Emily smiled slightly and only very briefly before letting her face relax back into its normal position. She bounced her straw up and down against the pile of ice in her glass, using that motion to give herself something to look at. Paige matched Emily's slight smile on reflex. She stared at Emily for a while before puffing out some air in futility.

This was it. This was the awkwardness that Emily had promised Paige wouldn't happen. But these were different circumstances. Emily's promise had been about the awkwardness between two friends after one confessed her love for the other. This awkwardness was the kind that two former lovers felt after making out on a night full of emotion.

The needed to talk about it. They both knew that, but neither of them wanted to. For her part, Emily wanted to have talked about it. She wanted to be able to fast forward past that difficult conversation, the way she would have fast forwarded past a cringeworthy scene in a romantic movie. She knew that they needed to talk about it. She just wished that she could skip ahead to a point where she and Paige had worked through all the difficult issues and everything was good between them again.

Paige wasn't keen to talk about what had happened either, but for slightly different reasons. Paige just wanted to enjoy the memory of that night, without having to analyze it. For her, it was kind of like having to read Sense and Sensibility for a college class. It was one of Paige's favorite books, and she just loved to revel in the story and lose herself in it. It was great gush over the story with her friends and talk about how it made them feel – but to have to dissect every word and try to get into Jane Austen's head and the historical context would kind of ruin the story for her.

That night with was Emily too beautiful to put under the microscope. Paige didn't want anything to take away from the memory of that night - from the way it started, seeing Emily pacing around the elevators - to how it climaxed, with Emily's bold move. The kiss had been so unexpected. Emily had always been the one who encouraged Paige to be bold, from that first night in the window seat, when she confessed that she looked for guys like Paige, to that shy smile that she gave Paige in front of her locker, convincing her that the time for talking was past.

That night was different. Paige recalled every detail: Emily's weight against her thighs, Emily's fingers in her hair, the taste of Emily's lips and tongue as they kissed and kept on kissing. And, finally, there was the feeling of waking up with Emily's head on her shoulder with her hand balled into a soft fist and resting against the skin just above the neckline of Paige's top. Emily looked content. More than that, she looked safe, as if she knew that nothing could hurt her. Paige realized that she was safe, too. Emily hadn't asked permission for the kiss, and yet Paige knew that she would have stopped, if Paige had given her the signal. Smiling, Paige brushed the hair away from Emily's face and gathered her up in her arms.

They weren't high school kids anymore. That was obvious from the bit of extra weight that they were both carrying in unexpected places. But more than that, they had matured since high school. They weren't at the mercy of lust and hormones the way they had been back then. It was no longer inevitable that a passionate make-out session ended up with the two of them in bed. Still, they were only human - and former lovers. There was no telling how the night would have ended if Paige let herself share the bed with Emily that night. Paige wasn't willing to take that chance. She would never betray Emily's trust like that. She laid Emily on the bed and removed her shoes before covering her with a blanket and giving her one final kiss, this one to the forehead. Emily's lips curled into a smile, but she was obviously still asleep. "Team Paily," she said softly. Paige smiled back as she repeated the phrase.

Paige hadn't thought of those two words in years. It had been their code when they were back in Rosewood. On the surface, it was just one of those things that jocks say to each other, to foster camaraderie. But there was a deeper level there, just between the two of them. In the pool, "Team Paily," meant that they always had each other's backs. Outside the pool, it was their special way of saying that they loved each other. It had something to do with "te amo" at the beginning or the "ILY" at the end. They never defined it fully. The meaning was much more important than the definition.

Hearing those words brought back a flood of memories. And it confirmed Paige's decision to sleep on the couch. "I've got your back," she whispered as she walked away.

It was a beautiful moment; a moment meant to be stored away and cherished. Paige knew that it wasn't that simple, though. It couldn't just be something that happened between the two of them. They weren't at that point yet. Wherever their relationship was going, it would have to pass through that night first.

"This is…" Paige stopped abruptly, stuck for words. She caught Emily's eyes just as Emily looked up expectantly, and they both laughed at that. "I was trying to come up with something to say other than 'awkward,'" Paige admitted, her voice slightly softer than it had been for the previous sentence.

"Sorry." Emily reached for Paige's hand as she said it, but she chickened out and let her drop a couple of inches away.

Paige folded her hands in front of her and leaned forward in her seat. She had an intense look, telegraphing the fact that she had something important to say. She spoke slowly and deliberately, in a very serious tone. Emily leaned in to pay sharp attention, half worried over what she'd hear. "Did I ever tell you that… When I was trying to convince people that I was straight… I would look for guys like you?"

Emily's jaw dropped and she slapped at Paige's cheek. Paige couldn't hold back her laughter, and Emily echoed it. It was a needed release for both of them.

"I kind of miss that window seat," Emily said, a moment after the laughter faded. She looking off to the side wisftully. "It was easier to talk about things when we were sitting in the window seat."

"Things were easier in general back then," Paige said with a shrug.

"Do you think so?"

Paige curled her forehead pensively before concluding, "No, I guess not." She chuckled. "I guess, in retrospect, we tend to romanticize how simple things used to be."

Emily cleared her throat. Paige's hands were clasped in the center of the table, and Emily surrounded them with her own. "Paige… I…" Emily took a look into Paige's eyes. Paige was hanging on her every word. Emily looked down at the table before she continued with her confession. "I never stopped loving you. Not for a moment. I know you might find that hard to believe, but…" She looked up at Paige, hoping for some sort of signal that she actually did believe her.

Paige looked away with a soft smile. "I guess I never stopped loving you either," she said, as if embarrassed to admit it.

"Really?" Emily was trying not to look as excited as she was at hearing that. Deep down, she'd assumed that Paige had never stopped loving her, but she was surprised that Paige was actually admitting it.

Paige nodded. "Team Paily."

Emily clapped her hand over her mouth in shock. She quickly recovered and said the words back. "Team Paily!"

It would have been terrible not to have said it back. Even when they were fighting, they always said it back. Not saying it back sent the message that one of them had checked out of the relationship.

Shaking her head with a broad smile, Emily mused, "God - 'Team Paily.' I haven't thought about that in years!"

Paige chuckled. Her suspicions were true: Emily had been asleep when she had said it the other night. The fact that she had been sleeping somehow made it seem more genuine. She decided not to tell Emily that she had said it on that night. it would be a cute story to share with her sometime in the future, when that night was a distant memory that they looked back on as the beginning of their reborn relationship. They still had some work to do to get to that point - a fact that Paige knew was unavoidable. "Hey, Emily," she said, turning serious. "I don't doubt the feelings that we have for each other, and I don't doubt we're headed or..." she sighed, closing her eyes. "... anything." Emily nodded, a bit wary of what Paige was going to say. "I… I just think that… that we need to take things slowly." She lowered her head, to Emily's level. "For now."

Paige looked awkwardly into Emily's eyes, to see what her reaction was. Turning her eyes away, with a slight swing of her head, she concluded, "I need to, at least."

Emily tightened her lips. She wasn't sure how much more slowly she could go. She felt that she'd been in slow motion ever since she moved out to California. But she wasn't going to make the same mistake that she'd made in high school and bail because Paige wasn't ready. "Okay," she said, her face heavy with the seriousness of the moment.

Paige tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow. "Okay?" she asked, seeking confirmation that Emily really was okay with it.

"Okay," Emily confirmed. She took Paige's hand with her left hand and stroked the top of it with her right. "Paige, I want to be with you. I don't care if that means waiting a week, or a year, or the rest of my life."

Paige dipped her head. She couldn't hide her smile. The rest of their lives sounded pretty good.

A/N - I hope you're all doing okay with this pandemic. :0

So sorry I haven't been writing. Big thanks to fellow author Subway20 for the constant encouragement and to reviewer EP for reminding me of my responsibility to finish what I've started! :)

And thank you all for patiently(?) sticking with this story! Much love. Stay safe!