My Husband Teased Me at a Pool Party, Saying I Wasn’t as Attractive as His Brother’s New Wife – So I Put Him in His Place, and He’ll Never Forget It

“Where else?”

Quietly, standing there in a stained top, I decided that whatever it took, I was going to walk out to that pool looking like the woman I remembered being.

***

Four a.m. came fast that Saturday.

I stood in the kitchen with a piping bag in one hand and a bottle warmer in the other. I was icing cupcakes while Onica dozed in the bouncer at my feet.

Carl was still asleep upstairs.

I was icing cupcakes.

***

By 9 a.m., I had strung lights around the patio, blown up an inflatable palm tree, dressed my son in tiny swim trunks, and taped a “Happy 40th” banner over the fence.

My husband wandered down an hour later and yawned.

“Wow, the place looks decent,” he said. “You didn’t overdo the cheesy stuff, right?”

“Just the right amount of cheesy,” I told him.

My husband wandered down.

***

Guests started arriving at noon.

Steve came in with a cooler on his shoulder. Alice walked in behind him, carrying a huge platter of fruit. She saw me and rushed over for a hug before I could even say hi.

“Nina, sit down. I mean it,” she whispered. “Let me hold Onica. Go eat something that isn’t a Goldfish cracker.”

I laughed, surprised.

“Let me hold Onica.”

“You sure?”

“Give me that baby,” my SIL said, already lifting Onica out of my arms.

I ate a deviled egg standing up like a raccoon.

***

Around two, I finally went upstairs, dug out the one swimsuit that still fit, and staredat myself in the mirror for a long time before pulling it on.

I told myself I looked fine. I’d made two humans.

I walked out to the pool with my head held high.

“Give me that baby.”

***

Everyone who knew how to swim was in the pool.

Steve was in the shallow end next to Carl, holding a beer he wasn’t drinking. Alice was sitting on a lounger with Onica asleep on her chest.

I stepped closer, and that’s when Carl burst out laughing. Loud. Ugly. Steve joined in before he saw my face. Then he stared down at the water as if he wished he were anywhere else on earth.

I froze.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

I stepped closer.

My husband wiped his eyes.