Broken

chapter twenty-eight

"Mom?" I call into the kitchen.

"Are you going now?" she asks.

"Yeah. I'll see you later?"

"Of course. Have a good time tonight." She kisses my cheek and smiles at me.

"Thank you for everything today, Mom. It was perfect."

"I'm glad you liked it. Now, get going, Ezra will be waiting for you."

I laugh nervously. "Yeah."

As I open the door I hear her call back to me. "Aria? Are you and Ezra okay?"

"Who told you?" I ask, wondering if Emily, Hanna or Spencer had let it slip.

"No one. You haven't seen him at all this week, that's all."

I sigh. "It was just...a disagreement. We're fine now."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm going to see him, aren't I?" I smile reassuringly.

She nods. "Okay. I'll see you later."

"Love you, mom."

I knew that seeing him wouldn't be easy, but I didn't anticipate it to be this awkward. I'm unsure of how to act and so is he. He holds the door open for me, gesturing for me to come in. It feels as though I've been away from his apartment for longer than a week, but nothing's changed; everything is exactly where it's always been. I turn around to him and he looks at me with an apologetic smile.

"I don't know if we should start the night with this but I'm sorry," he says. "I shouldn't have said what I did."

I shake my head. "Neither should I."

"Are we okay?"

I nod. "But I think we still need to talk about it, without arguing."

"I agree." He walks towards me now, a little surer of the situation. "You look beautiful."

I look down, blushing.

The aroma of the food fills his apartment and I see that he's set the table for us too. A slight pang of guilt hits me as I realise that even though we haven't been on the best terms, he still went to a huge effort to make tonight special.

"You really didn't have to go to all of this trouble."

"I wanted to."

"Thank you." I smile and we kiss.

"Do you want to talk now? We don't have to, but dinner won't be ready for a while," he says when we pull away.

"Sure." We take a seat next to each other on the couch. "So..." I start, nervous and afraid of hurting him.

"I shouldn't have kept things from you. You were right, if we're going to be together, we have to share things like this. I was trying to protect you."

"I'm sorry for reacting the way I did, it was unfair to you. And I should have made an effort to reach out to you this week. I don't know why I didn't," I admit. "I realised that you were trying to do what was best, but we need to figure things like this out together in the future, okay?"

I take his hands in mine, and meet his eyes.

"Forgive me?" he says.

"Maybe."

He smiles and moves closer to me. "Forgive me, please?" he whispers in my ear.

"I forgive you," I whisper back.

The first few minutes of our meal are accompanied by a comfortable silence, but I decide to break it. "This is really good, Ezra."

He smiles, and I'm worried in case he needs time to get over this. He didn't mention it before, but if I know Ezra as much as I think I do, he won't want to say anything that would hurt my feelings, even if that means compromising what he wants.

"So how was your last week at Rosewood High?" he asks.

"It was good, but leaving...it brought up a lot of memories, good and bad."

"The first few weeks are usually the most difficult."

"Not too much, I hope. I want to be able to enjoy our trip." I chuckle. "I can't wait to leave this place with you."

"Neither can I." He places his hand over mine.

We clear the table and place the plates and cutlery in the dishwasher. As we sit down at the table with another glass of wine, I notice Ezra looking more nervous than before.

"Ezra, what's wrong? You don't look so good..."

"I'm okay. I'm just going to get something from upstairs. Wait here a moment."

Ezra POV:

I open the top drawer of the set of drawers in my bedroom, lifting up a couple of t-shirts to find the thing I'm specifically looking for. The ring box. But I'm worried in case she doesn't want to make that kind of promise to me yet. What if the commitment intimidates her? What if I push her away by trying to bring us closer?

Aria POV:

Ezra hands me a bag and I sigh; the dress that opened the can of worms last week. I smile gratefully at it wrapped in beautiful lilac gift paper.

"This is even more beautiful than I remembered." I look at him and I can tell we're both thinking the same thing, how it has a completely different meaning now. "Thank you so much for this."

"There's something else..." he says, clearing his throat.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"This little devil caused the real argument," he says. "Ever since I met you, I knew there was something about you and I couldn't let you go, no matter what happened between us or how complicated things were. I'm in love with you, Aria. You're the one for me." He gets on one knee.

"Ezra..." I say, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

"It's not an engagement ring, or at least not a conventional one. I mean..." He sighs at his inability to say what he wants to, but I can't help smiling. "It's a promise ring. Something to act as an engagement ring until the time is right. Until you're ready to get married.

"So, Aria Marie Montgomery, will you take this promise ring?"

"Yes," I say, without hesitation. "Yes."

He slides it onto my finger and kisses my hand gently. We stand and I pull him into a kiss, feeling his smile against my own.

"I love you," he says.

"I love you."

I text my mom and tell her I'm staying the night at Ezra's, not wanting to go home after tonight. I leave out the ring, wanting to live with Ezra in our own world at least until tomorrow. I change into one of his shirts, unable to stop looking at the ring.

"I know it's not much but..."

"Not much? Ezra, it's more than I ever could have asked for. It's beautiful."

"One day there'll be more important ones on our fingers."

"I can't wait for that day." I smile.