Emily and Paige stopped by the liquor store before heading to Alison's house for dinner to grab some wine, unsure of what else to bring.
"So what kind of wine says 'I know we used to hate each other, but now I'm sleeping with the girl who used to be in love with you, and I'm sorry your sister's dead, even though she made your friend's lives a living hell?'" Paige jokingly asked Emily, trying to lighten the tension in the air.
Something had been off with Emily all afternoon and Paige couldn't quite place it. Emily had been fine that morning, but something during the day had upset her and she had been in a mood ever since. She had asked her a few times but Emily shrugged it off. Paige worried at first that maybe Emily regretted taking things too far, but Emily put those fears to rest quickly. She reassured Paige that she was happy with how they spent their morning and looked forward to many similar mornings in the future.
"How about this Cabernet?" Paige continued as she held up a moderately priced bottle of wine that she had found. "I seem to remember you telling me that you liked both your wine and your women to be bold."
"Actually I believe you said that, and the word that I seem to remember you using was 'ballsy'." Emily corrected Paige with a smile, trying to mask her anxiety about the dinner with humor.
"Gross. I must have been young and dumb when I said that. I think bold is a much more flattering description of me, don't you think?" Paige replied, wrapping her arms around Emily from behind to again show her the bottle.
Emily leaned into Paige's embrace and nodded her head at the bottle. She had been distracted since her text fight with Hanna. It not only bothered her that Hanna would ask her to basically lie for her, but it was hurtful that she hadn't even told him about her. Emily thought their relationship mattered to Hanna. They dated for a long time and were everything to each other. They had even talked about spending the rest of their lives together and now it was like she didn't even exist. Emily felt sick to her stomach about the whole thing. Emily wasn't even worth a mention, not even worth a conversation to Hanna.
Trying to shake her thoughts from her head as Paige released her arms from around her waist to head towards the register. Emily stayed in the aisle a second longer to grab a few more bottles off the shelf, knowing she'd need plenty of fortitude to get through tonight's event.
Emily was relieved when she and Paige arrived first at Alison's house. It gave her time to calm her nerves before Hanna and Jordan arrived. Emily quickly learned that Aria had never responded and would not be coming to dinner, but that Spencer would be bringing Caleb and Hanna would be bringing Jordan.
Spencer and Caleb were the next to arrive. Spencer, who lived right next door, just let herself in the back door. Emily thought that Spencer and Caleb made a cute couple. Emily had been surprised to learn they were together, but looking back on it, it made sense. Both were the two smartest people she knew and they were alike in a lot of ways.
After setting down the wine and appetizers that they had brought over, Spencer quickly walked towards Emily to say hello.
"You brought Paige? When did this happen? Does Hanna know?" Spencer whispered quietly in Emily's ear as she leaned in for a hug.
"It's not really any of her business, is it?" Emily quietly spat back at Spencer.
Spencer was surprised by the harshness of Emily's response, but she did have a point. Hanna was with Jordan, Emily should move on as well. Spencer hadn't always been Paige's biggest fan, but she knew Emily had always had a soft spot for her so she couldn't be all that bad.
"Fair enough." Spencer finished quietly before breaking from the hug and moving to greet Paige as warmly as she could, while Caleb moved to greet Emily.
As Spencer leaned in to politely hug Paige, she saw Hanna and Jordan come through the front door. Hanna glared harshly at Spencer and Paige's embrace before plastering on a fake smile to greet Alison and introduce Jordan to her.
Spencer noticed Hanna's reaction to the hug and subtly pulled away from Paige to help Alison greet the newest guests. There was an awkward tension between Hanna and Emily that Spencer couldn't help but notice and she wasn't sure exactly what was going on.
"Jordan…hi! It's so good to see you." Spencer said as she greeted him with a hug.
"Wow, did you guys bring enough food?" Alison joked, surprised by the armfuls of chaffing dishes that they are carrying in.
"Oh there's more…" Hanna replies dryly as she sets the food down on the counter.
Ignoring Hanna's bad attitude, Spencer chimed in for introductions since clearly Hanna was not planning on it. "Jordan, you know Alison. And this is Emily, Paige, and Caleb." Spencer continued, gesturing to each person as she named them.
"I finally get to meet the Caleb Rivers." Jordan says after he politely smiles at the new introductions and walks over to shake Caleb's hand. "Any chance you want to help me get the last load of food from the car?"
"Uh yeah…sure. How much did you guys bring?" Caleb agreed with a confused look on his face. He and others in the room were all slightly confused as to why Jordan was taking so much of an interest in him. It was easy to assume that Jordan's interest was just because they were the only guys at the party full of women who all know each other a little too well. Only Emily and Hanna knew the truth as to why. Hanna could feel Emily glaring at her but couldn't meet her eyes. Spencer saw how Emily was looking at Hanna, but the rest seemed not to notice.
"Haha. I know. I come from a big family, I always over order." Jordan responded jokingly, as he territorially put his arm around Hanna.
Emily couldn't help but feel disgusted as she watched the scene unfold. She wouldn't have been surprised if Jordan just peed on her to make it that much clear to Caleb that she was his. If only he knew the real one who had claimed her heart for so many years.
Hanna kept avoiding eye contact with Emily during the introductions, but with Jordan and Caleb outside, she finally dared to look towards her and Paige.
Hanna took a step towards Emily, wanting to say something, anything to make it better. But Emily cut her off before she could speak. "It'll be fine. I won't say anything."
Paige was confused by Emily's words, but Emily gave her a look like she'd explain everything later. Paige wondered if this had to do with why she had been acting so strange all day. Before Paige could put too much more thought into it, Alison began yelling at Spencer about moving a bouquet of flowers from the dining room table. Apparently they were a welcome home present for Charlotte and were not to be touched. Paige simply chuckled to herself and thought she'd better buckle up; it was going to be one hell of an evening with this much history and this much crazy all in one room.
After Ali's mini-meltdown, Spencer, Hanna, and Paige all sat awkwardly in the living room, folding napkins and prepping for the upcoming dinner.
"So how long are you in town for?" Spencer asked Paige, trying to make small talk but also gauge how serious she and Emily were.
"Just a week or two right now. But I was here interviewing for Hollis Medical School, so if I get in, I'm guessing I'll be in Rosewood for at least the next three years, and then after that I can choose where to do my residency." Paige replied, knowing exactly what Spencer was not so subtly getting at and wanting to make it clear to both of them that she was in this for the long haul. Hanna stiffened a little at Paige's response, but only Spencer noticed.
On the other side of the room, Emily moved out of the doorway, where she was talking with Alison, to let Caleb pass by them.
"Perfect, I think it goes in this way." Jordan says as he sees Caleb approaching with a large table leaf.
Emily could see the boys struggling with the table and finally decided to chime in. "Actually it's backwards; you have to angle the leaf down. I used to have one just like it…" She said, trailing off at the end, fearing she might have just revealed too much. As angry as she was with Hanna, she wasn't interested in stirring the pot and causing any tension.
"Oh you know what, you're right .This is just like the one that Hanna has. It was the first piece of furniture we put in the new place. Hanna won't let go of it." Jordan replied, thankful for the help and oblivious to the fact that they were referring to the same table.
Emily couldn't help but feel heat rise up to her face at Jordan's remarks. She figured Hanna would have gotten rid of the table, given all the memories and what it symbolized. Emily didn't understand, if she wasn't worth a mention, why bother to keep the table? Emily wanted to look over at Hanna but was afraid that Paige would notice, so she kept her eyes planted on Alison in the kitchen.
"Ugh…there are 4 bottles of wine and nobody can find a wine opener, this is not happening." Hanna exclaimed from the living room, before getting up quickly to go look for an opener. She had overhead the conversation about the table and tried to subtly look over at Emily to gauge her reaction, but she refused to look back at her. It was probably for the best considering she was sitting across the coffee table from Emily's new girlfriend. Hanna sighed loudly as she got up, voicing her desperate need for a large glass of wine to get through this evening.
Spencer knew about the table, she had seen all of the Instagram photos of it when Hanna and Emily had bought it together, but it was clear to her now that Jordan didn't know that it had been "their" table. It made her wonder what else he didn't know and what Hanna had meant when she said she had told him almost everything about her.
Spencer's natural instinct was to distract and release any of the tension in the room, so she quickly grabbed a table cloth and began chatting with Jordan about the weather and travel. He seemed to have a keen interest in Caleb, so she humored him and told him the story of how they met in Madrid by chance during college and began their whirlwind romance.
Jordan listened to Spencer recount the story and became increasingly more confused. He had been bewildered by Hanna's attitude and actions through the afternoon and evening. But now, hearing Spencer recount their love story, the pieces didn't add up. The summer she was referring to in which they met would have been the same summer that he and Hanna broke up. So either he was cheating on Hanna with Spencer or he wasn't nearly as broken up as she was and moved on right away. Either way, it made him look at Spencer differently. Hanna always spoke so highly of her but she clearly wasn't the friend she claimed to be.
By the time her story ended, the table was almost set. As she put the last of the silverware down, she noticed that Jordan seemed pre-occupied and began heading over towards where Emily, Paige, and Alison had been sitting. In an attempt to sidestep yet another of the evening's landmines, Spencer interrupted.
"Hey Emily, um…I can't find any wine glasses, do you want to check the pantry for me?"
Emily smiled and nodded at Spencer; thankful for the out that Spencer was offering to her. The less time she had to spend talking with Jordan, the better. Although it bothered her even more to realize that he actually seemed to be a good guy. It would be so much easier to hate him if he was a jerk.
Emily entered the pantry and was surprised to find Hanna already inside.
"Oh hey." Emily said dully, still slightly annoyed with Hanna.
"Hi." Hanna responded shyly.
"Have you seen any wine glasses?" Emily replied, trying to stay focused on what Spencer had tasked her with and avoiding bringing up the million questions running through her head.
"Ali de-boozified the place when she thought Charlotte was coming home. But I'll help you find the wine glasses if you help me find an opener?" Hanna offered, trying to lighten the tension that was between them.
"Deal." Emily accepted.
Both girls began opening boxes and rummaging through bins in the pantry. For someone as normally organized as Alison, the pantry was surprisingly difficult to navigate through.
The awkward silence eventually got to be too much for Emily. She had been trying to hold off but the question kept running through her head and she eventually had to get it out.
"So….you kept the table?" Emily asked quietly, she couldn't help herself. She was almost afraid of what Hanna's answer would be. Emily didn't know what she wanted Hanna to say or how she should even feel about it.
"Of course I did." Hanna replied, just as quietly, like she couldn't believe Emily would even have to ask her that.
The two girls stood for a second, just looking at each other. Emily felt the anger and resentment from earlier fall away. Clearly she did matter, clearly they mattered. If Hanna kept the table after all this time, some part of her still cares. Maybe not in the way she once did, but she cares enough to want that memory of them in her life.
Just as Emily was about to open her mouth to speak, Hanna spoke instead.
"Look, when you left Europe that summer, I wanted to focus on my career, I wasn't looking for another relationship." Hanna wanted to explain everything. She wanted to tell Emily how she was so heartbroken that she couldn't even talk about their break up for months, and that's why she never told Jordan. And she wanted Emily to know that she and Jordan didn't get together that summer. That it wasn't until he moved to the US, many many months later before anything ever happened between them romantically. She wanted Emily to know how much she meant to her and how much she loved her.
But before Hanna could say any of it, Emily spoke. "You seem happy. I mean with him. He seems like a really nice guy." Emily didn't want Hanna to elaborate any further. It was one thing to see them together and to know that Hanna was happy with someone else. It's an entirely different thing to hear about how she moved on or how they got together.
"Guys…found them!" Spencer yelled from the kitchen, having clearly located the wine glasses and opener in a tucked away cabinet.
"Looks like we got what we need." Emily said quickly as she walked to exit the pantry, needing to find air away from Hanna to catch her breath she didn't even realize she had been holding.