Sorry it's been so long. I found this on my computer half-finished so I thought I would complete and publish it for you. Please review. I appreciate all your feedback. Remember, I do not own PLL.

"Love, though said to be afflicted with blindness, is a vigilant watchman…" read Ezra from Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. Aria smiled, her head in Ezra's lap, the grass beneath her and the cloudy sky above her. They were sitting in the park in Rosewood, Ezra's back against a shady tree. Twenty feet away people walked in front of them, too busy with their daily lives to stop and stare.

"Do you think love is blind?" she asked her boyfriend. Ezra lowered the book and looked down at her.

"If love weren't blind then I never would have met you."

"Are you saying that you only talked to me in that bar because you like the way I look?" questioned Aria.

"No, but I would have been an idiot not to talk to a pretty girl like you."

"So you are saying that you talked to me that day because you thought I looked nice."

"No," insisted Ezra. "I'm…ugh. I'm making a mess of things. I meant that love must be blind because if it weren't we wouldn't be where we are today. You would have been my student and I would have respected that distance between us."

"So love is blind," sighed Aria.

"What do you think?" asked Ezra, settling the book on the ground beside him. "Do you think love is blind?"

"Maybe. How else do you explain us? My mom thinks that about us anyway. Otherwise she would have no explanation for what's between us."

"So you think that's what it means?"

"Well, what about that second part of what Dickens said? Love 'is a vigilant watchman.' Does that mean we always look for someone to fall in love with? Or that we look out for the people we love?"

"Maybe he means that love is always with us and we become protective of those we care for. Like best friends watching out for each other, or parents caring for their children," Ezra responded, subconsciously stroking her sun-kissed arm.

"Could be," Aria agreed. "My dad has certainly been protective of me lately."

"I think he's always been protective of you. I just think that you're starting to realize it."

Aria pushed her hair from her face in an agitated motion. "What about his affair with Meredith? He was hurting our family."

"Love is blind, or in this case lust was blind. But can we talk about us?" he looked down on her with pleading in his eyes.

Aria took a deep breath before kissing his hand. "Sure. I promised no parents. No friends. It's just us today sitting in the park."

"Are you sure you're comfortable with this? Being here?" he nodded to the green area that surrounded them.

"Ezra," began an exasperated Aria, "I told you at the apartment that I was fine with this. Who cares what other people think. It's just me, you, and Dickens, right?"

"You're right," he said bending down to kiss her forehead.

"Are you comfortable with this?" she asked as picked the book back up.

"Aria why would you ask that," he questioned gently. "We've been out in public before. We even went to that work thing at the art gallery together."

"Yes, but you knew what people could be there. Anyone could just stumble upon us here, like this."

"Aria I love you. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks?"

"Who does indeed?" Aria asked herself softly as she settled her head into Ezra's lap, listening to the sound of his voice as he read the words on the page. The black and white page. Maybe love was easiest explained in books where there was no grey.