The Bet

Aria sat with her friends in the brew enjoying one last catch up before her life would become a haze of dirty nappies and sleepless nights. Ezra still owned the business, but the couple no longer lived in the apartment upstairs. Instead opting for a house to accommodate their expanding family.

Aria looked around and remembered all the good and sometimes bad times she had, had here with her friends. Every corner of this place held a memory for her and she smiled to herself as she fondly remembered all of them.

"What kind of dad do you think Ezra will be?" Hanna asked, interrupting Aria's daydream.

"The best kind." Aria replied without hesitating, a loving glint in her eye.

"I know that," Hanna rolled her eyes, "I mean like what kind of embarrassing dad will he be?"

"What do you mean?" Spencer asked furrowing her brows.

"Like will he be the 'hi hungry, I'm dad' kind of dad or will be the 'I'm going to show these random strangers pictures of my kid because she's just so cute' kind of dad."

The girls cracked up laughing at Hanna's thought, and when the laughter had subsided the girls all stayed quiet for a minute pondering this strange, but very intriguing question. They'd known Ezra for seven years now and they each had their opinions on how he would handle this aspect of fatherhood.

Spencer chose to offer her opinion first, "My money's on Fitz being the type to show strangers pictures of his baby."

"No way!" Hanna countered, "He's definitely going to be the type to crack bad dad jokes."

"I'm with Hanna," Emily weighed in, "Remember all those terrible jokes he used to tell us in English class?"

"They weren't terrible they were funny," Aria defended, "And is it really right to be talking about the father of my baby this way?"

"Yes." Hanna, Spencer and Emily all sang in unison.

"You threw yourself open to these types of discussions, when you decided to be the first one of us to get pregnant." Spencer joked.

Aria's cheeks flushed scarlet "Well this wasn't exactly planned, well what I mean is it just kind of happened-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Hanna cut her off, "We get it you like to get frisky with Fitz a lot, now ladies why don't we make this a little more interesting?"

"How so?" Emily leaned in, intrigued.

"Spencer, Emily and I bet you fifty dollars, that's twenty-five dollars each that Fitz is going to be a bad jokes dad rather than an embarrassing showing off my kid kind of dad." Hanna proclaimed, much to Emily's alarm and Spencer's delight.

"Deal!" Spencer said gleefully, before Emily could protest that she'd never actually agreed to this.

Aria leaned back, rolling her eyes at her friends. She wondered how an innocent coffee date had spiralled into gambling, but she wouldn't have had it any other way.

She rubbed her stomach affectionately and mused, "We'll just have to wait and see."

-
Maisie Arabella Fitz was a happy and contented baby weighing in at six pounds seven ounces. She was born on a warm spring afternoon and was adored by her godmothers. Aria and Ezra were very protective over their little girl and had spent the first weeks of her life holed up in their house so that they could have her all to themselves.

Maisie was two weeks old when they dared to venture out for their first family outing. It seemed only fitting that they take her to the brew, a place that held special memories for both of them. Aria had rung the girls asking if they'd like to meet them there, knowing they wouldn't miss a chance to cuddle their goddaughter.

They arrived in one piece, although slightly over prepared with not one but two baby bags. There were hugs all round and a few happy tears shed as the girls marvelled at how big Maisie had got since they last saw her at the hospital. Aria got settled as Ezra went to the counter to get their chosen beverages. Aria loved the way her friends were with Maisie and she counted her lucky stars every day that she was surrounded by people who loved her as much as Ezra and her friends did.

"Hey Hanna." Spencer said suddenly interrupting Aria's riveting yet, a little bit disturbing account of breastfeeding.

"What?" Hanna said turning to look where spencer was looking.

"You owe me fifty bucks pay up! Spencer almost sang.

"Oh my god, no way!" Hanna exclaimed.

Aria turned to see what they were and couldn't help but giggle at the sight of Ezra showing Sabrina and a long line of patiently waiting customers' pictures of his Maisie.

Thank you for taking the time to read this :) Reviews are appreciated :)