"How is it being famous? I saw that you have 60 million followers on Instagram. How are 60 million people interested in the girl I met in the parking lot of Rosewood High School?"

Alison had spent the last fifteen minutes with Lorenzo and to her surprise, conversation flowed easier than she thought it would. He was a gentleman and talking with him felt natural. He would ask her questions, she would answer, and things ran smoothly between the two.

"Honestly, Lorenzo, I have no idea. I can't believe that I have an audience that big either, trust me. It's baffling to me."

"I'm not too surprised, you always had a thing about you."

"A thing about me?"

Lorenzo nodded, "you know. That thing where everyone fell in love with you from the moment that they met you. You were always the center of the attention. Always the girl everyone wanted."

"Me? No way."

"Oh c'mon, Ali. You know you ran Rosewood."

A mischievous grin started to form on her lips from memories of the past. Alison did kind of rule Rosewood in her teenage years. She seemed to always be at the center of gravity for her peers. Whatever she wanted, she got. Whoever she wanted, they came. Boys fell over her left and right. She remembered toying with them for her own entertainment until suddenly her attention became directed to one person only. A person she never saw herself falling for until she realized she had already hit the ground.

Just then, that same person came down the stairs with Spencer and Hanna behind of her. Alison watched her eyes lift from the ground to search the room until those brown eyes were looking back at her.

It was funny. With one look from Emily, Alison could feel one hundred things flooding her. It was magnetic the way Alison felt towards Emily. Even after all of this time, after four years of distance and disconnect, Alison felt something in her chest stir for the woman across the room.

Alison's thoughts were broken when Lorenzo placed his hand on her arm. "Ali? Where'd you go?"

Alison turned her head back to Lorenzo, "nowhere. Sorry, I'm here."

"Thinking about your teenage glory days?"

"You know, I think now may be my glory days. Back then I didn't have a Lamborghini in my garage. So I'll take now over then."

Lorenzo's eyes widened with excitement, "please invite me to hang out in LA."

Alison laughed before turning her head to see Emily still looking at her. Her laughter fell silent and Lorenzo looked over to see what had Alison's eye. Lorenzo cleared his throat and shuffled on his feet before speaking again. He noticed Alison's tension, seemingly from Emily.

"Is it, um, weird? Being here with her? Are you two friendly?"

Alison felt her cheeks redden. No one had actually talked to her about Emily anymore. It was oddly both refreshing and awkward having someone so blatantly talk about her ex to her now.

"Not really," Alison started, "I mean, yeah, I guess. Sort of. We don't really speak."

"Its been a while since you two have broken up, right? What has it been? Three years?"

"Four."

Lorenzo heard Alison's voice waiver in her answer. Years ago he heard through Toby that Emily and Alison had broken up. He wasn't told details of their break up, but he was shocked when Toby broke the news. Lorenzo always wanted a chance with Alison, but after seeing how in love Alison was with Emily, he felt like it was disrespectful to attempt anything with her. So the next few times that he had seen Alison in Rosewood after he was aware of her break up with Emily, he avoided approaching the blonde.

Once Lorenzo heard that Emily was dating a model, he figured enough time had passed for Alison to begin dating again. But by the time he saw her, Alison was engaged to an NFL player. Now, here they were, Alison was single again and he felt like he was in a good place to ask her on a date up until Alison's voice fell. Lorenzo had always been drawn to Alison like a moth to a flame, but it wasn't lost on him that timing had never been on his side.

Lorenzo shot Alison a sympathetic smile. He wanted to pull the blonde into a hug and promise her that he would never hurt her and give her the world, but he didn't feel right about it. He wanted his opportunity to be one of good faith, that was only about them. Not out of advantage.

"You're an amazing woman, Ali. I hope that you know."

"You don't have to do that. I'm okay, really—,"

"I wanted to tell you. Not out of obligation or pity. I wanted to tell you because you deserve to know."

Alison felt tears rush to her eyes before she batted them away. No one had spoken to her like this in a while. During the last year and three months, she hadn't dated. She wasn't interested in dating any man or woman. She wanted to fall in love with herself again before she thought about loving someone else.

There were times when her devotion to herself became lonely, but in those times she found comfort in family, friends, travel and her own self journey. She became comfortable watching romance films and going to bed alone at night. Or sitting in a restaurant by herself, enjoying a glass of wine and writing in a journal. Alison had missed intimacy, but she managed to get her small fixes. Her flirtatious personality wouldn't allow her to not flirt with the attractive women who worked on the set of her photoshoots. It also helped that it was her job to make out with Clay. As good of friends they were, Alison could appreciate his physique when she was pressed against him in a tight space while filming. But now that Lorenzo was looking at her with genuine eyes, she noticed that maybe she missed intimacy more than she had realized. He wasn't flirting with her because she was a celebrity or because he was getting paid. He wasn't even flirting at all. And maybe that was what struck Alison the most.

So Alison stood on the tip of her toes and brought one hand to Lorenzo's arm and the other to his face. She leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek and when she lowered herself back down from his face, she smiled when she saw the grin plastered on his mouth.

"Thank you, Lorenzo."

Lorenzo wrapped his arms around of Alison's waist and pulled the blonde into him. He couldn't have been more thrilled at the series of events that had just unfolded. Maybe his timing wasn't so bad after all.

####

Emily was stunned. She knew she didn't have the right to be upset. She knew she didn't get to be jealous... but she was. Watching Alison wrap her arms around Lorenzo felt like a stab of betrayal straight to her chest. Watching her kiss him felt even worse. Seeing how comfortable she was in his embrace was like a slap to the face.

Emily came down Spencer's stairs knowing she wanted Alison but what she failed to realize that there was a chance Alison didn't want her back.

Hanna witnessed the scene of front of her. She didn't feel bad for Emily seeing Alison with someone else given the circumstances, but she loved Emily enough to care about her feelings. "Em, maybe we should check on the food in the oven."

Emily tore her eyes from Alison to Hanna, "yeah, sure. Let's go."

Spencer and Hanna shared a look of worry before following Emily into the kitchen. To Emily's fault, The Hastings house had an open floor plan, allowing Emily to see the living room from the kitchen. So Emily didn't miss Lorenzo pulling Alison closer to his body or Alison smiling back at him once he let her go.

Emily had to remind herself that Alison wasn't hers to be jealous over. She knew her head was telling her the right things but her body refused to accept it. Her heart felt crushed and her stomach turned on her.

She sat down at the kitchen counter and turned her back from the living room. She heard heels on the tile before she saw her.

"Did the potatoes warm up nicely? I feel like sometimes they can warm on top but not in the middle well enough," Alison asked, rounding the counter to look over Spencer's shoulder at her dish pan.

"They warmed up perfectly, Ali," Spencer replied as she began to grab plates from the cabinet. "Could you grab everyone so that we can start dinner?"

Alison nodded but before she turned, her eyes fell to Emily. Alison stopped in her tracks when she saw the look on Emily's face. It had been four years since the two were close but Alison would always know Emily's facial expressions for the rest of her life. It astounded Alison how much she could know about a person that was no longer a part of her life. How she could still read Emily like a book.

Emily looked up at Alison and quickly flashed her eyes away. She stood from her chair and headed down the hallway until Alison heard a bathroom door shut.

Alison turned to Hanna for an explanation, but Hanna pressed her lips and shook her head. Alison almost asked for more but didn't have the chance when Aria and Ezra came into the kitchen to unknowingly change the topic.

The next couple of hours passed with laughter and smiles. Dinner was wonderful and after their meal, the group talked in Spencer's living room. As nice was the night was, Alison couldn't help but to notice that whatever was going on with Emily was still bothering her.

Alison felt a hand on her arm and turned to see Lorenzo smiling at her with his hand extended out to her. "Are we going somewhere?" Alison asked, but took his hand anyway.

"Something like that."

The room almost came to a hush when Alison allowed Lorenzo to tug her to Spencer's backyard. Spencer eyed Hanna, who then eyed Emily, whose eyes watched Alison leave with Lorenzo.

"It took him seven years but I think Lorenzo is finally going to ask Alison out," Toby laughed. Aria, Ezra, and Caleb laughed along with him, but Emily, Spencer and Hanna stayed quiet.

Alison heard the room behind of her burst into a laugh and she wondered if it had anything to do with the man dragging her into the Hastings barn. If she knew her friends, she knew someone probably cracked a joke about Lorenzo finally shooting his shot with her.

Lorenzo closed the door behind of him, sat on the couch and motioned for Alison to do the same. When the blonde did, she smiled at Lorenzo who looked as nervous as a 7th grader asking his crush to a spring fling.

"I wanted to talk to you away from the others. I hope that's okay."

"If it wasn't okay, I wouldn't be here. What's up?"

Lorenzo rubbed his hands and then placed them in his lap, "I'm such a weenie."

Alison laughed and brought her hands to his. She squeezed his large hands for support, "you are not a weenie. I can't be more scary than the bad guys that you see on the streets."

"The bad guys on the streets don't look like you."

Alison was used to compliments, so she took his with a smile and squeezed his hands again.

Lorenzo took a deep breath. "Since the day that I met you, I knew you were special. You are not only the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen, but you have become a woman who cares so deeply about people and you're so intelligent, it's absolutely insane how mesmerizing you are. You are a woman that I'm proud to know. Someone that I'm lucky enough to call a friend."

Lorenzo smiled after a moment, "how am I doing so far?"

A laugh slipped Alison's lips as she brought her hand to his chest to playful push him. "You are such a goof ball."

He smiled and brought his hands back to Alison's. He began to find comfort in the way his largely wrapped around of hers.

"I like you, Alison. I really, really like you. I know that you could have anyone in the world that you wanted, but I can't go another day without asking you out after I've waited almost seven years."

"Seven years, huh?"

Lorenzo melted at the smirk on Alison's lips. He wanted to do nothing more than lean forward and wipe that flirtatious smile off of her lips with his own. He was convinced that this woman was most attractive woman in the universe.

Alison watched Lorenzo's eyes slip down to her lips. She knew that he wanted to kiss her. She could feel lust radiate from his body. She could also feel tension in the room change.

Without taking his eyes off of her lips, his voice dropped to a whisper, "Ali—,"

Alison didn't know what he was about to say, but she did know his eyes were pleading for her to allow him to kiss her.

Before he could finish, Alison replied, "you can."

Lorenzo didn't hesitate. He had waited years for the opportunity and once Alison granted him permission, he leaned forward to capture her lips with his.

On contact, he felt his body electrify. He wrapped one arm around of Alison's waist and pulled her closer against him. Alison's legs fell over his and she brought her hands to his jacket, pulling herself towards him. Lorenzo placed his free hand on her thigh.

The two were so into the moment, they missed the door crack open with Emily on the other side, standing with tears in her eyes before she shut the door and left them back alone.