Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
“Instead of trying to salvage the wedding, he seemed more interested in interrogating me about you. And he asked the most random questions. Like, if you were seeing anybody or if you were married.”
I thought about Grant. About how different he was from Connor. How proud I’d be to call him mine. For a moment, my heart ached with the desire to bump into Connor down the street, hand in hand with Grant, pushing a stroller with our baby.
Grant was the do-over. The correction. The opposite experience of Connor.
The exception.
The way we’d started was backward, but it didn’t change a thing.
He was still the one, and I was in love with him. Madly so.
I loved him for all the right reasons, not the wrong ones. Not because he was handsome or rich or popular. But because he was good and kind and genuinely worthy of everything he’d ever wanted.
And that was precisely why I would never ask him to stay in New York. He deserved to go to Minnesota. Pursue his dream. Advance his career. We would make it work as a couple. But I was never going to deny him something he wanted so badly.
“I’m sorry he ruined the evening further for you,” I heard myself tell Kellianne, who smiled miserably, playing with the edges of her pizza box.
“We went on our honeymoon to Maui. The weather was miserable, and I had period cramps the entire time. He chided me for getting my period—like it was my fault—and told me if he’d known, he would have booked us something in a big city so we could sightsee. We had blowout after blowout. I’m normally super nonconfrontational, but it was basically impossible to escape these fights. He actively looked for them. Since I was on my period, I was bloated, and he put me down during dinner when I went for a small dessert, saying I was already letting myself go. On the flight back home, he said I looked like a homeless person because my hair wasn’t blow-dried and curled. I don’t know . . . It reminded me of all the things you said at the wedding. Everything clicked all of a sudden, and I realized that he was putting me down too. All the time. I’d just tried to ignore it.
“He strong-armed me into quitting the preschool job. Said that it’d be a bad look if I stayed there. That he’d feel humiliated because it’d look like I’d chosen you, in a way. But I knew he just didn’t want you and me to spend time together, worried you’d influence me. It was another part of me that he’d claimed without my giving it to him. Connor convinced me not to look for another job. He said he was making enough money as a banker. Plus, it was only a matter of time before I got pregnant; then I’d have to stay home to take care of the baby, anyway.”
I sighed. “I’m so sorry he stayed stuck in 1839. Trust me when I tell you that I tried pulling him into the present-day world when we were together.”
Kellianne offered me a weak smile.
“I was so miserable just sitting at home all day. My entire family is out of state. Besides, I loved working with children. And Connor got back home later and later every night. Until . . . God, I know I sound like a total cliché.” She rubbed her eye sockets with her fingers. “I found out he was cheating on me in the most humiliating way.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t as humiliating as catching him fucking your third-rank best friend at your own birthday party they were sure you wouldn’t attend,” I murmured.
Kellianne made a horrified face. “I take it back. The second most humiliating way. One evening he sat me down, and he was all brooding and annoyed and whatnot. I thought to myself, ‘What have I done to piss him off now?’ And get this. He said I needed to be tested for an STI because he’d tested positive. I asked how, and he gave me an ‘Are you stupid?’ look. And that’s how he casually broke it to me that he never intended to be faithful to me. The deal was that I bring my good looks and young age to the table and cater to his every whim—and he’ll provide for me.”
I choked on the last bite of my sandwich. “No deal, asshole.”
“Right?” Kellianne’s cheeks flushed, and she sat a little straighter, dejection making way to anger. Attagirl. “That STI talk was two weeks ago. I went to a Planned Parenthood clinic to get tested, and it’s been more than ten days. They said they’d only call if the test came back positive, so I think I’m in the clear.”
I still couldn’t get over how shitty Connor was as a human. How had we not collectively expelled him from our species by now?