My Husband Laughed at the Anniversary Dinner I Spe…

He said it like “twenty” was a disease I hadn’t grown out of yet. Around the table, the other three couples shifted in their seats.

Gerald, his boss, cleared his throat in that managerial way that said he’d really rather be anywhere else. Gerald’s wife, Maryanne, studied her empty plate as if the pattern on the china had suddenly become the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. Todd smirked into his whiskey.

Of course Todd smirked. Todd always smirked. He was Derek’s buddy from the sales floor, the kind of man who bragged loudly about “crushing numbers” and quietly about “crushing it at the strip club,” thinking he was clever on both counts.

His girlfriend Ashley, twenty-six and gorgeous in a sharp, polished way I never had been at that age, hid a smile behind her hand. I saw it anyway. The table looked exactly the way I’d planned.