Ezra's POV
I want try to help her see this isn't her fault. "Aria, you don't have to keep your father's secret if you don't want to." She shakes her head about to cry. "I don't want to be the one to tell her though. The only reason I never did is because I never wanted to see her hurt, to leave us. If I tell her now she'll be mad I kept this from her for more than a year." I get off the bed and reach for a tissue. I squat down in front of her and wipe her tear-stained cheeks with the tissue. "There you are." I say smiling and toss the tissue in her trash can. I stand up and hold my hands out for her to grab. She takes hold of them and I help her off the bed. Ella yells from the bottom of the stairs that it's time for dinner. "If you want we can talk about this later, or be done with it. You just need to know whatever you choose; I'll be here for you." She smiles up at me, "thank you Mr. Fitz." "That's another thing. You are my student, but I feel like we're also friends. When we're outside of class you can call me Ezra, if it's ok with you." She nods, and then says "are you hungry Ezra?" I smile and reply "very, Aria." She laughs and walks out of her room with me close behind.
Ella's POV
Finally they come down stairs and I walk over to the table with the last dish of food. The four of us sit down and I glance over at Aria and Ezra then ask "how was the house tour?" Ezra smiles passing Aria a napkin then responds, "Good. You have a lovely home." I smile pleased he likes the house. "Mmm, honey this smells fantastic." Byron says holding up the pot roast. "Thank you, love." I say leaning over to kiss Byron. "Let's dig in." Aria says with some hast in her voice. We pass around all the food and start eating. I thought of something good and ask Ezra, "so, Ezra how is Aria doing in class? If she's talking back don't be afraid to teach her lesson or two. I can give you some baby pictures of her; oh even better some from middle school. Braces weren't exactly her best friend. You can show those to the class if she starts getting lippy." Ezra looks at me, "is she serious?" Aria shakes her head, "mom come one, don't scare him, and actually don't scare me. God that would be awful." Ezra smiles and points to the living room. "Those pictures in there of you aren't even bad." Aria raises her eyebrows. "That's because I hid all the bad ones." Ezra turned in his chair to face Aria, "oh come on, that's impossible, you're gorgeous. Any way no one could have looked worst then me in middle school." I laugh a bit before taking a sip of my wine then joke "Ezra, were you a chipmunk that blossomed in to a beautiful butterfly?" He laughs and nods his head almost chocking on his wine and manages to say "bad analogy but yes." Aria smiles "wow, never thought Mr. Mcdreamy had a bad phase." Ezra's eyebrows stretch up, "what else do the kids call me?" Aria blushes a little, "uh, well none that I can exactly say at the dinner table. Just know that some girls are very clever with words." I jump in to end this conversation, "wow, well dessert anyone?"
Aria's POV
"We should go get some frozen yogurt! This new place by the brew just opened, it looks good." There was a mutual agreement so I asked "should we walk of drive?" "We can walk, it's nice out." Ella replies getting up from the table. We get our jackets on to leave the house and start walking. My parents go ahead of us holding hands, and it reminds me of old times. "You good?" Ezra says nudging my arm with his elbow. "Cause I saw your face at dinner. The second they kissed you looked hurt." I shrug my shoulders. "I just don't know how I should feel when they do stuff like that. I don't know if I should be happy or mad." "Well how do you feel now?" He says holding his arm out to motion at my parents holding hands. "Happy I guess." My parents turn around to see us. "Hey you two come walk with us!" Ella says, and then adds "we didn't want people mistaking you two as a couple." She looks from my face to Ezra's, which I'm assuming looks befuddled if he is as puzzled as I am. My mother laughs, "Calm down no one would think that."
We get to the frozen yogurt shop and look through the options. Ezra and I pick out our two flavors and head over to a table. He takes off his jacket and puts it on the back of his chair. He turns to me while I'm finishing unbuttoning mine. He coyly smiles at me, "if I help you do you think one of us will fall again?" I let go of the last few buttons and return with my devilish grin, "I don't know, let's see." He grabs the button I started to unfasten and finishes the rest. He looks up from the buttons to my eyes, "successful so far." He then helps me out of the jacket as I turn around as he holds the top. I take my last step to face him as he holds my jacket. He slowly hands it to me and says slightly louder than a whisper "perfect." Our hands grace each others as I take my jacket from his hands and that lighting spark courses through the air the second our hands touch and I aimlessly repeat, "perfect."
