Only when we were out of immediate earshot did I hiss, “How do you know Adam and his bride?”
“Her name is Elise,” he said quietly. “We were together for four years and engaged for eight months. Then she started pulling away. She would go on work trips over the weekend, say she was busy, and hide things from me.”
I nodded because that was the same behavior change I saw in Adam when he was cheating on me.
“I later found out she’d been sleeping with a married man after finding their messages on her laptop. She was not even sorry,” Adrian sighed.
I recalled the feeling of finding out, and how painful it was for Adam not to choose me.
Adrian continued, “She bragged that the man was leaving an unhappy marriage and that once the divorce was final, they would get married. I ended things and moved out. I never knew the man’s name.”
My stomach dropped. “This whole time, it was Adam.”
He nodded. “When I walked in. I was surprised to see Elise. After our breakup, I have never bothered finding out what she is up to and whether they moved on with each other or not. So, I didn’t know they were the bride and groom, let alone that she was getting married.”
“Adm clearly knew who you were. He was shocked to see you here.”
“I saw the look on his face and knew that I had to accomplish what we came to do here. This has turned out to be not just your revenge but mine as well.”
I let out one short, disbelieving laugh.
“So we’re both here as revenge dates against the same affair.”
“Apparently.”
“Wow,” I said.
Adrian opened the car door for me. “This was an efficient casting.”
I actually smiled as I got in.
It was almost impressive how quickly Adam and Elise’s perfect day cracked open.
Adrian murmured as we drove away, “This is better than therapy.”
I agreed, because for the first time since my marriage ended, I had watched Adam create his own ruin without my help.
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.
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.
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.
