The Bartered Bride

Fellow blogger Vicky Emerson wrote a piece last week about her ex remarrying. I found a great deal of amusement in this, as my ex has also remarried. I've also heard stories from friends with remarried exes. While none of this is shocking — people marry and remarry all the time — I can't help but notice a few things in the re-telling:

1. The ex can't seem to spread the news fast enough — almost as if to gloat.
2. Oftentimes, the male remarries first — not all the time, but often enough to detect a trend.
3. Usually this new marriage happens soon after the divorce.

I found out that my ex remarried through my ex-mother-in-law. We kept up correspondence for a while after the split. I thought she was a genuinely nice person, but I soon found out that she was merely pumping me for information to feed to her son.

Whatever.

The news came to me on December 23, 2003. The calendar year was drawing to a close, and I was a few days away from taking my first trip out of the country. I was feeling pretty good about life.

The conversation was pretty typical for the season, all the normal holiday talk: plans, how's the family, etc. There was nothing unusual in this conversation, until she dropped the bomb. "Ken's remarried. His wedding was last month" she said, almost too eagerly.

"Good for him," was my initial response. Inside I was fuming...