Forgive My Ex-husband novel Chapter 102

Melinda was cold to her husband the whole night, and it wore on his already fragile state. He wanted to vent his emotions somewhere; they were becoming too heavy for him to carry for much longer.

But every time he felt like he could no longer bear it, every time he moved to do something, the memory of the past afternoon reared its head like a glowering beast ready to devour him.

Then he would grow somber, and become dispirited, and would always end up retreating back into his own room.

The place had been his bedroom not so long ago.

But as he stood there, he had the vague sense that it didn’t belong to him anymore, didn’t welcome in the way it always did in the past. The walls were painted a light of slate gray, and gave off a cool, sort of emotionless atmosphere to the room.

He had few personal belongings left here; he had brought most of them with him to Melinda’s room. In fact, this room had been rather empty for a while now. Only servants would come up regularly to clean.

Jonas sat at the edge of the bed and ran his hands down his face. Then he flung his body back on the covers, arms out, and stared at the ceiling.

The room felt cold. Was it always this cold in here? He hadn’t felt this cold since he started sharing a room with his wife.

He missed the warm, cozy feeling he would always have once he stepped in there. A faint scent of her shampoo or her lotion would always linger in the air, in the pillows she slept on. The sight of her cluttered desk always brought him comfort, despite the disarray.

He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. Emily’s parting words echoed in his mind. Jonas hesitated for a moment, then took out his phone and dialed a sequence of numbers.

"Jonas." Emily answered his call almost immediately.

"Are you free right now?"

Although his tone was still cold and a little hostile, Emily took it as a good sign. She honestly doubted he would never call her at all, but there it was.

She would be stupid if she didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Maybe she could worm her way into his heart again.

She knew all too well how badly her presence could strain Jonas's marriage; if she played her cards right, she could widen the rift between the couple, and Yulia could land the finishing blow.

"Yes of course," she answered hurriedly, afraid that he might change his mind. Realizing she might come off as desperate, she changed her tone and tried to sound coy. "Would you like to meet up?"

"Yes." Jonas's answer was curt, and his voice terse.

He couldn’t get anything done even if he wanted to anyway. The documents were sent over from his office, but he wasn’t in the right state of mind to be dealing with business at the moment.

He was consumed by yesterday’s events, and since he could not distract himself from those horrid thoughts, he decided he might as well dive into it.

And his muddled brain inferred that in order to understand the inner workings of a woman’s mind, perhaps he needed to speak with a woman.

It was just that the woman he needed to be communicating with had shut herself off from him.

"I’m guessing you’re in a bad mood," Emily said carefully. "What do you say we go to a bar? I know somewhere that's really cozy and private. You can unwind and relax there without worrying about a thing."

Jonas said yes without thinking. He wasn’t capable of thinking straight anyway. Emily then gave him the name and address of the place, and he went to change his clothes after they hung up.

As soon as he was out on the hall, his feet took him straight to Melinda’s door. He stood there for a few moments, hesitating, wanting to call out to his wife.

In the end he turned without doing anything and left the villa, the tires of his black sports car screeching as he drove out of the mansion gates.

Contrary to Emily’s claims that the bar was "private," it was packed with what looked to be a very fun-loving crowd that night.

As soon as Jonas entered, heads turned to his direction, eyeing him up and down as he strode to the bar counter. Women in various groups of three or five huddled and twittered among themselves as they ogled and pointed at him.

"Long Island Iced Tea," he ordered as soon as he reached the counter.

"Hey handsome," a woman in a short, silver strapless dress sidled next to him. "Why don’t you try some Stay Out Tonight?"

She drawled out the name of the drink, grinning at him with a sort of vulgar invitation. Stay Out Tonight was, in fact, a rather strong drink, and not a lot of people could hold it in.

The smell of the drink alone was enough to make the weaker ones dizzy. It had a dangerously high alcohol content.

Jonas shot the woman a look of disgust once, and then ignored her. The bartender said nothing as he prepared the drink that was ordered and placed it gently on the counter. Jonas downed his glass in a single gulp.

The cocktail had none of the effect he was aiming at, so he motioned for the bartender again. "Whiskey."

The glasses kept coming after that. Whiskey was known to burn the throat as it went down, but Jonas just kept throwing it back as if it were non-alcoholic.

With the amount that he was drinking, the bartender worried at some point that he may not be able to pay for everything he ordered. Luckily, he recognized the famous brands that Jonas wore, including his expensive watch.

Soon it was well past his meeting time with Emily, but the woman still wasn’t in sight. Not that Jonas cared.

He was finally starting to feel numb against all the angst he was holding inside. He slammed his glass on the counter as he downed another shot.

"Would you like another refill, sir?" the bartender asked warily. 'Can he handle some more? Won't anything happen to him later on if he keeps this up?'

Although it was a common trope to drown one’s sorrows in alcohol—and the bartender had indeed seen many such scenes throughout his years—there were few who had ever drunk as much as Jonas was drinking.

"Aw, it’s no fun to drink alone," came a woman’s soft voice. "Let me drink with you." Vaguely, Jonas saw a hand shoot out and grab his yet untouched refill of whiskey. He imagined the woman must have chucked the drink herself in the silence that followed.

But very soon he heard a choking sound, and then there was endless coughing. He finally opened his eyes wide to get a good look at the woman beside him, though he was still in an obvious daze.

Emily’s throat was on fire.

"Are you all right?" the bartender asked her as she kept on coughing, and then handed her a glass of water which she downed in a couple of gulps. She was gasping for air when Jonas finally recognized her.