CHAPTER 1:
PART ONE.
So, this is my first fanfic. I've written few before but they weren't great so I put them up but took them down a while later because I was never motivated enough to make them work. This idea has been sitting in my head for a long time and I finally tired to put it down on paper.
All parts in italics are flashbacks.
Just a heads up: This story is full of drama and romance. I'm a complete sucker for the two. I hope you all like it and I hope there aren't too many errors. I'm still learning.
All forms of criticism will be taken sportingly as long as they are not hurtful in any way. I'll update soon on the basis of the number of reviews I get
Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pretty Little Liars or any of its characters. This is purely a work of fiction that is not intended to harm anyone in any way.
Present Day,
New York City.
It was one of those nights that Aria had been looking forward to for a long time.
The tiny brunette was brimming with excitement and nervousness at the same time as she frantically paced around the apartment, in nothing but an oversized men's shirt, trying to get everything in place on time.
She had been organizing this night for the past two weeks. Everything had to be perfect. Everything had to turn out the way it did in her mind.
She ran towards the cupboard under the bookshelf and withdrew a few vanilla scented candles.
His favourites.
She walked towards the dining table and placed them right in the centre next to the wine glasses and the beautiful crockery that she had set out on the table along with a bouquet of flowers that she had purchased from the flower shop right down the street for this occasion.
She looked up towards the wall clock over her bed to see the time.
"Crap! Is that the time?" she said in a slightly hushed voice even though there was no one there in the apartment who would listen to her.
It was 6:30 pm already and she had to get everything done before 7. She wasn't even dressed yet. She had to be quick on her feet and get herself ready first to leave some time for final touches.
She folded the table napkins in neat triangles and placed them next to the shining white plates. She looked at the dining table one last time, trying to decide if it had anything more to be fixed.
Satisfied with the appearance of the table arrangement, she spun around and sped up the stairs towards her bedroom. Everything else could wait. She had to get ready now or all of this would have been for nothing.
She opened the door to the room and raced towards her closet and opened it. She bent down to search for the bag she needed.
She opened one of the drawers and began rummaging through it and retrieved a pair of black stockings that she needed for her attire and a few other articles of clothing she had bought for this day. In the process of her search for the bag, she found a picture stacked away right at the back of the closet.
It was a picture of them. Of her and her husband.
They looked so happy as they stood there on the beach with their arms around each other and their eyes fixed upon each others. The sun shone brightly and made their skin glisten. His blue eyes looked into her hazel ones. The wind made her hair blow away from her face. Her tiny arms held him in his place while his fingers were tangled in her hair. They were looking at each other as if there was no one else in the world but them.
Nothing had changed since then. The only difference was that they were Aria and Ezra on that sunny day at the beach in France. But they were Mr. and Mrs. Fitz now.
It had been two years since that picture had been taken and one year since they had exchanged their vows. They were a match made in heaven. Everyone idolized their love for each other.
They were soulmates.
Since the day Aria had met Ezra, she knew that what they had was unlike anything else she had ever experienced.
He was the one for her.
He was her safe place to land. He was the only one who could brighten up her days. He made her feel like the most important person in the world. It seemed to her that their love for each other grew every day, even if it was possible to love each other that much.
The first time she saw him, she knew that she wanted to be with him forever.
Two years back,
New York City.
Aria rushed into the Starbucks outlet on that pleasant Wednesday morning. She had never been this late for work. She was the type of person who was always on time or even before time. All that reputation was about to go down into the drain.
She was so not looking forward to go to work and answer a bunch of questions about why she, out of all people working at publishing company, was late.
Damn Hanna for dragging her to the nightclub!
She had to make a mental note to never give in to her friend's earnest requests to accompany her to the nightclub on a weekday again.
Aria took her phone from her purse and typed in a message to her boss informing her that she would be a bit late to work. One thing her boss hated was being informed about things. So Aria made it a point to text her just to be on the safe side.
Aria bent her head down and put her phone back inside. She tried to close the zipper of her purse but it just wouldn't close.
"Great! This just gets better and better." Aria basically yelled out in the middle of the coffee shop making all heads turn her way. Realizing what she had done, she gave them an apologetic smile and whispered a sorry to them.
She had just managed to embarrass herself in front of a crowd of people. This day was indeed going down in history for her.
With a frustrated groan, she put the handles of her bag back onto her shoulder, mentally cursing the shopkeeper who said that there would no problem with the bag when she bought it just two weeks back at a sale in one of the malls.
Aria turned around and joined the long queue. Fifteen minutes later, her turn finally came. She was losing her patience with every passing minute.
On a normal day, she would've skipped the coffee but she needed it today. That was the only thing that could get her through the atrocities of the day and also cure her headache which was basically a result of her poor judgement that made her get drunk on a night before work.
She put her bag on the counter and looked towards the waiter to place her order. "One iced soy latte with two splendas and a butter croissant to go please." She said with a forced smile on her face.
She dug into her purse once again to pay for her order. She knew exactly how much it would cost and handed the money over even before the cashier could tell her the total cost. It was her usual order. Her best friends, Spencer and Hanna, often forced her to try something apart from that but she always stuck to what she liked and she wouldn't try something else no matter how much they forced her to.
Within a few minutes, Aria's order was ready. She adjusted her now broken bag onto her shoulder so that it wouldn't fall and picked up the coffee in one hand, holding the croissant in the other.
She turned around and proceeded to move towards the exit. Once again, she began to move quickly on her feet. She just had to get to work now.
Aria began sipping her coffee and biting into her croissant alternately. She hurriedly stepped out of the coffee shop but little did she know that another obstacle was walking towards her.
The moment she stepped out of the shop, she managed to make her day ten times worse as she bumped into someone coming into the shop. She didn't notice him for she was sipping her coffee. This only resulted into her bumping into the much taller guy and spilling all of her coffee on her very expensive top, and her croissant flying out of her hand and landing on the floor.
"Oh my god! Not again!" Aria yelled louder this time emitting a loud groan that clearly depicted just about how done she was with this whole morning.
She didn't even bother looking up and apologizing to the person she bumped into. Her attention was diverted towards her now spoiled clothes.
"I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to-" the man began to say as he moved a few steps towards her with his hands held up in front of his chest, with the intention of helping the distraught woman before him, only to be cut off mid-sentence by her.
"Save it! Please! I've had enough of today. Now I can't even go to work like this! This has to be the worst day ever. Thank you for contributing to my amazing day!" Aria snapped back at the man as she continued to wipe the very large stain right in the centre of her blouse.
"I- I really didn't mean to do that. I didn't see you coming and you were also walking really fast and it just happened. Can I please buy you another coffee? I'm so sorry about this. " He said in a very nervous tone hoping that she would calm down and let him make up to her for the accident.
Aria gave up struggling with the stain on her blouse as she heard him say those words.
It hit her that it wasn't even his mistake and he was apologizing for something that she did. She realized how mean it was of her to snap back at him and take out all of her frustration on a complete stranger.
She lifted her head up for the first time to look at the man standing before her.
"Look, it was actually my mistake and I –" Aria stopped mid-sentence, stunned at the appearance of the man she knocked into.
His looks were breathtaking. He had most beautiful blue eyes Aria had ever seen. His tall stature accentuated his perfect bone structure and perfectly sculpted body. His dark brown curls fell on his forehead and glistened in the little amount of sunlight that was falling on it.
His white formal shirt hug his body in all the right places and he had a brown satchel , like those most teachers used, that hung over his right shoulder.
She had never seen any man as perfect as him. Sure, she had dated some pretty hot guys in high school and in college but none of them could even match up to this strangers appearance.
She stood there , lost in her own world, with her gaze fixed upon his face.
Suddenly, the honking of the cars on the street snapped her out of her world and brought her back to reality. She realized how inappropriate it was of her to be staring a complete stranger for that long.
"Umm. Sorry about that. It was actually my mistake. I am having a really bad day and I completely took out my frustration on you. I really didn't mean to be rude. I'm so sorry. Let me, in fact, buy you a coffee. Please " Aria said , fumbling in places.
That moment, she forgot all about work. Maybe it was okay to miss work for a day, wasn't it?
She was already 45 minutes late. How much of a difference would it make now?
"Oh it's okay. I didn't mind at all. And please, you do not have to buy me a coffee. I made your fall. Look? " He said as he pointed towards the huge light brown stain on her blouse.
Aria noticed he had a particular kind of boyish charm that stood out to her. And she could also make out that this charm wasn't the fake Casanova-charm. It was natural. Something that was completely different about him.
"Oh. I'll probably just head home and change it. It's not a problem. I'm skipping work anyway. " Aria said as she bit her lip after the completion of her sentence.
Realizing she should at least tell him her name she brought one hand out in front of her for him to shake.
"I'm Aria by the way." She said with a huge smile on her face.
"Oh. I'm Ezra. Totally forgot to tell you my name. " He said as he shook her hand lightly and let out a small chuckle.
Aria hesitated a little before she spoke again.
"Would you like to go out tonight so we can make up for this and buy each other a drink to compensate for this mess? " Aria said as she pushed a lock of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
She really hoped he would not turn her down. She never expected her to be so attracted to anyone , within just 5 minutes of meeting them especially in a situation like this. Being turned down by him would definitely be a major downer for her.
"Sure. Why not? But only on one condition." He said with a slight smirk on his face.
"What is it?" Aria asked, full of nervousness about what reply she was going to get from him.
"I am going pay for the drinks. Not you. Only then can we go out tonight." Ezra said narrowing his eyes in a funny way at her.
Aria let out a chuckle before replying back to him.
"Okay. I guess I could bear with that." Aria said, somewhat relieved at his reply.
"We could go to this place not very far from here. Give me your number so I can text you the address. " Ezra said whilst taking his phone out from his pocket to type her number down.
"Sure." Aria said, as a huge happy grin broke out on her face.
They exchanged numbers before Ezra left, saying that he had to be somewhere.
As he turned around and started walking, Aria continue to watch him walk down the block and turn left around the corner. She watched him until he was out of sight.
As cheesy as it sounded, she knew there was something between them. Or rather the hope of something happening between them.
She had seen several movie scenes or scenes like the same in many books where the couple meet in each other in a bizarre situation that turns out into them falling for each other in almost no time. But what she couldn't believe was that this was actually happening to her.
It was about time she got back out there.
Her last boyfriend had cheated on her and left her completely heartbroken and alone to deal with her own misery. It took her a long time to completely get over him. Since her breakup, her friends often tried to convince her to see other people. Everyone wasn't like him. There were better people. But Aria believed that's he just wasn't ready.
It had been over five months since that happened, and after five long months, today, she actually felt ready. She actually had a feeling that this could be good for her. That this could actually turn out into something that would probably last.
So that was part one of chapter one for you. I haven't much time for going through the entire thing. I'm the laziest person on this planet so please forgive my errors or at least tell me about them in case you spot one.
The flashback will continue into the next chapter. I know the last bit was cheesy but that is how I had it in mind. There is much more in store for their first "date".
I basically have the entire story planned out and you guys are in for many surprises but all suggestions are welcome.
I will update over the weekend but that also depends upon the number of reviews I get. Remember! More number of reviews= Faster updates. Thank you.
So PLEASE don't forget to review. It hardly takes two minutes.