I Brought a Coworker as My Date to My Ex’s Wedding, and One Comment From Him Wiped the Smile Off My Ex’s Face

divorce was finalized, Max announced that he was marrying Claire.

He announced it on Facebook. A picture of the two of them on a mountain somewhere, Claire holding up her left hand with a ring so big it looked like a doorknob. The caption said, “When you finally find someone who takes care of themselves as much as you do. ”

Takes care of themselves.

That was for me. I knew it was for me.

Everybody I knew saw it. My sister called me crying. My mother called me furious. Two women from my book club sent me screenshots with the words “Are you okay??” like I might not have seen it.

I’d seen it.

I looked at that picture for a long time. Claire’s flat stomach. Her perfect teeth. Her glowing skin.

Then I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror again.

The same tired woman looked back.

Then I got that wonderful text.

Come to my wedding with Claire and bring our daughters. Oh, and your invitation does include a +1, but we all know perfectly well you don’t have anyone.

The actual invitation came in the mail two days later. Thick cream-colored paper. Gold letters.

Maxwell Turner and Claire Dawson request the honor of your presence.

There was a little card inside. RSVP. Number attending: ___.

I put it on the refrigerator under a magnet shaped like a strawberry and stared at it every morning while I made the girls’ lunches.

I didn’t want to go. God, I didn’t want to go.

But Max had already told the girls. Ava was going to be a junior bridesmaid. June was going to be the flower girl. Claire had picked out matching pink dresses for them. June was so excited she wore the dress around the house for three

days straight. She even slept in it.

“I get to throw flowers, Mommy!” she kept telling me. “On the GROUND! On PURPOSE!”

I knew Max would take our daughters to the wedding. And I knew what it would be like. A big fancy party, a hundred and fifty people, and my girls in the middle of it with their dad and his new wife and nobody who was really looking out for them.

June still needed help in the bathroom. Ava still got overwhelmed in big crowds. She’d go quiet and find a corner and not come out.

I didn’t want to leave them there alone.

So I decided I would go too.

The thought of it made me sick.

But I looked at that RSVP card on the refrigerator. Number attending: ___.

And I looked at that text again.

We all know perfectly well you don’t have anyone.

I didn’t

plan to ask Edward.

It just came out. We were eating lunch in the back room of the library on a rainy Thursday in May. He’d brought me half of a turkey sandwich, like always. I was picking at it.

“You’re quiet,” he said.

“Max’s wedding is in three weeks.”

“You’re going?”

“I have to. The girls are in it. I’m not leaving them alone with him for a whole day and night.” I took a breath. “He sent me this text.”

I handed Edward my phone.

He read it. His face didn’t change much. But I saw his hand tighten on the phone.

He read it twice. Then he handed it back.

“Wow,” he said quietly.

“Yeah.”

“He’s really something.”

“Yeah.”

We sat there for a while. Rain on the windows.

“I just want to show him I’m doing fine,” I said. “That’s all. I just want to walk