“…some of my friends\u2014especially Alex and the others\u2014think you\u2019re kind of, well\u2026 boring,” Jenna muttered, eyes avoiding mine. “Not in a bad way. Just not their scene. And I didn\u2019t want it to be awkward for you.”<\/p>\n
I felt like the ground slipped under me. Not their scene?<\/em> I wasn\u2019t flashy or rich enough for her party crowd? After eight years together, five of them married, I was now something to hide?<\/p>\n She continued before I could answer. “Easier for who?<\/em>” I asked. I wasn\u2019t yelling. I didn\u2019t need to. The pain in my voice cut through the noise around us.<\/p>\n Jenna sighed. “Lucas, this party wasn\u2019t about us. It was about letting loose. My friends\u2026 they judge, okay? They think we\u2019re mismatched. And I didn\u2019t want to hear any comments or feel embarrassed.”<\/p>\n My jaw tightened. “So instead of standing by me, you stood with them?”<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t answer. Her silence said everything.<\/p>\n I turned and walked out. I didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n When I got home, I sat at the kitchen table with the small box in front of me\u2014the one with the diamond earrings inside. A gift I thought would show her how much I cared, how much I saw her. But now, all I could see was what I\u2019d been too blind to acknowledge for too long:<\/p>\n She never truly saw me.<\/p>\n She wanted a provider, a status symbol, someone who could match her image in public. I wanted a partner.<\/p>\n And for the first time in years, I let myself ask the question I\u2019d been avoiding:<\/p>\n Was love ever enough when respect was missing?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “…some of my friends\u2014especially Alex and the others\u2014think you\u2019re kind of, well\u2026 boring,” Jenna muttered, eyes avoiding mine. “Not in a bad way. Just not their scene. And I didn\u2019t want it to be awkward for you.” I felt like the ground slipped under me. Not their scene? I wasn\u2019t flashy or rich enough for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4336,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions\/4336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
“And I didn\u2019t want you to feel out of place. I thought it\u2019d be easier to just not invite you\u2026”<\/p>\n