My Imaginary Ex (COMPLETE)

Chapter 3

Coffee shop, present day

My mouth probably hung open for twenty seconds.

"Lena..." I said, wondering if she was kidding. "You're being silly."

No, she was not. She leaned forward, elbows on the table, looking very determined. "Absolutely not, Jas. You mean you don't know anything about Zack and Kimmy? Their relationship?"

Our friendship had stopped becoming a daily thing since college, especially when I got a boyfriend. We stayed in touch though, but we probably weren't as close as I thought. I found out about Kimmy the girlfriend after they had gotten together. Because he only really needed help that one time, and since then apparently had no trouble getting his own dates.

No need for sharing intimate details of anything. No need for new lies.

So I had gone from college partner-in-crime to sometime friend. He was there for me when I broke up with my boyfriend, but we didn't hang out regularly anymore. I wondered if he and his manager friends were too cool for me, but I never asked.

Such was our friendship. It never really lived up to its drama potential because we never exactly confronted each other about things.

"Kimmy is absolutely wrong for him," Lena declared. "And he's miserable, but he won't admit it."

"How do you know this?" I demanded. It annoyed me that she was telling me something about Zack's relationship that I didn't know. Lena! Of all people.

Lena lowered her voice and looked around furtively, remembering that we all worked in the same general area of Makati. "Well, I don't really have first-hand knowledge, but I have good sources. Why don't you know anything about this? A bunch of our college friends saw him in person recently, and they got to talk to him a little. Didn't he deliver your invite personally, like everyone else's?"

While Lena was essentially the same since college, I was different. In nine years, I had discovered how to move with some grace. I had joined the college choir. I had managed organizations and built up my confidence in dealing with people. But suddenly, it was like we were in line at the copier in school again.

"My invite was sent through the mail," I said. "I'm not sure what happened. I think we had a falling out."

Well, I wasn't completely sure until I got the invite, and yeah, that was it. At least I was invited, right? Like some college friend you never saw anymore. Like the past few years didn't—

What was it though?

What did I expect? I wasn't entitled to anything.

They probably didn't even really want me there. I took note of the RSVP info and the registry.

Like I'd even give them a gift.

"Well, that doesn't work." Lena shook her head, leaning back against her chair. "You can't cancel his wedding if you're not even on speaking terms."

"Why should I even do this? It's his choice if he wants to suffer. People marry people who are wrong for them all the time."

Yes, that was bitterness. I didn't know that he met up with college friends, while I got the invite sent so impersonally.

Lena didn't buy it. "Jas, you don't mean that. This is Zack we're talking about. Can you set aside whatever issues you have and think of what's best for him? I've been told that Kimmy is a manipulative, lying cheater, and always has been."

"Then why does he want to marry her?"

"I don't know, Jasmine. You studied psychology. Why does he keep having relationships with girls he isn't actually compatible with?"

"What do you think, Lena?"

She smiled slyly. She looked like she had been waiting to say this the entire evening. "Because he's never gotten over you, and he will deliberately get into doomed relationships until you finally realize you love him too and save him from himself."

I groaned. "I can't believe you're starting this again."

I wanted to say that she was wrong, that she couldn't be more wrong. Zack and I, I had to remind myself sometimes, were never together. There was nothing to "get over." There was no dramatic senior prom, no tearful "let's be friends" reconciliation during high school graduation. And if he really was in a doomed relationship then—his fault. I had nothing to do with it.

She was mistaken then, and mistaken now.