Thank you for your feedback! It made me want to keep writing. We'll see how far I'll take this story, I have at least a few more chapters in mind. Hope you'll enjoy and know that I greatly appreciate you leaving a review.
Mrs. Welch didn't seem to know where to look, what to say or even what to do. She looked as if she was waiting, or maybe more like hoping, that someone would tell her that it was just a joke, but no one did. "You're not serious, are you?" she said finally, looking at Ezra, laughing nervously. But neither Ezra nor Aria was laughing with her. Ezra avoided her gaze and instead looked down at his feet, opening his mouth but no words came out. Aria could tell that he was quietly starting to panic, his courage from a few seconds ago now failing him. Mrs. Welch wasn't laughing anymore. She looked to Aria now with a confused frown on her face. "Yes actually, we are completely serious," she said and took Ezra's hand and leaned into him. Ezra looked up at her and their eyes met. Aria smiled towards him and he seemed to calm down a bit and smiled back at her.
Mrs. Welch's expression was slowly changing from confused to slightly appalled. "So how long have you been seeing each other?" she inquired accusingly, more to Ezra than Aria. Her tone had changed. Her voice was no longer filled with warmth but with judgement. Both Aria and Ezra knew what she must be thinking about. She was quickly connecting the old rumors about Ezra with Aria and their engagement. Now it was Ezra's turn to laugh nervously. "Well.. It's – eh – it's complicated," he managed to say, not quite meeting Mrs. Welch's gaze. "You don't say..." she retorted.
They stood there silently for a few seconds but it felt like a lifetime. Ezra was looking at his feet again, oozing of shame under Mrs. Welch's stare. Aria were frozen as well, looking between the other two as if she was watching a game of tennis. Finally Mrs. Welch broke the silence. "I have to get going. It was nice seeing you Aria." She walked off without giving Ezra another glance.
Ezra exhaled as if he had been holding his breath for the last few minutes. "Ezra it's okay! Just relax," Aria said trying to calm him down. "'Relax'?" he said looking at her incredulously. "She didn't even say good bye to me. Don't you realize what she must be thinking?! About me, about us?" Aria didn't answer. Ezra took a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. His mind was spinning. He had thought that the anxiety he had felt in the past about his relationship with Aria in the eyes of the rest of the world was just that – a thing of the past. It was not supposed to be like this now. The were both adults, consenting adults in an adult relationship, not a high school teacher secretly dating his teenage student. Not anymore...
"Maybe we should go back inside..?" Aria suggested. Ezra nodded and they headed back through the door together. It was still unbearably hot in Ezra's apartment but this was no longer a concern of Aria's. Her problems was no longer going to be fixed just by the gentle touch of a cool breeze.