You're not exactly the best version of yourself after a breakup: You're crying all the time. It's a struggle to put on bottoms of the non-sweatpant variety. You may even be tempted to send a 2 a.m. "I want you back" text. Times are desperate and running into your ex is the last thing you want to happen.
But once you're back on your feet and feeling (and looking!) your best, it's clear why you'd want to see your ex again, especially if he or she was the one who initiated the breakup. After all, living well is the best revenge. On Sunday, Redditors on the Ask Women board shared their most satisfying post-split run-ins with their exes. Read 11 of the best anecdotes below.
1. The awkward (for him) date night run-in.
"I was out one night with my current fiancé and I walked inside to get another drink. My ex was sitting at a table with his new girlfriend near the bar and I waited until I was served and then looked about. I hadn't seen him in about two years, but it was a bit of a shock. He's put on a stack of weight, still trying to fit into a shirt that I bought him oh-so-long ago, bulging at the buttons and not in a good way. I was wearing a new dress that showed my body off spectacularly, and I turned to find him staring at me. I caught his current girlfriend looking at him, looking at me. I had to introduce myself, and wasn't aware at the time that they were going out. Right off the bat, she wasn't the most pleasant of people and she made it clear that I was not welcome, but he wouldn't let the conversation drop -- until my fiancé came in looking for me. My fiancé is tall, slender with glasses and wears a suit to work and this was a Friday afternoon. Next to him, my ex looked like garbage and knew it."
2. The classic hot ex-girlfriend encounter.
"Once I ran into an ex at a grocery store. I was having a particularly 'effortlessly hot' day with good skin and a perfect messy bun and some new clothes that accentuated my newly-sprouted birth control boobs, and I'd just come from my new fantastic score of a job. He had also gotten some of his shit together, and I'm genuinely happy for him because he's a good dude who just happened to be an inconsistent childish mess when I knew him, but he was in the checkout with a rotisserie chicken and wearing sweats and I thought to myself, 'I won that totally-not-a-showdown.'"
3. The "It's Dr." now run-in.
"After eight years of dating, she broke up with me in a frenzy saying that I was never going to get into medical school. Years down the road I ran into her as a doctor."
4. The baby bump reveal.
"My ex told me probably one of the most hurtful comments of my life due to the nature of our relationship. He told me, 'You would have been a great wife and a great mother. Hopefully somewhere down the line someone will want you.' When I saw him recently, I was pregnant and out with my husband buying a Playstation 4. He looked very surprised and then a little hurt. Good."
5. The biggest loser.
"My brother shared a college course recently with an ex of mine so this is a slightly vicarious story. When we were dating we were both on a big weight loss kick, but he would constantly give me negative feedback about my progress at the time when I was already pretty thin. (Only about fifteen pounds from my goal weight.) My brother informed me that my ex has put all of the weight that he lost back on while I have gone on to hit and maintain my goal weight for the past year. I celebrated a little in my head."
6. The food court reunion.
"I was at the mall with my current boyfriend, who has been my best friend for years (and my ex met him a few times). We were eating in the food court, laughing, being happy as we always are. My ex walked by -- he is now a mall cop."
7. The totally nonchalant party encounter.
"I invited a friend of mine to my birthday party, not realizing that she was dating my ex at the time. So he shows up, and I look good and have my new boyfriend there. It's my damn birthday party so I'm having fun. When the friend apologizes to me for bringing him, saying she wasn't thinking, I just say, 'Dude, so not a problem. Have fun!'"
8. The post-graduation powwow.
"I started speaking to my ex again very casually a couple of months ago. She had to repeat the last university year for a number of reasons -- mainly, she thought that she could pass her assignments without putting any actual work into them (she also thought I'd stay in our relationship when she was putting no work into it). Anyway, we spoke, and she was repeating the year and wasn't seeing anyone, while I'd graduated and was writing my thesis, and I'm currently engaged to an awesome lady who is the best person I know. It just made me feel really good about myself that the breakup she'd initiated (over text after two years together) had left her doing much worse than it had me."
9. The meet-up with mutual friends.
"On Saturday I looked awesome and was genuinely having a good, not-lonely time with the friends I'd been neglecting while I was dating my ex. We ran into each other and were able to sit at the same table with mutual friends and laugh and joke just like old times. Now I miss him badly as a friend, but I don't feel the same desperation to get back together with him as I did for the past month, and I think I may finally be 'over him.' Of course, it didn't hurt that he looked awful and I'd spent all evening being fawned over by everyone."
10. The add-me-on-LinkedIn request.
"I have an ex who is dying to get into the industry I work in. I'm never planning on speaking to this guy again. During the time we were dating I never saw him make a serious effort to get in there, even though he's pretty talented. Since I changed careers he's tried to add me on LinkedIn twice. Like yeah, sure, I'll just give you, a person I would not extinguish were you on fire, a leg up into the kind of job I worked my ass off to get."
11. The "look who's flying first class" shocker.
"I saw an ex of mine from a decade or so ago at an airport, as I was taking a flight home from an international work trip. He cheated on me, so I didn't really want to walk up and say hi. My flight boarded shortly after. International travel means business class, or first if no business is available. His face when he boarded the plane and saw me, happily sitting in first class with a bourbon in my hand, was priceless."
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