My Replacement Husband

My Replacement Husband (20) Diggy Diggy Diamond

Dedicated to AAAngel a Watty friend of mine! 

 "If you were me, what would you do?"

Yoona had invited me to dinner at her place, and I was always happy to have a delicious Korean meal and spend time with her rambunctious toddler. Mali had grown so fast, her curly black hair was a mop that covered her beautiful brown eyes.

Yoona added gochujang, a hot chili paste, into a bowl of simmering red tofu stew mixed with vegetables, mushrooms, onions, and prawns. It was one of the best dishes she made, and after she handed out our bowls of soup it was customary to crack a raw egg over it and let it cook in the heat of the broth. I was already watering at the mouth.

"Are you asking if I'm #TeamEvan or #TeamEthan?" she asked as I bounced Mali in my lap. She was peacefully sleeping after a long day at daycare.

"Gross," I groaned in response.

She laughed quietly to herself as she stirred.

"Jules, instead of asking why it should be Ethan or Evan, why don't we ask why not either of them first? Who says you have to pick A or B? Why not pick C - none of the above, try again? 'Thank u, next' them," Yoona mused.

"Ethan has been with me through so much," I sighed. "I loved him a lot. I still do love him, but recently he's been so...so finicky about everything. It's not all on him though, I know it's because I did a 180 on him."

"What about Evan?" she peppered.

"I will always have a soft spot for Evan," I said, almost surprising myself with how honest I was being. It felt strange to say out loud, but I knew that moving on didn't mean forever gone. "He hurt me though. He chose his career over me, which you encouraged by the way, and now even if...even if...I wanted to have feelings for him again, I'd be wary."

"I'd be wary too," she agreed. "Evan can be kind of a wild card."

"Ethan will be there for me," I said. "If I chose him, he would be by my side."

"I'm not saying you have to give Evan a second chance, but do you think that if you chose him, he wouldn't make the same choices he made almost half a decade ago?" she asked.

She slid over a bowl of steaming brown rice. "I mean, you're in the same position you were half a decade ago, boyfriend wants to go somewhere and he wants you to come with him. 21-year-old Julie would have already packed and shipped all her things across the country by now."

I shimmied Mila's sleeping body over to the couch. "I didn't do this that though."

"Case-in-point, J."

"You're just saying that because you're #TeamEvan," I scoffed after gently folding a fuzzy blanket over Mila.

"Hey!" she snorted. "I'll have you know I'm always #TeamJulie."

I gave her a side hug in response. "Thanks for dinner."

She grinned. "You're welcome."

I spooned some stew into my rice. "We don't know if Evan would make a different choice."

Yoona drummed her fingers on the table. "Hmm, if he did....is that the game-changer?"

I shoved almost scalding hot soup into my mouth to keep from answering. I hadn't thought too deeply about Evan, my mind was scattered.

"Do you think about what life would have been like if you stayed in Northwick?" Yoona asked as I chewed. "Would you be married with four little rugrats running around?"