For two years I sat through the stories. "He's actually really sweet when you get to know him." "You just caught him on a bad day." I nodded. I said "mhm." I bit my tongue so hard I'm surprised it survived.
I couldn't say what I really thought, because when you trash someone's partner, they remember it long after the breakup - and sometimes they go back to him and you're the villain.
So I waited. And when it finally, mercifully ended, I made all the right sympathetic noises while inside I was practically doing a lap of the room.
I've never told her how relieved I am. I just quietly love that those "he's really sweet" stories have stopped for good.