First off I want to thank each and everyone of you whose reading and reviewing my story. I know it might be looping at times and a little back and fourth... But I still want to thank you!
As for your question about bringing in the girls? I am thinking about it and I think if I do it will be down the line.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Pretty Little Liars
Aria fell asleep at her desk the minute the first wedding party left. All she heard from them was how gorgeous the room looked and how they loved the projector looked right above the stage area. Oh and how she will look in her wedding dress.
Here Aria was at 27 years old and she turned down what she felt like was her only chance at Marriage. Jay and she only talked about what they would do if they had gotten married but he never asked her or even hinted that he wanted to be married to her.
Carol walked into Aria's office with a stack full of applications ready to be given out on Wednesday only to find Aria fast asleep at her desk. Carol knew all the details of what Aria is going through and felt bad that she couldn't do anything to help her. She was never in her type of situation so she only could give her a minimum of advice.
"Aria," Carol gently shook her arm "Sweetie"
Aria mumbled a few words before opening one eye and seeing Carol with a really concern face "What's wrong?"
"You need to go home and get some rest" Carol told her "I know you love your job and trust me I do to. But depriving yourself of sleep isn't good for your health"
She yawned "I'm not depriving myself trust me" she sat up "I just had a rough night and I couldn't go back to sleep"
"What happened?"
Aria shrugged, "I've been having reoccurring dreams and it's something that I can't control"
Carol smirked "About a certain someone perhaps?"
Aria rolled her eyes "Please don't bring that up. I've successfully shut him out of my life for many years and once I step foot into my royal oats it's like I can't stop thinking about our past. All those unwanted memories that I blocked out are just starting to flood my mind again."
"I'm sorry that I can't help you in that department. But maybe you should go home and get some rest I can cover the rest of your shift. It's really not a problem"
Aria laughed "I'm starting to think that you want my job roll" she teased, "but you'll have your own hotel to manage soon enough"
Carol rolled her eyes "I can't wait to get my own roll and stop living under you trust me" she smiled "I'm just worried about you and I'm worried that you are spreading yourself way to thin. Soon enough you're going to crash down and-"
"I know" Aria cut her off "But I figure the more I work the more I exclude myself from the natural world. When I get home I have just enough time to finish some of the things that I don't get done here and then I take a shower and sleep. I don't have to worry about that small amount of conversation with Jay."
"He's been asking about your past again?" Aria nodded, "It's natural for him wanting to know. You have been with him for three years and all he knows about you is what he sees"
"Isn't that enough?" Aria argued getting off her chair and walking over to her file cabinet "Why do people want to know so much about a person anyway? It only brings out more drama that you have to deal with!"
Carol let out a frustrated breath knowing that Aria was more closed minded than most people "Didn't you want to know more about Ezra's past when you started to date him?"
"Yeah" She huffed "And that brought on more pain than I could have handled." Aria turned around to look at Carol "I thought Ezra and I were supposed to be together for the long run. I thought that if I opened myself up to him he would do the same but he shut me out. I had to find things out on my own and confront him about it." Aria turned her face away feeling the urge to cry over those memories "But we always seemed to make it in the end; no matter how hard it had got."
"I think you're letting yourself love someone that you shouldn't be with and that scares you. I think that you should open yourself to Jay and see where that ends up and if you think you can't handle it anymore I think you should talk to Ezra and tell him the truth" Carol stood up and looked Aria in the eyes when Aria looked back at her "If what you say is true. Then Ezra will understand and he will want to listen."
"That's my problem. Ezra always understands no matter what I tell him. "
LINE BREAK
Ezra sat in his classroom trying to get over the fact that his friend is dating his ex. He wanted to confront Jay about it. He wanted to tell him so badly that Lacy was his daughter and that he wanted to get to know her. He wanted to be there for her watching her grow up to be a mature young lady and then woman.
He was frustrated that he kept himself shut off from the outside world and never really listened when Jay talked about Lacy. He blamed himself for pushing Aria away when he told her to never come back and not stopping to listen to what she had to say. Ezra blamed himself for not seeing Maggie's true color and having Aria pushed to the back until it was time for her to move on.
Malcolm? Ezra thought as he ran a hand over his face. It was the start of his and Aria's fall out. It was the start of their relationship being placed on the back burner. It was the start of him teaching at Rosewood High to try and support his family. That ad's he has been reading over and over to support himself was the answer. But it wasn't the answers to support a family.
Family? What is family if Aria wasn't in it? Family was supposed to be joy able; it was supposed to bring on new challenges and new discoveries. It was supposed to bring him and Aria closer and not having Aria in the arms of another man every night.
A sudden knock appeared and Ezra's attention was brought to the door. He looked at her confused with a thin line of the lips, "Are you busy?" she asked
Ezra looked down at his desk and at the amount of paper work that he was supposed to grade and hand back the next day. "Not really no" He answered "What are you doing here? Jay's classroom is a few doors down and I think he left for the day"
Aria licked her lips and nodded, "I know. I told him I was going for a walk and I somehow ended up here" she smiled and looked around the room "Everything feels so weird"
Ezra laughed and tossed his pen down "its supposed have that effect on you!"
Aria turned to look at him "I think we need to tell Jay about us?"
"Are you crazy?" Ezra shook his head and bit the inside of his cheek "I don't think we can do that?" He pressed his lips into another thin line trying to bite his tongue. "We can't tell him that"
Aria let out a frustrated breath. She didn't even know why she felt the need to talk to Ezra. "I think we do. Ezra-"Aria paused "I have to tell him the truth it's only fair"
"Fair?" He bit out bitterly "What about me? Aria you took my daughter away from me and then I find out that she attends boarding school?" He yelled "Don't you care about me at all? About my feelings?"
"I never took her away from you Ezra" she yelled back "And of course I care about you why else would I have done what I did?"
"I don't' know why you did it?" His voice carried out into the hallway "You won't tell me. I have been patience with this. Aria, I just don't know what to do. You need to tell me why you left and you need to tell me why my only daughter is in boarding school"
"I can't tell you!" Those four words caused Ezra's heart to break even more "It will hurt you" another four words
Ezra shook his head as he tried desperately to hold back tears "I'm already hurting and seeing you here right now is killing me. You need to leave, I don't' want to talk to you anymore! I want nothing to do with you if you can't for once in your life tell me the damn truth."
Aria let a few tears fall "I'm sorry that I broke your heart, but Ezra you have to understand it wasn't just yours that got broken. I never wanted to leave you. When you asked me for my hand in marriage I wanted to scream out loud and let everyone know that my future was with you. I never knew I was pregnant until I started to feel it. I was having all the symptoms and-"Aria choked on her words as she cried never leaving eye contact with Ezra "I have never loved anyone so much as much as I love you! Having to hear you break down like you did killed me. Ezra you weren't the only one who lost sight of the world I did too"
"That still doesn't explain why you left. I just want to know why?" Ezra spoke softly as he tried to process everything she just told him, "Why Aria? If you loved me so much why did you leave me when I needed you the most?"
Aria sucked in a shaky breath and looked to the side. Ezra walked around and turned her head so she was looking at him "If I tell you…" she said with shortness of breath "It will ruin everything."
"Why?" he pushed "Tell me Aria please!"
"Keep attending your meetings and talk with your sponsor. Malcolm loves you so much and I don't want to see you hurting anymore. Ezra just get over me"
"You know I can't do that" Ezra looked at her lips, "You are the reason I am still here. You are the breath that I take and I can't let you go on with life without me. Aria I am in love with you and only you!" Aria took a step back and Ezra brought his hand to the small of her back and pressed her up to him "Tell me you still love me and tell me that you felt that spark when we kissed last week."
"I felt it" Aria let out with no hesitation "I felt everything"
"Tell me you love me" holding her firmly to his chest
Aria let out a shaky breath as she looked at his mouth and then up at his eyes "I love Jay too!"
Ezra closed his eyes and pulled away from her "You had to ruin it didn't you!" he sighed "Just leave Aria"
"I'm sorry"
"So I've heard." He hissed "You know I don't get you!" He laughed harshly "We have these moments and you just have to ruin it why is that?"
"Because I'm with someone Ezra you know that" she replied tucking her hair behind her ear "I think it was a bad idea to come here. "
Ezra shook his head "Then why did you!"
"I have to go." Aria rolled her eyes and ran out of the room never looking back
Ezra watched Aria run out of the room and then kicked his chair. He couldn't believe that Aria would show her face like that and then completely shut off. What was her problem? Why couldn't she just tell him the truth?
He grabbed his things and shut his door. All he could think about was having a drink. Having something to burn his throat and take things off of his mind. But when he headed over to his car he never thought he would see Aria scorched down in front of a tree in the rain. He looked at her and thought about just getting into his car and driving off but; the noble thing to do was to make sure she was okay.
"Aria," Ezra cooed rubbing her back as he watched her throw up, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you"
Aria cried and threw up once more before taking a napkin from her purse out and wiping her face "Yes you did" she cried and looked over at him, "I went through the same pain as you when I left and all you could think about was that I never loved you."
"Because you won't tell me why" He admitted "I need to know why you lied to me"
"Because it was your life that I was looking after" she looked him in the eyes "It was because of me that you were in danger"
"From whom?"
Aria gulped down her spit "I can't tell you. I know you Ezra, I know you will push this further and that's something I don't want you to do. I want to keep you safe, just like you want me to be safe."
"I can handle it Aria," Ezra whispered, "I want the truth"
"I need to go." She stood up, "I'm sorry that I can't tell you the truth right now. But in time I will I swear" she turned to walk away
"Let me drive you!" He yelled out and Aria turned around "You said you walked, so let me drive you!"
"I would love that" She half smiled, "But only if you stop asking me why I left?"
Ezra rubbed the back of his neck, "Fine"
Aria followed Ezra to his car and allowed him to open and close the door for her. She watched as he went into the trunk and walked over to the driver side seat and handed her a jacket. It was a heavier coat and she could smell his cologne. She missed that, out of everything in the world she missed him.
Ezra then turned on the heat for her and waited a few short minutes before pulling out of the driver spot. Jay's house was at least a twenty minute drive and he knew that would give him some time to talk to Aria. That's all he wanted was for her to open up to him. To tell him the truth to tell him all the answers that he wanted to know.
"Jay said you just came back from London?" He questioned trying to start off a simple conversation. Trying to play it cool, "How was it?"
Aria shrugged in her seat "It was work. I really haven't seen anything but the inside of the Hotel."
Ezra looked over at Aria for a brief moment "Can I meet her?"
Aria licked her lips and looked over at Ezra as he continued to stare out to the open road, "She'll be back in three months." She looked back at her hands and rubbed them together "then I'm allowing her to move here"
"Why is she in boarding school? Why not let her stays with your mother or father?" Aria filched at the word father "Why not let her stay with you?"
"I don't have a father" Aria thought to herself "I wanted her to live. Ezra with my job and traveling from place to place it was getting hard. Lacy just started school and I couldn't take her out of it. So when she was five I placed her in boarding school. Trust me it wasn't easy for me to send my child off to school but my mother had her life and-"
Ezra looked at her as she stopped in mid-sentence "And what?"
"Nothing" she shook her head, "When Jay and I reunited it was different. Lacy spent most of her vacation with Jay and his mother and then they would switch off with Ella. When I first started going to college my family wasn't around. So we lived in a Hotel, the one I worked for rent free." She smiled thinking about her luck "Keith Liberty, offered me his help. He offered to pay for Lacy's school for as long as I needed it"
"Wow," Ezra smiled, "Boarding School is not cheap Aria"
"I know" she looked back at him "When I first meant his grandson, I thought he was full of shit. I thought him offering me a simple Housekeeping job was just a way for him to get me in bed. But he was different. He really wanted to help me and that was when his grandfather came into the picture. He gave me a place to stay and he gave me childcare in the hotel while I was at school. He was like a father to me; he was someone I really needed because I had no one at the time."
"What about Byron?"
Aria closed her eyes as she whispered, "he's dead."
Wow, what an outburst... Please review thank you!