A/N I know I write for my own enjoyment, but reviews sure don't hurt. I was sad at the lack of reviews on the last chapter. Be honest, did the M stuff turn some people off from this story? I think I'm going to tune it down from now one. This is a family story so from now on I'm going to keep stuff tame. I'm so sorry for how late this update is, but school is insane. With midterms coming up, I honestly can't breath. Anyway, italics are flashbacks because I previously mentioned I was going to show how they met and show background on their relationship. Also, I did some research about babies. I'm trying to make it accurate. Charlotte is seven months old so apparently it's not uncommon for seven month olds to still breast feed if that seems weird to anyone. It did to me at first. If anyone can help me with accuracy on baby stuff let me know! I'd really appreciate it. Well anyway without further ado, here is chapter 3.
Chapter 3: Let it Snow
Aria took one last look in the mirror, admiring her Christmas themed outfit. She was wearing a tight burgundy dress with a black sweater over it. She had on black tights and her feet were adorned with gold four-inch heels. She was going for sexy but not slutty, since Byron told her he had someone to introduce her to. Since Aria had recently graduated from college, she was ready to start meeting people and putting herself out there. Though Aria wasn't sure if she should trust Byron's matchmaker skills, she was willing to try.
Twenty minutes later, the Montgomery's entered the Johnson house for their annual Christmas party. The house was covered in lights and wreaths. Circular tables were set up everywhere, with white lace tablecloths and red candles. Expensive china plates were set at each place with the appropriate silverware next to them.
Being twenty-two, Aria didn't feel the need to stick by her parents and went off to admire the gorgeous house. After a few minutes she spotted her dad talking to a very attractive man. His brown curls and piercing blue eyes instantly caught her attention. Praying this was the man her dad had hoped to introduce her to, she made her way towards the two men. To her disappointment, the man disappeared into the crowd as she approached Byron.
"Oh Aria. Perfect timing," Byron said as he grabbed her wrist and led her towards someone. He tapped someone on the shoulder and they exchanged hushed words.
"Aria, this is Justin. He is Mr. and Mrs. Johnson's son." Byron introduced the two and then went off to converse with friends.
Aria was sorely upset with her father's choice. Justin's hair was blonde and greasy. He wasn't being very discreet as he checked out Aria, his eyes resting on her breasts. The next five minutes were the most awkward minutes Aria had ever experienced. They consisted of Justin making pass after pass at her as she attempted to tactfully dodge them.
Eventually, Aria managed to escape him with the excuse she was going to get food and find her seat. She prayed her place card wasn't next to Justin's but she was once again disappointed and found his right next to hers as she sat down.
Slowly people started to get their food and find their seats. Justin came to sit and Aria pretended to be on her phone so she could ignore him. However, he didn't seem to get the hint and kept trying to instigate stupid conversation.
Thankfully, someone started to pull out the chair next to her to sit down. Hoping it was some young girl she could easily converse with, or at this point anyone but Justin, Aria turned to her right with a smile. She let out a gasp as she saw the handsome stranger that had been chatting with her dad before.
He looked at her quickly with raised eyebrows. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he chuckled. Aria flushed pink in embarrassment.
"Hi I'm Ezra Fitz," the man said sticking out his hand.
"Aria. Aria Montgomery." She said shaking his hand. He quickly checked her out, but Aria didn't miss it. It wasn't nearly as obvious as the way Justin had done it. In fact, he was very tasteful about it. She was extremely flattered that someone as handsome as him was looking at her in that way.
"Oh Byron's daughter! Your father and I work together at Hollis." He suddenly seemed a little more upset than before but quickly regained his composure and continued, "He's been talking about introducing you to someone here tonight."
Suddenly it clicked to Aria. He was jealous of Justin. Not to sound conceited, but he did just check her out. She let out a snort and quickly slapped her hand to her mouth looking mortified.
This caused Ezra to laugh and gently remove her hand. "Don't worry, I found it cute," Ezra flirted.
Aria's cheeks heated up even more.
After finally collecting herself Aria went on, "Anyway, turns out my dad's matchmaker skills suck." She lowered her voice and subtlety pointed her eyes toward Justin, "For some reason, I can't understand, my dad thought this idiot was my type," Aria scoffed.
Ezra laughed along with her and couldn't help but notice the adorable twinkle in her eye. He knew there was something special about this girl.
They talked for hours and found out they had much more in common then they thought. They had both majored in English, both loved olds movies and were both extremely attracted to each other. Except the latter obviously wasn't stated. Every so often Justin would try and jump in to the conversation, but Aria would brush him off and continue talking with Ezra. She was thrilled to find out he was only twenty-seven. When he said he worked with Byron, she was afraid he might have been much older. But it was only a five-year age difference.
"I'd really like to keep in touch Aria, I had a great time," Ezra said, lightly touching her thigh as the conversation seemed to be wrapping up. Both had a few glasses a wine and were feeling a little buzzed.
Aria smiled in agreement and reached for his phone that was set on the table. She entered her number and they shared a smile. No words needed. They were broken out of their daze as Ella and Byron approached their table.
"Aria, here you are!" Ella exclaimed. "You ready to go honey?" Neither Aria nor Ezra had noticed how empty the room was now. Pretty much everyone was gone.
"Ezra! I see you've meet my daughter," Byron said noticing Ezra's hand on Aria's thigh.
Ezra suddenly panicked, not wanting to upset his colleague. He pulled his hand away as if Aria were poison and started stuttering nervously.
"Ezra, breath. I'm not going to go all "protective dad" here. Clearly my attempt at setting Aria up failed. Had I known you were single I'd have introduced you two. But it looks like you guys got that covered," Byron joked.
Aria and Ezra flashed flirty smiles at each other, too far gone to be shy.
They all walked to the front door together and Ezra walked Aria to the car.
"I'll call you soon, I'd love to know more about you," Ezra whispered. Aria smiled and kissed his cheek.
Back to present day
Aria awoke the next morning shivering. She reached down and pulled the duvet up over her and Ezra as she snuggled closer to him. Looking over at the clock, Aria realized they had to leave soon to get Charlotte.
"Ez, time to get up babe," Aria whispered, playing with his chest hair.
He grumbled something unintelligible and buried deeper into their bed, tightening his grip on Aria.
"We have to get Char," Aria reminded him. Ezra groaned, but rose nonetheless.
"Alright, let's go get our baby," Ezra said throwing on some clothes.
Aria walked over and opened the curtains. "Holy crap, we better hurry up before we get snowed in," Aria exclaimed watching the constant stream of snow from the sky.
They both dressed quickly and were out the door within five minutes.
As they approached the house Aria whipped out her phone and called Ella asking her to open the garage.
Ezra entered the house and held open the door for Aria. Upon walking into the kitchen, they were greeted with the sight of Charlotte in a highchair as Ella attempted to feed her a bottle of milk Aria had pumped the previous day.
"Okay Aria, this is mommy duty stuff. She is not having any of this bottle business," Ella said letting out a sigh as Charlotte once again shook her head at the bottle.
"Mama," Charlotte babbled upon seeing her. She reached her tiny arms towards her mommy wanting her normal morning feed.
"Hi precious," Aria cooed picking her up and walking the short distance to the couch. "Have you been a little trouble maker for Grandma Ella?" Aria said tapping Charlotte on the nose. Ezra laughed as he sat on the couch next to his wife and daughter, wrapping an arm around Aria's waist.
Ella laughed too and sat across from the family. "No. She was actually very good. Slept through the entire night to my surprise. She just started getting a little fussy this morning, I got a few longing "dadas" and "mamas" but other then that we had a great time." Ella concluded.
After Aria finished breastfeeding Charlotte, the family headed out, wanting to beat the worst of the snowstorm.
"Thanks again so much. We'll be sure to come for dinner soon!" Aria yelled to Ella as they got into their car in the garage.
Once they reached the garage back at their house, the snowstorm was going strong. Intense winds wiped through the neighborhood and Charlotte was whimpering in fear.
Ezra quickly ushered Aria inside with Charlotte cradled in his arms, wanting his precious family to stay as safe as possible. He handed Char to Aria and went around closing all the curtains. Ezra turned on the fireplace and grabbed a warm blanket from the linen closet.
Meanwhile, Aria was changing Charlotte into light-pink, long sleeve, onesie footie pajamas. She zipped up the pajamas and carried Charlotte over to the couch to join Ezra. The TV was turned on and the family snuggled together under the blanket.
The picture perfect moment was disturbed when Aria's cell phone began to ring. Toby popped up on her caller ID.
"Hey Toby. What's up?" Aria said into the phone.
Instead of being greeted back with the normal "hello" Aria was greeted with shrieking.
"Toby…? What's going on, is everything okay?" Aria asked suddenly becoming concerned.
"What? Oh sorry, yeah we're fine. But is your power still on? Because ours went off and Ben has been screeching in fear ever since." Toby said sounding frazzled.
Aria tried not to laugh as she heard Spencer attempting to soothe a sobbing Ben. "Of course, come right over! Drive safe though, you have some precious cargo." Aria said. They exchanged goodbyes and Aria hung up
"Spencer, Toby and Ben are coming over. Their power is out and Ben is totally freaked out," Aria informed Ezra.
"Aww poor Ben. I'll go get more blankets," Ezra said and once again opened the linen closet.
About ten minutes later, the Cavanaugh family came falling into the quaint house. Toby was holding a fussy Ben and Spencer looked about ready to pull her hair out.
"Toby, give me poor Ben. Ezra go make them some coffee," Aria commanded.
"Yes ma'am," Ezra joked as he set Charlotte in her bouncer.
Aria worked to soothe Ben while Spencer and Toby collapsed on the couch, cuddled together.
"Here, this should help," Ezra said handing them each a cup of coffee. They both smiled gratefully and took big sips.
Meanwhile Aria was playing peek-a-boo with Ben and he was all smiles. A complete 180 of how he five minutes ago.
"I don't know how she does it," Spencer sighed, watching Aria's interaction with Ben. "She makes me feel like a horrible mother."
"Honey, you're just tired and Aria's been doing this longer. Give it time," Toby soothed his wife, stroking her hair.
"Okay, he's good now. Right Benny Boo?" Aria cooed setting Ben in a bouncer next to Charlotte. The two friends starting making babbling noises at each other. Ezra walked over and covered both babies in blankets before turning on Teletubbies.
"God, you guys are like dream team parents," Spencer whined.
"Spencer, stop beating yourself up. You have a three-month old. Obviously you're tired and grouchy. That doesn't make you a bad mom," Aria said sitting on Ezra's lap.
Spencer humphed but gave up her argument, knowing Aria had a point.
The four parents continued to talk quietly cuddled under blankets with their significant other until Charlotte's cry rang throughout the living room.
"Thank god. For once it's not mine," Spencer joked. Aria shot her a look and got up to tend to Charlotte.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Aria said as she picked up her daughter. Charlotte continued to wail, seemingly searching for something.
She spotted her teeth ring in the play pin and frantically pointed at it "Dat! Dat!" she exclaimed.
"Ohh. You're teething. Poor baby," Aria cooed handing her the teething ring. Charlotte quickly stuck it in her mouth and began to chew. The adults laughed at her adorableness and Aria set her back in the bouncer, covering her again with the blanket.
"Looks like it's time for a certain baby boys nap time," Spencer said walking over to Ben, who was fighting to keep his eyes open, desperate to see the end of Teletubbies.
"You're welcome to use Charlotte's crib for his nap, that way we don't have to deal with the basinet yet. Plus Char already had her nap earlier today," Aria informed Spencer.
Spencer nodded gratefully as she rocked Ben. "Honey, want to help me put him down? You always seem to soothe him better than I do," Spencer suggested to Toby. He nodded and they made their way upstairs.
"You know, Spencer was right about one thing. We do make a pretty damn good team," Ezra whispered huskily into Aria's ear as he pulled her even closer.
"Mhm," Aria mumbled into his neck. "We are definitely the dream team," she said quietly.
"Someone else seems to think so too," Ezra laughed, pointing his head over to Charlotte. The baby was looking at her parents with an adorable gummy smile gracing her face. The two shared a laugh and snuggled closer.
"She's perfect," Ezra said what they were both thinking.
"Yeah, she is. Our baby girl is perfect," Aria sighed in agreement.
But perfect is unrealistic, nothing can last forever.
PLEASE REVIEW. It would mean the world to me. I don't even care if you tell me you didn't like it. Give me opinions! (I hope I don't sound bitchy right now…)