The Ex-Factor: A Dish Best Served

soft, charming mask she wore for the world s

d, her voice a little sharper. "It'

at this table. There was Chloe and Chad, and t

selling my grandfather' s old watch to buy her a birthday purse she saw in a magazine. Me, canceling a job interview with a top tech firm because she said she felt

Chad. She said he was controlling, that he didn't appreciate her. I believed her. I became her rescuer, her confidant, the "nice guy" who would tre

fee shop. A phone call that sent her running into the other room. Each time, she had an excuse. "We're just friends." "He needs my advic

he said. It meant late nights at his apartment, weekends away at "confere

e way he looked at her, the way she leaned into him.

on. And I was done. The years of being second best, of being the safe choice, of being a conven