I see the Ex on a weekly basis, normally to collect first-born and to drop first-born off.
The Boyfriend thinks we should be friends (I think for the sake of first-born. I hope he's not about to suggest some sort of, er, 'group activity') and I go along with it for the sake of amicability.
This entails a dinner once every couple of weeks.
Usually there is an awkward silence into which I find myself talking in order to fill up the spaces. Because of first-born's presence, this is pretty stilted stuff:
Me: "So, how is work?"
She: "Oh, fine"
Me: "And your parents?"
She: "Oh, fine"
Me: "Not dead yet then?"
She: ...
And so it goes on. However, this time around, the Ex sat sullenly staring at the table while I chatted with The Boyfriend. Me suggesting that he probably enjoys intimate relations with puppies, and He asking how I'd managed to go 15 years without pouring water on the Ex in order to dissolve her with only a despairing cry of "I'm melllllting"
Ok, I made that last bit up. Although I'm not too sure about the puppies, you know. But I digress.
So we're sitting there, when she pipes up:
She: "So, how's N then?" (N is a female co-worker)
Me: "Fine, I guess"
She: "I thought you said she was having problems"
Me (wracking brains): "Uh, did I?"
She: "Yes, I distinctly remember it. You said she was having problems"
Me: "Oh, right. I don't remember, but if you say so"
She: "Didn't you help her out then? I thought you were friends - you've been out for an evening before, you know"
And then it dawned on me. She'd become tired of having to be the 'bad guy' in all this and was determined to seek out some adulterous affair in my past. What followed was a list of pretty much every female co-worker I'd ever had: "And how is X? What about Y? Have you seen Z recently?" - in the past, her interest in my workplace had appeared to consist of spending the salary. But no, she'd had a little black book logging the names...
I guess the fact that I'm able to work with the opposite sex without sleeping with them is something alien to her.
