Get Your Ex Back: How Stella Got Her Ex Back!

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How Stella Got Her Ex Back…. Stella: The Blame Game All her own fault of course… Stella Edwards, lying in bed, eyed her alarm clock, watching its hands move inexorably to the point where it would demand that she leave her bed and ready herself for work. She rolled over unto her back, stared fixedly at the ceiling, aware of the familiar feeling of bitter regret stirring in her stomach, all powerful, all consuming, drowning her in her own helplessness. In her misery, it occurred to her that a broken heart is a thousand times more painful than the worst toothache she'd ever had. A toothache you can cure in an instant pretty much. A quick trip to the dentist, a day or two of suffering at most and you're done. Heartache though just lingers and lingers… like being haunted, not that she'd ever had any ghostly visitations of course. Still, at least she was trying. She'd felt much better this past month just for trying to do something to fix things.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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She'd been so morose and down in the dumps that until Ellie brought it up it hadn't occurred to her to even try to get her ex back…. when it's over, it's over had always been her motto. Not so, at least not in the gospel according to Ellie. Stella smiled wryly. She'd never tried to get an ex back before so she just wasn't in the habit she told herself. Anyway, it'd always been the other way 'round and none of her old boyfriends had ever come close to succeeding with her. This was, for her, a miserable and soul destroying first.

Expectations, Despair And Getting Your Ex Back… What exactly do you say to get your ex back anyway? Did she even have a chance of getting him back? She'd sought the advice of close friends… while there were some helpful (and not so helpful) suggestions, it was Ellie - work colleague and best friend who'd given Stella her best shot at a reconciliation with that book she'd found. It had come at just the right time too Stella recalled, a time when she'd been particularly despairing and feeling powerless to do anything about her situation. Though she'd tried hard to reign in her expectations, just the same the activities of the past month - inspired by her book - had rekindled her hopes but… nothing had worked. None of the book's strategies had so far produced the required result… she'd even managed to come up with a few tactics of her own but, same old, same old. How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Adam wasn't back in her life, he wasn't co-operating …wasn't going to give her a second chance. Stella sighed deeply, resignedly. Her sadness was profound, her disappointment crushing. From someplace way off in the distance her clock sounded. Shrill, persistent, demanding… Everything she herself needed to be if she were ever to get Adam back. She threw back the covers…

Ex lovers, Quicksand And Babble Home again. It had been a long day at the office, a busy day and a much welcomed distraction from her personal woes. Leaning her upper body forward she pushed hard on the armrest of her sofa and attempted to free herself from it. It was old and the seat cushions were very soft. She swore to herself - yet again - that she'd get rid of it soon. But that was what she had said from day one just over three and a half years ago when she first moved into her small but cosy apartment and had acquired the sofa from a friend to save some cash. Adam, her ex, had had his fair share of battles with the sofa too… Taller and of course heavier, he'd been forced to adopt a liesideways-and-roll-out technique whilst hers involved the use of the arm rest, both hands and perfect timing to escape the sofa's clutches. All the shenanigans had tickled his humour and he'd taken to calling the sofa Quicksand.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Somehow the name had given the thing some sort of personality, almost like having a dog around the place but without the fuss or the mess… Her timing was off, Quicksand sucked her back in with disdain but, on her second try she gave a particularly large heave and with a wriggle of her butt, she was free… Standing to her full 5'7" she smiled in triumph, in some sort of perverse way she too enjoyed the odd wrestling bout with Quicksand… Yep, she'd adopted the name too. There were lots of things Adam did that'd impacted her own behaviour almost without her even noticing, like muting the ads when watching TV shows. He called the ads, babble… She smiled again, the memory momentarily puncturing her gloom… mental pictures of her ex lover in better times flooding her mind like a home made movie, consuming all of her thoughts.

A Second Chance (No Milk No Sugar) To her surprise she found herself standing in her bijou kitchen at the rear of her apartment with no recollection as to how she'd gotten there. She shrugged, that'd been happening a lot lately, even leaving for work in her car and arriving with no memory of the journey in between, disconcerting. Coffee. Seeking a distraction, any distraction, her subconscious had suggested coffee.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Mechanically she set some water to boil, pulled an over sized mug, her favourite, out from somewhere and dumped two tea spoonfuls of coffee in it. No milk, no sugar. Black coffee. She hated black coffee. Milk and two sugars was much more like it but a tip in some dieting article on the internet reckoned that the bitter taste of hot black coffee was great for dulling pangs of hunger… It had worked well enough. Between the coffee, the treadmill at the gym she'd started attending a month earlier and some new fad fitness regime they'd put her on, she'd dropped near on a stone. All part of her get Adam back plan. In three days it would be 3 months since the split. 3 months! And she'd been so sure it would all blow over. But it'd taken her a week after that awful evening for the enormity of her mistake to sink in, to realise that it wasn't going to just all go away… Instead Adam became moody and withdrawn, conversation between them forced and awkward. Why she simply hadn't thrown herself at him and apologised she couldn't say, even now. Pride perhaps…fear of rejection, both? She knew she had to apologise but feared it wouldn't be accepted. How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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But the longer she'd taken the more difficult it became. When she finally summoned up the courage to say what needed to be said… It was way past too late. She'd hurried home from work ready to confess to anything and apologise for everything but he'd packed and gone, not even a note, just her spare key left where she could see it… He'd never called or even emailed, not one time. Neither had she tried to call him, gut instinct guiding her, telling her she was doing the right thing even though the fault for the break up was all hers… Beside her, the kettle grumbled its warning of water nearing boiling point and, at that moment… she burst into tears. Mug in hand ten minutes later, Stella was dry eyed and thinking about Ellie as she made her way back to the living room with the slow pace of someone reluctant to arrive. Ellie never admitted to crying but happily confessed to having the occasional emotional discharge as she put it. Stella wrinkled her nose, the difference completely lost on her. People! Always complicating things… But now she'd decided that having an emotional discharge did perhaps sound a touch cooler and more purposeful than simply admitting to random and uncontrollable bouts of crying one's eyes out because I've lost my boyfriend and don't know how to get him back. Eyeing Quicksand with disapproval, she avoided another battle by perching on the armrest instead. Carefully raising the half filled mug to her lips she sipped delicately at its contents… It was a month ago Ellie had called her about the book…

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Elle's Love Rescue (Problems, Solutions And The Second Coming) While she had been sad, broody and listless, Ellie had been pragmatic, proactive and convinced that every problem had a solution. Typical marketing exec thinking Stella told herself but, marketing was something Ellie was rather good at. But did every problem have a solution like Ellie said? Stella wasn't so sure. Let's face it, some relationships end in disaster of such Titanicesque proportions that it would probably take nothing less than the Second-Coming to salvage them. Stella fervently hoped hers wasn't one of those else everything she'd done in the past month was a waste of time. Ellie's excitement had communicated itself down the phone, her voice insistent that she'd discovered the perfect solution to Stella's errant-ex problem, something that was absolutely bound to help, she said. She emailed Stella a link. Having fired up her laptop, Stella accessed her email and clicked on the link more out of a sense of duty than any real hope of finding anything that was genuinely helpful. But she knew Ellie would call back for her opinion and she wouldn't want to tell her friend that she'd been feeling particularly sad and entirely hopeless that evening and hadn't bothered. In the blink of an eye the page had loaded, filling her screen, the title immediately prodding her into taking an interest. Speed reading, Stella gobbled up the description in less than a minute, her green eyes darting from headlines to sub headings, lingering for brief moments on points of extra interest…

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Well, if somebody was after her money they certainly knew how to hit all the right buttons Stella admitted grudgingly, Ellie was right. But who'd have thought that getting back an ex merited an entire book, or that her broken heart was just one more in what was apparently a growth industry… Stella thought for a moment then made up her mind. As she clicked through the buying process she reassured herself that the expenditure was worth it, after all it wasn't as if she was brimming with any ideas of her own on how to get Adam back… Besides the book offered hope and it had been a long time since she'd had any of that…

High Hopes, No Hope (And Magic) She read it once, twice, three times. But Stella still wasn't entirely sold. She was too long in the tooth to take anything at face value in this day and age. But yesterday she'd had nothing, today there was a possibility, today gloom had receded just far enough for hope to stir. The book wasn't just about strategy for getting back runaway exes. It was just as much a marketing job and although she only worked in her marketing company's admin department she recognised good marketing when she saw it. The difference this time was that she was the product being marketed. Now here she was, going on four weeks later.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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In that time she'd gone from high hopes, vain hope to no hope because so far her every effort had been in vain. The book would obviously work for some and not others. Stella was starting to suppose that she was one of the "others". Not that she'd slavishly followed every strategy or suggestion for reeling Adam back into her life. Instead she'd picked out a few that seemed particularly good for her situation but, so far anyway, Adam had neither emailed, called or put in an appearance. Calling him was out of the question, she couldn't risk giving herself away by allowing her loneliness, her desperation to show in her voice… or risk losing what little pride she had left. In the past, she herself had always been put off by needy ex boyfriends who called incessantly, didn't know when to take a hint and became an embarrassment. With her weight loss, new hair and clothes she was looking good these days, even if on the inside she felt like a heap of crumpled up old newspapers. Adam had always been impressed when she was dressed and painted for war. Whenever she'd asked for his opinion he'd always say she was looking "fully tactical". She'd never understood what he meant but it made her laugh. It was her partying that had done for them she knew. He was a homeboy who liked nothing more than a good book, good conversation and – unbelievably for a man – never willingly missed an episode of Oprah! Yet most every weekend he'd dutifully hit the town with her, her friends and sometimes some of his.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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It wasn't his style but it was his concession to a relationship he really wanted to work, she could see that now. She on the other hand had conceded nothing, behaving as she'd always behaved, in the manner of a singleton, just as if she hadn't been in a relationship at all. Yet again Stella chastised herself, she'd been childish, immature, selfish. At the end all he'd said was that he didn't mind going out but did they have to do the clubbing thing every weekend? For whatever reason, her reaction was one of irritation and annoyance and, in a flash of bad temper she'd accused him of being boring…

Stella And Adam's Big Break In the instant she said it she knew it was a disaster. It was the last thing she should have said. She saw his face cloud over, saw him turn away to hide his hurt, aware that an old, much loved ex girlfriend of his had said pretty much the same thing. In less than the time it had taken to say the words they'd become strangers… Funny that it was her old clubbing ways that had brought him into her life in the first place… Yet another weekend out on the town, some club or other and there he was watching half a dozen friends cavort around the dance floor, drunken lunatics to a man. He wasn't much of a drinker, even less a dancer and wasn’t about to make a fool of himself trying he'd tell her many moons later. How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Always bold as brass with a vodka or two down her neck she'd approached him, told him that he looked wonderful and demanded that they exchange telephone numbers. Taken by surprised and completely bemused he'd hesitated, looking at her… like a dog trying to figure out a porcupine her father would have said. He must have seen something he liked because he reached over, gently prized her phone from her hand, punched his number into it then called his with hers before handing it back. It all seemed much longer ago than it was. The coffee, what was left of it, was cold. Placing the mug gently on the floor she positioned herself carefully on the arm rest and allowed herself to fall gracefully backwards into the soft embrace of Quicksand's seat cushions. Wriggling herself into a more comfortable position she allowed her train of thought to continue…

Second Chances, Clubbing (And Dead Horses) Her heart was no longer in clubbing. She'd still go with the girls on the odd occasion but it wasn't the same. Nothing had been the same since Adam left. One time, she managed to drag a reluctant Ellie to a bar where she knew Adam's friends like to hang out. Another of her book inspired "get ex back" strategies. She got lucky first time out, recognising and acknowledging a few familiar faces, all stopping by to say hello. Plan executed she was all for home and an early night but Ellie had other ideas, now it was Stella being dragged all over the place till four thirty in the morning… How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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The idea was for word get back to Adam. Hopefully along the lines of his ex looking rather hot and single! Ok, if not hot then at least very warm maybe, not pining, weeping buckets or acting dreadfully needy… perhaps galvanise him into doing something, anything. Like coming to get her before someone else did? Some hope! Another failed strategy bites the dust. She had a couple of good ones left in the bag but honestly, she asked herself, would anything ever work or was she flogging a dead horse? She simply didn't know. She only knew she wanted him back with an intensity that almost left her breathless. There been moments when she'd even considered begging for a second chance. But she guessed that while begging might work for some it wouldn't work for her… No, despite her blame, he had to want it as much as she did. It was fifty- fifty or bust. Anything less and she risked being a second class citizen who'd be forever at a disadvantage in any new relationship that might ensue…

Heavy Love (Another Day, Another Plan) Stella was pleased. She kicked off her shoes by the door, hung up her coat and threw down her latest challenge to Quicksand by collapsing into her sofa's seat cushion in her usual fashion, from the armrest.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Tonight she'd stopped by Adam's mom on the way from work. It was no effort on her part. They'd taken to each other from the outset. She had only waited this long to see her because of the shameful way she'd treated her son. Adam would have told his mom Stella was sure, so she was uncertain of her welcome. Shamefacedly she admitted to herself that she'd had a dual motive, another strategic move in the how to get my ex boyfriend back plan… As it turned out, she needn't have worried. Adam had mentioned the break up to his very unhappy and disgruntled mother but hadn't said what had happened. Stella, pleased to hear that she'd had another ally all this time, returned home in the best mood she'd been in for months. The plan had been well executed and her day was made even better by a phone call from Ellie declaring herself in "heavy love" as she put it. Ellie had taken to one of Adam's friends. While they'd been out selling Stella the product, Ellie had been doing some selling of her own… lucky her. It was a Friday night, remote in hand she was absentmindedly channel surfing… In the "good old days" she reflected, she'd be readying herself for the start of a weekend of fun, frolics and mayhem. But in the last month or so she'd taken on an extra layer of maturity from somewhere. Adam had been right. It was still fun but you really didn't need to go and paint the world red every weekend, whether you had a man or not. How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Very much not in her case… Her deep unhappiness clung to her still, dogging her every move, a dark shadow at the edge of every thought. The flip side of love she presumed. In an attempt at humour and to keep the darkness at bay she told herself that if she ever came to power the first thing she'd do was pass a law against anyone displaying or having bad feelings. The sheer silliness of her law made her giggle, imagining everyone walking around with permanent grins on their faces, the police grabbing and locking up all the misery guts… Her mood lightened and a moment later she flipped open her laptop. She checked her emails every few hours, religiously, but no message from Adam and her cell was equally as silent on the subject. The book really wasn't working for her was it? No chance of a second chance... Suddenly she cursed her ex under her breath, anger and bitterness coursing through her. But in the next instant she remembered that she herself had never been one for giving second chances to ex boyfriends either, now the boot was on the other foot she had no right to complain. What goes around… Time to move on she told herself but without any real conviction. The Oprah theme tune impacted her consciousness with "All new…" She'd never been a fan particularly until Adam… she sat up.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Tossing the remote control lightly to one side she crossed her legs at the ankles and tried to concentrate on the show… The book had suggested a letter and given an example of what it should say. It was good, very good… tomorrow she'd use it as a template to write her own. She was starting to lose hope she knew. Every failure had knocked a little of the stuffing out of her, a little of the belief that she could set things right. But she had emotional energy enough for one last try because one of her father's most favoured quotes sprang to mind… Something about if you find yourself about to fall off the side of a mountain, you might just as well try to fly, because you've got nothing left to lose…

Adam: A Blast From The Muddle Headed Past… Oprah was long over when she'd turned off the TV and allowed Quicksand to suck both she and her duvet deep into its cushions. Drowsy, teetering on the edge of sleep… a short, sharp blast from her door bell barely penetrating her consciousness. Despite her muddle-headedness, for once she extricated herself with ease from her recalcitrant sofa and was three quarters wide awake half way to the door, all the while muttering to her self. The girls, no doubt. She hadn't gone out so they were coming in, determined to cheer her up, same as last weekend.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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She wasn't pleased. But she did her best to hide her displeasure and not to appear like a sourpuss as the bell sounded again. "Ok, already, ok" she said loud enough for them to hear. She un-hooked the security chain and bracing herself for the usual stampede threw the door open… Adam. An instant tsunami of emotions cascading over her, under her, around her, threatening to lift her up and carry her away to some distant place. Adam? Adam! Looking uncertain of his welcome and showing every sign of beating a hasty retreat should it not be what mom had told him on the phone he waited for some sort of signal… "Adam!" Stella heard herself squeal in shock, barely recognising the sound of her own voice. She'd rehearsed this moment tens of thousands of times. Calm and control she'd told herself, not this throwing herself bodily at him, feeling him stagger back under the weight, brace, a brief struggle for balance, then hugging her back just as tightly. "Adam, I'm sorry, I'm sorry Adam!" She didn't try to kiss him, did not look at his face and didn't cry, just stood perfectly still, hugging his chest, the side of her face pressed into his shoulder… feeling her pain subside, the great wound in her soul closing, healing, the darkness ebbing away. Neither had any need for words.

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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Way back in her mind, warnings of how many a reconciliation had been sunk by immediate intimacy echoed… She'd messed things up once, she wasn't about to do it again. No rule in her magic book though against her doing her level best to hug him to death… She squeezed harder, he squeezed back reassuringly, his face buried in her hair. Behind her, caressed only by the slightest of breezes through a half open window the door, closing quietly, slowly, gathering speed, clicking firmly shut…

How Stella Got Her Ex Back by Dahlia Edwards - Fat Cat Publishing - Copyright©2008

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