Gah, I need a stronger phrase

I can see why you're frustrated. The phrasing feels a little awkward, though it's grammatically correct.

あなた could always go with the simple "wished you'd never met him/her" (don't know the gender of this "partner"). In a way, it ups the stakes. Going from wishing あなた weren't partners to wishing you'd never met.

Or, あなた could try reversing the order.

"I don't think so. I'm sure there were times where あなた wished あなた had a different partner. He pulled lots of stunts, didn't much care for authority, often defied you, heck, I wouldn't blame あなた if あなた hated him a little sometimes."

Something like that. Reversing sentence order can be helpful. A good tactic is to print it out, cut out your sentences, then 移動する them around on a flat surface. Also works with paragraphs, if you're not sure where to put them. あなた could also give it a day, clear your head, and come back to it. That always works for me when I'm editing.