Larry.
My eyes quickly snapped up because I knew there was no way fate could be that cruel. There was no way that on my veryfirst date with another man, I was running into my ex-husband in the same place.
“Ny’Airy?” Larry said in disbelief as his eyes went wide.
“Hey Larry, my bad for bumping into you I was texting and wasn’t looking where I was going,” I stammered. Fate had indeed been that cruel and standing in front of me looking as fine as he always had was my ex-husband; the man that left me for another woman and turned my life upside down.
“No worries, I didn’t spill my drink. Luckily, I was holding on to it tight, how have you been? You look good,” he complimented as his eyes roamed all over my body hungrily. I wanted to tell him that after I stopped shoveling tacos down my throat because he left me, I learned how to love the parts of me he broke and I had been showing up for myself consistently in the gym for hours and I had changed my eating habits.
Instead, I said, “Thank you,” and smiled shyly.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him as I bent down to grab my phone from the floor. I needed something in my hands to calm them from shaking. My heart was beating one thousand miles a minute, and I felt like I was about to faint. Suddenly, all those glasses of champagne didn’t seem like the best idea. Of all the people to run into, I just had to run into Larry.
“My wife is being honored tonight, her bakery won the best baked goods award this year,” he dropped the bomb on me and reminded me of the reason he had broken my heart.
“That’s great for her,” I stuttered, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me whole.
“Here she comes now,” he said smiling as he looked over my shoulder.
She was just as beautiful in person as she was on Instagram. She looked better in person than she did on Instagram. Jealousy consumed me as my ex-husband’s new wife walked towards us wearing a long gown that screamed, Couture. Not looking down, she slipped slightly on the champagne I dropped and landed right into Larry’s arms. The bitch evenfellperfect. How could someone manage tofallgracefully?
“Can we get someone over here to clean up this spill please!” Larry yelled as he steadied her. That was him, Larry the Protector. The minute he pulled her upright, she snatched out of his arms and gave him a look that could melt ice, if you were where you were supposed to be, then I wouldn’t have had to come over here to look for you, she belittled him through gritted teeth, like a mother scolding her child.
My eyes went wide in shock; there was no way she was talking to the man that way who had just caught her from snapping her scrawny ass neck. It wasn’t his fault that she didn’t look down because her nose was so far in the air. I was just about to ask her who the hell she was talking to like that before I remembered that he was no longer my husband.
This was the woman he had chosen.
A staff member came over to help with the spill, carrying a mop, a bucket, and some dry rags.
“I’m so sorry Miss.”
The staff member began before Larry’s wife cut him off, “Don’t be sorry, be careful. I could have broken my neck. Are you responsible for keeping this area clean, maybe I should have atalk with your supervisor about how serious you take your job,” she snapped.
“I apologize ma’am,” the man repeated as he got down on the floor and wiped the area clean. Larry looked humiliated and he smiled to play it off.
“I’m sorry baby, I got caught up. Where do you need me to be?” He asked her sweetly.
“Don’t interrupt me while I’m talking. I know you got laid off and it’s hard for you to understand when you should be quiet but try to remember that it’s my business that provides for us. So, it’s important that my neck stay intact,” she rolled her eyes at him.
“As for you, do your job. If this happens again the mayor will know about it,” she told the staff member.
“Stay close to me and smile people are looking,” she said to Larry over her shoulder as she walked away before he could get another word in.
After all of this time of obsessing over his new wife from afar, I had finally found her flaw, she was a cold bitch.
Her beauty was only skin deep.
My heart broke for him as I tried to convince myself that he had to lie in the bed that he made.
“Thank you for getting up my mess. I’m sorry about that.” I told the staff member as he stood to his feet. I pulled a $20 bill from my clutch and slipped it between his fingers.
“Oh no ma’am, we don’t work for tips,” the man said as he shook his head and looked around worried that he would get into trouble.
“I won’t tell if you won’t.” I winked my eye at him and walked away before he could return the money.
A few seconds later, hands wrapped around my waist, I looked quickly over my shoulder, and it was Co.
“I know you are having the time of your life at this party, but would it be ok if we have one more dance and dip. I’m sick of smiling in front of your boss’s fake ass friends,” he whispered in my ear.
