Hello.. apologies for the delay. I went to see Bruce Springsteen last night and I feel exhausted after it. If you haven't seen him live - do so.. My advice for the day...
Thank you again for the lovely words you write in your reviews. You make me smile and laugh with the comments.
So as mentioned I know nothing about annulments and divorces so anything I write is from good old Google. I need to hurry up and get ahead again, nearly up to posting everything I have written so far.. I never even imagined it would be this long to be honest!
Aria hurried down the empty halls early on Monday morning clutching a coffee and a brown paper bag. Glancing through the window of Ezra's classroom and smiling as she saw him sat at his desk sipping a coffee and reading. Checking behind her to ensure she wasn't seen, she slipped in the room, closing the door behind her.
"Hey." Ezra said smiling, standing to meet her.
"I come bearing pastries." Aria grinned, holding up the brown bag.
"I already marked your paper Aria, it's too late to bribe me." Ezra joked.
"Oh well, maybe I'll sit here and make you watch me eat both of them then." Aria responded.
Ezra laughed before Aria offered him the pastry bag to pull one out.
"How's your neck?" Ezra asked sheepishly.
"Getting better, I'd show you but that might not be too wise." Aria laughed. "But, thanks for asking."
"Nice t-shirt by the way." Ezra smirked as he wiped his hands on his pants, having finished his pastry, leaning back against the desk.
"Oh do you like it? Some guy gave it to me.. I forget his name..Still smells of him actually" Aria smiled before biting her lip, she had worn Ezra's t-shirt from Vegas over a mini skirt., she was unsure how he would react to her wearing it to school.
Ezra reached out and touched the t-shirt exactly where he knew the ring hung beneath it. Aria held her breath as she felt the heat of Ezra's hand through the t-shirt. He couldn't understand why he felt the need to touch the ring whenever he saw Aria.
"Do you want to come over tonight?" Ezra asked without making eye contact with Aria, a slight frown on his face the sign of his internal conflict. "We should talk about what we need to do about us.. this.. I mean we should talk."
"Sure, I'll be there." Aria replied calmly, knowing Ezra was trying to balance his emotions.
The sound of voices in the hallway caused Ezra to pull his hand away from Aria and to stand up straight.
"Come over whenever you want, I'll order us dinner."
"Great thanks, I should go.. you know before.." Aria said as her voice tailed off. She knew there was no point saying why they couldn't be seen together.
"Yeah.. I know, thanks for the pastry though." Ezra said finally looking up to Aria's face again. Smiling at her before she left him alone. Leaning back against his desk, trying to bring his heartbeat back to a normal pace.
As Aria wandered the halls to find the other girls, her phone beeped. Ezra had sent her a text.
I like my t-shirt on you. xoxo.
Aria grinned before quickly hiding the phone in her bag as the other girls approached.
Ezra sat picking at his salad in the staff room during lunch reading through his notes for the day.
"Mind if I join you?" Ella asked, drawing Ezra's eyes away from his papers.
"Sure, sure.. sorry let me move my stuff." Ezra replied pulling his notes together into a neat pile. "Thanks again for dinner last week, I really appreciate it."
"Oh, no problem, we should do it again soon, we loved having you there." Ella replied honestly. "I know Aria would be happy to hear more about New York, she's desperate to go there to study. It's so strange to think that in a few months she'll be leaving home."
"She's a bright, intelligent girl, I am sure she'll be fine." Ezra appeased.
"I know, I just worry, like every mother. She's not my little girl with pink streaks in her hair anymore"
Ezra smiled at the thought of Aria with pink streaks, he thought he could bring up her history of being a little crazy with her later.
"On Saturday she comes home after a party with love bites on her neck, which just brings on a whole new realm of worries as a parent. You sit there wondering whether these guys are good enough for her and are treating her right. You start thinking no guy will ever be good enough for your baby. It's exhausting.. don't ever have children Ezra!" Ella laughed.
Ezra had begun choking when Ella started talking about the marks on Aria's neck that he had made.
"Oh, are you ok?" Ella asked concerned after she had finished her over-share.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just something in my throat. I'm fine, all good." Ezra stammered. Drinking water to stop himself from talking.
He was saved by the end of lunch bell.
"Well back to the front line.. sorry for off-loading my problems on you. You are a good listener Ezra." Ella said before leaving Ezra sitting there unable to move.
He wished he had been able to choose what he listened to. Having a discussion with your wife's.. no girlfriend's.. no.. whatever Aria was to him, her mother about love bites he made and no one ever being good enough for Aria was a torture he didn't enjoy. He was fairly sure Aria's parents would castrate him if they found out what he had done. In his mind he couldn't solidly convince himself he wasn't going to let it happen again though. He groaned before standing up and reluctantly heading off to his next class.
Upon arriving home, Ezra changed into jeans and a t-shirt, he sat thinking about how he was meant to carry out his promise to Aria that he would sort out the annulment or divorce. He hadn't had the time or if he was honest the 100% desire to look into it, there was another part of him that just thought ignoring it would make it go away, but he knew it was not really the kind of problem that went away. He realised that Aria had seemed a lot more relaxed about it too, if anything he was the one battling it out more in his mind, or she was better at covering her thoughts up.. she had lied, or withheld the truth when they had met, he considered, she was lying tonight he thought, she'd have to be to cover where she was. She was a pretty good liar, but smiled at the thought of her.
Aria knocked lightly on the door of apartment 3b, she wasn't sure if Ezra was going to be flirty or serious with her. She smiled as Ezra opened the door, looking at how the t-shirt clung tightly to his biceps.
"Hey, come in." Ezra smiled, moving aside to let Aria pass him. Closing the door before wrapping his arms around her for a hug. "You smell amazing." He said causing Aria to laugh and thank him.
Aria ran her hands up and down Ezra's back. "This feels good, I've wanted to do this all day." Pulling back slightly to smile at him.
Ezra lowered his head to kiss her, within seconds things became heated, hands wandered as he backed Aria against the wall. Aria snaked one hand under his t-shirt and the other into his back pocket to hold him against her, causing Ezra to groan as she lifted one of her legs to wrap it around his waist. Both knowing no talking was going to get done right now given their determination to rid each other of layers of clothing.
"Ezra.. the bed.." Aria managed to say, struggling to form a sentence.
Ezra responded by lifting her as if she weightless across the room. He had justified to himself that if he got this out of his system now at the start of the evening, then maybe he could think straight to talk. He was grasping at any logic to silence the doubt in his mind about his actions and how easily things had got heated. It was like he had no control.
Ezra threw Aria one of his t-shirts with a smile. "Here, you can put this on for now if you want. I'll call for dinner, pizza ok with you?"
Aria nodded before kneeling on the bed and lifting the shirt over her head.
Ezra groaned as he watched Aria wander over to the couch, the sight of another of his t-shirts on her petite body killing him.
Sat on the couch after eating, Ezra knew he had to start the conversation of what they needed to do.
"So I looked at the lawyers in town, but I presume that the "Hastings" is a relation of Spencer's?"
"Her mother. So that's definitely out of the question."
Ezra grabbed his laptop from the table and loaded up the internet. Typing annulments into the search engine.
"Ok, we need to decide on annulment or divorce. I have no idea whether we can even apply for annulment, looking at the grounds here I am not sure what we can file under."
Aria shuffled next to Ezra to look at the screen. "Within 60 days we can go for under the influence of alcohol I guess.. I have no idea how we prove that. Although trying to say we didn't understand the nature of a marriage contract is going to be pretty hard, we are not that stupid…ok we were stupid for a small window of time.. Or you could claim fraud on my part, saying you didn't know my age and that you ended up being my teacher."
Ezra sighed, "I'm not pinning this on you Aria for fraud, this was both our doing."
Aria reached across and entwined her fingers with Ezra's.
"It's not about blame Ezra, I know we are both in this together but this might be one option." Aria tried to reason with him.
"Another option is you agree to me asking Hardy for help. It's not his area of expertise, he's more mergers and corporate stuff, but he might know someone who can help?"
Aria took a deep breath, unsure how she felt about someone else knowing what they had done, but knowing it might be inevitable.
"I don't want to tell anyone either Aria given the circumstances, but I think we need someone else's help, someone not from round here, someone who will know how to fix this without damaging your future. I don't want you to not be able to have the wedding of your dreams because of this in the future."
Aria knew he had her best interests at heart, he was kind of person who put everyone before himself.
"Ok, you can tell him. We need the help. I trust you to do the right thing and I believe you when you promise you'll fix this."
Ezra turned to look at Aria, his hand caressing her cheek as he gave her a light kiss. "You are amazing, do you know that?"
Aria smiled, "why do you say that?"
"Because you are so calm about all this, it feels like I am the one falling apart more these days."
"Well so far, being your wife has actually been pretty easy and there are benefits.. like being able to do this.." Aria leant in to kiss him. Ezra responded whilst moving the laptop out of the way.
"hmmm.. this is a good benefit." Ezra said between kisses.
"Anyway, who said I am not waiting to see just what assets you have hidden away in New York that I might want half of. A brownstone, an array of rare art, fancy cars.. I could be missing out on all that." Aria joked.
"Ok truthfully, yes I own an apartment in a brownstone.. the art and the cars, they're more my grandparent's thing."
Aria was shocked, "are you messing with me right now?"
Ezra shook his head. "No. I have a three bedroom apartment near Columbia Uni, my family live on the Upper East Side. I stay West. I'm the black sheep. My grandparents hold benefits and do the charity function thing, which is great of them but it's not the life for me. I chose teaching to give back another way I guess"
"And, they don't like that?" Aria questioned.
"They don't get it, me teaching and writing. I know I am lucky to be able to afford to live my dreams but I never wanted their lifestyles. My only concession to it is buying the property instead of renting I guess."
"So I did hit the jackpot then" Aria said playfully as she nudged him with her shoulder.
"No, I think I did." Ezra replied, the words out of his mouth before he had chance to think what he was saying. The silence after his words sat heavy as they both considered what he meant.
Aria moved first, swinging her leg over his lap to straddle him, leaning back on his legs that were bent resting on the coffee table. Ezra ran his hands up her sides, the t-shirt scrunching up as he did so exposing her underwear, stomach and Aria's ring on its chain. His hands lightly stroked her skin. Everything felt slower, more meaningful than the urgency of when she had arrived.
