Max couldn't face his sister or Lofty that night, although neither of them knew about his plans to divorce Zoe. His plan for the night was to find a budget hotel, probably just outside of Holby, so that he could be on his own for a while.
It had been a whole hour since the last cohort of ED staff had left the pub to call it a night so Max was sat alone at the bar with his pint of beer. He ordered another drink before leaving the pub.
Max knew that in order to be able to afford a hotel that night he wouldn't be able to get a taxi to the hotel, although the walk was only about 10 minutes and he concluded that it might be good for him to get his head together.
Max wished that he didn't have to leave Zoe, but he couldn't even look at her without feeling betrayed and without picturing her being touched by someone else.
He paid for the hotel with the cash in his pocket, only just being able to afford the price, despite it being a budget hotel, before he walked solemnly towards his room where he'd be able to deal with his emotions without interruption for the next 7 hours.
Zoe couldn't face the thought of going back to the apartment after what Max had said to her earlier in the evening. She'd drunk a lot of wine over the course of the 2 hours she'd spent at the pub. Zoe knew that she wouldn't be able to drive as she was heavily under the influence of alcohol.
Zoe had gone to a hotel that night as well, although hers was more expensive and much better than the place Max was going to try and sleep in. Zoe got a taxi to the hotel and then got a single room in the hopes that the bed wouldn't feel too empty if it was only made for one person.
Zoe slipped out of the dress she had been wearing and took off her underwear to have a shower, she decided that she'd have to sleep naked anyway because she didn't have any other clothes or pyjamas with her. The woman was exhausted as she had barely eaten since her disastrous wedding day and she had been struggling to sleep at night without Max. she had lost a significant amount of weight in the past few weeks, she had also been suffering with headaches and her skin was looking dry and unhealthy, compared to what it had been previously.
Zoe turned on her phone and played her music on shuffle as she stepped into the warm shower of the hotel room. The glass shower was spacious and made her feel exposed. When Zoe was in the shower she thought about Max, and the divorce. She came to a decision about the apartment that she lived in, which was meant to be a home for herself and Max, that she would have to sell it for her own state of mind, or she thought that she might go insane.
After having a long shower Zoe climbed into the warm single bed and let herself cry until she fell into a restless sleep.
Okay, giving up writing (at least temporarily) seems to be proving difficult in Maths class (as I'm not learning anything, I'm actually getting worse) but I'm only uploading this because it fits in with the most recent episode and it would be wrong to upload it later on when it's less relevant. I've written the next chapter for New Beginnings but I'll be writing more before anything is actually uploaded.