My ex’s wedding invitation included a +1 and a reminder that no one would date me. I brought Edward anyway. When Max laughed and asked how much I’d paid him, my coworker quietly walked to his car and returned with a large cardboard box I’d never seen. Whatever was inside made the groom stop smiling.
Max’s wedding invitation arrived as a text message.
That was very Max.
“Come to my wedding with Claire and bring our daughters. Oh, and your invitation includes a +1, but we both know you don’t have anyone.”w
Max’s wedding invitation arrived as a text message.
I read it twice.
Then I put my phone facedown before my ten-year-old daughter could ask why I was staring at it like I wanted to throw it through a window.
***
Max and I had been married almost thirteen years.
I was staring at it like I wanted to
throw it through a window.
We had two daughters, ten and three, and apparently thirteen years was long enough for my husband to decide my body had violated some agreement I hadn’t known we’d made.
“You don’t look the way you used to,” he’d told me.
That was before I discovered Claire.
My body had violated some agreement I hadn’t known we’d made.
His personal trainer.
When I confronted him about the affair, Max didn’t apologize.
He shrugged.
“Well, what did you expect? Men are visual. And Claire, she’s perfect.”
I remember standing in our bedroom while he packed.
“Well, what did you expect? Men are visual. And Claire, she’s perfect.”
“You cheated because I gained weight?”
“You used to have a slim waist, Ronnie.”
He folded another shirt.
“When was the last time you even looked at yourself in the mirror?”
During the divorce, I looked constantly.
“When was
the last time you even looked at yourself in the mirror?”
I checked my stomach when I got dressed. Turned sideways before I left the house. Changed shirts because I could hear Max saying my arms looked better covered.
