After thirteen years of marriage and two daughters, Max left his wife for Claire, his personal trainer, telling her that she no longer looked the way he wanted. When he later invited her to his wedding and pointed out that she had a +1, she decided to attend for their daughters and asked her coworker and close friend Edward to pretend to be her boyfriend.<\/p>\n
At the wedding, Max was surprised to see them together but responded by mocking her and questioning whether she had paid Edward to attend. Edward remained calm and gave Max a gift containing an oversized pair of trousers from his own past. He explained that the narrator had once helped him realize he did not need to change his body to deserve happiness.<\/p>\n
Edward later revealed that he had agreed to the arrangement partly because he wanted her to understand that she had nothing to prove to Max. When her daughter overheard Max\u2019s comment and asked why she had pretended Edward was her boyfriend, she admitted that she wanted her father to believe someone wanted her. Her daughter\u2019s response\u2014that they already wanted her there\u2014meant more than anything else.<\/p>\n
As she left with her daughters, Max still seemed interested in whether Edward would remain in her life. She chose not to answer and walked away. Looking at her reflection in the car window, she realized she no longer wanted to judge herself through Max\u2019s eyes. For the first time, she simply saw herself as she was and chose to move forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After thirteen years of marriage and two daughters, Max left his wife for Claire, his personal trainer, telling her that she no longer looked the way he… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t