Emily

Emily and Alison were on their floor heading back to their respective offices. As they approached the first door, which was Emily's office they slowed down.

"I had a good time.", Emily said.

"As did I. And I hope that we can do something again...maybe outside of the time constraints of our lunch break." Alison replied, causing both of them to smile.

Emily nodded her head in agreement and they both headed into their offices. As she sat down she couldn't stop replaying some parts in her head. The time they had together exceeded her expectations and she enjoyed every moment of it.

Concentrate! She thought to herself. She had about four more hours of work and needed to get her head out of the clouds.

Near the end of the day, Emily saw a notification appear on the bottom right corner of her computer. She saw it was an email from Hannah and clicked on it to see the full message.

"Good afternoon Emily and Alison! I am sending this message in regards to the friendly competition between the both of you. Instead of two photos, I would prefer a collage ranging from 5-7 photos. I think this will give both of you the ability to…"

Emily skimmed to the end of the email and saw that the due date was July 11th, which was three months away. Since she knew how much time there was to start the project, Emily wanted to take her time. Even though her feelings for Alison were accumulating, she didn't have to worry about either of them making it easier for each other because of their competitive nature. She was very excited and had so many ideas forming in her head.

"Good night Emily."

Her head snapped up and she saw Alison standing outside of the doorway.

"Goodnight Alison, see you on Monday." They exchanged warm smiles and Alison walked off.

Emily heard the sound of footsteps returning, which followed by seeing only Alison's head sticking out.

"Oh, and Emily.."

Emily raised her eyebrows to show she had her full attention.

"Good luck", she said seductively while winking. Emily's heart fell to her feet and bounced back in its original position.

"Right back at you." Emily responded with her eyes squinted, trying to play it cool. Alison grinned and her head shot up, leaving Emily alone.

She looked at the time and noticed it was also time for her to leave. Since she was going to meet Aria and Spencer at the Blue Daisy Grille she texted Spencer to make sure they were already there.

Knowing Spencer's speed in responding to texts, it was only a few seconds later when Emily got a message saying they were there.

She checked her email one last time to make sure there were no more last minute requests. Nothing new came up so she turned off her computer and started walking to the door. As she was walking out, she noticed Paige quickly turning the corner into her office, causing both of them to come to a halt preventing a clash between the both of them.

"Hey Emily. I'm glad I caught you", Paige said with a cheesy grin.

"Hey Paige. Whatsup?", she replied with a polite smile. She hoped this wasn't another offer to go out because the amount of times Emily declined, she would think Paige would catch on.

"Well this is last minute but, one of my friends is having his gallery open tomorrow and I'm allowed to bring a guest soo.." Paige bowed her head and lifted her eyes in hopes that Emily could finish the sentence.

Paige's persistence caused her to be slightly annoyed. She didn't want to lie but she also didn't want to go.

"Sorry Paige, but I have plans for tomorrow. Thanks though."

Paige's face became blank. Emily couldn't tell what emotion she was feeling. They stood in silence for a few seconds until Paige decided to speak again.

"This is because of Alison isn't it?", she asked in a quiet voice.

Emily was completely taken aback by Paige's question. She wondered if everyone else thought something was going on between them. Probably, knowing how everyone talks and everything spreads at Gems.

"No it isn't P-"

"Yes it is!" Paige yelled.

Emily raised her eyebrows in shock from the loud outburst. They were the only ones left on the floor and the yell bounced off of the walls.

"Since the tour, I see the way you look at her...like she's a good person. She's no good Emily and-"

"Stop!" Emily said in a tired tone. They were all aware of Alison's personality when she started at Gems, but none of them saw the side Emily did. She knew it was all an act to protect herself as a defense mechanism. And even if Alison was as bad as everyone made her out to be and Emily couldn't notice, she didn't want everyone entering their "relationship".

"You don't know Alison...I barely know her myself but it's none of your business. I appreciate you trying to look out for me but I don't want that. We are all adults and I'm old enough to figure out things on my own. Okay?"

Paige soaked in all of Emily's words and shrugged.

"Okay." She walked back a few feet to walk down the hallway but paused.

"I guess we will see who Alison really is when Hannah picks you instead of her for the trip."

"How do you know about that?" Emily had only told Spencer and Aria.

Paige only smiled out of spite, and walked off. Giving Emily the answer to her question without a word.

She felt uncertain about Alison telling others about their competition. She knew it was Alison's business as much as it was hers but all of Gems didn't need to know. Emily brushed it off, knowing she'd ask Alison about it later. She headed out the door to meet up with her friends.

Alison

Alison was headed home from work when she saw her phone light up in the passenger seat of her car. She saw that it was CeCe calling her and she answered the phone.

"HEY SIS!" CeCe yelled, leading Alison to distance the phone from her ear.

"Hey CeCe." she said, calmly with a smile.

"It's been too long. I miss you girl!"

"Same!" What have you been up to?"

"Oh nothing much. Work…a few dates here and there but no keepers yet. But enough of this phone stuff. Come over!"

Alison chuckled at her candidness. She lived about three hours away but Alison had no plans for the weekend and missed her sister.

She sighed, "You're lucky I love you. I'll pick up some clothes and head over."

"Yes! See you soon."

Four hours later Alison was in front of CeCe's house, ringing the doorbell.

Within a few seconds the door shot open, revealing her older sister smiling extremely hard with open arms. She was wearing a matching bright pink pajama set with pink Crocs to match.

"Ali!" she squealed, giving her a tight hug. They both headed into the house and Alison noticed how much changed since she had last been there. It had been about 3 months since she visited CeCe's house and it looked completely different. The kitchen walls, drapes, and dining room table cloth was now burgundy, instead of it's former lime color. There was a reclining chair added to the living room facing the 66 inch television. She loved all the new trinkets added to the shelves and admired the small collection of snow globes CeCe purchased from all of the countries she visited.

"I love the changes, CeCe", she said, still looking around to be certain she didn't miss anything.

"Thanks. I was stuck between burgundy and crimson but since fall is coming up I chose the darker color."

Alison nodded in agreement.

After Alison settled down and the both of them were in the living room wearing their pajamas, they were deep in conversation. Alison was catching CeCe up with what was going on between her and Emily.

"Awhh that's so cute! My little Ali is going soft."

Alison rolled her eyes in a playful manner.

"How often do you guys talk outside of work?"

"We text pretty often...and we've had one facetime call but it was work related for the most part." Alison became silent and CeCe could see her in thought.

"I really don't want to mess this up CeCe." she said, staring directly at the floor.

"She is all the things that I'm not. People trust and can rely on her. She's so considerate and forgiving. I don't even know if I'd be with myself, knowing all the things that I've done."

CeCe was the closest person to Alison and she saw that the worry in her eyes were genuine. She grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently.

"See it this way…" ,she said looking straight into Alison's eyes.

"You have the power to change that. You may not be those qualities to the fullest extent, but you can definitely work to be. And I'm sure you are doing something right because she's still there. Plus, We've only been talking for about two hours and I can see small changes in you. You've barely bad mouthed anyone and have been a little more open with me than usual. So don't stress it."

CeCe gave a warm smile and let go of her hands.

"Thanks CeCe."

"I'm just speaking the truth. Also, I cannot wait to meet Emily!"

The rest of their night consisted of multiple glasses of wine and watching the newest movie releases on Hulu. Alison was having a great time with her sister and kept in mind she should visit her more often. Since Alison and her siblings weren't close to their parents, all they had was each other and she needed to remember that.

As she was headed toward the guest room to go to sleep, she felt her phone vibrate in her hand. When she looked at the screen she saw that it was Emily calling. Alison raised her eyebrows at the sight but quickly tapped the answer button. It was about one o'clock in the morning, so she was very curious to find out what this call would pertain to.

"Hello?"

"Hey Alison. Are you still up?"

"Yeah...whatsup?"

"Basically, I took the train to work today instead of driving and the train isn't in service now so I have to take a bus to the train and that's like a fifteen minute walk and this area is kinda creepy so I wanted to be on the phone with someone. Sorry if you're doing something I- "

"It's fine Emily", Alison could hear the exhaustion in Emily's voice.

"I'm honored to be the person that came to mind." Alison said in a deep and silly voice.

"Well I would have called Aria or Spencer but Aria's phone died and Spencer is on the train." Even tired Emily still had sass but so did Alison.

"Are you sure it wasn't because you were too nervous to call me?"

There was a brief pause and Alison knew she was right which made her burst out into laughter.

"Shut up", Emily retorted while starting to laugh.

After their laughter died down, Emily started talking again.

"Hey...um...did you tell people about the trip?"

Alison thought back to when Hannah first told her. She informed her lunch group immediately after without taking into account if Emily wanted that many people to know. She slightly cringed at the memory.

"Yeah, I kinda blurted it out after Hannah told us. Sorry about that."

"It's alright.", she said softly.

They stayed on the phone until Emily got to the train station, talking about how they spent their Friday night and more.

"Thank you for staying up with me on this journey. My travel felt much quicker thanks to you."

"It was my pleasure. I'll see you on Monday and have a goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Thanks to the alcohol in Alison's system, she fell fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.