Wooing The Ex-Wife
Chapter 31: Falling Apart (1)

It had been four years since Liza started dating Steve and one week since they decided to call it off. It had been a mutual decision. With Steve continuously wanting to and having to travel around the globe and Liza's desire to stay rooted in the place she called home, it had gotten too difficult for them to maintain their relationship. It wasn't that they didn't love each other anymore but they had drifted apart along the way and both of them realized that it was better to part ways as friends rather than to crash and burn later. Liza still remembered the day they had decided to break up. Liza had just gotten home from the office to replace a brooding Steve sitting on the couch. She kept her purse on the table and pecked Steve on his lips. It had become a sort of homecoming ritual for her whenever Steve was in California. She loved the feeling of stability, of knowing that she would come home to replace him sitting on the couch or in his study. She loved the domesticated life that they had developed during their three years of dating. But for the past few months there had been turbulence in their happy little bubble, not that they didn't argue before, they did but they were never as frequent and as serious as those they had been having recently. Steve mumbled in acknowledgment and continued to look at the piece of paper. Liza's heart dropped, this was another turbulence their relationship had been facing. They barely had time for each other now. Steve had recently launched his new series which ad become an international bestseller and he had been busy in promotion, events all over the globe. He had been so busy with work that there were times he hardly stayed for three days in a month, and when he was at the house, even then he was busy with either writing or in talks with some publisher. It wasn't that only Steve had changed but Liza had changed too. She no longer missed him as much as she used to, her heart didn't flutter at the sight of him. Her feelings for him were still there but they had faded away into background mixed with other emotions, they were no longer holding the prominent position they used to hold. Liza wondered if it was falling out of Love, Liza shook her head at the notion and went around pulling out the dinner from the oven. Dinner had been a quiet affair between Steve and Liza and she could see that something was bothering Steve. "Alice is coming for a sleepover, do you mind sleeping in the guest room?" she asked. Unlike every other time when Steve pouted at the thought of sleeping apart and was dead set on sleeping beside Liza, claiming that he couldn't sleep without her, Steve just nodded. Liza frowned. She walked up to him and sat down beside him. Nudging him, she asked, "Is something wrong?".

Liza had this unexplainable feeling in the pit of her stomach that said that something had changed. Steve looked at her and said "This isn't working out anymore, is it?. Liza was confused for a second before realization dawned upon her. She wanted to say that it was fine, they had merely hit a bump that they would get back to their original passionate relationship once this phase passed over but she couldn't because she knew that it wasn't working out. So instead of choosing in replying with a yes or no, she said: "A writer doesn't stop writing a story because of a writer's block." Steve's lips quirked into the ghost of a smile and he said: "But he does stop writing the story when he stops feeling it." Liza's eyes widened at his response and she realized that he had implied that he had fallen out of love. Steve took Liza's hand, tracing the ring he had given last year, he looked up at her and said: "Do you remember the promise I made you while giving this ring?" Liza nodded "I want to keep that promise. It's not that I don't love you anymore, it is because I love you, because I would hate it if I ever left you, we have to end it".000