My new friend

I don't miss him anymore. Can you believe this?
She said this to me today over a cup of tea. Her name is Alice. I met her yesterday. She's from England. "25 years in America, and I'm still quite English. I utterly despise the way Americans eat. They cut everything with two hands, put the knife away and shove in. Absolutely unbearable! I think to myself, what if I had to live with someone who ate like this? John is British, of course"!
she is in her early-mid fifties, wears glasses and has thin, short,orange hair. She dresses like she doesn't really care that much. just a little bit.she is very energetic and friendly. She shoots hellos and smiles at people in the streets. She knows the names of the cook at the Business school, the mail man, the elevator operating manager..everyone. She knows when and where they vacationed last and what "usual" dish they like to eat on Thursdays.
Next to her I feel shy and quiet. I listen to her attentively.
She talks about her ex-husband of 30 years, John, with so much love and forgiveness, it's unbelievable. She says she is not going to ever have another relationship. Why, I asked. She answered: Because I married the only man I could ever love.
Then the British realism kicked in and she said, not to say there is only one person in the world, a soul mate or anything. I just can't have what I have with him with anyone else. 30 years of a great marriage, and 2 lovely daughters.
They met at 16 and got married very young...grew up together, literally.
"He left me for a younger woman. That simple. they say it's midlife crisis".
He had had an affair for 2 years. TWO years.. and then she found out. they tried to work it out and move beyond it, but..:
"one day, we woke up in our bed..I looked at him and said, John, you are leaving me today, aren't you? and he said, yes, on 22nd of October. He left on a business trip to Russia and never came back home. He got another house. He decided he liked her more than he liked me".
vaay.
The girl was a co-worker, a friend of hers actually.
Now in my mind, I keep thinking two years..two complete years of having been fooled.
She lost 60 pounds and didn't stop crying for a year.
"I cat-napped for 3 years after he left", she said. She couldn't sleep in the bed that used to be "theirs".

the beautiful thing about it is how fair she was when she told the story. She realized in a very realistic way how John had done her wrong. She was upset at him for that; very much so, actually. But she still knew how to love him.

"He has been really fair in our financial settlement. He wants to me to be well off. We settled everything with no court.. But he asked me to tell our daughters that I left him and then he met this woman so "our daughters wouldn't get hurt". It's amazing. He is a smart, very smart , and very successful man, but he acts like an 8 year old child when it comes to our relationship. He thinks by denying what happened, it would all go away. Familiar, ha?"

He wants to be friends with her now. He keeps visiting her They play scrabble. He doesn't want to let her go.(mind you, he doesn't want to let the other girl go, either).

Would you ever take him back, I asked? YES. she answered, with a smile and without a pause: because I'm stupid.