Forget all that talk of Rat Boy Summer. Stop stocking up on corner-shop room odorizer for your Brat Girl one. There’s a hot, new season in town—and you should really get on board with it. Esteemed readers, let me welcome you to… The Get-Back-With-Your-Ex Summer! Yes, that’s right: three to four months (weather dependent) of hooking up with former flames and having a lovely time.
All the cool girls are doing it. And by “all the cool girls,” I mean Kendall Jenner. Kendall—who split from rapper Bad Bunny in December—has been seen loved up with her ex in both Puerto Rico and Paris. “It’s going well and they’re prioritizing spending time together as they figure it out,” a “friend” is reported to have said of the reunion. “It’s like they needed the break to miss each other enough,” another “insider” told the press.
Of course, Kendall’s not the only one at it. In June, Mary-Kate Olsen appeared to have a brief tryst (or, at least, a very friendly evening) with Sean Avery, a retired hockey player whom she was last linked to way back in 2007, when she was better known for her penchant for Skins eyeliner and really long beaded necklaces than her stunning knack for designing minimalist It-bags. (She’s now linked to PC Valmorbida.) Meanwhile, Cardi B basically announced on her socials that she’d hooked up with her ex-husband Offset at a New Year’s party. They were linked for months—until she revealed on Instagram that she’s single again.
Now, I can imagine you might have your doubts about Get-Back-With-Your-Ex Summer. That’s fair. On the surface, one might think it’s a terrible idea, a trend that could lead to serious heartbreak (or, at least, to your friends resenting you for inviting some loser from 2015 back into the WhatsApp group). Maybe you’re sitting at home reading this and thinking: Are you seriously suggesting we all make some very high-risk romantic decisions just because Page Six thinks Kendall Jenner is? And my answer to that is: yes. Winter is for thinking about stability and the future; summer is for silly decisions and shagging. This is the moment to get back in touch with anyone whose last name is listed in your phone as “Tinder.”
Of course, there’s an elephant in the room. Good luck to our girl Kendall, but resuscitated relationships are, statistically speaking, not necessarily destined for success. A (somewhat dubious) survey told me that 40 to 50% of us will get back with an ex in our lifetimes, and most of those reunions will not work out. (I even wrote a piece a couple of weeks ago about how easy it is for us to fall for “it was always him” thinking. Bad!) But don’t worry about all that. Frankly, 70% of all relationships don’t last a year, so it’s not like you’ve got a statistically high chance of any relationship working out, really. Might as well just have a laugh and see where things go.