AN: Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing my chapters – it's definitely inspiring me to want to write more. These next few chapters are probably going to come at a slower rate – I had most of the story outlined up to this point and I'm having trouble deciding how I want to write certain situations and more the storyline forward. That being said, I would love any input on what you would like to read about! Situations that you would like to play out or expanded scenes from the show, anything really. I'd love to incorporate some suggestions, and it might help me work through my writer's block.
"Liza!" The harsh bark of Diana's voice pulled Liza out of her reverie. She had been sifting through a pile of email requests from magazines, tv and radio shows for interviews for Pauline, making note of the ones she would pass on to Diana. Actually, for the last 5 minutes her gaze had strayed across the room to where Charles stood in the break area in conversation with Zane. He was wearing a light gray suit with an icy blue tie that drew out the startling blue in his eyes, and Liza couldn't help that her gaze was drawn to him.
"Liza!" Diana screeched again, this time with a tinge of impatience. She scurried into her office, pen and paper in hand.
"What can I do for you, Diana?"
Diana sipped on her coffee and tilted her head appraisingly at Liza. "Call over to Molyvos and make sure that my regular table is available at lunch today. I'm taking you out to lunch. There are a couple things I would like to discuss with you."
"Oh, okay! I'll call right now."
Diana watched as Liza exited and sat back down at her desk. She had been watching her through the glass window for the past 20 minutes. The girl was distracted, that was for sure. Diana couldn't exactly blame her, given the situation that she was in. Editing a tell all novel about her boyfriend's relationship with his wife. Working with that wife on a very close basis. Things had seemed to be going okay, until about a week ago. Liza had shown up to work on Friday morning, looking red eyed and exhausted and Charles had elected to work from home, according to a brief email he had sent Diana early in the morning. Ever since, she had noticed that the two were avoiding each other as much as possible. But they couldn't help themselves, and she had noticed on multiple occasions one or the other gazing at the other while they weren't looking. Whatever was going on, it was clear that they loved each other, very much. Diana was surprised with herself that she hadn't noticed it before.
She had gleaned a little bit of information from Kelsey, who had told her that Liza had told Charles that things between them were on hold until he figured out things with Pauline. And instead of asking Pauline for a divorce, he had invited her to stay in the townhouse for a few weeks, allegedly to help out with the girls. They had had an argument at a party last Thursday and Liza had stormed out, according to Kelsey.
Diana had been trying to figure out a way to approach Liza about the subject all week, but had fallen short. She would be the first to admit to herself that her strong suit was not friendship, and she struggled with what to say, what to ask. But Diana found herself wanting, now that she knew Liza's truths, now that she knew that they were only a few years apart in age, to develop a stronger friendship with Liza. Hopefully this lunch would be the first step in that direction.
"Thank you for this Diana." Liza smiled across the table at Diana as they sat down at the crowded Midtown restaurant. Diana waved a hand, nonchalantly.
"It's nothing. I do want to discuss a few things with you though. And I wanted to do so outside of the office."
"Okay…" Liza said tentatively, not sure if she should be worried.
"I wanted to see how you're dealing with," she paused. "things. I can't imagine that this is an easy situation to navigate."
Liza sipped her water, not immediately saying anything. "I'm trying hard to navigate it properly. Professionally and personally."
"I hear through the grapevine that it's been rocky waters for the two of you lately."
Liza let out a heavy sigh. "It has. I'm trying to do the right thing, Diana. And I think that it means that I need to take myself out of the picture until he can figure out what he wants."
"Has he told you what he wants?"
"He says he wants to be with me, but then he goes and asks her to stay at his house. He's a walking contradiction, Diana."
Diana smirked. "He certainly seems to be. I never would have guessed he would have fallen for you." Diana said this bluntly, and grinned at the look on Liza's face. "But now that I've seen you two together, it's pretty damn obvious that you two are perfect for each other. So….tall."
Liza laughed as their salads were placed in front of them. It was the first time Diana had seen a genuine smile on her all week.
"Listen, Liza. I commend you for how you are dealing with this. You've done a brilliant job with the novel. You should be proud of yourself. I don't think I could have done what you did. Pauline is not the easiest person to like, but you've handled yourself, and her, gracefully."
"Thank you."
"But I need to say something else. I've never seen Charles in such a bad state of mind as I have this week. I don't know what exactly happened between you two, but he has been a bear to deal with this past week. It's worse than when Pauline left him." To this, Liza lifted her head, eyes wide. "He loves you, Liza. I can see that. But he's confused and he's trying to handle this situation. He might not be doing it the best way, but I think he's trying to look out for everyone."
"So am I!" Liza interjected.
"I know, and I think that's why you've both been so ungodly miserable lately. Listen, I was in his office the other day when he saw that picture in the New Yorker of you and that Jay guy from McMillian at the Katie Lee cookoff. I thought he was going to throw his computer through the window."
"It was completely innocent. Jay is a friend."
"Charles seems to think otherwise."
"Well, that's crazy."
"Maybe you need to tell him that. I'm just putting in my two cents, Liza. I know I'm your boss, but I'm also your mentor. And I hope, your friend."
"You are. All of those things, Diana."
"Just talk to him, Liza. Listen, the company picnic is this weekend. Why don't you talk to him then? And Pauline leaves for her book tour soon. Things will calm down, and you can get back to normal."
"Maybe. Thank you for this Diana." She reached out and placed her hand lightly on top of Diana's. "You're a good friend."
A few blocks away, Charles strode into a crowded sports bar, scanning the room for Jay. The room was full of men in suits, as it was a favorite haunt for many midtown businessmen. Not his kind of place, but it was were Jay had suggested they meet.
Charles had been miserable since last Thursday, when he had seen Liza leave that wretched party with Jay. He regretted not running after her with an all-consuming passion. He had left the party shortly after, going home to stew in his study with several glasses of scotch until well after midnight. He had heard Pauline come back in and head upstairs to the guest room. He had woken the next morning, surly and hungover, and had opted to work from home, work mostly consisting of drafting a dozen emails to Liza and deleting them. He was starting to realize that he had done things all wrong. He should never have agreed to publish this book, and he should have made it clear to Pauline that a reconciliation was not on the table. It was becoming clear that she thought it was happening. But he finally admitted to himself, he had let his desire to avoid confrontation get the better of him, and in the process, had hurt the one person he cared most about, with the exception of his children.
His mood continued through the rest of the week and only grew worse the longer he was away from Liza. He had scarcely seen her all week – she had come up with excuses to be unavailable during the morning meetings all week and never seemed to be around when he was there. He had seen her briefly this morning while he had spoken with Zane, her head down and buried in a sheaf of papers. He thought he had seen her glance up at him, but by the time he glanced over again, she was sitting inside Diana's office.
He had called Jay after seeing a picture of him with Liza earlier this week at a publishing event for one of Jay's celebrity chef's new cookbooks. His blood had boiled when he saw her, her head thrown back mid-laugh, Jay's arm around her shoulder. He needed to clear the air with Jay, or he knew he would do something reckless.
He finally located Jay, sitting at a booth in the corner in front of the giant glass window that looked out onto the street.
"Charles. Good to see you." Jay's tone was friendly but cool.
"Jay." Charles matched Jay's tone as a busty waitress came over and handed them menus.
"So, I think I know why you called and asked me to lunch, Charles, and I…"
"What are your intentions with Liza?" Charles cut him off, closing the menu and glaring at his friend.
"My intentions? What is this, 1950? Listen, Charles, Liza is my friend."
"You looked a little too friendly in that picture I saw."
"From the cookoff? Good god, Charles, she is my friend. I like Liza. She's fun and smart and clever. And completely in love with you. If she were any other guy's girl, I might try to make a move. But it's pretty god damn clear that she is crazy about you. Question is, are you?"
"Of course, I am. Jesus Jay, when I saw you leave that party with her, I watched to chase you two down and punch your lights out."
Jay grinned. "Why didn't you?"
"I don't know. I've regretted not chasing her down outside that party for the past week. I'm pretty sure she hates me."
"Far from it. I've seen her a lot this week. She's needed a friend lately, a shoulder to cry on. She's just trying to do the right thing. She thinks you're going to get back together with Pauline."
"Definitely not. I need to ask her for a divorce and tell her to move out of the townhouse."
"That was a fucking idiot move, if you don't me saying." Jay chuckled.
"No kidding. I just have to figure out a good time."
"The sooner the better, I think. She's hurting."
It killed Charles to hear Jay say that. The guilt he felt was overwhelming, and he hated himself a little bit for causing her pain. He hated confrontation and he had always been the kind of person to shy away from hard conversations if he knew it would cause a fight. He had backed himself into a corner trying to keep everyone happy, and now he had hurt his sweet, beautiful Liza.
"I will, Jay. Thanks for meeting me."
"Thanks for not punching my lights out." The two men smiled and dove into their burgers, Charles grateful that he had not lost a friend and that he had gained some clarity in the process.
Friday Morning
Liza took her time getting ready for work on Friday morning. She had been less than enthusiastic all week, opting for jeans and loose t shirts, minimal makeup, and hair in a ponytail. She knew Diana had disapproved, judging by the onceovers she got every time she walked into Diana's office. She had also skipped out on morning meetings, opting to run errands for Diana instead and conveniently avoiding being in close proximity to Charles. But today, she resolved, today would be different. Cool and collected, Liza kept repeating in her head.
"Who you trying to impress with those legs?" Maggie walked into Liza's bedroom, stretching out on the bed with a cup of coffee. Liza envied her slow start to the day. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a rich purple pleated skirt that fell a few inches above her knee, with a light white shirt tucked into it. She picked a pair of nude pumps and slipped them onto her bare feet. She had covered the bags under her eyes with a heavy layer of concealer and had done her best to make her makeup look light and fresh. She had also curled her hair into loose waves, mostly because Charles had said he loved her hair that way.
"Nobody. I just wanted to look nice today."
"Uh-huh." Maggie smirked from her spot on the bed, rolling her eyes. "You're not fooling anyone, Liza."
"Oh, stop it Maggie. Listen, I've gotta go or I'm going to be late for the morning meeting. Kelsey has Josh coming in to talk about doing that tattoo coloring book we talked about a couple months ago."
"That'll be fun. You and the ex and the, well, I don't know what the fuck you and Charles are right now, in a confined space? Good luck with that."
Liza rolled her eyes at Maggie as she slipped on a light jacket and picked up her bag. "It will be fine. I think it'll be fine. Josh and I are good. Besides, he's hot and heavy with Clare right now. It'll be fine."
"Well, if you say it enough, it must be true. Have fun at work, dear!" Maggie laid back on Liza's bed and laughed as she headed out to work. Who knew that the world of publishing could be this interesting?!
"So, unless anyone else has anything else, I think that just about wraps this up." Charles leaned back in his chair, shuffling his papers. He could feel Liza's eyes on him a few chairs down the table, and he kept looking down and flipping through his papers, not sure what would happen if he met her eyes.
"Charles, I don't know if you saw my email yesterday, but we have the author of the adult coloring book coming in, in a few minutes. You remember Josh, right?" Kelsey leaned forward and tilted her head at Charles as some of the other staffers filed out.
"Ah, um, no I didn't see that email." His eyes flicked over to Liza, then back at Kelsey. "Do you need me for that? It's a Millennial title."
"I just thought you'd like to sit in for a few minutes. Diana too." She turned to Liza. "Why don't you go see if Josh is here, Liza?" Kelsey watched as Liza got up and headed out of the room and Charles' eyes followed her. She smirked as she realized that the unhappy couple were wearing matching outfits today. Charles was wearing a tan suit with a white shirt and purple tie, and Liza in a purple skirt and white shirt. Even when they weren't speaking, they were in sync.
When she had told Liza yesterday that Josh would be coming in, Liza had protested. Said it wasn't the time, that she didn't need to deal with anymore drama in her life. Kelsey had overruled her, arguing that it was the perfect time, considering that Marriage Vacation was edited and on the verge of release. Josh's book would be quick to produce and lucrative. And maybe, just maybe, Kelsey had thought, it would force Liza and Charles to be in the same room for more than a minute and make them realize that it was time to work things out.
Liza pushed the glass door to the conference room open, ushering Josh inside and gesturing to the seat she had vacated.
"Josh, this is Diana Trout, our head of marketing, and I don't think you've met Zane yet. He's working with Kelsey at Millennial now." Liza slide into the seat on the other side of Kelsey, who leaned over and whispered to Liza. "He has met him…coming out of my bedroom last week." Liza shook her head and grinned. Josh shook hands with everyone, including Charles, but withdrew his hand quickly and sat down.
"I thought we could go over our preliminary plan with you first Josh and go over some other details." Kelsey started, "And we can take a look at some of the sample work you brought, see if we can decide on a theme." She gestured to the large sketchbook he had set on the table. Liza recognized it as his project book where he stored his final sketches of all of his custom tattoos, along with a picture of the finished project. As Kelsey started going over some of the details, Diana reached over and began to slowly flip over the pages. To her surprise, Charles leaned over and examined some of the drawings with her.
"Oh, this one is beautiful!" Diana interrupted, her fingers touching one of the pages. There were a few photographs of the tattoo from different angles shoved into the page as Liza slowly realized, with horror, that Diana was looking at the drawing of her tattoo. She closed her eyes as she remembered the pictures that Josh had taken that night, her back exposed, laying on her bare stomach.
"Oh, that's," Josh started, but Charles spoke quietly, finishing his sentence. "That's Liza's tattoo." Everyone turned to him, and Diana arched an eyebrow.
"Yes, it's Liza's. One of my favorites." Josh smiled over at her; his eyes bright.
"I didn't know you had a tattoo." Liza nodded and could feel that her face was flushed.
"I do. On my lower back."
"It represents living in the moment. The concept of time standing still when two people are in love and so connected to each other." Josh looked at Liza as he said this, his eyes not leaving hers. Kelsey coughed, breaking his concentration.
"Stunning." Diana murmured. She had never been a fan of tattoos, but she could listen to this man talk about them all day long. No wonder Liza had been attracted to him.
"Excuse me, but I need to jump on a call. Nice to see you, Josh." Charles said civilly, but Liza detected his tense tone underneath the surface. "I think you're off to a good start, Kelsey." His eyes fell on Liza, and their gaze met for a moment. She gave him a small smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes in the way that it usually did.
Liza excused herself from the meeting about 10 minutes later, claiming the need to use the restroom. So much for cool and collected, she thought, leaning up against the wall. As soon as Charles had turned to look at her before he left, her resolve had dissipated into a pool of vapor. All she could think of was Charles. So she turned, flipped her hair over her shoulder, walked down the hall and knocked twice.
"Come in."
She opened the door gently, tentatively sticking her head in. He was sitting at his desk, his computer closed in front of him.
"Can I…?" She trailed off, gesturing into the office. Charles nodded, standing and straightening his tie. Always the gentleman, she thought. He was the walking definition of chivalry. She couldn't remember him ever not opening a door for her, standing when she walked into a room or giving her his jacket when she was cold. He even walked on the outside of the sidewalk.
"I'm sorry." They both started to talk at once, laughing nervously. Charles stood, slowly moving around to the front of his desk, leaning up against it, his hands braced on either side. He looked down for a moment and then lifted his head slowly to meet her eyes.
"I'm asking Pauline for a divorce. Tonight. I'm done, Liza."
"What? Charles, are you sure?" Liza stepped towards him, and he reached out and caught her hands, pulling her to him. He lifted his hands to either side of her face, his thumbs tracing her jaw. Liza gazed at him, her brown eyes searching his blue ones.
"I'm sure, Liza. I've never been surer of anything in my life. Except for how much I love you." Liza leaned in to kiss him, pressing the length of her body against his. Oh, how she had missed this. She grazed his lips lightly, wrapping her arms around his neck. Charles wrapped his arms around her hips, parting his legs and pulling her close to him.
"I'm so sorry for what I have put you through these past few weeks, Liza. You should never have had to deal with this. But I'm done with her. We've been done since the moment she walked out, but I was just avoiding having a conversation that was two years in the making."
Liza pulled back slightly, running her fingers through his hair. "Nothing worth fighting for comes easy." She whispered, kissing his forehead. "And what we have is worth every fight. I'm sorry for running scared. I've waited for someone like you my whole life, even if I didn't know it at the time, and I don't plan on letting go anytime soon."
Charles felt his heart warm as she said those words, and that feeling quickly spread through his body, from his fingertips to his toes. He would always marvel at how a few words from Liza could quash every fear, every insecurity, every negative thought in his head. He pulled her back to him, wrapping his arms around her, not kissing her, but just holding tight onto the one he loved. For being in her arms was home, wherever they may be.