Wow. I'm kind of with Anna - except I don't hate you, I almost envy you and your ability to lift up my heart and then tear it out again.
I don't know if you meant this, but the clogged pipe might be a metaphor for their relationship. It's clogged up, not flowing smoothly - all they need is for Lois to ask for help and accept Clark's assistance in breaking up the blockage. Naw - can't be that easy.
Last night changed nothing and life went on.
Yahhh! Lois, how can you be so willingly cruel?! You're going to tell your kids - because you are, after all, a responsible parent - that
there is no such thing as casual sex! when they're old enough to date. This level of intimacy always -
always - produces an emotional reaction. In this case, it's going to affect Clark more than Lois wants to admit it affects her.
And this isn't the first time they've "slipped" since the divorce. How long has it been, anyway? You gave us an indefinite timeline that involves years, but I guess I'm a stickler for exact time frames, and I don't understand why Clark is being so attentive to Lois. I understand that he's polite and courteous to her, especially around the kids, and I get why he'd be happy to fix the clogged pipe, again so the kids wouldn't be inconvenienced, but he's unless he expects last night to change
something, all he's done is let himself in for a spear to the heart.
"Complicated" doesn't begin to cover this situation. You haven't mentioned that there might be another woman friend in Clark's life or another man friend in Lois' life, but surely someone sees either one as a potential romantic partner. Neither one is a hermit, after all, and people need to be around other people. Some men shy away from a divorced woman with children, but not all.
Ah! Maybe that's another complication you haven't mentioned yet. I can see it now: a beautiful youngish woman whom Lois doesn't know braces her at her home, her office, or on the street and warns her to stay away from her ex-husband because as long as Lois has her claws in Clark's heart this second woman has no shot at him. Wouldn't that be an interesting complication!
And this:
“God, Lois. I -” he bit off the end of that sentence just in time, careful not to break their unspoken rule about these nights. No promises you can’t keep. No declarations of love.
I guess this isn't a one-time thing. And I guess Lois is being deliberately cruel to Clark. That's how I'd feel if my ex-wife (we're still crazy after all these 45 years) divorced me and tantalized me with occasional one-night stands and wouldn't let me tell her that I loved her.
I don't think Clark can take this for too much longer. No one has infinite patience. Something's got to give somewhere.
I want to know what happens next!
