"There has to be a reason you look like you're on cloud nine, Ar. Seriously, this is probably the best mood I've seen you in since god knows how long ago." Hanna was buttering toast for James to eat, who was happily amusing himself with a brand new colouring book Hanna had got him. "And there's no way it's because you're going to work at Rosewood. No one is that happy about going back to work."

Aria shrugged and popped a spoonful of cereal in her mouth.

"You know, I think it might have to do with the fact that Ezra came over last night… Or am I wrong?" Hanna waggled her eyebrows at her friend, trying to coax the truth out of her. Clearly she wasn't going down without a fight. "I could always ask James. He'll probably know."

Aria responded with a mouthful of cereal. "Sure. Go ahead."

Hanna smiled, and went and brought James' toast over to him. "Hey Jamie, how did it go with your dad last night?"

"Great!" He said, while taking a bite out of his toast. "Me, momma and daddy all played cars together. And daddy's gonna come for my first day of school!" James took another huge bite out of his toast, and went back to colouring.

Hanna stalked back to Aria, clearly unhappy with what she had managed to gather. Seeing her expression, Aria flashed her friend a sarcastic smile. "Find out anything from my four year old son?"

"Shut up. You know you both talk with food in your mouths? It's rude." Just to aggravate Hanna more, Aria playfully chomped on her cereal. "Anyways," Aria pointed her spoon at her son who was sitting in the living area. "If anything possibly happened, you think he'd have been there to witness it? Good one Han." She said in a hushed tone.

"What?! Okay, now you have to tell me!" Hanna shrieked, causing James to look up.

"Look at the time! I'll be late for my meeting if I spend any more time here. Bye baby, have a good morning with Auntie Hanna, I'll see you in a few hours." She blew him a kiss and started to head towards the door.

"Bye Momma, love you."

Not wanting Aria to get away without any answers, Hanna shouted a quick 'don't burn the house down' to James, and ran after her. She quickly caught up to Aria who had just reached the edge of the porch.

"You kissed him, didn't you?" Aria stopped and turned to Hanna, a coy smile on her face. "Maybe, maybe not… Thanks for watching him Han!" She turned and walked off to her car.

"Oh my god Aria! Way to go!" Hanna smiled and waved, and went back into her house, closing the door behind her.

Ezra rushed into Rosewood high worried that he'd be late for the faculty meeting.

Crap. It's not my fault the stupid coffee maker wouldn't work.

Quickly stepping into the room, he grabbed a paper that the principal had printed out for the staff, and made his way to the back corner of the room, as all the chairs were already taken. Ezra took a look around the room; mostly all the people there were familiar faces; all returning teachers. The only exception was Aria.

Ezra noticed that she was sitting next to Ella, who was waving warmly at him. He shot her a friendly smile. Ella leaned over and whispered something to Aria, who turned and looked at him. They locked eyes, and both had a smile creep onto their faces at the same time. Ezra could've sworn he saw a small blush spread across Aria's face.

Before Ella could catch on, they both looked away, and turned their attention to the sheet in front of them. Just a school policy review, nothing new. The principal began to talk, welcoming the staff back to another year, and welcoming Aria back to Rosewood. Just at the mention of her name brought Ezra back to the night before.

He'd spent the whole car ride home and spent most of the night thinking about things between the two of them. Ezra had to remind himself about a thousand times that just because she'd kissed him didn't mean that things would be different between them. Perhaps it'd been a moment of weakness, or just an impulsive decision. There were so many possible situations that could play out, but there was only one that Ezra was hoping for. He continued to be absorbed in his own thoughts until something the principal was going over drew him back to reality.

"Of course I trust that none of you would stoop to this, but it's a board requirement that I go over it anyways; just a reminder that there is absolutely no tolerance for student-teacher relationships. If any of the staff members are involved with a student, it will result in your job being terminated immediately."

Hesitantly, Ezra slowly looked over to Aria, and saw that she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He saw a smile starting to tug at her lips, and she quickly looked away. The rest of the meeting flew by fairly quickly; everything was just a review before the beginning of the school year. The only important thing was that all teachers were getting their room numbers.

"Ezra... Room 218, same as last year." The principal said.

Ezra nodded. "Thanks." He'd made up his mind that he'd wait until the meeting was over and then he'd go and talk to Aria. The only thing he had to get around was Ella. Last year when Ezra had starting working at Rosewood high again, he and Ella had gone back to having a friendly relationship. She'd once said something along the lines of 'whatever happened in the past happened, if we're going to be colleagues we have to be professional about it."

Byron, on the other hand was a completely different story. The few times Ezra had run into Byron, it'd been extremely awkward. Byron was clearly still unimpressed with him, and Ezra had to act as though he was walking on eggshells with Byron. The last thing he wanted was to have him angrier than he already was.

After the principal had said his final words, Ezra walked over to Ella and Aria.

"Good morning Ella, morning Aria."

Ella looked up, and gave him a smile. "Morning Ezra, how was your summer break?" She asked politely, putting her paper into her purse.

"Mine was fairly dull, nothing above average, except for this last week." He said, clearly looking at Aria while he spoke. She had to bite her lip to keep her from letting out a giggle.

Ella sighed. "I know how you feel; going back to work always tends to send me into a frenzy, like I've got to pack what I haven't done in my time off all in one week."

Ezra nodded. Sure, that's what I meant.

Ella spoke up again. "So it must be a bit weird to be working with Aria. She was your student a couple years ago." The way that Ella had put emphasis on student clearly implied 'ex-girlfriend', but she'd never actually say that out loud.

Ezra cleared his throat. "Well, that was a while ago. Things change Ella." He looked to Aria, who was standing just behind her mother. She gave him an encouraging nod; he'd said the right thing. For now.

Ella seemed to be okay with his response, so she carried on and turned to Aria. "You haven't come for dinner in months, honey. How about you and James come for dinner this Friday? I can't imagine how big my grandson's gotten."

Aria hesitated for a moment, her mouth open. "Uh, sure. Friday sounds good, Mom." Aria looked at Ezra, who seemed like he'd seen a ghost. Both of them were thinking the exact same thing. There was no way James was going to keep his mouth shut about Ezra being his dad.

"Great! I'll phone you tonight to work out details. In the mean time, I have to make a couple errands." She said her goodbyes then left the room. A few teachers were still in the room conversing about the upcoming school year.

"So what room are you in?" Aria asked.

"218. What about you?"

Aria snickered. "This just keeps getting better. 217. We're across the hall from each other."

"Well then, how about I walk you to class?" Ezra asked, flashing her a quick grin. "Sure."

The pair walked in silence, as both had so many questions racing through their minds. Arriving at the end of the English hall, where their classrooms were, Ezra and Aria turned to face each other.

"Friday..." Was all Aria said. "I know. But we have four days to figure things out." She looked down the hall to make sure no one was there, then laced her fingers with Ezra's, and pulled him into her classroom, shutting the door behind them. She went and sat on the desk, looking Ezra in the eyes. "About last night..."

Here it comes. Ezra thought to himself. The part where she breaks his heart all over again. He let out a breath, and looked down at their hands.

"Hey. I'm not going to say that." Aria knew exactly what he was thinking, just by the expression on his face. They were both able to do that with each other. "I want you to know that I regret nothing. But, if we keep going down this road, things aren't going to be easy." She brought her free hand up to his cheek, and stroked it tenderly. Ezra smiled.

"Things have never been easy with us, have they? I think I'm used to it." He chuckled. Aria freed her hand from his, wrapped it around his neck and placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

Before she could enjoy the feeling of his lips on hers again, Aria pulled away faster than she meant to.

Her cheeks were tinged red.

"It's okay, that I do that, right?" She asked bashfully.

"What, kiss me?" Ezra chuckled. "I think it is. Definitely okay."

She laughed and kissed him again, loving the familiarity of the action.

"Good, because I intend on doing that quite often." Aria smiled as Ezra placed a couple quick kisses on her lips, savouring the freedom that came with each one.

"Ezra, can I ask you a question?" Aria asked.

"Shoot."

"Would it be absolutely horrible of me to ask you to come to my parent's house on Friday?"

Ezra thought about it for a second before answering. "If you want me to come, of course I will... but why would it be horrible of you?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that you don't have your heart set on getting punched by my dad." Aria whispered. "He's not going to be thrilled that you're James' father."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take. Byron's going to find out one way or another, and I'd prefer if he found out from me, rather than him coming and busting my apartment door down or something." Ezra shuddered at the thought of how Byron would react, but pushed the thought out of his mind. No need to worry about it now, he had four days to avoid the topic. "My turn."

Aria looked up at him. "For what?"

"A question." She nodded for him to continue. "Where does this leave us?"

"Until Friday, a secret. Stuff flies around Rosewood pretty fast; I don't want my parents hearing anything before I tell them myself."

Ezra kissed her gently on the forehead. "Sounds good to me."