Yes, Sara, I know that was a slightly mean place to end the chapter, but that's only partly why I ended it there. As you'll see when I post to the next chapter, we don't get to see the conversation here so it made sense to end the chapter.
LolaDane - She does mean it, but that doesn't mean you should get too happy yet. I'll be honest. Yesterday morning I woke up thinking about this story - I was in the middle of writing chapter 30, and decided I wasn't sure I could go with the ending I was planning on. I now have two very different ideas in my head and I'm not really all that happy with either of them. What this means for now, though, is that at least as of chapter 30 (and I think I'm fairly certain as to where I'm going with 31 and most of 32 as well) both with Chad and without Chad are options for Lois.
AnKS - I agree with everything you said. Thus the problems I had when I woke up yesterday morning. I feel like I've built a situation without a perfect ending. I guess this goes with something grinch said about this fic being very "real" - in real life, things rarely end perfectly. I don't see a way this fic is going to either. I'm just going to have to settle for an imperfect resolution...
Michael - If you decide where you want me to head, could you let me know?
Seriously, the angst here is nothing. For a long while one of the reasons I wasn't writing that fast was that I just didn't want to. It was too depressing to try to get inside Lois' head. I think I've gotten past a point of really being able to readily identify with her so it's gotten easier (I think the living apart stuff was hardest for me to write as I've done it and hated it), but I still feel like things are pretty depressing. Expect several more chapters of angst.
Thanks, Ann. I feel sorry for them, too. In many ways, my marriage is a bit like this, but neither my husband nor I are the extremes Lois and Chad are and that makes life much easier. Our ideal living situation is sort of suburban (although less close to a large city than we are now), and so not that far apart from each other. I think it makes it much easier to decide where you are going to compromise as a couple than when you want diametrically opposed options as do Lois and Chad.
Still, they are in love and want to stay together which often goes a long way towards trying. So, don't count them out just yet.
Grinch - Writing has gone very well so far this weekend (to the chagrin of my husband who was hoping I'd spend less time at the computer and more helping him clean), so I may post the next part tomorrow since I have off.
Tank - Please fill me in - what is the everyone lives happily ever after solution? It isn't obvious to me. Although, perhaps that's just because it isn't realistic. I could just have Chad run over by a truck or something. Lois would be forced to move on then and she'd naturally fall to Clark for comfort.
I know that wouldn't bother you, but it would bother me, so I'm looking for solutions that don't involve a dead Chad...
And while the story is about breaking up, as I said above, I'm still not sure where this is going and I don't see the title as forcing an ending. Perhaps breaking up is so hard to do that Lois and Chad don't do it. Besides the two "breaking up" scenarios I've already had here - Clark and Rachel in a typical break-up and Lois and Chad living apart, I still have two more of the possibilities others have mentioned in previous feedback threads planned. And I don't see either of those defining the ending. Four potential "breaks" seem like enough to justify the title, even if the obvious break up never happens.
I'll check in tomorrow.
