The sunlight penetrated the curtain directly into his closed lids. He stirred and opened his eyes. For a while, his mind was blank and he had forgotten about everything that took place the previous night.

Slowly, he gathered himself up, pulling the blanket off of him, he lowered his feet to the floor and rubbed his sleepy eyes. He glanced at the wall clock; it was some minutes after ten. Well, thank God, it’s Friday, he said to himself.

He stood up slowly and was walking to the bathroom to ease himself. Perhaps, it was because he saw her soap, or her shower cap, but suddenly, everything came back to him. He had broken up with his girlfriend at last.

As it dawned on him, he took a moment to think about it, to see how he was actually feeling about the whole thing, and surprisingly, he felt relieved.

He remembered that he had left her in the living room and he decided to go check if she was still there. When he got to the living room, he wasn’t surprised that she had left. He inhaled sharply and walked back to his room to take a shower... a long one.

He was just getting dressed when his front doorbell rang. He knew that it must be Charlotte; he had sent her a message on how everything had gone with his girlfriend. She had promised to come the next morning.

Quickly, he grabbed a shirt and rushed out of his room to get the door.

“Wow! So how does being a single man feel?” she asked as she walked in, dropping her bag on the table.

He shrugged. “Well, it feels, liberating and sad,” he replied.

“I brought you some food.” She said, opening her bag and handing him a covered plate.

“Wow! Thank you so much.”

“I thought you might miss her food so...”

He chuckled. “That was really nice, but the truth is, I always do the cooking for her.”

“Shut up!” she shouted, surprised.

“Yea,” he replied, taking the plate with him. “She is always busy and she would need to eat. The last time she cooked was just to apologize to me.”

“Wow! You are the best man ever. Never cooked for me, though...”

“Well, I hope she knows that.”

“She does, trust me.”

“Do you want some tea?”

“Not really. I am here so that we can go out and change some things about you.”

Liam looked surprised. “Me? What is it about me?”

“Well, your girlfriend seems to like Tommy and I know you are cuter than he is but his hair is killer and his dressing is so ...hmmm”

“Well, clearly the guy makes like thrice how much I make in a month.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Besides, Emily has never complained about how I look.”

“I know she hasn’t but she must have liked the way Tommy looks.”

‘I am not trying to compete with anyone you know.”

“I know, but I am trying to help you make her fight for you.”

“Are you sure that will make her fight for me. In fact, I don’t really think I need her to fight for me.”

Charlotte smiled. “So, how about if you try to have fun while we are at it, besides, it will do you a lot of good if you make her feel jealous. You do want her to regret ever taking you for granted don’t you?”

“Very much.”

“Good. Now come with me. We are going for a haircut and some shopping, don’t forget your credit card.”

Emily opened the door and was confronted with a flight of stairs which led directly to her apartment. It had been a while since she last came here. The last time she was here was late in the night when she had tried to avoid going to her boyfriend’s place. She groaned as she remembered the manner in which she had left her room. Lots of work awaited her.

When she got to the second landing as her floor was on the third landing, she saw her landlady coming from the opposite direction.

Crap!

She thought of going back quickly but...

“Wow! Emily, is that you?”

Too late!

“Hey, Mrs. Peri.” She said, faking a smile. The woman was in her early fifties. She had a red scarf tied around her head.

“This is a surprise Emily, I thought you don’t live here anymore.”

“Well, I do.” She replied, reluctantly.

“Well, I thought you moved in with that cute boy that used to come to visit you.”

“Yea, well I was staying with him before, and now, I’m not.”

The woman gasped. “Did you two break up?”

Emily contemplated on whether to tell her landlady or not ‘Well, not really. We are just taking some time apart.”

The landlady scoffed. “A break is the same thing as a breakup, don’t be deceived.”

“No, it is not. We are only trying to make things better.” She emphasized.

The woman laughed. “Look, nothing good comes out of taking a break, it always comes down to the same thing. Imagine when you are taking a break and he sees a nice young woman, don’t you think he might want to try his luck.”

For some time, Emily was dumbfounded, could Liam do that? Could he really leave her for someone else?

“We are just taking a break, that’s all. Goodbye Mrs. Peri.” She said, walking the rest of the stairs and when she finally got to her room, she slammed the door after her and leaned against it.

She ignored all the clothes that were lying everywhere and the fact that her room was very untidy, Instead, she sat on the floor.

Could Liam really leave her for someone else?

She remembered he had seen her at the restaurant. Was it possible that he was there with someone else?

Ever since she had started a relationship with Liam, she had never known him to be with any other lady. In fact, he had never shown any interest in being with another lady or talking about another lady except for one. Yea, she remembered he had spoken about one of his exes, he used to call her “the one who got away.” He had told him about Charlotte when they had met again after many years during one of their counselor meetings.

So had he brought another lady to the restaurant while he was there. Was that why he had asked for a breakup? Could he be interested in this new person and could it be the reason why he had not even tried to call her at the restaurant? Okay come to think of it, if he had called, it would have been the most embarrassing moment for him and her as well.

She took a deep breath and walked to the couch. Her house was as empty as her heart. Last night. She had stopped herself from thinking too much about what happened and for that reason, she had buried herself in her work, that was her only means of escaping whatever heartbreak she almost had.

The landlady’s shrill voice came to her memories again-“Look, nothing good comes out of taking a break, it always comes down to the same thing. Imagine when you are taking a break and he sees a nice young woman, don’t you think he might want to try his luck.”

She had known only Liam all her life and if the landlady was right about them not coming together again, where was she going to start from?