Page 19 of Fallin' for You (The Echo of Love)

“Get your ass out of the bed old man, and open the door!”, he heard Meg yelling and sighed, not in the least prepared for what was surely going to be a good ribbing for abandoning her to deal with Jenna the previous night.

“Okay, okay, I am up. Just stop shouting like a lunatic.” he moaned while opening the door to let her in.

“It is 1 pm big brother and I only started shouting after knocking for five minutes.” she said cheekily, as Will threw a half-hearted glare in her direction on his way to the kitchen in search of coffee. He hated sleeping in and rarely did it, but once he had gotten home the previous night, he was unable to fall asleep until the early hours of the morning.

The thought of Aria agreeing to go have coffee with him the next day, had him in such a tizzy that he ended up tossing and turning until he eventually lost consciousness from sheer exhaustion.

After nearly inhaling his morning dose of caffeine, Will looked up at his smirking younger sister.

“Someone kept you awake last night?” she teased making him feel the urge to roll his eyes, yet again.

“No. I went home, alone.” he said and saw Megan’s demeanor change in an instant, as she suddenly got a serious expression on her face.

“Look, Will, you are my brother and I love you to pieces, but she is very important to me.”

Will went rigid as soon as the words left her mouth and looked up to find Meg glaring at him.

“I am not sure what you are talking about.”

“So, you are telling me that after you ran off on me last night, leaving me with a very confused and very upset Jenna by the way, you went straight home?”

“Umm, yes?”

“Oh really? Then I must be going crazy, because I could swear that I have seen someone who looks exactly like you going into the car that looks exactly like yours with a girl that is a spitting image of one of my employees; Aria, to be exact.”

Will cursed silently, knowing that there was no way out of the situation at the knowing look on Meg’s face.

He let out a big sigh and fell into the kitchen chair, trying and failing to avoid his sister’s menacing glare.

“Look, I know that she is beautiful and I get why you would like her, but I also know everything about what she’s been through and I don’t want to see her hurt again. I am not blind Will; I see the way she looks at you. I’ve known Aria for more than a year and this is the first time that she has looked at someone more than twice.

So, all I ask is for you to be honest with her, because I realize that I cannot stop you from being together. But if this is just a passing fancy for you, please tell her, otherwise, she will just end up getting hurt and that will be the end for her. She will retreat into herself even more than she was when I met her and be miserable for the rest of her life.”

Will watched his sister talking about Aria, and he realized that he had never felt prouder of her. He knew that Meg held a special spot for her, but to see to what extent let him know that Aria was not as alone as she thought she was and that there would be someone looking out for her even if they didn’t make it.

“I can assure you that it is not just a passing fancy. Ari is...”, Will stopped, trying to put into words everything that was going through his mind in order to make his sister understand.

“Well, you know her better than anyone; you know what an amazing person she is, even though it seems to me that she doesn’t. I would be a fool to pass up a chance in being with someone like her. You also know what happened back in LA, and how it had affected me.

I was so angry for such a long time, Meg. And I tried not to be, I tried to move on, but I couldn’t, at least not back there. So, I came here, looking for something, I am not exactly sure what myself. And maybe she is that something, and maybe she is not. Maybe that something only I can give to myself, but all I know is that from the first moment I saw Aria, all that I thought I knew and wanted just vanished.” he said while snapping his fingers.

“And the more I get to know her the more I am certain that she is as close to perfect as I could get, maybe even the one. And I’ll do anything in my power not to ruin that.”

Looking up, Will saw his sister smiling back at him with a proud look on her face that made something warm blossom in his chest, so he stood up and pulled her into a hug before asking her to stay for lunch.

~

Will was just getting out of the shower, feeling excited about his (not)date with Aria when he heard the phone ring but by the time he managed to dry himself and put on some boxers the ringing had stopped. Figuring that it was Meg calling to tease him about his coffee plans, William went to the closet to pick out an outfit for that night, not bothering to check.

He knew that Aria would feel uncomfortable in some crowded place, so he had decided to take her to a hole-in-the-wall cafe that he had heard Nate singing praises about a couple of days ago.

He picked out his favorite jeans and a white, cashmere sweater and quickly dressed, feeling satisfied with his choice and hoping that Aria would be too, and then rolled his eyes at himself for, yet again, acting like a teenager with a crush.

Once he was done, the phone rang again, so he picked it up, already preparing himself to tell Meg off for bothering him, when he saw an unknown number calling, making him frown.

“Hello?”

“Will?” he heard deep male voice asking from the other side of the line and frowned.

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