Quartermaine foyer - Emily is arranging flowers - Nikolas comes in the door.
Emily: Hey
Nikolas: Hi
Emily: Why are you the only person I've seen today who isn't melting into the pavement?
Nikolas: Cassadines are cold-blooded. Haven't you figured that out yet?
Emily: Hey, are you thirsty? I can get cook to make us iced tea.
Nikolas: No. No. Thanks. What?
(at her laughter)
Emily: You're afraid I'm going to barf it up, aren't you?
Nikolas: Thought crossed my mind. Yes.
(he laughs)
Emily: Nope. You know, I'm having a good day so far.
Nikolas: Yeah?
Emily: Yeah. And I'm ready to do something I should have done a long time ago.
Nikolas: Tell Zander the truth?
Emily: Nope. Leave town.
They go to sit on the foyer settee.
Nikolas: Now, why would you want to leave town?
Emily: Partly because I'll start looking like the walking dead very soon.
Nikolas: Well, that's no problem for the Cassadines.
Emily: But also because Summer would still be alive if not for me, Lucky wouldn't be grieving, and you wouldn't be engaged to someone you don't love.
Nikolas: I could do worse. I have done worse. Besides you're the only part of my life that makes sense.
Emily: You keep saying that.
Nikolas: It's true.
Emily: Oh. How did this lie get so out of hand?
Nikolas: Will going away make it any better?
Emily: Maybe things will calm down.
Nikolas: Emily, Zander would follow you.
Emily: Mmm-hmmm.
Nikolas: Alan and Monica would fall apart. Monica might -- WOULD -- tell Zander the truth.
Emily: You want me to stay.
Nikolas: Of course I do but that's not the point. You still haven't said why leaving will help you.
Emily: I just - I want to make it easier on people.
Nikolas: Oh. Look all any of us have ever wanted is for you to do what's best for yourself.
Emily: I'm not so frightened any more thanks to you. But you'll probably dump me when I go bald.
Nikolas: That was the plan. Yes.
Emily: Yeah. I suspected.
Nikolas: But why not - why not stay here for a while. You know? And when you start getting, like, really ugly
(He makes a face) I'll just ship you off to some Greek island somewhere.
Emily laughs.
Nikolas: What? Why are you laughing? I'm not kidding. I don't kid.
Emily: I couldn't so this without you. you know that?
Nikolas: Look if you want to -- if you want to leave I'll help you in any way I can.
Emily: Yeah. I appreciate that.
Nikolas: But why not give yourself a chance and just live for a while?
Emily nods.
Zander: After last night, everything's different.
Gia: It must have been horrible out there.
Zander: Yeah. Alexis seems to think that the killer might be after Emily.
Gia: Why would anyone want to shove Emily off a cliff?
Zander: You got me. The Cassadines are pretty freaky.
Gia: Yeah, like I don't know that.
Zander: But Emily definitely wants to be with Nikolas, Cassadines or no.
Gia: Even after last night?
Zander: Yeah. I was out there. I went out to the bluffs, and I looked out at Port Charles and thought about what it was like when I first moved there, how messed up I was and how Emily still loved me. And now she's pushing me away, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Gia: So you're giving up?
Zander: I just kept thinking that at some point she would turn around and she would tell me the truth. That's what I've been holding on to all this time. It's pretty stupid, right?
Gia: I guess so.
Zander: Emily is such a terrible liar, I just figured at some point she'd tell me the truth and everything would go back to the way it was.
Gia: Maybe she will.
Zander: That's why I went to that party last night -- to find out if maybe this whole thing was a sham, that there was no party, that she had been making up this engagement thing.
Gia: Well, I can see why you'd think that. Everything happened so sudden.
Zander: I know she's hiding something. I could see she was all stressed out all night. Anyway, there was definitely a party. Emily was leaning on Nikolas all night. It may have taken me a while to get it, but I get it now. Emily and Nikolas are for real. She moved on. Now I got to do the same thing.
Zander: Pretty much.
Gia: I remember how it felt when I realized Nikolas and I weren't going to make it. All the memories, all the time, all the little things we shared that suddenly didn't matter anymore. They weren't points of connection. They were meaningless trivia.
Zander: Pixie sticks.
Gia: What?
Zander: Grape pixie sticks. It was Emily’s favorite candy. I wonder if I'll ever be able to forget that.
Gia: Do you want to?
Zander: More than anything.
Gia: I don't want to benefit from Emily’s misfortune --
Zander: Hey, Gia? Emily's happy. She moved on with her life, and I got to -- I got to adapt to that.
Gia: Yeah, by running until you give yourself heat stroke?
Zander: No. By looking at what's been in front of me for months. Gia, you've been great to me. Why?