Aria sat at the grill with her laptop up on the table with a large latte and her notes. Her favorite part of Saturday mornings were coming to the grill to work on her articles and sip her coffee. She was supposed to be working on her book, but she had spent the night before at Emily's trying to break into Spencer's email and didn't get any of her own work done. She had to complete the article on Rosewood's Founders Day parade before 5, a topic she really wasn't all that interested in. She took a long sip of her latte before she started to jot down an outline for the article. She really wanted to write the juicy stuff, the crime desk, work on the investigative side. She had to start at the bottom though. Fluff pieces in between the major breaking news stories to show everyone the world wasn't always bad.
"Aria?" She heard her name and recognized the sing song voice immediately. She got the chills. She put her pen down and looked over to the voice. He looked the same: same boyish charm, same smiling eyes, same wrinkled Hollis tshirt and jeans. Ezra could still make your heart melt without even trying. "Ezra…" Aria didn't really know what to say, she didn't really expect to run into him, she hadn't run into him since she got back to Rosewood. It was almost like they had some secret understanding the grill was her place, the Thai restaurant was his. This was breaking all of the rules.
He took a step closer to her and started to play with the cardboard ring around his coffee, "yeah, I uh, I heard you were back in town. I was hoping I'd run into you eventually". She nodded quietly and looked down at her Tory Burch flats, avoiding eye contact with him was always easier. She knew how easy his eyes would pull her back in. "Yeah, working at the paper. I actually can't really talk, I have a huge deadline and well ya know". Ezra nodded quietly and started to break off little pieces of the ring, "I just wanted to say hi and see if maybe you'd want to grab a drink one night? Just as friends. I want to hear about college and your life". His life was pretty much the same since she left him, he was still teaching at the school, still writing on the side and still single living alone in his apartment running from his mother's watchful glare.
She picked up her pen and sighed, "I don't know, Ezra." She started to twist the pen in her hand and stare intently down at her shoes. His blue eyes stared at her intensely, "His birthday is coming up". As he said this she dropped her pen and he finished ripping off the cardboard ring, he bent down and picked up her pen and looked at her, making eye contact for the first time. "Yea, I know it is. I was his mother." She snatched the pen back and suddenly felt a wave of anger and nausea hit her. He frowned slightly and sighed as he got up, "I didn't mean to insinuate that you'd forget. I just". She glared at him as he stopped to search for words, "you just what? Wanted to remind me of the worst day of my life?" "No, I just, I miss him too Aria." Ezra started to back up slowly and shrugged before he turned and left quietly.
Aria watched his retreating back before she leaned back against her chair and threw her pen on the notebook. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes, stinging as she fought to keep them from falling. She bit her bottom lip and immediately remembered that day, it all came flooding back.
It started off like any normal day, she had woke up and began to make breakfast for her little family. Ezra had retreated to the window to work on his book while she made his waffles. She was starting to get a little too big to move around as easily as she liked, six months pregnant on a short girl made her look almost full term. "Three more months of this and by the end you're gonna have to roll me to the hospital!" She cracked an egg into the bowl as he laughed, "Like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?" She smiled and went about her cooking. It was about an hour later she started to feel the cramps in her abdomen. She called her mom slightly worried but Ella just told her it was Braxton-Hicks and to just relax they'd be over soon. Three hours later she was rushed to the hospital and told she was in labor. A little over an hour later she was staring down at her little boy, not even two pounds, struggling for every breath. He lived for three hours. Long enough to name him, cuddle him and watch him leave them.
Nothing was the same after that. Going back home and seeing all of the baby stuff just broke their hearts more. Aria retreated into herself, shutting herself off from everyone, Ezra threw himself into his book. They'd go days without speaking. Eventually they grew to resent each other. Aria knew he blamed her, she lost his son. Ezra knew Aria blamed him, he was supposed to protect her. They ended things quietly one night and hadn't spoken since. They both carried their grief with them everywhere, all the time. Neither one wanting to talk about it, instead doing all they could to avoid it.
Aria shook her head to snap out of her memory and sighed looking at her laptop. She knew she had to concentrate and write the article, she had to get it revised before she could send in the final product. Her head just wasn't in the game anymore. She went to snap her laptop shut when she heard the little bell alerting her to a new email. She minimized her document and opened her email and immediately felt the hair on the back of her neck go up, "Poor little liar, you'll pay for your choices. Spencer will go first then Ali then Ezra. - A"