AN: Still sick at home. My loss is your gain. Cause this is another regularly posted chapter. This chapter is fully written from Ezra's POV. This is the first chapter that they will be in New York. The first part of the chapter has a little recap from the last one, but than from Ezra's POV. The second part is them driving to New York and arriving at the hotel. Due to a mistake they are forced to share a room/suite. Just read and see for yourself.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to Pretty Little Liars. I wish that I did though.

Love,
M.

CHAPTER 4 – New York, here we come

The first thing I do when I open the door of my apartment is pulling open a bottle of whisky. It's probably not the smartest thing to do, but I can't stop myself. One glass of whisky and than I'll make dinner for myself and let myself think.

After an hour I already drank two glasses of whisky and I still haven't eaten yet. I dropped myself in my comfortable leather chair and I don't want to come out of it anymore. I've let myself think about everything just for a little bit, but I haven't reached a conclusion yet. I don't want to think about it and it's getting harder and harder by the second. Eventually I already know what conclusion I will reach. I can't back out now. I'm the one who asked Jackie to marry me, not the other way around. I've got to love her, I have to.

The next morning I wake up in my leather chair with an empty glass in hand. I take in my surroundings and it takes me a couple seconds to realize that I must have fallen asleep in my chair. There is an empty bottle of whisky in front of me on the table. When I want to get up I feel an pain shooting through my head. Once again I've drank a lot, too much. There is nothing more I want than to go back to sleep, but I have to teach today.

I carefully get up and walk towards the bathroom in the search for painkillers. When I find two of them I swallow them quickly with water. In the shower, I let the water run over my body in the hopes of feeling a little bit better. I have no idea what time it is and how many minutes or hours I have before I have to leave for work. That's why I have to end my shower shortly, shorter than I really wanted.

When I'm dressed and shaved I search for my phone to have a look at the time. Before I even acknowledge the time I see I've got two missed phone calls from Jackie. I ignore them and see that it's already half past eight. My first lecture of the day starts at nine. That means no time for breakfast and without my coat and with my bag, filled with stuff from yesterday, I get into my car.

The drive luckily lasts shorter than I anticipated on, what gives me fifteen minutes before the first lecture starts. I decide to spend those last fifteen minutes in the calmness of my office. I sit down in my chair and stare at my desk. I think about absolutely nothing for a second and I hope the throbbing in my head stops before I actually have to teach.

That's when I hear a knocking on my door. I say 'Come in', but the volume of the words coming out of my mouth are that soft, which makes me think the person didn't hear me. Still, the door opens. I look up from my desk and I see Aria standing there. I force a smile. "Come in and close the door behind you."

She turns around, closes the door and takes a seat in the chair facing mine. There is an awkward silence between us. I can see her looking to the ground, which gives me the opportunity to give her a good look. She has dark circles under her eyes that resemble the dark circles under mine. She is the one breaking the silence. "I thought about it very well and I… I'm coming with." I can see she is nervous by the way she laughs and she still doesn't look at me. She has really no reason at all to be nervous. That's when I realize that I'm nervous too. Why?

"That is nice. I'll take care of everything and than we can leave on Friday. Shall we meet up here Friday morning around nine and drive from here to the hotel? Or are you rather going with your own car? Than we can drive there separately." I also laugh nervously, because I notice that I'm rambling. I don't look at her, but I can see her looking at me. I can see compassion and recognition in her eyes. I don't really give it a thought for that long.

"Maybe it's useful to meet up here," she says eventually. "I will see you at nine here, Friday." She gets up from the chair and I do the same. We only have five minutes until the lecture starts and my first lecture is her class. I pack my stuff up.

"Shall we walk to the classroom together?" I ask. We both walk out of my office and during our little walk to the classroom, there are no words being spoken. It's very still. The silence isn't awkward at all. It's a really nice stillness. That's when for the first time I feel a sort of healthy tension. I realize that I'm looking forward to the coming weekend.

Friday morning, I'm waiting for Aria in front of the school. I'm a little bit early, but that's okay. That's when I see a car coming and I think it's her. I don't know what her car looks like, but I think I recognized her as the driver of the car. When the car is parked a couple minutes later, she comes out. I walk towards her and when I get to her and her car, she just opened the trunk to get her big suitcase out.

We greet each other and I get her suitcase out of her trunk for her. We walk towards my car together and when we arrive I put her suitcase in my trunk. It fits perfectly next to my weekend bag. Luckily her suitcase isn't that heavy, but what kind of a gentlemen would I've been when I would let the lady carry her own suitcase. We get into my car, me behind the wheel and she in the passengers seat.

Luckily the drive to New York isn't silent at all. We talk about the general stuff, like our hobbies. I find out that besides writing Aria also likes to photograph, to read and to draw. She is a very creative person. I tell Aria that I mostly like to write, to read and to teach. When we come to talk about our love life, we both grow silent. I assume that Aria doesn't want to talk about Holden and I'm fine with that, because I don't feel the need to talk about Jackie either. We silently agree to not talk about those two this weekend.

After a drive of almost three hours, we arrive at the hotel. They have a parking garage with the hotel, where I happily park my car. We decide to travel by subway here in New York, because transporting yourself by car in this city is practically impossible. I get her suitcase and my bag out of my trunk and together we walk upstairs to the reception.

When we arrive at the reception a smiling female receptionist greets us. "Good morning! What can I do for you?" I take a glance at my watch and see that it's indeed still morning. To me it feels like it's already evening, because I'm totally broken. That's probably because of the lack of sleep in the last couple nights. Due to all my thoughts about Jackie I couldn't fall asleep. And, when I finally drifted to sleep I was so restless that I would wake up again. I still didn't think a lot about us. I just can't.

Aria tapping my shoulder pulls me out of my thoughts. For a moment I look at her dumbfounded, until I realize what we are doing. We have to check into the hotel. "Good morning. I have a reservation for the name Fitzgerald. There has to be a reservation for two rooms, if I'm correct."

The receptionist looks at the computer and suddenly she looks back at me, perplexed. "I do see a reservation for that name, but I can only find one room in the computer. Are you sure that you made a reservation for two rooms?"

I get my confirmation out of my bag and see a reservation for two rooms. "I'm pretty sure of that. Just take a look, please." I hand the confirmation over to the receptionist. I see redness in her cheeks due to shame, I guess. She apologizes and walks into a room from where we can only see the door.

I take a glance behind me and see Aria take in her surroundings with an admiring look on her face and I don't blame her, because the hotel is really beautiful. The lobby is overwhelming and breathtakingly beautiful. I've got a feeling like we are in a palace. After a couple minutes the receptionist comes back, but not alone this time. An elderly man walks after her and they both check the computer again.

The man introduces himself as the manager of the hotel. "My excuses for the hindrance. There has been a mistake made by us. During the reservation we only booked one room. We'd like to fix our mistake. Alas we don't have two rooms free this weekend, because we've been fully booked. I can offer you a suite instead of a normal hotel room for two nights."

I can feel myself getting angry. How could they have made this mistake? We have to have two rooms. I can't share one room with my student, that's illegal and that could get me in an orange jumpsuit. I start talking calmly, but the more I talk, the louder I get. "You can't do this! We'll find another hotel!"

I turn around and want to walk away, when I feel a hand on my arm. I turn around furiously, but calm down when I see it's Aria. I feel a tingling going through my arm because of the warmth of her touch. "Wait. We can share the suite. You'll sleep on the bed and I'll sleep on the couch. I'm sure they have one in the suite. If need be I'll even sleep on the ground," she says softly. She looks me into the eyes.

That's when I realize my reaction is out of line and effusive. We will never find two new hotel rooms in New York. I take a glance at Aria's hand on my arm. Unfortunately she drops her hand real quick like she realizes that kind of contact is off limits, which it actually is. I smile and feel myself calming down further. "You're right, we can share a suite. There is no harm in that. But I won't allow you to sleep anywhere but the bed. That would be uncalled-for. I'll sleep on the couch or the ground, whichever is the possibility."

I walk back to the reception and apologize to the manager and the receptionist. After finalizing it, we get the key to our suite. The manager offers to guide us to our suite and we gladly accept his offer. The three of us take place in the elevator and when the manager pushes the button I see the suite is on the top floor. The ride in the elevator is silent. When we arrive at the top floor, where you can only come with a key, I guess a key to a suite like ours, I see that we arrive in the suite itself. So that would probably only give the key to our suite access to the top floor.

Apparently it's not just a suite, it's more like a penthouse. The suite takes up the entire top floor. It's really big and the view is breath taking. From every corner in the suite you can see the view, because of the big windows from the ceiling to the ground. There isn't a piece of wall in sight, only windows.

One last time, I apologize to the manager and he does the same. He wishes us a pleasant stay and tells us we can always call the reception if we need something or if something is wrong. He offers us a hand and gets in the elevator, leaving us alone in the extraordinary suite.

Aria didn't say a word yet and I see her taking in her surroundings once again admiringly. She lets her suitcase stand in its place and walks around the suite. There are a couple of doors. When I follow her in her tour I see that we not only have a living room and large kitchen, but we also have a large bedroom and an enormous bathroom with a whirlpool.

I place Aria's suitcase in the bedroom and my bag next to the couch, which looks really comfy. According to the looks and the feel to it, when I take place on the couch, it won't be a punishment for me to sleep on it for two nights. Aria takes place in the soft chair, as big as a love seat, next to the couch with a book. I lie down on the couch and without realizing it my eyes close and I drift into a deep and highly needed sleep.