I Was Heartbroken When I Accidentally Found Out Why My Husband Stopped Inviting Me to Dinners With His Friends\n
Mandy and Jack\u2019s marriage is carefree and childless \u2014 exactly the way they want it. They spend a lot of time with Jack\u2019s childhood friend group, going on group dates and adventures. But then Mandy realizes that Jack has been keeping her away from events. Who or what is the reason? Find out more\u2026In the nine years that Jack and I have been together, our marriage had been the kind of story that you\u2019d recount with a smile, filled with love, shared dreams, and tons of adventures.But about three months ago, things started to feel a little different.Before that, we always attended events together \u2014 whether they were work events or other events planned by his group of friends. Jack and his friends had been together since before we were married,\n
them having all been on the same football team since high school.Recently, Jack had been making up a lot of excuses about leaving me at home when he went for these events.\u201dIt\u2019s just the guys, Mandy,\u201d he would retort while getting dressed. \u201cDo you really want to sit around in their company without the wives?\u201dTo be fair \u2014 that sounded horrible. As much as the friend group had become our second family, I knew that a night with only the men would mean drinking, wings, cards, and maybe the occasional cigar.\n
Without the wives, it wasn\u2019t the best way to occupy my time.So, I thought that there was truth to Jack\u2019s story. Most of the couples had children anyway, so I also knew that the wives would have been busy with them.But then, I went to the grocery store and ran into Kevin\u2019s wife \u2014 Kevin was one of Jack\u2019s oldest friends, and we used to see him and his wife, Marcia, all the time. Until they had twins and we had to just meet at the group events.\u201dMandy!\u201d she said, hugging me tightly from behind. \u201cAre you alright, dear?\u201d\u201dI\u2019m fine,\u201d I said, smiling at the twin toddlers who were sitting in her shopping cart. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen you in ages!\u201d\u201dWell, yes,\u201d Marcia said,frowning slightly. \u201cJack told us that you two were trying for a baby, and that you were taking hormonal shots. I didn\u2019t know that you were going through In Vitro Fertilization! I would have sat you down first, you know that\u2019s how we ended up with the twins.\u201dMy jaw dropped. I didn\u2019t know what to tell the woman standing in front of me. \n
Why did Jack lie?\u201dHow are you handling the shots now?\u201d she asked, looking concerned.\u201dIt took a while for my body to adjust,\u201d I said, lying through my teeth.\u201dI hope this means that we\u2019ll see you for the next dinner!\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve missed having you around as my silent judging partner of all the other women.\u201dNext dinner? I thought. What else had I missedYou should have seen some of the outfits that the other wives wore during the poker night two weeks ago!\u201d Marcia exclaimed, chuckling. \u201cI was going to call you later that night and tell you everything, but something must have come up.\u201dI smiled at her. As upset as I was feeling, I realized that this was Jack\u2019s doing \u2014 whatever Marcia told me was because she had been fed it by Jack.\u201dSo, you\u2019re feeling good? All things IVF included?\u201d she asked while picking bananas.\u201dYes,\u201d I said. \u201cI think my body just needed a minute to catch up.\u201dI had no idea if anything I said made sense because I didn\u2019t know much about IVF.I also didn\u2019t know why my husband was lying about it.\n
I couldn\u2019t understand if it was his way of saying that he finally wanted children. But that made no sense. Why would Jack tell his friends that we were trying for a baby?\u201dHe just doesn\u2019t want you there,\u201d I said aloud as I walked to the cashier.The drive home was a blur, tears streaming down my face as I wondered what was really going on. I simply couldn\u2019t comprehend any of it.I sat on the living room couch and tried to think of all the reasons why my husband wouldn\u2019t want me there.Was he taking someone else? \u2014 But that would be too risky. He knew that he would get caught red-handed. One of the wives would have let it slip.Surely, they would have. decided to play detective and see what was really going on.Sitting down with my laptop, I accessed Jack\u2019s and my joint calendar \u2014 usually whenever the group planned anything, the invites went straight to that. And there it was, an invite to a dinner for the following Friday evening, explicitly stating \u201cwives included\u201d.I assumed that Jack had been deleting the previous invites that he had attended by himself.I saw that the RSVP hadn\u2019t been done yet, so I RSVP\u2019d for us both, and then removed it from our calendar.The night of the dinner, I presented it as a surprise for Jack.\u201dDate night, my love,\u201d I said, getting dressed and doing my makeup.\u201dFancy dinner?\u201d he asked, eyeing my clothing.\u201dYes! We don\u2019t usually dress up. So, let\u2019s just do it. Take some photos, enjoy the evening.\u201d\n
I didn\u2019t tell Jack where we were going, I just directed him as we drove \u2014 his brows furrowing in confusion.My husband\u2019s confusion morphed into shock as we arrived at the restaurant \u2014 greeted by an uneasy silence from our friends.But it turned out that the shock was mine to bear.There, sitting among the familiar faces, was Jack\u2019s ex-girlfriend, Sasha, not simply in attendance, but as the new bride of one of his closest friends.The dinner passed in a blur of strained conversation and awkward glances. While I dug into my salmon, my stomach churned with the odd looks that Sasha threw my way. And Jack\u2019s.\n
Whenever she spoke, she directed the conversation to him specifically.I didn\u2019t know what to think. Yes, Sasha was there as a wife to one of the guys, but why had Jack kept it a secret from me for all this time? There was nothing wrong with her being in the group because as a wife, she had every right to be there.But why would Jack hide the truth from me? My mind went in all directions, including the fact that my husband might be having an affair with his ex-girlfriend.The drive home was heavy with the anticipation of the truth \u2014 from both ends. Jack wanted the truth from me about how we ended up at the dinner. \n
And I wanted the truth about why he had been keeping me out of the loop. Not to mention the truth about the whole IVF scenario.\u201dMandy,\u201d he said slowly, as if choosing his words very carefully.Sasha joined the group recently. She and Mark recently got married \u2014 well, registered at the city hall. So, she\u2019s back,\u201d he said.\u201dWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d I asked.\u201dBecause Sasha told me that it would be better to have you two separated from the events. Remember the last time you saw each other?\u201d he asked.The last time we saw each other, Sasha had tried to trip me at a wedding rehearsal dinner. She was that petty.My silence allowed Jack to continue.\u201dShe said that it made more sense for her to be a part of the group because she was in school with the rest of us, too.\u201dWhich was when they dated.I don\u2019t understand why you couldn\u2019t have just told me that, Jack,\u201d I said. \u201cWhy would you just allow her to choose? And anyway, most of the wives were not in school with your group of friends, but we\u2019ve gotten close to each other.\u201dJack remained silent, clenching the steering wheel.You should have told me first. \n
You should have let me decide if I wanted to be exposed to Sasha and her pettiness or not.\u201d\u201dI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he mumbled.Or is there something else going on?\u201d I asked. \u201cYou and Sasha\u2014\u201dHe stopped me before I could even finish my sentence.\u201dNo! Mandy, no! It\u2019s definitely not like that,\u201d he exclaimed.When we got home, I washed my face and found Jack in the kitchen making me a cup of green tea \u2014 my routine before bed\u201dI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he repeated.We have something else to talk about,\u201d I said.\u201dYeah?\u201d he asked, sipping his own tea.\u201dWhy did you tell Marcia about IVF?\u201d I asked. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI heard something about it on the radio, and when I saw them all and they asked about you, it just came out of my mouth.\u201d I couldn\u2019t help but giggle at his reply \u201cThere\u2019s nothing more to the story?\u201d I asked, wanting to be sure about the question of children. While Jack and I had spoken about it hundreds of times, we had both decided that we liked our lives exactly the way it was. But we also settled on the fact that should we decide to be parents later on, we would adopt a baby. \u201cNo,\u201d Jack smiled. \u201cWe\u2019re still on the same page.\u201d That night I went to bed thinking about everything that had been confessed. \n
I understood why Jack had wanted to protect me from Sasha \u2014 she was a strange woman who loved to taunt me whenever our paths crossed. I couldn\u2019t understand why because she had broken up with Jack over the fact that, at the time, he knew he didn\u2019t want children \u2014 biological, adopted, or even pets. \u201cIt was a big deal for her, Mandy,\u201d he said when we had the initial conversation about our exes. \u201cShe always wanted to be a mom.\u201d But even as I lay in bed, I wondered what would happen at the next event \u2014 Jack had promised not to hide anything from me. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure Marcia will tell you anyway,\u201d he chuckled. \u201cDid you see how excited she was to see you?\u201d The only thing left to figure out is Jack\u2019s IVF lie \u2014 I don\u2019t know how to navigate that one.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I Was Heartbroken When I Accidentally Found Out Why My Husband Stopped Inviting Me to Dinners With His Friends Mandy and Jack\u2019s marriage is carefree and childless \u2014 exactly the way they want it. They spend a lot of time with Jack\u2019s childhood friend group, going on group dates and adventures. But then Mandy realizes\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":75194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-75191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-story"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/38.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}