My Ex-Husband Invited Me to His Wedding, so I Hired an Actor as My Plus-One
I also realized I no longer cared about what he would do or what would happen between him and Elise.
It was clear to me that he was still the same liar and cheat and would treat Elise no better than he treated me.
By the time we got back to my apartment, I was giddy with adrenaline.
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I kicked off my heels in the hallway and burst out laughing so hard I had to lean against the wall.
Adrian closed the door behind us, loosened his tie, and laughed too.
"Well," he said, "that was a day well spent."
I went to the kitchen, grabbed the bottle of champagne I'd bought in case I needed courage afterward, and held it up. "Do actors drink on the job?"
"I believe this counts as overtime."
We sat on my couch with our glasses balanced on our knees and did the kind of post-disaster autopsy only close friends usually do.
At some point, we stopped laughing and started talking.
He told me about Elise. How she'd slowly become colder while insisting nothing was wrong. How she had made him feel worthless and unloved.
I told him about Adam, about the way he could insult you in a tone so reasonable you almost thanked him.
About how he loved the image of being admired more than he ever loved being honest.
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Our conversation ventured from betrayal to getting to know each other.
Around midnight, Adrian took off his jacket and folded it neatly over the arm of the chair like a man who had not, in fact, expected his fake date to turn into champagne and confessions.
I looked at him and said, "You know, you're much kinder than Adam."
He held my gaze for a second.
"I'd like to stay that way."
That was the moment something shifted.
Just the quiet awareness that I was sitting across from a man who had every reason to turn bitter and had somehow chosen not to.
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