Aria had just finished parking her car in the parking lot by the apartment. She heard her phone ringing and figured Spencer had another point to add. "Hello," she said, surprised to hear the voice on the other end, she should have checked her caller ID first.

"Hey babe, where have you been for the last week?" Noel asked through the phone. She could tell he was on speaker so he was driving. Aria hated being called babe but she chose to ignore it hoping the conversation would end quickly.

"Hey yourself, I've just been busy with school. What's up? Where are you?" Aria replied. She had been dodging his calls for a few days because she could not get Ezra out of her head and she really did not want to deal with him.

"I'm actually on my way home; I was in Philadelphia for a couple of days this week. What are you doing tonight? I thought we could grab dinner at the Grille."

"Yeah, that sounds good. I need to change and stuff, what time?"

"You don't need to change you look great."

"How do you…" the beeping stopped her mid sentence. Noel was pulling up to the curb.

"Hop in, we can go now. I'm starving," he said through the open window.

She smiled and climbed into the car. She leaned towards him and gave him a quick kiss hello. "How was Philly?"

"It was good. I had to go over a client's books so kind of boring. I'm glad to be home."

They arrived to the Grille quickly. Rosewood is not exactly a huge town. They were seated right away. They sat at a table for two, tucked into a corner. It would have been romantic but Aria was thinking about anything but romance at this point. Ezra was now all she thought about, which made her realize how much she did not want to be with Noel. Suddenly everything about his personality bothered her. She hoped dinner would end quickly so she could go home.

The waitress was nice and efficient. She was a little friendly towards Noel, but he was a good looking guy and girls usually did that to him. They made small talk about the last few days while they ate. Of course Aria failed to mention the letter she sent to the author or that she had thought of Ezra a lot lately.

"Would you care for any dessert?" The waitress asked.

"I'm ok," Aria responded looking at Noel.

"Can we look at the menu? I'm sure there is something we can share." He said. The waitress gave him a menu, ready for this question. "We'll try the Key Lime pie please." He told her. "You can have a bite and I'll eat the rest," he said smiling at Aria.

"Twist my arm a little harder," she said joking just as the desert arrived.

While they began digging in to the Key Lime pie, Noel began to speak. "So I've been thinking."

"About what?"

"We have been dating for a long time and it's been great. I think we are good for each other. You have made my life complete and happy," he said looking into her eyes smiling.

Aria was screaming inside her head. "Oh dear god, he's going to do this," she said in her head.

"Aria Montgomery, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you," saying this he was suddenly fishing something out of his pocket and down on one knee. He pulled out a beautiful diamond engagement and looked at her. The whole restaurant was quiet staring at them. "Will you marry me?" He said pushing the ring towards her.

"Umm, I don't know what to say. I am completely shocked."

"Say yes."

"Yes, I will marry you." She said with a nervous smile, shocked this just happened. More shocked she said yes and even more shocked because she did not love him, especially not enough to ever marry him.

Once she said yes he stood up and kissed her. The restaurant applauded loudly and then went back to their meals. They paid their bill and left.

All Aria could do was smile. If she stopped she may start crying and she really did not want to do that. She knew she was not paying any attention to what he was saying. When they arrived to her apartment he followed her inside. She grabbed her mail on the way in.

"Are you excited?" He asked.

"I think I am still in shock," she replied. She knew why he was here and she needed to figure out a way to make him leave. She did not want to have sex with him, even though he expected it.

"So can I sleep over?" He said with a wink. This was his universal sign.

"I'd love you to but we can only sleep. Tonight's not a good night for anything else." She said hoping he would get the hint. She knew once he got it, he would decide to leave. He only stayed over if they were going to have sex. Otherwise he preferred his own place.

He was staring at her for a few minutes before he finally understood what she meant. "That's ok actually, I haven't been home in a few days and I probably should unpack and check my mail."

"Oh, ok. You're probably right. Plus I'll be on the phone talking to the girls anyway." She said with a smile.

He thought this meant she was excited to tell everyone. Of course it was her way of venting and figuring out how she could fix this situation. He leaned in and gave her a kiss good bye.

She grabbed the mail and headed into her bed room. She sat on her bed staring at the ring on her finger. Why did she say yes? Because it was easier than saying no while a group of people were staring at her. She took the ring off and put it on the night stand. He was gone and she did not have to wear it.

She flipped through her mail when she suddenly saw it. It was a response from Elizabeth Fitzgerald. The timing was incredible. She quickly tore open the envelope and began to read the typed response. She could not believe how personal the response was. Elizabeth really read her letter. Aria sent text messages to Hanna and Spencer immediately.

So I got a letter back from the author telling me to go for it. And I think I'm kind of engaged!

Almost instantly after hitting send her phone began to beep.

Hanna texted: I'm on my way over.

Spencer texted: I'm bringing wine.

Within about ten minutes both of them were sitting on Aria's couch. Spencer was reading the letter from Elizabeth and Hanna was staring at the ring. Without even speaking the two swapped the items and began studying the new things in their hands. Spencer was the first to break the silence.

"So what are you going to do?" She asked.

"I don't know. What do you think I should do?" Aria asked.

"I think you should keep this ring," Hanna commented from the peanut gallery.

"Hanna, please," Spencer snapped. "Why did you say yes?"

"I don't know. Probably because everyone was staring at us and it would be weird to say no."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't have said yes. Now you have another whole can of worms to deal with," Hanna said. "Was it a romantic proposal?"

"Not really. He didn't profess his undying love for me. It was more like we work well together; we should just take the next step because that's what we're supposed to do."

"Well the ring kind of makes up for that." Hanna said.

"Hanna we need to stay focused here. How are you planning on finding Ezra?" Spencer asked. Aria loved how direct she could be, right to the point, no tip toeing around the situation.

"I have a little secret," Aria said grabbing both or their attention. They both looked at her waiting for her to speak. "I still have his email address. I'm not sure if it still works but I have it."

"Send him an email and see what he's doing," Spencer said. "It's a step in the right direction. You are talking to him without causing any trouble, because old friends send emails to each other all the time. Plus if it doesn't work then we look for something else."

"Do you think so?"

"Yeah, you won't be able to let this go until you get some answers and it's not worth telling Noel now," Spencer added.

"Spence is right Aria. You really won't be able to move on if you don't talk to him. A simple email might do the trick. He may respond that he's been happily married for 5 years, has one kid and the second on the way," she said shrugging. "You never know."

Aria and Spencer were both staring at her. "What?" Hanna said.

"Way to burst a bubble Hanna. I thought I was supposed to be the practical one." Spencer said. With that they all started laughing. They finished their wine and continued to gossip.

It was an odd scene because they were not congratulating their friend on her engagement. Both were pushing her towards a past love. To be completely honest Spencer and Hanna did not care for Noel at all. They were happy Aria had someone in her life but Noel had a bad reputation in high school and it seemed that it did not get better as an adult. Neither had really pushed the issue because they could tell Aria's heart was not into it. Now with the engagement and the potential reconnection with Ezra they knew which way to direct their friend.

After a couple of hours the girls left and Aria sat on her bed with her laptop. She had an email address. She was not sure it was going to work but it was worth a shot.

Hi Ezra,

I was cleaning out my contacts and found your email address. I'm not sure it even still works. I hope this email finds you well, where ever you are now. If you get a chance to say hi it would be great to hear from you.

Aria

She hit send with her fingers crossed. She could not believe she was doing this. Of course she was trying really hard not to get her hopes up because the email may be invalid but who knows. People keep cell numbers forever; maybe they keep email addresses too. "Some divine intervention would be great right now." Aria did not know it yet but some intervention was already happening.

Lying on her bed she kept hitting refresh on the browser. Of course it had only been 3 minutes since she sent the email. She really needed more patience. Looking at the clock she said out loud, "Crap I need to go to bed. Hanna will be here early to walk." Time had escaped her and she could not believe it was already 1am.

Ezra was sitting at the computer tooling around on the internet looking at nothing in particular. He decided to check his email one last time before calling it a night. He was exhausted. Today was the last day of shooting for the movie and he needed to be there early. The director wanted his opinion on changing the ending. Ezra was not sure he wanted to do that but he was willing to listen and see what he had to say. Ezra was pleasantly surprised when he heard what the director wanted to do. "I want to open the movie with a scene of both Rob and Kate running for trains. Then just as Rob notices Kate we go into flashback mode, tell the story and end with the scene we shot a few days ago." The director said. Ezra could not wait to see the final product.

Just as he was scanning through his emails he saw a familiar name in the inbox. He opened the email and immediately knew. "She got the letter." Harp looked up at him slightly confused because he was startled from his sleepy state.

"Sorry buddy, I didn't mean to wake you, but she got the letter and she's emailed me. How do I respond to her now? Should I be generic?"

The dog continued to look at him quizzically, and then he put his head back on his paws trying to doze off.

Wow, it's great to hear from you. This is quite the blast from the past. I am well, living in LA now, well just outside of it actually. I got into publishing and things are going well. What are you up to now? I hope all is well for you. It's wonderful to hear from you. Keep in touch.

Ezra

He hit send and now he would have to wait and see. He did not want to sound too eager. You cannot respond back "I love you come live with me" in your first conversation in over ten years. Hopefully she would respond quickly. For the first time in a long time he was excited and could not wait to see what tomorrow brings.

"Knock, Knock" Hanna said walking through her door. It was Saturday morning and Hanna and Aria walked and then went to Brew for muffins and coffee.

"Oh my god! Hanna, get in here," Aria screamed. "He emailed me back!"

"What? Are you kidding me?" Hanna said quickly walking to Aria's room. She jumped on her bed and read Ezra's email. "I can't believe this. It worked!"

"I know and he's in California. What should I do? What should I say back?"

"Did you tell Spencer?"

"Yeah she's on her way over with coffee. Sorry we aren't walking this morning. I need to deal with this first."

"Umm, yeah this is way better than a walk," Hanna said as they heard Spencer.

"Hello," Spencer yelled when she came in putting the coffees on the counter.

"In here," Aria and Hanna said at the same time.

"Let me read the email." Spence said. Aria handed Spencer her laptop and she read. "It's kind of short and very generic. It doesn't tell us much." Both Hanna and Aria looked at her deflated. Spencer had a way of putting things into perspective.

"Well what do you expect Spence, Ezra to be like 'I love you Aria, marry me'," Hanna said.

"Or he could say, 'Sorry can't talk to you I have a wife and 3 kids'," Aria added. "My email wasn't full of information. God knows I didn't mention that I'm sort of engaged."

"Good point. This time we just need to ask more open-ended questions and see if we can drag some information out of him," Spencer said.

"Oh do 'we'," Aria said, making quotations in the air with her fingers.

"You know what I mean," Spencer replied rolling her eyes at her.

They sat on Aria's bed thinking about what they should say. It seemed like an hour before they came up with something to reply with. Finally Aria had enough. "Ok that's it. I'm going to write what I want to say and then you guys can tell me if it's good, ok?"

"Ok," Hanna and Spencer said in unison.

"Ok, here it goes," Aria said, beginning to read her email out loud.

I can't believe this is still your email. I sent you that message on a whim, I'm so glad you replied. I'm glad you are well. California, I am so jealous. I'm sure it's very glamorous. I came back to Rosewood after college and I now teach at the high school. Weird, I know, kind of following in your footsteps. Other than that, it's kind of boring here. What's keeping you busy other than publishing?

I think I am still in shock you replied. What a wonderful surprise. I hope to hear from you soon.

Aria

"That's good. I think he'll get the fact you want to keep talking to him without blurting out I love you and want to get back together," Hanna said.

"Yeah, it's still subtle but a little more about you this time," Spencer added. "Of course now we need to wait and see what he says."

Aria hit send. Though part of her was now afraid his life had changed and she could not be part of it.

Ezra rose early Saturday morning. Today he was having a picnic on the beach with Liz, not that he wanted to. He was so wrapped up in the Aria situation that he knew he would not be able to give Liz his full attention which was not fair to her.

Just as he was about to grab Harp's leash so they could head out for their walk he decided to check his email. Harp sat by the door staring at him. "I know what time it is, give me a minute. There's a three-hour time change she might have responded already." Looking at his watch he said, "It's already 10am there."

He opened his email account and found what he was looking for. Her email sounded happy, almost giddy. He hoped she was actually excited but he knew he could easily read that tone into the email. "What to say?" He said flexing his fingers beginning to type.

I wish I could say California is glamorous. I live in a sleepy town called Seaside. It is north of Los Angeles, but it's not bad. I'm across from the beach and the dog loves it so I can't complain. It's wonderful that you are teaching. I can't lie sometimes I miss it but I really like my job now too. How is your family and friends? Are you still at your parents or did you and the girls get a place? There is so much I would love to chat with you about. I hope to hear from you soon.

Ezra

As he hit the send button he said out loud, "Why am I such a loser? I should have said 'I love you' it would be easier. I am losing my mind. Alright Harp, let's go. I need to clear my head." Harp jumped up on command looking at him with an 'about time' look on his face. They went to the beach to run and play with the ball before Liz would be over.