Spencer, Aria, and the guys caught a flight back to Philadelphia early Monday morning. Emily, Paige, and Hanna headed back up to Stanford. Emily drove, with Hanna riding shotgun. Paige rode in the back, with her earbuds in, letting Hanna have Emily all to herself. Paige realized that, after Paige herself and Emily's parents, Hanna was the most important person in Emily's life, and she wanted to make sure that the two of them had some quality time together. Hanna was still had a lot of things to work through regarding her feelings toward Caleb, and Emily was glad to be there for her, much in the way that Hanna had been there for her when she was working through her feelings about Maya and Paige.
They routed themselves through Anaheim on the trek north, because Hanna had it on her bucket list was to meet Minnie Mouse. Spring Break was listed as one of the ten-worst times to visit Disneyland (Paige checked.), but it was Hanna. She would not be deterred. And she could be very convincing. It actually wasn't so bad, since they weren't there for the rides. It seemed like an awful lot of money, though, between parking and the passports, just to walk around looking for Minnie, so while Hanna went on her quest for Minnie, Paige and Emily wandered around looking for rides where the wait times were short.
Paige adamantly refused to go on "It's a Small World," until Emily bit her lip and gave her the look that she couldn't say no to. Emily perked up when Paige finally gave in, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her to the line. They rode in the back of the car, Emily in awe of the ride, and Paige in awe of Emily's excitement. Paige really wanted to kiss her – to be kissing her – but Emily's attention was riveted. She posted many videos to Instagram that day.
As they were walking hand in hand through the park, Emily noticed a little girl staring intensely at them, tugging at her mother's sleeve and pointing at the two of them. Emily reflexively let go of Paige's hand when she saw the pair come close to them. "I'm sorry," the mother said, looking at Emily. "My daughter is convinced that you're Pocahontas."
Emily knelt down to the little girl's level and gave her a hug, explaining that she was Emily, but that she was flattered to hear that she looked like Pocahontas. "Is Pocahontas your favorite princess?"
"No, I like Ariel."
"I like Ariel, too!" Paige chimed in, telling the girl that Emily was part mermaid. The girl's eyes went wide.
"Not really," Emily confessed, "but I do love the water!"
Emily put her hair up after that, to avoid any further confusion.
After a while, Emily got a text from Hanna. She had tracked down Minnie Mouse, and she wanted them to come get in line to meet her. The found their way to Hanna's location, and Hanna joined them at the end of the line. She had managed to pick up a Minnie shirt for herself and some Minnie ears for each of them to wear in their photo op.
Mission accomplished, they grabbed a quick lunch and got back on the road to Stanford. Emily took another turn at the wheel. Hanna was going to offer to drive, but Emily warned her about how overprotective Paige was of her baby. They stopped for dinner, to break up the drive, and Paige took the homestretch back to Palo Alto.
Coach Meehan had scheduled one-on-one time with his swimmers over Spring Break, to review the past season and to go over their goals for the coming year. Emily's session was scheduled for Tuesday morning, meaning that Paige would have to entertain Hanna for about a half hour. How hard could that be? Paige thought.
Pretty hard.
It turns out, when Hanna wasn't making inappropriate comments about (and groping at) Paige's body-accessories, they had very little to talk about. Paige took her out for breakfast, and they sat across the table awkwardly looking at their utensils and coffee cups until Hanna finally came up with a topic for conversation.
"So. How's Pru doing?"
"Oh, she's doing great. Really loving college."
"What's she studying?"
"Partying, from the sound of it. With a minor in men. She pledged at Gotta Getta Dude."
"Yeah, I definitely need to party with her."
"You guys would be epic."
Well, that killed about two minutes.
Hanna grew frustrated at the silence, again. "Jeez, Paige – were your first dates with Emily this awkward?" Paige reminded her that she and Emily had been friends before they started dating. "Oh, right. You guys were sleeping together before you started dating." Paige's head popped up, and she self-consciously looked around to see who may have overheard. Hanna rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean!"
"Yes, Hanna," Paige whispered, "but I'm not sure that the rest of the customers in this establishment know!"
And, the silence was back.
"She really loves you, you know," Hanna said, at last. Paige nodded her head enthusiastically. She wouldn't have been able to dim the smile that stretched across her face if she had wanted to. Hanna reached out and put her hand on top of Paige's, looking her directly in the eyes. "No, Paige. She really loves you."
"I know that she does," Paige said softly, returning Hanna's serious look.
"Good." Hanna relaxed back into her seat, releasing her hold on Paige's hand. "You really love her, too, don't you, Paige?" she said after a pause. Paige dipped her head and smiled. "I can tell," Hanna said wistfully. "It's obvious how much she means to you."
"I've never felt this way about anyone before, Hanna," Paige admitted.
"I just hope that you know how lucky you are, because what you guys have doesn't just come around every day." Paige was starting to get emotional. Hanna wouldn't let up. "I'm so glad that she found you. God knows she deserves the kind of happiness that you bring her."
Paige stood up and grabbed Hanna in a hug. She had never seen this side of her. She knew Hanna the ditz; Hanna the party girl; Hanna the inappropriate. She was really touched to see Hanna so fiercely protective of Emily, and so genuinely happy for their relationship.
Emily walked into the diner and looked up from her phone to scan the room for Paige and Hanna. She was confused to see them hugging it out, apparently sharing a tender moment. Fortunately, she already had her phone in her hand. She had to get a picture, because she didn't expect to see this scene repeated in her lifetime. "Okay," she said when she made it over to them, "What did I miss?"
Paige released herself from Hanna's arms and spoke. "I think that your best friend was about to give me the 'break her heart and I'll cut a bitch' speech."
Emily saw the tears that Paige was fighting back and looked accusingly over at her best friend. "Hanna?"
Paige shook her head. "We were just talking about how lucky you and I are."
"Yeah, Em. I don't have to give Paige the 'cut a bitch' speech. She already knows that I would! And I know," she added in a more serious tone, putting her hand on Paige's shoulder, "that she would never break your heart."
"Yeah_" Emily drew out the word as she tried to make sense of the situation. "I'm not quite sure what actually happened here, but I'm just going to assume that, whatever it was, you guys worked it out."
Emily grabbed a cup of coffee and joined them. Paige finished up and excused herself. Her meeting with coach was coming up in the afternoon, but she headed back to the room to give Emily some time with Hanna.
The restaurant had placemats with a map of the United States on them, to keep kids occupied while they waited for their food. Emily noticed that Paige folder hers up and put it in her pocket.
Emily took Hanna on a tour of the campus, and they took Paige's car to look around Palo Alto a bit and do some shopping.
Early Wednesday morning, Paige and Emily drove Hanna to the airport. She gave them each long, heartfelt hugs. She leaned in and whispered something into Paige's ear during their hug. Paige laughed, then spun Hanna around and gave her a push towards the door.
"What was that little exchange about, as if I didn't know?"
"She told me that this trip was our second date, and that she expects to see some boob on our third date."
They decided to stop for Mexican food in San José before they headed back to campus. Hanna was still the subject of their conversation.
"I'm glad that I got to see another side of Hanna. I'm glad that you have a friend like her."
"Yeah," Emily agreed. "She can be a handful, but, when it comes down to it, she's always been there for me." Emily explained that Hanna was the one whom she turned to when she was coming to an awareness of her sexuality. Hanna made her feel safe. "I mean, not everyone's experience is like yours, Paige," Emily teased. "It can be really rough for a thirteen year old. Your body and your mind are already going through all these changes. Life's so confusing as it is. And if everyone else is swimming in one direction and you're going a different way, there's just so much self-doubt and self-hatred and insecurity."
Paige reached for Emily's hand. "I wish that I'd known you back then."
Emily shook her head, smiling. "No. We met at the right time. Who knows what would've happened if we met back then? I don't think that I would've been ready for someone like you."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, we could've easily missed each other, you know? When I met you, I don't know – I already knew who I was. If we had met back when I was still trying to figure things out…" Emily trailed off. "And, maybe you weren't ready for me then, either."
Paige shrugged. "Well, I'm just glad that we're here, now." She leaned over to give Emily a kiss. "You were definitely worth the wait."
"So, what do you want to do for the rest of Spring Break?" Paige asked in the car on the way back to campus.
"Well, after my talk with Coach, I guess I need to get started on the off-season diet and workout regimen!"
"Same," Paige agreed, a bit downbeat. "What do you say we go for a jog tomorrow morning and hit the gym? Say, 5:30?"
"Whoa, Paige! You don't have to be so hardcore! We're still on break, remember? There's plenty of time to sleep in and still get our training in."
"Oh, okay. Sorry. I was just thinking, the sooner that we get started back on our routine, the easier it'll make things on Monday."
"Or…" Emily's tone was suggestive, "We could take advantage of the break to do things that we won't have time to do once classes start up again!" Paige smiled, and her eyes brightened. "What do you say, McCullers? Horror movie marathon tonight?"
"Yeah. Sure," Paige deadpanned. "That sounds like way more fun than what I had in mind."
"Yeah, it'll be fun! Make some popcorn, cuddle together on the bed, I'll hold you when you freak out."
"Get ready to hold me, then, because you know that I'll be freaking out!"
Emily grabbed her laptop from the desk while Paige unpacked the snacks that they'd picked up on the way home. The off-season diet didn't start till Saturday, they decided. Something on Paige's desk caught Emily's eye. She went over to see, and recognized it as the placemat that Paige had taken from the restaurant. There were creases from where she had folded it, and there were red Xs through California, Washington, Arizona, and North Carolina.
"What's this?" she asked, holding it up in front of Paige, grinning. She had a pretty good idea what it was.
"I wanted to keep track of the states that we've crossed off of our list," Paige replied.
Emily smiled, shaking her head. It was just so Paige, literally crossing the states off. Emily went through the crossed-off states, rattling off the events. "Washington – Pac-12 championships, California – of course, Arizona – the Arizona State meet, North Carolina – NCAA championships." Paige smiled up at her with pride. "So, what are you going to do when someone asks you what all the Xs are for?"
"Who? Nobody's going to see it! It'll just be between the two of us."
"You say that," Emily said, wide-eyed and teasing, "but somebody always sees these things. What are you going to do when YOUR DAD sees it?" She mock-gasped and raised her eyebrows ominously.
Paige thought it over. "I'll just tell him that I'm keeping track of all the states that we've been to together, because we want to get to all fifty. Bucket list."
"Uh huh. And what about Pennsylvania?"
"We've never made love in Pennsylvania…"
"Yeah, but if you tell your dad that you're tracking the states that we've been to together…"
"Right!" Paige got out her red Sharpie and crossed off Pennsylvania. "But, now, you have to do me in Pennsylvania," she said, with no hint of joking in her tone.
"Deal!" Emily agreed. "So, how does it work if we're in an airplane, for example, and we join the mile high club?"
Paige thought it over. "We just have to keep track of the time. I have a flight tracker on my phone, so we can put in the flight number and the time, and it'll tell us what state – or states – to cross off."
"You're can be such a geek, McCullers." Emily bent down and kissed her, holding her face between her hands.
"But I don't think that we should count it unless we're actually stopped on the ground, you know?" Paige was still dead serious about the process.
"So, if we're in the car driving through a state and you get a little frisky?"
"Jeez, Em!" Paige was genuinely shocked. "You know, if anyone had told me back in high school, when I was swimming against you, that we would be having this conversation one day, I would never have believed it."
"How about if we're stuck in an airport, on a layover, and I take you in the bathroom stall?"
"Count it! Definitely, count it!"
Emily fired up her laptop and settled onto the bed. "So, basically, what you're saying is, having sex with me in all fifty states is on your bucket list?"
"Yes it is," Paige said, not missing a beat. "And then, we can start crossing some foreign countries off of the list!"