Wooing The Ex-Wife
Chapter 32: Falling Apart (2)

Liza understood what he meant. He didn't want to crash and burn with Liza, he wanted to end it when there was a hope to salvage their friendship. Steve wanted to end at terms where they wouldn't have to avoid each other in the future and Liza knew that it was the right thing to do. She had seen it coming when she, herself had stopped feeling the way she did before. She had seen it coming, even contemplated it once before and yet on hearing the words, she felt like bawling her eyes out, however, the pain was bearable nowhere near the heartbreak she had experienced before and therefore she knew that she could live with it, that it would subside eventually. Liza nodded her head, telling him she agreed. "Let's end this, then." She said. She could see the slight quivering of Steve's mouth, the moisture in his eyes, he was in pain just as much as she was. The doorbell rang, and Liza knew that Alice had arrived. "I will come back tomorrow. I can't stay here, not tonight," she said and went outside, tugging along a confused Alice to her car. She had broken down in front of Alice in the car and somehow both of them had wound up at Jonathan's door.

So, there was Liza, sitting in her office, her face pale and dull, drifting through a pile of manuscripts. Jonathan looked at her through the glass walls of his office. It had been a week since he had seen her smile. He still remembered the day she had told him about her break up with Steve. A pregnant Alice had shown up at his house in the middle of the night with a sobbing Liza. He had been terribly confused about seeing a sobbing Liza and had awkwardly asked if he should inform Steve, to which Liza began sobbing harder and Alice silenced him with a death glare. That night had been a bad night for both of them. Jonathan had been helpless to do anything except to let her cry and offer ice cream which by some miracle was kept in his fridge. The three of them had stayed p entire night, with Liza eating ice cream and Jonathan running errands for Alice. Later that night they had sat on the couch with Liza sitting between Jonathan and Alice and both of them trying to cheer her up by recounting their embarrassing moments. Liza had smiled a ghost of a smile when Jonathan had told her of his recent ex-girlfriend who had taken to stealing his clothes and shampoos. That had been the last Jonathan had seen Liza's mouth quirk up. Liza read through, yet another clichéd romance novel and let out a frustrated noise. The story was cliché but good, however, the editing was poor enough to make her cry or make her hit something. It had beer a tiring week. Liza had shifted back to her apartment and had officially ended her relationship with Steve. Steve had left on yet another tour and she was stuck in her office reading poorly edit drafts. She was about to pick her intercom and call the person responsible for poor editing when her door opened and Jonathan strode in. "Hey, do you need something?" she asked. "Yeah, I need you to come with me to a meeting now," Jonathan said before dragging her out.

"Where are we going?" Liza asked still frazzled by the speed with which Jonathan had dragged her out and pushed her into the car. "Magic Castle" Jonathan replied nonchalantly. Liza's eyes widened with surprise "Magic castle as in the amusement park?" she inquired. "Yeah," Jonathan said as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb on her. "So, we are having a meeting at Magic Castle?" she asked again, trying to make sure that she had heard right. Jonathan nodded. "With who?" she inquired. "With the owner of Book Worm," he replied keeping his eyes on the road but letting hs curl into a smile. "Oh My God, Jonathan Did you just drag me out of my office because you wanted to go to the amusement park?" Liza all but shouted exasperated at his childishness. "Yup, I was getting sick of the same dull view from my office, so I decided to brighten it up." He replied now with a full-blown impish grin on his face.

The car ride to the park was filled with Liza's complaints and Jonathan's amused answers. Liza wasn't in the mood of amusement parks, in fact, she hadn't been in a mood of anything but moping since her break up. So it had come as an unwelcomed surprise when Jonathan had told her about going to the amusement park. She rolled her eyes at Jonathan trying to get her on the roller coaster. Jonathan had beer enthusiastic the whole day, hopping from one place to another. Liza had an inkling as to the dull view he had referred to during the ride and even though she hadn't cheered up to the scantily crowded park, she had brightened up at Jonathan's gesture. Later that day as Jonathan dropped her off at her apartment, Liza had realized that Jonathan had started settling back into the hole in her heart he had created years before. ☐☐