Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 09

Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 09

Marty turned his head and looked at him.

I remember you. You’re Faye’s ex.”

Ian’s face went white.

“Watch it. What ex?”

“She told me all about it. She said you played a game and played seven years right into the ground. What would you call that if not an ex?”

The guys behind him couldn’t hold their expressions.

Jake stepped up to cut in. “Doyle, take it easy.”

“Take it easy?” Marty laughed once. “I’m not the one who said it. She did.”

Ian raised his head and looked at him. “What else did she say?”

“Let me think.”

Marty tipped his head.

“When she handed this wedding over to me and my wife, she said, ‘It’s a nice room, so you two take

it. I won’t be needing it.“”
Jan’s throat moved, and his chest went heavy.

Wouldn’t she need it?

What was going through that woman’s head?

Seven years, and a one–week delay called for a reaction like this?

“Where is she? Where is she right now? You know.”

“Knowing doesn’t mean I’m telling you.”

“Doyle!”

Ian stood at the bottom of the steps with his mouth pressed into a line.

He waited two seconds, and his voice dropped. “Then give me her parents‘ contact information. Their address, anything.”

Marty looked at him like he didn’t understand the question.

“Excuse me?”

“You dated her for seven years and you have to ask me where her parents live?”

Ian stood there, and the sunlight showed every bit of the color gone from his face.

The guys were all watching him.

It was hard to say whether it was pity or embarrassment.

He wanted to explain that she always navigated when they drove there, that whenever he talked to

her parents, it was on her phone.

But all of it went thin before it left his mouth.

Seven years.

A man who cared would have learned it.

Marty looked at him and said nothing.

He left one line. “I’ve got guests to greet. If you can’t find her, it’s probably because you never

planned to.”

Then he turned, pushed the door open, and went inside.

The noise of the ballroom came pouring back out.

On the other side of that door, everything was bright and happy.