We'll Never Forget Ol' Whatshername
You may find this hard to understand, but I believe it is easier to be honest with the person you are divorced from, rather than the person you are married to.
The reason may be that you don’t want to hurt the feelings of the person you are married to, but the person you are divorced from, in most cases, those feelings can no longer be hurt.
I don’t mean the angry barbs that are tossed about between people that hate each other. No, I mean the funny barbs between people that still care about each other, but not above throwing in a dig now and again.
Basically, my entire divorce is an oxymoron.
For example, the following happened last Sunday.
My son Danny’s birthday was coming up, so Arlene, Dennis (forever fiance), drove to meet them for lunch. When I say drove, I mean, I was in the back seat of their car.
The conversation is mostly between Arlene and myself. Dennis tends to watch his phone, tracking the football games he was missing.
Finally, our conversation come around to a woman we both knew. I met this woman first, then Arlene through me
She told me how this woman (let’s just call her Whatshername) flirted with one of Arlene’s friend.
“I don’t think that means much,” I informed Arlene, “she flirts with everyone.”
Then I said, “You know, she even flirted with me.”
Without missing a beat, Arlene said, “No, with my friend it was real,” then added, “because he’s really good looking.”
Wondered if she realized what she just said, so I waited for it to sink in.
Eventually, it sank.
“Oh,” Arlene looked at me in the rear view mirror, “I didn’t intentional say that to hurt your feelings.”
So, you unintentional said it to hurt my feelings.
Got it.
Then, as we continued to talk about Whatshername, Arlene said, “You know, good for her. She not a one-man-type-of-woman.”
Which is fine, until Arlene added, “Just like me.”
I waited a second, then said, “I wish you told me told that before we were married.”
