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Ezra’s eyes narrowed "You are embarrassed of me"

"I’m not!" Aria cried "But did you see the way they all looked at us? Didn’t that make you uncomfortable?"

"Since when do you care what people think?" Ezra poked his head into the dining room As soon as he looked, everyone’s head turned away instantly, to hide that they’d been staring

"I don’t care what people think," Aria insisted Although, in this case, hteen," Ezra continued "Everything we’re doing is legal There’s nothing to worry about Is it because I haven’tof myself? Becauseto do with your novel"

"Then what is it?"

At a nearby table, a waiter set a dome-shaped dessert on fire, and blue flames shot up into the air The table applauded Unconsciously, Aria’s gaze drifted toward the entranceway once , on Aria

Ezra followed her gaze "I knew it Things aren’t over between you, are they?"

"They are I swear" Aria shut her eyes "I justI can’t do this with you right now I can’t be in public with you Not with all these people here In New York, it’ll be different"

But Ezra pulled away frorow up and sort out all your baggage, Aria" Then he stormed into the crowd

Aria felt too weary to follow hih her Was love always this complicated? It certainly hadn’t been with Noel If she truly loved Ezra, would she have been oblivious to everyone’s confused and gossipy stares?

She drifted toward the buffet and ate a tofu skeithout tasting it A hand touched her arer, her art history teacher, dressed in a bowler hat, a checkedblack pants

"Aria! Just the person I’d like to see" Mrs Kittinger pulled a typewritten paper halfway out of her leather bag "I wanted to thank you for handing in your Caravaggio project early and tell you what a lovely job you did I was reading it before the perforht"

"Oh" Aria smiled faintly She’d finished her portion of the report and e a note that she’d tried to get Klaudia to help her with the project, but Klaudia hadn’t been interested Okay, so it was kind of a tattletale thing to do, but she wasn’t letting Klaudia off the hook

"I haven’t received anything froer added, as if reading Aria’sin by Monday, or else I’ll have to fail her" She looked like she wanted to say so more, but then she shot Aria a sad s, and ht," one of Aria’s favorite songs A heady, soothing sh the air When Aria looked up at the collection of knickknacks lined up on the high shelves over the tables, she noticed a faure It was the very saiven her before he left last year She’d treasured that gift, jiggling its head often, longing for Ezra to write to her and reconnect After a while, she’d figured he’d long forgotten about their relationship, but all that ti a novel--about just that

The world see juvenile and paranoid about Ezra Since when did she care what other people thought? She was Kooky Aria, the girl ore pink streaks in her hair and ed her that h the crowd Hopefully, Ezra was still here She would find hi him to Ella, and tell her their plans She would dance with Ezra on the tiny dance floor, students’ and teachers’ stares be da She couldn’t let hi her head into theout the back door, but there were only a series of green Duarettes She looked in the back dining roo lot Luckily Ezra’s blue Bug was still parked next to a Jeep Cherokee He had to be inside somewhere

As Aria walked back into the restaurant, a faint, fah her

The laughter was co from the coatrooure moved in the blue-black darkness at the very back of the space, hidden behind overcoats and leather jackets and furs "Hello?" Aria whispered, her heart pounding hard

Aria heard a sigh, then the s Oops Aria backed away, but her ankle turned, and she lurched to the side, banging into soether loudly

"What was that?" a voice said fro it instantly In seconds, a figure stepped into the light "Oh my God"

Aria’s eyes widened Ezra stared back at her His lips parted, but no words cairl stepped out of the shadows and wound her arht lipstick was s off her shoulders When she saw Aria, she burst into a triu Ezra harder

Klaudia

Aria backed away, banging into ers Then she turned and ran