Chapter 10

Aria's pov

Nicole and I were sitting at the Grille, finishing up our breakfast. She knew that if she were in my shoes, she'd want to meet the new girlfriend before the kids did. Which actually, I never even thought of. After her ambushing me weeks ago to meet me, I'm glad she wasn't planning on doing this to the kids. Caitlyn promised to come up with something if the boys ask about me, and of course I couldn't tell her at that moment that I'm looking for a new place to live.

"What do you do?" I asked, sipping on my water.

"I had actually started out to be a math teacher, but then I changed majors to nursing. Now I'm a pediatric nurse, I transferred from Lancaster in February. So, Ezra said you write?" Nicole inquired.

"Yeah, that's the plan. But for now, I'm just helping out here and just focus on the boys this summer." I said.

"I completely understand that, I'd take Ashleigh to work with me every day if I could." She told me.

There has to be a reason she hasn't mentioned my being pregnant again, should I even bring it up? Wait a minute, that's definitely not a good idea. If Ezra hasn't mentioned it to her yet, it shouldn't come from me. When I found out about Jackie and Alison; it wasn't because Ezra told me himself, it was because someone else told me. If I were in Nicole's shoes, I wouldn't want to learn he's expecting another baby from his baby mama. Oh great, now I'm just Ezra's baby mama… does this make me his baby mama? Before I could say anything, something beeped and she pulled out a pager.

"Oh shoot, I need to get going. Hopefully, we can do this again. When I don't get paged into work early." She said.

She dropped a couple twenties on the table, I watched as she hurried out to get to the hospital. I stood up from the table, as Josh gave me a small smile from one of his other tables and I quickly made my way to go say bye to Chloe. Getting closer to her, someone walked in through the door and I couldn't stop myself in time.

"Oh, I am so sorry about that." I said.

My heart dropped as I saw it was Byron, that I had bumped into. The last time I saw Byron was the day I almost slept with Hardy, and that's when I learned that Meredith wasn't the only woman he cheated on Ella with.

"Byron." I said, unsure what to say.

"Heard you just graduated from NYU. Congratulations Aria, I'm proud of you." He said.

"T- Thank you." I managed to say.

"Promised my daughter some pancakes, I better go pick up my order." He said and walked over to the pick-up station.

I stared after him, holding back my tears. This is the first time in a really long time that he has told me he's proud of me… and I'm not even his daughter anymore! Why do I keep letting him get to me like this? Watching Byron leave and get in the car, I saw the little girl in the backseat… excited that her daddy is getting her pancakes. From the corner of my eye, I saw Chloe nod at someone and Josh appeared.

"Hey, let's go to the park." Josh whispered.

…..

The wind blew through my hair as Josh and I sat on one of the only unoccupied benches. Where am I supposed to start with all this crap that's happening to me? Pregnancy, losing my husband to another woman, my biological father popping out of nowhere just to break my heart… Oh! How about the fact my tormentor might be getting released permanently, or that my soon to be ex-husband found out I almost hooked up with his best friend and that I kept it from him for the past few years!

"Do you want to talk about it?" Josh asked carefully and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

"Everything seems to be falling apart." I sobbed.

"Tell me what happened." He said softly.

"Ezra started dating Nicole and told me about it, a week before I came back. To add salt to wound, he recently found out that I almost slept with Hardy a couple years ago. And now, Byron has a daughter… that he clearly loves more than he ever loved me." I cried and Josh rubbed my back

"I love my dad-." I started to say but Josh cut me off.

"Everyone knows how much you love Daniel. But Byron was in your life for sixteen years, what he put you through during your junior year… that made an impact on you. You had a father, who only pretended that he loved you. This might be really terrible timing, but would you want to get dinner Friday night?"

"You want to go out with me after learning I have a crap ton of baggage?" I asked, and he nodded.

"I'd love to get dinner Friday." I told him.

….

Hanna and I were looking at the apartments I'm planning on looking at next week, which I still need to tell Caitlyn and Hardy. As much as I love and appreciate them letting me crash with them for a while, it hurts too much. Pretty sure that they assumed that Ezra and I would've been back together by now… I know I did.

"God, I want to hate Nicole but I can't!" I said, out of the blue.

"Why couldn't she be a bitch or something? It'd be a whole lot easier to hate her!" I continued.

Hanna started typing away on my laptop, as I placed my face in my hands. There's just so much right now, why can't my problems just go away instead if multiplying? Everyone else seems to have it easy! I lost my husband to another woman, now Byron is just randomly popping up! One pf the few good things happening to me is my date with Josh on Friday.

"Found her social media." Hanna said, I raised my head to see that Hanna was searching Nicole's profile.

"What are you… Hanna stop. It isn't our place to look into her past." I said, closing her out of the internet tab she had opened.

"Actually, it is your place. Aria, she's going to be around the boys…. Maybe even the baby. What if she's a drug smuggler." She pointed out and I gave her a look

"Han, she's a pediatric nurse not a drug smuggler." I told her

"A nurse with access to drugs." Hanna.

I closed my laptop and quickly slid it into my bag. Of all the things Hanna could've come up with…. She chose drug smuggler. Sighing, I looked at Hanna and she raised her eyebrows at me.

"I'm just saying, she does have access to drugs!"

"Not a drug smuggler. And I'm leaving now, do not start looking into her past the moment I walk out the door Han. I mean it." I told her.

"Mommy, I have juice?" Aiden asked, coming in from the living room.

"Yes, you can have some." Hanna told him.

She quickly went to the cabinet to retrieve a sippy cup, and Aiden reached his arms up for me to pick him up. When people used to tell us that life will go by faster than we could realize, they weren't kidding. I still remember when Hanna told me that she was pregnant with Aiden. Little did we know, that she and Aiden would be moving in with me and Caitlyn shortly after he was born. Giggling, Aiden squirmed in my arms and I stood him back on his feet. Hanna came over and gave him his batman sippy cup. He is practically Hanna's twin, just with Travis's nose. Even though he wasn't ready or wanted a baby yet, I'm glad Travis stepped up to be there for Hanna and Aiden.

"See you later Bam-Bam." I told Aiden.

"Bye-bye Ria!" He said.

"I'll see you at the fitting Ar, it's at four, right? Hanna asked and I nodded

I quickly gave Hanna a hug goodbye, and hurried towards the door. It felt like things with Ezra were finally getting better when I dropped the boys off at The Brew this morning, I just hope I can regain his trust. Especially with the baby coming, there needs to be trust between us.

"Bye." I called, walking out the door.

….

The girls and I walked out of the bridal shop, and headed down towards the arcade where Malcolm and Oliver were. We just had our last fitting and I know Spencer's internally freaking out about whether or not she's going to fit into her dress the day of the wedding, and me since we'll both be about fifteen weeks. Her stylist Avery, gave us her business card and said to call her if I didn't fit into my dress days before. Of course, she was also saying it to Spencer without knowing

"Are you going to invite Josh to the wedding Ar?" Spencer asked curiously.

"Maybe as a friend." I told her.

"Some friend, you don't flirt with us the way you and Josh have been flirting lately. And you don't go on dates with us either." Emily said, smirking.

"Guys I'm not even out of my marriage yet, I don't even know if I want a relationship right now." I said, regretting telling them that Josh asked me out.

"But?" Hanna asked carefully.

"Part of me wants to be with Josh, while the other part wants me to be alone. But speaking of the wedding, I think Ezra should be able to bring Nicole." I pointed out, and Spencer seemed unsure.

"How would that be fair? I bring a date while he can't, we're trying to get things back to normal between us." I said.

Luckily, the boys came out of the arcade before anyone else could say anything. Oliver had a lotso bear and Malcolm had a few prizes of his own. But I think Oliver only likes Toy story 3 for Lotso, since he smells like strawberries… which is Oliver's favorite food.

"Mama look, I got lotso! He was all my tickets." Oliver said happily.

"I see that baby, good job." I said.

Looking up, I saw Cece Drake walking towards us. I haven't seen her since the Alison trial the summer before we went off to college. She was rooting for Alison to stay close to home, but obviously the jury had elected that Alison be placed at The Preserves for life…. Or until she's no longer evil. They hadn't said until she's no longer evil, but that's usually how it goes in movies.

"Why don't you two go get your ice cream now? We'll be there in a few minutes." I told Malcolm and handed him a twenty.

The girls and I looked at one another as Cece walked up after waiting for the boys to head into the ice cream shoppe. Even though Malcolm knows who she is, I don't want him or Oliver to be near anyone that has something to do with Alison.

"My dad is pushing for Ali to be released, and it really could happen." Cece said without missing a beat.

"No. There's no possible way. She was sentenced to life in The Preserves, four years is NOT life!" Hanna exclaimed.

"This isn't the first time. But before, it got rejected by doctors within minutes. If anything, there would be a trial weekend then an actual trial. As much as I love Ali, she shouldn't be released. Time and time again that she shouldn't ever get released. Especially since she proves that she has no remorse for all those things." Cece said

"When?" Emily asked.

"He's pushing for the next couple weeks." Cece admitted.

"I'm calling Toby, we can't go on our honeymoon and leave you girls here alone with her." Spencer said.

The second she pulled her phone out, I quickly grabbed it and handed it to Maya. As Spencer tried to grab her phone, I stood in front of her and looked into her eyes.

"Listen to me, you're going on your honeymoon. We don't even know for a fact that it'll get approved this time. Cece just said Alison has proven herself unable to be released multiple times." I told her as my phone beeped.

Ezra – 'If it isn't too much of short notice, why don't I take you out for dinner tonight?'

Aria – 'Sure, sounds good.'

Ezra – 'Great. So, I'll pick you up at little bit before 6. Wear something nice.'

Placing my phone back into my purse, the girls looked at me. Better tell them now, before the boys come back from getting their ice cream. I don't want this confusing the boys, especially since Ezra and I need to tell them about the divorce soon.

"Ezra wants to take me to dinner, somewhere with reservations." I said softly.

"Maybe he wants to get back together?" Emily suggested carefully, I shook my head.

"Em, I royally screwed up. He can't exactly look me in the eyes anymore, and he hasn't even acknowledged Hardy since that night. Besides, there was no implications of him and Nicole breaking up during breakfast with Nicole this morning." I told her

"Perhaps he wants to start pushing past everything." Spencer piped up.

"Let's hope so. I hate that he only talks to me is when it concerns the boys, it's like I lost my best friend. The boys and the baby should be able to grow up seeing their parents still being best friends, despite not being together anymore." I said

"They will see their parents being friends, you and Ezra just need to push past everything and start over." Maya said.

Hanna, Caitlyn and Maya were helping me get ready for my dinner with Ezra. I didn't tell the boys I'm having dinner with their father, I don't to risk any chance of them thinking that Ezra and I are getting back together. Hardy took the boys and Rosie to see a movie, then off to the arcade.

"What am I supposed to wear? It's like I'm going on a date with him, which isn't even date. And it's with my soon to be ex-husband!" I exclaimed

"You should wear something that will show him what he'll be missing." Hanna said, and I gave her a look.

Walking towards the closet, I looked through all my clothes again until I found it; my heather pink cold shoulder dress that I haven't worn in a while. I took it off the hanger before handing it to Caitlyn, and grabbed my floral trench coat.

"Hey Ar, can I log into my Facebook on your phone really quick?" Caitlyn asked.

"Yeah, of course." I said, brushing my hair.

Maya helped me change into the dress and my phone beeped. Realizing that it had been a notification from the realtor app, I know it's time to tell Caitlyn. Hanna nudged Maya and they quickly started backing out of my room.

"Rosewood's finest Real Estate? Caitlyn asked.

"I wanted to tell you sooner, but I kept freezing. It really means everything to me, that you and Hardy let me move in with you guys. But with how it's been between me and Ezra, I think it would just easier if I'm not so close to him." I said.

"And because you're not over him yet, right?" She asked, taking my hands in hers.

"Yeah, I feel like I'll be able to move easier on if I don't have to see him kiss Nicole every freaking morning. But right now, it just hurts to be so far and close to him." I said as the doorbell rang.

AN –Where do you think Ezra is taking Aria out to dinner? There's quite some more to the night of Aria/Hardy's almost hookup – you don't want to miss it! And thank you to Guest AK, your submissions have been entered! And I know I'm not consistent with uploading, but I'm struggling with these chapters due to changing one thing or another.