The Invitation

Three days before, I had mailed out the letter to Ron. Yeah, it had been therapeutic for me to write it down, and I probably shouldn't have mailed it, but he was my nemesis after all.

We were sitting in the pew and he must have heard I was there. I saw him looking around for me. We caught eyes and he headed toward me, I'm sure so he could gloat.

As he walked up he saw my date and nearly stumbled. Sabrena was so extraordinary that he knew the best man had won.

Later as he stood up front, ready to take the plunge, he had a look on his face that said, "Am I making a mistake?"

Epilogue

That next year Shayna had gotten married and I had walked her down the aisle, a proud father. Jill was there also, of course, but not Ron. They were in the process of divorce. They hadn't even made it a year. I guess the day to day grind had hit and the bloom was off the rose. He must have looked and saw 30 or more years of living with this woman, and decided that it wasn't what he thought it would be.

The excitement is in the competition. Once you have the "trophy" it just sits there and collects dust.

Jill took it hard, and even told me she had made a mistake, given up a quarter century of love and caring for a pipe dream.

"He just kept finding fault with everything I did. Nothing was right or good enough. He even made me get surgery to try to firm up my breasts and take that mole off. It just seemed like he was never happy. Kurt, I'm sorry. Is there any way I could make it up to you and we could start over?"

She obviously hadn't heard, and obviously Shayna hadn't told her, that Sabrena and I were getting married that next month. I hadn't sent her an invitation. I no longer had the need to be vindictive.

Did I feel sorry for her?... No, she made her bed, she had to lie in it.

Just because I shoveled a little shit into that bed doesn't mean she didn't deserve it.