Author's Note:

I PROFUSELY apologise for such a long absence. I've been really clumped with work, with the dangerous bouts of procrastination hitting me hard, and so have failed to update this story.
But I'm back now, and so are our favourite couple. I hope you guys are still enthusiastic about the story, as I am!
Thank you and Enjoy! We start where we left off...


27th August 2013:

"Well, fuck me." Will thought. It was just his luck.

Two years after a painful divorce from his wife of six years, Will just had to be in this situation.

Two years of dating "every woman in the tri-state area", as a gossip magazine put it so elegantly once, and defining the term "bachelor" as he sought to erase the memories and aftereffects of their split, she just had to be the woman he couldn't take his eyes off.

For a split second, he had envisioned going up to the beautiful lady, delighting her in the small talk he had grown so adept in and then practicing his usual routine.

That routine consisted of only three stages: Ask for her number, ask her out for dinner, and take her back home for a night of amazing sex.

And if the relationship (if it could be called one) were to still exist after those three stages, then Will be damned; for never, not in his two years of soul-searching and woman-hunting, had he ever made it past stage three.

That vision, however, of finding a new suitor to charm, completely vanished the moment he realized who the embodiment of his vision was: none other than his beloved ex-wife, Mackenzie McHale. The Peabody-winning, internationally lauded and well-loved executive producer, who was known as much for her tenacity as she was for her empathy.

It hadn't been a secret that the both of them had trekked on two completely different paths since their separation.

If Will's constant forays into the world of one-date-relationships defined his post-divorce romantic life, then Mac went on the complete opposite direction.

Fourteen months after her split with Will, she had found comfort in the arms of revered businessman Paul Flint.

Paul was a single, chart-topping eligible bachelor, with whom Mac had connected with one night at your typical New York social gathering.

They have been together ever since, 10 months and counting. Word on the block has it that a marriage proposal is not far off.

Yet, on some dark and lonely nights, Will maintains hope, from the words of various gossip magazines he secretly reads from time to time, that the reason why Paul hasn't proposed (everyone knows he's head-over-heels for Mac) is because Mac still seems to have unresolved feelings for Will. Hope.

"Well, if it isn't the great Will McAvoy?"

Will's moment of private meditation is brought to halt by a sultry, British-accented voice he knew all too well. A voice that he had loved, that he had shared his darkest secrets and deepest feelings with, that he had always turned to and most importantly, that he had missed so, so much.

"Honey, I ain't nobody til' somebody loves me." Will subtly, but blatantly, teases.

Even after the arguments, the fights and the divorce that plagued the last year of their marriage, hostility still seemed to be something the McAvoys could never quite get accustomed to.

Mac threw her head back slightly, letting out that giggle that had held Will captive to all her wishes when they were together and even, he realized, until now. God, she is beautiful, he thought.

"Knock if off, McAvoy."

"Which of us are you talking to? There are two McAvoys here."

Mac decides to ignore his little, dangerous quip. "How are you?"

"Never been better. I'm all ready to knock Cleef out of his Oscar," referring of course to fellow Best Anchor competitor, Roger Cleef, the broadcaster Mac works with as executive producer of 8pm with Roger Cleef on CNN.

"Well, I'll hope he's just as ready to knock you off of yours."

They both share a laugh, and Will concludes that there isn't an occasion he holds more dear than sharing a laugh with Mackenzie, with their smiling eyes staring at each other's, as if willing their gaze to say the words their mouths dare not.

The familiarity and comfort that existed whenever they were together were always inevitable; as if it was the only way they could be with each other. To still tease and flirt and laugh as they always had.

Perhaps this is the exact reason why people find it so hard to brush them aside as a couple that was finished, why they always garnered so much attention, why rumours about a reunion always found large audiences and why Paul found it so hard to ask Mac to be his wife.

Why they were so affectionately termed America's golden couple.

Because when Will and Mac were together – in any room, on any occasion, be it face-to-face in a grand ball to voices speaking to each other on the end of telephone lines – there would be airs of intimacy and dare we say it, love, that were as inescapable as it was compulsory.

Will could feel eyes around the whole room beginning to look at them, enthralled to be witnessing such a personal moment between two of TV's most public names, which is why he was thankful that Paul showed up to interrupt them.

Well, slightly resentful, but mostly thankful, because who knows what the magazines might cook up had they lovingly gazed at each other any longer? Or even, and Will realizes this could be the actual problem, how long more could he have stood there, looking at her, longing for her, and restrained himself from cupping her face with his hands and kissing her?

When it came to Mackenzie, self-control was something he never could grasp. So maybe, in retrospect, in a world where there are consequences to actions, it was good that Paul showed up.

"Will! Nice to see you again!"

The tall, brown-haired date of Mackenzie's extended his hand. Will complied, and shook it.

"Paul, it's a pleasure. How are you? How's the business?"

"Given the recent downturns in the market, let's just say I'm happy where we are. What can I say? Maybe all we can hope for is to stay strong when things are falling."

"Business and life lessons fit of a wise man." He briefly looked at Mackenzie, and pointed back at Paul – "I like this guy."

And he did like Paul, who was a well-educated, reasonable and genuine guy. If Mac were to choose anyone worthy to be with her, Will would hope that she would choose a Paul.

But she can't. She can't choose Paul.

She can't choose Paul because…she had to choose him.

And in this moment of dangerous self-realization, did Will truly realize what he had just gotten himself into. Did he really just pledge himself back to Mackenzie?

It's true. Fuck him.