Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 01

Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 01

Seven years together, and my fiancé had never once brought me into that tight little circle of friends he always talked about.

I nagged him about it for months, and he finally gave in and took me along to meet them.

That night, everybody started playing a game where each person added the next line to the same story.

My fiancé, Ian Cole, opened it. “I’ve got one.”

His oldest friend jumped in fast. “A last-minute filler.”

Everyone at the table traded a look and smiled.

The next guy picked it up. “Pretty, but honestly not that bright.”

“Convenient. Never a favorite.”

“Decent, but she can’t take a joke.”

“Paranoid, which is why nobody invites her out.”

*****

Second-to-last was Ian’s first love, Chloe Warren.

Her cheeks went pink, and she added her line. “She was only there to fill my seat.”

In that second, everything became clear.

This circle I barely knew, the one I’d spent years trying to fit into,

had been using me as after-dinner entertainment the whole time.

The last turn was mine. I gave them a small smile and added my line.

“The ex.”

*****

When I finished, I stood up. “Excuse me.”

Behind me, the room burst out laughing. “See? Told you. She can’t take a joke.”

Ian froze for a second.

Then he came after me and caught my wrist.

“Everybody was joking around.”

“So you could tell they were joking about me?”

For that one second, I wanted him to tell me I was reading too much into it, more than I’ve ever wanted anything.

The woman in that story was oversensitive, dramatic, quick to sulk, and had no distinguishing features.

She didn’t have to be me.

But his eyes only went dark.

“Weren’t you the one who insisted on coming? You really can’t take anything?”

I paused, then pulled my hand out of his. “That’s on me for begging. It won’t happen again.”

His friends were still howling behind him.

Only Chloe kept her mouth shut.

I didn’t know her.

But her story had been hanging between Ian and me for years, half visible and never gone.

It was like a splinter in my throat that I couldn’t pull out and couldn’t swallow.

I chose not to look at it.

That was because I’d always believed the two of them had no contact offline.

Until that night, I hadn’t known that she was part of this little circle too.

That game had never been a joke.

And I wasn’t angry. I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.

They were still laughing when I walked out of the private room.

Jake Miller, Ian’s oldest friend, was the only face at that party I recognized.

He always called me the future Mrs. Cole, polite as anything.

Whenever Ian and I fought, Jake was the one who smoothed it over.

I’d thought he was at least neutral.

Now he was grinning and twisting the knife.

“I told you not to bring her.”

“Every holiday you and Chloe run off to try new restaurants and tell everyone you’re at my place. I’ve been covering for you for two years and it’s exhausting. We finally get one night to relax and you bring her in to ruin it?”

“With a personality like that, how is she supposed to handle the truth?”

Something cold went through me.

So the game hadn’t been random after all.

Every one of them had been waiting for this show without needing to say so.

Holidays?

How long had it been since I’d spent one with him?

It had been two years since the first Thanksgiving, and he told me he was “grabbing a couple of drinks with Jake.”

Which lined up exactly with Chloe coming back from overseas and starting to review restaurants online.

It had never been about a friendship between men. It was a woman waiting for him.

*****

I walked out of the club.

The early autumn wind went straight down my collar.

I took out my phone and deleted everything of his. The messages, the pinned chat, the notes, the photos.

Eight minutes went by, and my car hadn’t shown up.

He came outside to smoke.

When he saw me still standing there, he walked over.

“You think you’re eighteen? Waiting for me to come chasing after you?”

When I didn’t answer, he blew out a ring of smoke.

“Either come back inside or get yourself a cab, but don’t stand out here. Aren’t you cold?”

“We’ll wrap up early tonight and I’ll take you to that barbecue place you like. All right?”

He wasn’t a man who couldn’t back down in a relationship.

I’d only figured out that candy after a slap tastes bitter.

I looked up at him, and he might as well have been a stranger I’d met that day.

“I…”

The club door swung open, and a bright voice cut me off.

“Ian, what’s taking so long? Everybody’s waiting on you for the next round.”

It was the same voice that had said, “She was only there to fill my seat.”

Ian turned his head. “Be right there.”

And in that same second, my car pulled up in front of me.

I opened the door and got in.

Ian was turned around, talking to her.

He didn’t see me get into the car.

He didn’t notice that I wasn’t standing there anymore.

Chloe walked over and took his arm.

Under the neon, their shadows folded into one.

By the time he finally bothered to turn around, I’d already looked away.

“Let’s go,” I told the driver.