"So, then I told Coach..." Spencer's voice trailed off when she realized that Paige was no longer paying attention. Paige was planted in front of the smoothie machine, staring at her reflection in its shiny, polished surface, teasing at her hair. Spencer sighed resignedly. "Oh, gee. Is it 8:30 already?" she droned sarcastically, glancing at the time on her cash register to confirm the reason behind Paige's distraction.

Paige looked back at her with a shy smile, as if she had no idea what Spencer was talking about.

"Are you, at least, going to talk to her today? 'Hi!'" Spencer suggested, demonstrating with a wide smile and a wave. "'Welcome to Smoothie World!'" Same gesture. "'Want to go back to the break room and make out?'"

Paige, whose face was already becoming flush, hid her head in her hands at that last statement.

"I'm just saying, Paige! You spend a good five minutes making yourself beautiful before this girl shows up," - Spencer pulled on a lock of Paige's hair, teasing it and letting it fall; then, letting her hands fall on Paige's shoulders - "and, then, when she does show up, you turn around and hide! I swear, it's a good thing you're not this timid in field hockey!"

Paige, hearing the hum of the motors that opened the automatic doors, shrugged out from under Spencer's hands as in walked the girl of her dreams: White socks, white running shoes, black running shorts, a sleeveless USWNT jersey, and a few beads of sweat that she dabbed away with the napkin that she had picked up from the dispenser on her way to the front counter. She looked radiant, like the poster girl for a fitness club.

"Good morning!" Spencer said, forgoing the canned "Welcome" greeting, since the girl was a regular. The girl looked at Spencer with a shy smile and a soft "Good morning."

Paige sidled up behind Spencer and smiled quickly at the girl, immediately looking down, over Spencer's shoulder, when the girl glanced at her. Paige focused on Spencer's register as her excuse for looking away. She didn't need to see the order, though. She knew it by heart.

Every Saturday and Sunday, the beautiful, tanned customer came in, fresh off her morning run, dabbed her forehead with a napkin, and ordered a Morning Refresher smoothie plus protein, multi-vitamin, and super-grains enhancers. As Paige went to prepare the drink, the girl undid the Velcro strap securing her phone case to her left forearm and produced the exact chage for the smoothie (She knew the price by heart.),plus a dollar for the tip jar.

And, every Saturday and Sunday, Paige went over to make the smoothie, taking surreptitious peeks at the girl's reflection in the mirrored surface of the smoothie machine, and trying her best to fight the trembling in her hands as she put the lid on top of the cup and ripped the bottom half of the wrapper off of the straw that she inserted into the lid.

Every Saturday and Sunday, she psyched herself up to say something to the girl, like "Here you go," or even "You're welcome," in reply to the girl's soft "Thank you." But, every day, she stood there, mute and smiling, like a three-year-old being introduced to the class on her first day at a new preschool - and turned quickly to wipe down the smoothie machine.

On her way out of the store, the girl stopped to look at a printed sheet of paper that someone had taped in the window. It was advertising a pottery class that was starting that evening. Emily peeked up at the counter before she took hold of the poster with three fingers of her left hand - the one holding the smoothie - and used her right hand to tear off one of the tabs at the bottom that had the address and phone number for the class.

"I'm just going to wipe down the tables," Paige announced, grabbing a wet towel. Spencer just shook her head. She knew that Paige wanted to get closer to the windows, as she always did when the girl left, the better to watch as the girl walked away.

Paige gave a couple of tables a few quick swipes as she worked her way over to the spot where her favorite customer had stopped a few seconds earlier. Checking to make sure that Spencer wasn't looking, she took one of the tabs from the poster and quickly hid it in her pocket.

What am I doing here? Paige's internal voice whined. She had shown up early, as usual, afraid of walking into a room full of strangers, but being early gave her more time to second-guess her decision to show up in the first place. She was standing by herself in a lonely corner, occupying herself with her phone, when she was startled by the feather-light touch of fingers on her shoulder.

"Paige?"

When Paige turned around and saw the girl from the smoothie shop, her heart, already racing because of the unexpected contact, started beating even faster.

"I thought that was you," the girl said, adding quickly, when she saw the confused look in Paige's eyes, "Oh, sorry. That was rude. I got your name from your..." She used her index fingers and thumbs to form the shape of a name tag against her chest, in the spot where Paige wore her Smoothie World name tag. "I'm Emily. I didn't mean to startle you," she said, with an apologetic squeeze of Paige's shoulder.

There was a slight tremble in Emily's voice, and she kept looking at Paige's nose, rather than her eyes. That gave Paige a little bit of confidence.

"Is Spencer coming, too?" Emily wanted Paige to know that she knew Spencer's name, too, reasoning that it would make it seem less creepy that she knew Paige's. Also, she didn't want to cross any boundaries. She saw the way that Paige always stood so close to Spencer, peering over her shoulder, when Emily gave her order. And, just that morning, she had seen Spencer's hands on Paige's shoulders when she came iin.

Paige twisted her face. "Spencer? No!" She was a little disappointed. Part of her was trying to convince herself that there was a reason that Emily came in to the store every weekend - a reason other than the smoothies. But, apparently, that reason was Spencer. Paige wasn't surprised, though. After all, Spencer was the one who greeted Emily every day with that damned sexy voice of hers.

"Oh." Emily chuckled shyly, looking off to the side. "Good." Wait... what did I just say? "I... I mean, good because... you know. I... I think they're going to make us work in pairs, so, you know... if you're here with Spencer... I'd have to find a partner."

"Oh..." Emily's shy smile was disarming. "Nope, I'm not with Spencer. I... I'm not... here with Spencer." Paige could feel any vestige of dignity being sucked out of her body.

"Oh." Emily chuckled nervously again. She scrunched her face in an adorably vulnerable way. "So, do you think we could team up?"

Paige nodded eagerly, the best response that she could give, since all of the words she knew had flown out of her head when Emily looked into her eyes. Emily tugged Paige's elbow. "Let's find a good seat."

Paige stood in place for a second, trying to calm herself down. Emily looked back with an inviting smile, her wide eyes asking, "Are you coming?"

Paige smiled and shoved her phone into her back pocket, taking a couple of quick steps to catch up with Emily.

There was a potter's wheel in the front and center of room, with a stool next to it. Around it, in a semicircle, were several other wheels, each with a pair of stools. Emily pointed to an empty station and looked at Paige for confirmation.

Emily pulled her stool back and sat down, asking, "So, what made you decide to take a pottery class?"

Paige opened her mouth before she thought of how she could respond. "I... uh... I don't know!" she said with a pleasant, innocent smile.

Before she could explain further, she felt Emily squeezing her forearm as she agreed, "I know, right? I just saw that poster in your store, and I thought, 'Well, this could be fun...'"

"Okay, full disclosure..." Paige began, idly pumping the pedal of the wheel, watching as it rotated about a quarter turn. "I... kind of came because I saw you take the little thing from the poster." Once the words were out, Paige face-palmed, hiding her eyes from Emily.

Emily tilted her head back and laughed, but it was obvious that she was laughing with Paige, not at her. "Well, I'm flattered," she said with another squeeze of Paige's arm.

"Either that or creeped out," Paige said with a shy shrug, starting to relax.

"I... wasn't sure that you saw me take it," Emily admitted.

The way that Emily said that sentence - haltingly, with her voice lowered - and the way that she bit her lip afters she got the words out - let Paige know that she had wanted Paige to see her take it.

All of a sudden, Paige wasn't interested in the pottery class. Not that she had been interested before, but, at that point, she just wanted to be in a booth somewhere with Emily, smiling and chatting over coffee.

Although, part of her really did want to be there. Her mind started to wander to that scene from the movie, "Ghost." She really wanted to be Patrick Swayze to Emily's Demi Moore. Or Emily could be Patrick and she'd be Demi. Hell, she'd even be Whoopi Goldberg, if it meant...

Oh shit!

When Paige saw Emily reaching for her phone, she knew that she was blowing it - sitting there in a trance, dreaming about the girl who was sitting right next to her instead of actually carrying on a conversation with her. No wonder Emily got bored and reached for her phone.

"Let me get your number." Emily was trying to act casual as she swiped her phone unlocked, but, when Paige just sat there staring blankly, she realized that she had been too forward. It was too late to take back what she had said, though, so she tried to make it seem like a casual request; an afterthought, even. "You know," she said, swiveling her stool slightly in her nervous energy, "in case I have some kind of pottery or smoothie emergency..."

Paige shook her head quickly to get back into the moment - the moment where the girl of her dreams was asking for her number. "Here, you know what?" She reached for Emily's phone, enjoying skin-on-skin contact for the first time when her fingers brushed against Emily's. "Let me put it in there for you."

Emily smiled as Paige, successfully having input the digits, handed the phone back to her. She saved the contact and began typing. "Now... I'll give you mine..."

Paige pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the text that Emily sent to transmit her phone number, immediately going into a fit of giggles as she read, "Coffee l8r? ;)" She covered her mouth and tried to get serious as she typed back a sequence of emojis - blushing, giggling, winking, and thumbs up.

"Wow. That's got to be the first time I've actually watched someone giggle as she texted me a giggle!"

It was 8:30 on Sunday morning, so Spencer wasn't surprised to find Paige in front of the smoothie machine. This time, though, she was actually making a smoothie, not just using the machine as a mirror.

"Being proactive?" she asked. "Are you actually going to talk to the girl today?" she teased, knocking shoulders with Paige.

Paige just smiled knowingly, walking up to the counter with the smoothie behind her back as Emily approached.

Before Spencer could offer her usual, "Good morning," Paige with a beaming smile, said, "Hi, Em!" and produced the smoothie from behind her back.

"Em?" Spencer mouthed, confused.

"Hi, Paige! Wow! That's service! I knew there was a reason that I keep coming back here!"

She handed Spencer the money and the tip before Spencer even had time to ring her up, giving Paige's arm a thank-you squeeze. Instead of heading to the door, she made her way to a table in the back, smiling over at Paige behind the counter as she settled into a seat.

"Okay, what the..."

"You know what, Spencer?" Paige took off her apron as she interrupted her befuddled co-worker. "I'm going to take my break early today!"