On Monday morning, Aria found herself trying a little harder than usual while she got ready for work. For the first time in her entire life, she got out of bed the second that her alarm went off instead of hitting it clumsily and muttering "5 more minutes" aloud to an empty room. She listened to a collection of happy Ed Sheeran and Adele songs while she showered, applied her makeup, and styled her hair, humming along with the permanent little smile on on her lips that had been there since Saturday.
God, Aria could not stop smiling. She had grinned the whole drive home from Ezra's apartment that Saturday afternoon, blaming the buzz she felt from their morning of adult activities for the reason that her cheeks had begun to ache. She'd thought a shower would bring her down from her high, but once she saw her naked body in the mirror and the love bites that Ezra had left in the most private of places, the euphoric feelings inside of her only intensified. When Claire had come to pick Aria up for their girls' night out, Aria had greeted her at the door with the goofiest, lop sided smile, causing Claire to ask questions and for their night out on the town to turn into a night of sitting on Aria's couch drinking wine from the bottle and talking about sex, love, and boys like a couple of teenagers. And despite her slight hangover on Sunday morning, Aria beamed as she sipped her coffee in the café across the street from her building. She had no idea what she and Ezra were- were they dating? Fucking? Complicated? – but she knew that he had made her incredibly happy.
It took everything in her not to contact him for the rest of the weekend to get clarification on her uncertainty. He had told her that he would see her on Monday, not before, and she didn't want to come off as clingy or obsessive by trying to get his attention early. It was funny how much Ezra made Aria feel like she was in high school again- worrying about whether or not texting him would be too much, but having the thought of seeing him again in person making her heart beat wildly. It felt almost too cliché to acknowledge, but she really did feel 16 again.
Aria's stomach was in knots the whole drive to the office. A part of her was excited to see the man that had consumed her thoughts all weekend. Another part was terrified. What if he regretted it? What if he thought about what they did and decided that it wasn't what he wanted? The concept wasn't implausible. Moments before he acquainted his body with hers, he had been extremely hesitant to start anything more than a friendship with her because it would be unprofessional and inappropriate. She understood, but she was more than willing to fly under the radar. Ezra, however, wasn't. He was scared, skeptical. She'd kissed him to try to convince him to give them a chance and had been surprised when he gave in. In the moment Ezra seemed more than willing to give them a go. In fact, he consented to testing the waters 3 times. But Aria had had her fair share of interactions with men to know that sometimes they don't always think with the right head. One minute they're saying they love you, the next they're wondering why you're crying when they say they want to see other people.
Her body went numb as she walked through the building's front doors. Because it was Monday, Ezra wouldn't be hiding in his office like he did every other morning. Instead he would be making trips back and forth between his office and the conference room, preparing himself for their usual Monday morning meetings. Having had a relatively secret relationship with Liam, Aria understood how to go about handling a clandestine romance at work. Don't look too long at one another. Don't look into their eyes unless they're talking directly to you. Don't stand too close to one another. Don't exchange intimate glances from across the room, someone will notice. Avoid bodily contact at all costs. And don't even try to steal kisses when no one's around, the camera's catch everything. But despite knowing all of that, Aria still found herself at a loss for knowing how to handle the Ezra situation. They weren't in a relationship to her understanding. She wasn't really sure whether to classify Ezra as a one-night stand or as a potential lover. Unfortunately, they don't make a guide to "how to avoid all of the awkward tension that is bound to be present between you and your boss when you slept together after finding out that he'd been harboring feelings for you since he started working with you and admitting to him that you liked him too, but after having sex you two never really talked about what was going on so now you're both confused and don't know what to make of the current predicament, but need to figure it out fast because you've both got to be in a meeting at 9:30 sharp and have to act like you haven't seen each other naked or have any sort of romantic feelings for one another whatsoever."
Aria let out a long sigh through her nose as she bent over her desk and wiggled the mouse to her computer to wake it up.
"Morning, Ms. Montgomery," Ezra caught her attention as he moved past her cubicle and towards the conference, boasting a large stack of papers in his hands.
She returned his greeting with a smile, too afraid and caught off guard to speak. She felt her face heat up when their eyes met for a brief moment. Flashbacks to looking into Ezra's baby blues as he pushed into her for the first time and to the way they looked when they were heavy, threatening to close as he stroked her hair and back after round 3 suddenly overwhelmed her brain, causing her thoughts about everything else to go fuzzy. When he tore his eyes from hers, she saw that his cheeks had turned pink as well and that the slightest smile sat on his lips.
She watched him walk away in her peripheral vision. Forcing herself not to see him off completely, she turned her attention back to her computer to clock in and noticed the stack of 10 manila folders on the side of her desk with a sticky note on top that read: I'm out of town from Tuesday until Thursday. Need these done by Wednesday! Thanks! –Leah. Aria rolled her eyes, but didn't waste time dwelling on the extra workload. At least this gave her something to distract herself with while Ezra sat on the other side of the wall, out of reach for 8 hours and then some.
As Aria opened the first folder, Ezra passed by her desk again and made an announcement asking that everyone meet in the conference room at 9:30. He said that they were a lot of important things to discuss and that the meeting might take longer than usual, to which everyone responded with a look that said they were inwardly groaning, before padding back into his office to pass the time.
Aria cast her gaze back onto the folder and began inspecting the words on the pages, some scribbled, others typed, but was quickly pulled from her duties when she heard Liam's voice ghosting through the air in a hushed tone from the cubicle next to hers.
"The man probably got laid this weekend. That's honestly the only things that I can think of," Liam whispered.
"You think that someone fucked some emotions into him?" The question came from Ryan Piembert, one of Rockstream's newer employees and…to be less than technical…Liam's bitch The guy followed Liam everywhere and did whatever was asked of him. For some reason the twisted soul admired the biggest douche at the office.
"It's possible. A good lay will do crazy things to a man," Liam laughed lowly. "In all of the time that he's been here, I have not once seen him smile at anything other than a new client. Now he's grinning while he gives announcements and while he just walks around the place? Either he's dying and has decided to change his ways, or he got some. I'm going with the latter."
"You really think sex on say, Saturday, would still have him riding a high?" Ryan asked.
"You've never had amazing sex, have you?" Liam sounded condescending. "But to answer your question, yes, if she was really good."
"Huh," Ryan huffed loudly.
A couple of silent seconds ticked by before Aria felt Ryan's presence pass behind her as he walked back to his desk. All of the sudden, she became aware that her shoulders had crept up to her ears like they often did when she felt tense and uncomfortable. He ex-boyfriend was unknowingly talking about her sex life to his petty friend while she sat one desk over. Sure, he would never know that he was talking about her, but she did and that was enough to make her skin crawl slightly. For him to know anything about her private life, whether he knew that he knew or not, felt like an invasion of privacy. It was like Ezra was her secret to keep and suddenly she was determined to do everything in her power to make him stay that way. If she found out that Ezra wanted them to work out just as much as she did, she was going to have to make sure that he kept every single one of his emotions in check.
Aria closed the file that she was supposed to be reading over and clasped it between her hands. She stood up slowly and plastered a faux-concerned look on her face as she made her way to Ezra's office. If anyone was watching her, in person or later on the cameras, she wanted to make it seem like she was just going in to ask him a question about her work.
She entered without knocking, earning herself a surprised look from Ezra that quickly turned into a bright smile.
"Hey," He mused.
"Hi, we need to talk," Aria sat down quickly and set the file on the table. "You don't need to look at that. I brought it in here for looks. We need to DTR." Her words came out sounding like one long, run-on sentence. Being alone and this close to Ezra again made Aria feel dizzy. Everything about them would be wrong. Being together would be a challenge, but a thrilling one and one that Aria wanted to take on more than anything.
"DT…what?" Ezra raised an eyebrow.
"Determine the relationship," Aria clarified.
"Oh," Ezra's expression hardened slightly. "Can we not do this here?"
"Liam knows you had sex this weekend," Aria said, ignoring Ezra's question.
"What?" His forehead crinkled with worry.
"Well, he thinks you did anyway, but he's right," Aria continued. "He thinks you're too…smiley. Which, honestly, you are. And I know that's because of me."
"Are you looking for an apology, or?" Ezra cocked his head to one side.
"No, I want to know what you want. Do you want to give us a shot? Did you get your fulfillment on Saturday? Do you think you could handle keeping us a secret?" Aria rattled off the questions she'd wanted to ask since she left Ezra's apartment two days ago. She wasn't angry. She was desperate.
"Aria, really, can we not do this here?" Ezra lowered his voice as if someone could hear them.
"I need to know," Aria snapped.
"And I need you to wait," Ezra held up his hand, physically signaling for her to pause. "I…I've kind of thought up this whole speech and I need to say everything in it to you and I can't do that here. Come over tonight?"
Aria bit her lip. A speech didn't sound like a good sign, but him inviting her over did. Although, he wasn't making it seem like she had a choice. "Okay," She shrugged after a moment.
"Great," He smiled warmly. "Come over at 7. I'll make dinner, so don't worry about eating beforehand."
"Okay, but don't forget that I'm vegan," Aria gave a half smile as she stood up and grabbed the file.
"I'll remember," Ezra nodded, letting a puff of air fall forcefully from his nostrils indicating that he was amused by her comment.
"I'll see you then," Aria nodded in return, turning on her heels to leave.
"Wait, Ar," Ezra's voice, and the use of only the first syllable of her name, like an endearing nickname, caused Aria to stop in her tracks.
"Yes?" She asked, facing him once again.
"Yes. No. And I don't know," Ezra answered.
She stared at him for a moment, hoping he'd offer a little more context to what he just said, but ultimately not receiving any explanation. It wasn't until she had sat back down at her desk that she realized that he had been responding to her questions from moments earlier.
Do you want to give us a shot? Yes.
Did you get your fulfillment on Saturday? No.
Do you think you could handle keeping us a secret? I don't know.
A/N: First things first, I need to apologize for the wait and for how short this chapter is! I've had so much schoolwork these past few weeks and on top of that, my motivation to write has just not been there. Every time I sat down to write this chapter, I just couldn't do it. I actually had to force myself to sit down and write this because I knew you guys were waiting. So I'm sorry that it's not the best or most interesting chapter and I'm sorry that it's so short. I promise that I'll update sooner this time (hopefully by Sunday?) and that the chapter will be of much better quality. Also, it's 12:30 and I've been up since 5 am so I'm exhausted. Another reason/excuse to why this chapter isn't up to par. Anyway, please let me know what you guys thought of it! Y'all's reviews are my biggest motivators and sources of inspiration so please, please, please review! Thank you guys so much for reading!
And while you're in the reviewing mood, I wrote another one-shot, Entropy, while I was trying to get myself to write this chapter. Please check that out if you haven't already. Again, thank you guys for reading!
-Erin xoxo