Chapter 32 - few days later

Aria's pov

Sitting on the couch in the Brew, I watched Oliver color while Ezra was in the back doing inventory. Kevin had quit without any notice, leaving both Sabrina high and dry. There have been at least five people that came in for interviews and I don't need to see Ezra to know he's drained from them. Sabrina walked over with the iced mocha that I ordered.

"Thanks again for your help today." She said, handing me my drink.

"I just figured you guys could use an extra pair of hands today." I told her.

Actually it's more like Ezra's alarm woke me up this morning and I decided to come in as he was struggling with getting out of bed. Even though he didn't say it last night, I knew he didn't want to do all these interviews. It had been pretty obvious that he wanted to stay with me all day. Of course, he had felt bad about waking me up but I honestly would rather have him wake me up then Oliver. There have been at least six interviews that happened and I don't need to see Ezra to know that he's drained.

"Did you work at a coffee shop during school?" She asked.

"Yeah, a couple semesters along with the daycare." I told her.

"Two jobs and taking care of Ollie, you deserve an reward." Sabrina said.

"Anytime he doesn't wake me up early, or by staring at me is reward enough." I joked and she held back a laugh.

"Where dada?" Oliver asked and I shared a look with Sabrina, Oliver hasn't called Ezra dada since he was a baby.

"He's still working, I'm sure he'll be done soon." I told him.

"Ollie, you want to pick out your treat now?" Sabrina asked and he looked at me.

"Go on, go have your treat." I told him.

Oliver hurried towards Sabrina and she quickly took his hand, leading him into the kitchen. Two seconds after they disappeared, Ezra walked out and sighed as he sat down next to me. It was sort of difficult to not kiss him whenever he came out of his office after each interview, pretty sure he had more cups of coffee then he usually does today.

"God, I'm tempted to kiss you." Ezra whispered, brushing his fingers along my arm.

"You could, but Ollie might see since he's in the kitchen getting his snack." I said quietly.

"Why don't I take you and the boys out for dinner then see a movie? We could get pizza or something." He asked softly.

"That sounds good to me." I said and both our phones went off.

Looking at my phone, I saw that Hanna had texted me to say that Aiden wanted to have a sleepover with Oliver tonight. Ezra and I can always have dinner and catch a movie with both the boys another night, guess it'll just be Malcolm with us tonight then. I doubt Ezra will mind if Oliver goes to Hanna's instead, but I'm not just going to tell Hanna yes without mentioning it first.

"Well, Malcolm wants to go to a skatepark with his friends." Ezra told me.

"And Aiden wants to have a sleepover with Oliver." I responded.

"Guess it'll just be us then." He whispered.

"Perfect." I said softly, trailing my fingers along the top of his hand.

"You can even work on your manuscript if you want." He suggested.

Oliver and Sabrina came back out and I quickly pulled my hand back before either of them could see. God, I can't wait for later. Just me and Ezra, a couple movies…. just like the old times. Oliver ran over when he saw us and crawled onto my lap as Sabrina went back to work.

"Ollie, how would you like to have a sleepover with Aiden?" Ezra asked him.

"Yeah!" Oliver cheered.

"We might want to go put your stuff together Mr. Oliver." I said and Oliver pouted.

"We'll come back down after we get your stuff." I promised as he quickly got off my lap.

"Be back daddy." Oliver said before running up the stairs.

….

Chloe and I were at the host stand as I got ready to clock out, she went back to waitressing after the blowout with her brothers. Josh has been nothing but rude whenever we have no choice but to work together, which was one of the reasons I told Graham when I gave him my two weeks before I had clocked in. Tonight was supposed to be my night off but one of the other hostesses didn't show up and they needed me to cover. Ezra said that we can watch the movies when I get off instead, but I would rather

"Can't believe you're finally quitting." Chloe said.

"It's mid summer already and I need to start preparing for when I start teaching at the high school." I told her.

"Aria Marie, are you and Ezra back together?" Chloe asked, staring at me.

"Shhh, you're not even supposed to know yet." I whispered and she stared at me hopefully.

"Yes, we're back together but not telling anyone yet. We're taking it slow." I said.

"Any plans after you leave?" She teased.

"Movie marathon, he convinced me to watch some of the James Bond movies that he has. Pretty sure as a distraction from writing about high school." I told her.

Luckily, Oliver is having his sleepover with Aiden and Malcolm is at Brian's. I'm pretty sure Ezra only suggested a movie marathon because it's been getting harder to write about junior year and wants me to take it easy with it. It feels like if I force myself to write, I'll just start feeling all the fear over again and my nightmares have finally stopped coming as much.

"How is your manuscript coming along?" Chloe asked carefully.

"It's…. coming. I knew it was going to bring back old fears and memories of what happened back then, but I didn't realize how horrible it is to relive it would be." I said.

"It was worse last night; Ezra literally had to take my laptop away from me and I was too absorbed in my flashback to even realize it. Chloe, I don't even remember how it happened and Ezra said it was like I was having a nightmare… but I was still awake. It took him a while to snap me out of it." I added.

"Eight o'clock, get out of here." Chloe said and I punched out.

"I'm out... But not before you tell me how you figured out that Ezra and I were back together." I told her quietly.

"The look in your eyes, they had that… Fitz sparkle." She teased.

Jokingly rolling my eyes, I grabbed my purse and walked out. Ezra had wanted to pick me up from work, but I had to remind him that might look suspicious to people if he randomly picked me up from work when I live so close to The Brew. Part of me just wants to pack up my things and just move myself and the boys back into the house but we agreed to take this slow and moving back in so soon after getting back together might not help. God, my feet are killing me from these wedges. Maybe I can change into pajamas before I head over to Ezra's. Grabbing my keys from my purse, I saw that I left my phone at work and I heard someone walking behind me.

….

Aria's pov

Maya watched me concerned as I stared at anything except for her, it took her awhile to give up on trying to get me to talk about what happened. She told me that Chloe had found me on the ground and had been the one to call the ambulance. Everything happened so fast, but I couldn't get that face out of my mind. All I wanted was to go to Ezra's and have a movie marathon with him, but instead I'm in the damn hospital again. Maya said that she called him when they took me back for x-rays, which means that any second Ezra will be here and there's a good chance Maya will find out that we're back together.

"You can't tell anyone." I told her quietly.

"They're going to find-." She started to say but Ezra came skidding into the room, cutting her off.

"Baby." Ezra said and Maya realized what I had meant.

"Does anything hurt?" He asked, softly cupping my face and I shook my head.

"What happened?" He questioned.

"I don't remember." I lied as Maya fake coughed.

"Probably should have checked to make sure no one else was in here with you." Ezra chuckled.

"About damn time you two, I was five seconds away from starting a bet." Maya told us.

"Not surprised by that." I said.

"Let me know if you need anything." Maya said and I nodded.

"Thanks Maya." Ezra said.

"Why am I always in the hospital?" I muttered.

"No clue. But perhaps, we should wrap you up in some bubble wrap." Ezra joked and kissed the side of my head.

"I'd rather be wrapped in your arms." I told him.

"Think that can be arranged." He said softly.

He gently wrapped his arm around my shoulder as I rested my head on his chest and he draped his other arm over my waist. I snuggled into him as sleep slowly started getting to me and he slowly caressed my back, kissing the top of my head.

"Hate hospitals, they give me headaches." I groaned.

"I know baby, they should release you soon. Want me to call for the nurse?" He whispered.

"Not yet." I said, nuzzling my face into his chest.

…..

Slowly opening my eyes, I groaned and felt movement that wasn't mine. The last thing I remember somewhat clearly was a nurse giving me something for my pain and that's about it. Whatever they gave me, it definitely helped with my headache. My stomach grumbled a bit and I heard Ezra quietly chuckle. Oh, thank God, it's just him. Blinking, I realized that my head was on his shoulder as he had me wrapped in his arms

"Hey there sleepy head." He whispered as I looked up to face him.

"Hi." I said, snuggling into him.

"Why don't you just stay here for a few days? I don't want you alone in the loft." Ezra suggested as he gently played with my hair.

"Okay." I responded.

"Want anything to drink? The only juice we have is apple, but I could run out and grab another kind if you want." He asked.

"Water's fine." I told him.

He kissed my forehead and reluctantly got up and walked towards the kitchen. Actually, I just didn't want him to leave, even though I knew he wouldn't leave me alone to run out. Perhaps it's a good thing I agreed to stay here because getting attacked, I don't even want to think about being alone at the loft. And I know that it was either I stay here or Ezra stays at the loft with me but staying here seems like the better idea. Walking back, he sat the glass down and kissed the top of my head. I lifted my face and he softly cupped my face before brushing his lips against mine. Not sure how we'll explain my being here to the boys or if we should even tell them that I got attacked. Last thing we need is the boys being afraid to be in Rosewood.

"Here you go love." He murmured.

"Thank you." I whispered.

"I'm gonna order us some dinner, what would you like?" He asked.

"I could go for some mushroom ravioli." I told him.

"Then I'll go order it and you can find something for us to watch. Be right back." He said softly.

As he pressed his lips against my forehead, I felt a pang of guilt that I'm lying to him about tonight. But how the hell am I supposed to tell him what happened? He handed me the remote before walking out of the living room to go order our dinner and I turned the tv on. Looking through the channels, pain started in my shoulder again and I groaned. Fish walked over, jumped up next to me and dropped his favorite stuffed squirrel onto my lap before getting back down.

"Such a good boy." I told him, petting him behind his ear.

"Can you fetch pain medicine?" I asked even though I knew he wouldn't.

I grimaced as I rubbed my shoulder, bits and pieces of what happened went through my mind. Hitting my shoulder is a blur but I vaguely remember the last second of it. All of a sudden, Ezra was softly massaging both my shoulders and I could smell the peppermint and lavender essential oils. I giggled as it tickled and he kissed the top of my head.

"It's too soon for Fish to fetch you some more medicine." Ezra teased softly before

"Not sure how much that will help, but hopefully it does." Ezra whispered against my ear and I turned to face him.

"Definitely helped. Thank you." I said as he brushed his lips against my forehead.

"Wish I could take your pain and go through it for you." He murmured, grazing his lips against my forehead.

"You're distracting me from it." I pointed out and he chuckled.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I brushed my lips against his and he gently cupped my face. He slowly pulled away before picking up the throw blanket that had been kicked to the floor, wrapping it around me and gently pulling me into his arms. I rested my head against his chest and took his hand in mine, intertwining our fingers together. Ezra pressed his lips to the top of my head as he caressed my back with his free hand. He's going to have to know more about tonight… I just don't know how I'm going to tell him but I know it has to be me that tells him.