My Husband’s Best Friend Toasted To Me As “The Temporary One” At Our 3rd Anniversary Dinner. I Just Found The “Future Plans” Folder For His Ex In His Locked Desk. How Do I Get My Revenge?
The Rejection
4 weeks after the anniversary dinner, I’m making coffee in my new apartment when someone knocks on my door. I look through the peephole and see David standing in the hallway looking worse than I’ve ever seen him. He hasn’t shaved in days, his shirt is wrinkled, and he has dark circles under his eyes like he hasn’t been sleeping.
My first instinct is to pretend I’m not home, but he knocks again and calls my name through the door. Against every bit of common sense I have, I unlock the door but leave it open with my hand on the knob. He asks if we can talk, and I tell him we can talk right here in the doorway where my neighbors can hear everything.
David steps inside, but I don’t close the door or invite him further into my apartment. He looks around at my new furniture and the photos I hung on the walls, and something in his face shifts. He starts talking about Natalie and how coming back to Dallas hasn’t been the reunion he imagined. He says she’s changed and that maybe he made a mistake.
I feel my whole body go cold, and I ask him if he’s here because he wants me back or because Natalie didn’t want him. He opens his mouth and closes it and opens it again, and that hesitation tells me everything.
David admits that Natalie has been distant and non-committal about their relationship since she moved into the apartment he found for her. She likes the place and she’s grateful for his help, but she’s been going on dates with other people and treating him like a helpful friend rather than her soulmate. He looks genuinely confused, like he can’t understand why his perfect plan isn’t working out the way he spent four years imagining. He says he thought they would pick up where they left off, but she keeps saying she needs time to settle in and adjust to being back in Dallas.
I watch him struggle to explain why the woman he destroyed his marriage for doesn’t actually want him, and I feel nothing. No satisfaction and no sympathy. Just emptiness where my feelings for him used to be.
I tell David that I’m not his backup plan and I’m not going to wait around while he figures out whether Natalie wants him or not. He tries to argue that our marriage was real and that he did care about me even if I wasn’t the one. He reaches for my hand, but I pull away and tell him to leave.
He stands in my doorway for what feels like forever, just looking at me like he’s waiting for me to change my mind. Finally, he turns and walks down the hallway, and I close the door and lock it and lean against it until I hear the elevator doors close.
That night, I cry harder than I have since the anniversary dinner, but it feels different this time. I’m not crying because I want David back or because I miss what we had. I’m crying for the 3 years I spent loving someone who was always looking past me at someone else. I’m crying for the girl I was who thought being a good wife would be enough to make him stay. I’m crying because even though I know leaving was the right choice, it still hurts to realize that the man I married never really saw me as anything more than a placeholder.
Saki calls to check on me, and I tell her about David showing up and what he said about Natalie. She asks if I’m okay, and I tell her the truth, which is that I don’t know yet but I will be eventually. After we hang up, I sit on my couch in the dark and let myself feel everything until there’s nothing left but exhaustion and the quiet knowledge that I made the right choice even though it cost me everything I thought I wanted.
