Chapter 5: A Little Tenderness

Hey, so a got a reviewer request a chapter focusing on Ezria and seeing as this story is partly Ezria plus I love to please my readers I decided to fit this in before the original chapter 5 i was working on. So for this chapter I will be taking a break from all the Hanna and Caleb medical drama stuff and focusing on Aria and Ezra. I hope you like it. This is for everyone who wants to see Ezria fluff. Just a little filler.

…

2 Weeks later…

"Girls are you ready to go?" Aria asked, she stood by Syd's bedroom, which she was currently sharing with Elli, with Jax by her feet and Emily on her hip.

"We'll be right there mom" Kennedy called.

"Ok please hurry or we're going to be late."

"Yes mom"

She then walked over to Kennedy's room which the twins shared. "What about you guys are you ready?"

"Yes Aunty Aria" Callie and Rylie replied and exits the room.

"Ok let's go" Aria led all the kids down the stairs. She put Emily in her car seat then grabbed the all the bags. "Wait here with the baby while I pack up the car." She instructs before making her way to the car. She packed all the bags in the back before heading back inside for the kids.

After getting everyone into their seat she set off to her mother's house.

A few minutes later she pulled into her mother's drive way. "You girls wait here I'll be right back" She then unbuckled Jackson, Emily from their seats and grabbed their bags before walking to the door and ring the doorbell.

After a while the door opened revealing Ella. "Oh hi Aria, Jackson, Emily"

"Hi mom, thank you again so much for babysitting for me, you are a lifesaver."

"Oh it's no problem Aria, you know I love watching these kids. So what about the girls?" She takes Emily and the bags from Aria.

"Callie, Rylie and Kennedy are going to a sleepover birthday party for one of their friends and because they are going to a sleepover Syd wanted one too, so she'll be sleeping over at her friend Bella's house." Aria replies and Ella laughs.

"That sounds like Sydney, never wanting to be left out of the fun. Ok so what's the plan for you and Ezra tonight?" Ella asks waving to the girls in the car, who waved back.

"Well we are going to Philly for dinner and then we are going to see a show at Philly Theatre and maybe even spend the night at a hotel." Aria replies, blushing on the last part.

"Ok have fun sweetie, you guys deserve this night off." Ella replies

"Thanks mom, and thanks again for watching the kids." She lifts up Jackson and kiss him goodbye before kissing Emily too. "Be good for nana ok, I love you."

She then dropped off Sydney at her friend's house thanking the Mona for agreeing to the sleep over. "Be good Sydney, have fun." She tells her before kissing her goodbye.

Last stop was the birthday party for Natalia McCullum to which Aria repeated the goodbye ritual she had performed earlier at her other stops. She then drove home to get ready for her date with Ezra. He had a late class at Hollis that evening and was supposed to be home in half an hour to get ready.

An hour and a half later Aria was fully dressed in a black and white polka-dot sweetheart neckline halter top, mid-thigh length dress, 4inch red stilettos and a red clutch. She stood in-front of her mirror putting the finishing touches on her make-up when Ezra stepped out of the closet fully clothed.

*Gasp*

"What's wrong?" Aria turns to face Ezra, she smiled at him.

"Nothing….you just…..you look so hot" He replies with a huge smile.

Aria blushed. "Thank you, and you sir are looking just dashing."

"Thank you. Shall we go? If I stay here any longer we will never leave this room." He smirks and extends his arm out to her.

She takes his hand and they head out the door together. Ezra helps her into the car before getting into his seat and start the car. "So does your mom have all the kids?"

"No Cal, Ry and Ellie are at a birthday party sleepover, Syd is sleeping over at Bella's and so mom only has Jax and Em" She informs him and takes his outstretched hand.

"Oh lucky for her."

"Yea so we have the entire night for ourselves. I even booked us a suite at The Westin. It is our Anniversary after all." Aria replies.

"Yes it is, that sounds perfect." Ezra tells her and kisses are hand.

They arrived at the restaurant right on-time for their reservations and so they didn't have to wait. The hostess took them to their table and gave them their menus and signal a waiter over to take their order.

"Hello, good evening, my name is Joel and I'll be your waiter for the evening. Would you like take make your drink order now or do you need a minute to go over the drink menu?"

"Hi, we'd like a bottle of Bordeaux and a minute to look over the menu." Ezra replies

"No problem sir, I'll be back with your wine in minute." Joel informs and left.

"So do you see what you want yet?" Ezra asks Aria after Joel left.

"Hmm I don't know."

"Well take your time, we aren't in a hurry." Ezra replies taking her hand across the table.

A couple moments later Joel returned with their wine and filled their glasses. "Would you like to order now or do you still need a couple more minutes?"

Ezra looked to Aria who nodded. "Yes we'll order now. Aria give him your order."

"Ok I would like the Avocado Gazpacho soup to begin with, followed by the vegetarian pasta and for desert the blueberry cream pie." Joel wrote swiftly while Aria spoke and when he had gotten all her order he turned to Ezra for his.

"I will have the house salad with a little balsamic on the side, the ravioli and finally key lime pie." Joel took the order than told them he'll be back as soon as the order is available and took their menus.

After he left Ezra took Aria's hand again and the toasted to their anniversary.

"Happy anniversary honey, I love you so much. Thank you for being the most loving and supportive husband ever. If it weren't for you I don't know how I would have gotten through these last few weeks. You have been my rock and you don't know just how much that means to me." Aria tells him while staring in his beautiful eyes.

When she was finished he leaned across the table "I love you too baby." He then got up and pulled his chair closer to her before leaning over and kissing her passionately, not caring about the fact that they were in a restaurant.

While waiting on their appetizers they told each other about their day. Later after they had received their deserts they decided it was time to exchange gifts.

"I want to go first." Aria says and reached for her clutch. "Well you kind of know about half of it which is the hotel suite and this is the other part." She then hands him a small rectangular wrapped box and Ezra took it and peeled off the wrapping to reveal a velvet box. He opened it.

"Oh my God Aria this is beautiful. Why?" He asks while still mesmerized by the beautiful pen.

"So you've always wanted to become a writer and I know your first attempts weren't what you hoped they would be but, I was hoping that after all we've been through lately you may have found inspiration to write again. And well, I was hoping this pen would be your motivation and good luck charm. I also had it inscribed."

He picked the fountain pen from its box and read. 'My love, may your words bring the world as much joy as you have brought me.'

"Oh babe this is the best gift I could ask for. The next contract or book deal I sign will be with this pen and I'm sure it will be a best seller. All because you believe in me. Now I feel like my gift is bad."

"Just give it to me. It came from you so I'm sure I'll love it." Aria replies after Ezra kisses her. He goes into his jacket pocket and pulls out two small beautifully wrapped boxes, one rectangular and the other a larger square. Aria hurriedly rips off the paper from the rectangular box and opens it. Inside she finds a note and reads it aloud. "To the best mom, Aunt and Godmother in the world. Happy Anniversary, From Kennedy, Sydney, Jackson, Callie, Rylie and Emily." She then looks up at Ezra teary eyed waiting for an explanation.

"Well the day I went to buy your gift was the day I had the kids and I told you we were just going to the park. Well I wanted to bring them along so they could help me pick your gift, but when we got to the jewellery store Kennedy insisted that I get two gifts, one from them and one from me. They picked that out all by themselves."

Aria took out the bracelet to get a better look. It was a 14 carat white gold charm bracelet, on it were 7 heart charms each with the kids' names and the last just had 'A&E' on one side and 'FOREVER'. Ezra took it from her and secured it to her wrist. She opened the second gift and found a necklace also 14 carat white gold, the pendant was two interlocking hearts locket and inscribed on the back was 'Fr 27/07/2016-∞' and on the inside was a picture of the kids on one side and the other one of Ezra and Aria. By this point she can hardly see and Ezra gets up and places it around her neck before pulling her in for a sweet but passionate kiss.

"You are welcome." He tells her when they finally part reluctantly. Ezra then looks around frantically for the waiter before signalling him over. "I'd like the cheque please."

"Sure sir right away" Joel tells him before picking up their empty desert plates and head for the kitchen. As soon as he is gone Ezra leans in and takes Aria in for another kiss. "I love you so much. Thank you for these 9 fantastic years of marriage and our 3 beautiful kids."

"I love you too Ezra. You are welcome." She replies and they both laugh.

The waiter soon returned with the cheque and they paid leaving a generous tip and left the restaurant. They decided seeing as it was such a beautiful night they would walk around Philadelphia for a while just enjoying each other's company before heading to the hotel for their night beneath the sheets.

Thank you guys so much for reading. Please leave a review below. I love hearing from you guys. Your words encourage me especially when I have writers-block. I hope you all enjoyed reading this a much as I enjoyed writing it. I didn't even expect it to be so long (Over 1800 words) but when I got in the grove the words just kept flowing. I hope you guys liked my gift ideas.

-Cavine