I need a good reason or situation that would get a broken-up couple back together. My characters still see each other every day and get along just fine, but the man broke up with the woman. He's sort of going through a midlife crisis (nothing too extreme). My characters are in their 40s so not young or superficial. They do not have any children. And I don't want anything like a pregnancy scare or anything cliche. It's very plausible for them to get back together, but so far in my story I have a whole bunch of failed attempts to try and get him back on the woman's part. She wants him back. He's being reluctant, but at the same time stringing her along a bit. It doesn't have to be something that gets them back together to live happily ever after. I need them to get back together for another plot point in my story to work out. Help! What can she do to make him realize he should be with her (if only to advance the story)? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
You could do something simple like, they are both invited to an event or party, have too much to drink. Maybe he’s feeling lonely and she’s there and she’s warm and he just doesn’t want to spend another night alone in his quiet, cold apartment. They kiss, she asks him to give them one more chance, and he drunkenly agrees. In the morning he’s not sure he made the right choice, regrets it, though since he agreed tries to make it work, they’re together for a while before it falls apart again. Otherwise, you’ll want to do a deep dive into his psyche and figure out why, specifically he drew away from his ex and how that can be resolved, if you want to make it an actually happy or longer term thing. She can’t convince him that he should be with her, he needs to work through the reasons why he thinks he shouldn’t.
Does it need to be an event or a reason. If it's an event it could be a crisis throws them together - she gets into an accident and he helps her out with the physical therapy. He's shaken by the thought of losing her. 2. she could show him a new side to her - if she's been too clingy or non-independent she could get a job or face a fear she's had like getting up in a bar and singing kariokee. 3. she could keep a belated promise she made to him years ago. Like quitting smoking. 4. jealousy - someone else shows an interest and he decides to make a move before she moves on. reason - hard to say without knowing the characters or the circumstances as to why they broke up in the first place or what they want to get out of the relationship. For me people become couples for only a handful of reasons - they're lonely, they want security, love, or lust.
It depends on their characters. Is he honourable and responds to her needs from a sense of duty? Is she manipulative and proceeds to trap him? Or do they gravitate back to one another because of the comfort in familiarity? Or are they truly in love?
He should realize that she's the only one he has who cares about him. I'd give him a current girlfriend who fails him. Maybe someone in his family dies. Nothing too dramatic like a mother or father. Some great-aunt who he used to talk about, and so she was important to him. He asks the current girlfriend if she'll go to the funeral with him but she makes excuses. The guy's sitting around thinking that he could go by himself, and he will, it's too bad his old girlfriend isn't around because she would have accompanied him. Why? "Because she cares about me." And then he admits he hasn't forgotten her. It doesn't have to be a funeral. He could be looking for a lost dog on a hot day, or taking part in some cringe inducing nerd event. It could have levity. It doesn't need to be dire. Whatever it is, he realizes that his ex would have been there with him. And that's when he picks up the phone.
How about they bump in to each other and she suggests a drink and he’s reluctant at first, then does it to humour her. Then he realises he remembers how funny she used to be and how he always liked that side of her and how he used to have such a good time with her in the early stages of their relationship. Another one is he feels alone then remembers that today happens to be his and her anniversary of the first day they met and decides to give her a call? In a way it’s easier if it were the other way round, because he could get her some flowers or something and squirm his way back to her heart again. But in your case it’s him who’s having this mid-life crisis.
Not to be too crude, alcohol and horniness are all that's required. Friday night drinks after work, stay late because who wants to go home to an empty apartment, they bump into each other, maybe so drunk one or both forget they're broken up (can happen), otherwise just falling back into something that is convenient or easy or a better alternative than the empty apartment. Implausible? Look around. Sometimes I think we give our fictional characters too much credit. People regularly do things they know to be stupid. This old/new relationship would be interesting to write, both fairly sure it's doomed, there's an honesty that will touch on brutal because there's hurt and little point in putting forward that "best self" to someone with such intimate knowledge. The next break up will be interesting.
This right here, especially if he's following the classic male mid-life crisis path of chasing after attractive younger women. He gets rejected a few times, maybe even laughed at or can't perform sexually, and it makes him feel older and even more used up. The crisis worsens. Eventually, he falls back into the "sure thing" he's been stringing along just in case. A tale as old as time, unfortunately. EDIT: I feel like this thread is a great Rorschach test for how people view relationships. Are you an optimist? A romantic? Or a total cynic?
Or a realist. People change. This is a work of fiction, so write whatever seems right to you. A number of years ago I was very much in love with a woman. We were both adults, and both divorced. She had children (in their teens), I didn't. I proposed, and she turned me down. Then she broke up with me. About a year later I encountered her at a party. She was as beautiful as ever, but there was no spark, and nothing that even hinted of a possibility of having a second try. People change.
He's stringing her along, playing on her desire to resume the relationship. He feels safe, keeping her on a string without having to make a second commitment. She finally announces she has had enough, has been offered a job in another city, and is Gone Johnson at the end of the month. The prospect of losing her all together gives him an epiphany: he still loves her. Tables turn, he pursues her, they have a few lovely encounters, he figures he's golden, offers her a ring on bended knee. She thanks him... and leaves to take the job in another town.
Writing in a reader-obvious reason might end up not being natural enough. Some of the previous times they didn't get back together, probably there were obstacles or other commitments that prevented it - but once those things fall away they are both still there. And by this point in the reader's relationship with them both, the realisation that the other person is still there when everything else has fallen away, should be shared with the reader - but probably not described. Something that profound we don't premeditate, or even unpack in our minds for months or years afterwards.
To avoid the paperwork. They realise they never told their insurers one of them moved out, and now there's been a theft or flooding or some such. To avoid getting shafted they play a couple again for the inspection. They get away with it, he's waving the insurance man out the door, he closes the door, turns around, her dress is in a puddle around her ankles and she says something like, "Don't you want to keep up the charade for just a little bit longer..?"
Dating somebody else (or multiple people) and it not clicking. Familiarity is easy, after all. Almost every single one of my relationships that resulted in us getting back together after a break-up involved me dating someone else for a little while, it not working out, and then at a point where I'm feeling low and sorry for myself I would either try and appeal to my ex to take me back or I would run into them in a bar and one thing would lead to another. Then more often than not I would wake-up the next day and realise it was a terrible idea to try and reignite that relationship. That was my 20s in a nutshell, but I'm sure it would read as believable for characters in their 40s as well.
When dealing with the whole “second-chance romance” trope—even if the story isn’t a true genre romance—you really need to: Remind the character(s) why they fell in love in the first place Resolve the reason for their original break-up So to answer the last question, since she has tried to win him back before and failed, doing something to show him whatever ruined their first relationship is gone would be a good option. It doesn’t actually need to be gone, he just needs to think this time will be different.
