up to see Aria and Spencer with wide eyes and mischievous smiles. Hanna of coarse knew how the evenings events had turned out. "No, God not like that. I mean I got totally wasted and could barely say my own name let alone have a decent conversation with somebody." Emily went on to explain, much to Aria and Spencer's disappointment. Unless you were blind, you could see that Emily and Paige were made for one another.

"And do you think you two will have a decent conversation before either of you leaves town or…?" Spencer probed more, she was asking the question everyone wanted to know the answer too. Although Hanna had all but forced Paige into going to see Emily this evening, she hadn't heard how the encounter went. She didn't have a moment alone with Emily yet to be filled in on the encounter and so far she couldn't judge by Emily's mood that night if it had gone well or had all gone belly up.

Emily suddenly became nervous about telling the girls about meeting Paige tomorrow. She didn't want any added pressure from them. She looked down at her drink and paused as she tried to come up with an answer. She was the worst liar so she may aswell just be honest with them. "Well, actually, we might be sort of meeting up tomorrow to talk." Emily said slowly and tentatively as she continued to avoid the girls gazes.

Hanna, Aria and Spencer shared a look amongst one another, they could see how nervous Emily was, they knew she needed their support and it explained the sudden plans of meeting for cocktails.

Spencer was the first to get up from her seat and drag Emily into a hug. "Well I hope it goes great." She whispered into her ear. Aria and Hanna followed suit, all engaging in a group hug as they offered their support. This was the kinds of support and love that Emily had missed so dearly these past 5 years while they were all apart. All along Emily had thought that coming home, even just for a few days, was a mistake and would drag her life backwards. But now as she stood there hugging her three best friends, it suddenly felt like maybe everything was falling back into place. Well, almost everything….