"Okay, well come in. I have someone I want to introduce you to." She stepped back and noticed a couple behind them. "Hi, you must be Mom and Dad's friends." She smiled.
It was unusual that her parents had invited friends, but then this party was for everyone who didn't have a place to go on Valentine's Day. It was such a weird holiday and extremely lonely for many people. So Mari had adopted a more-is-merrier attitude.
The elegant woman was familiar, but it took Mari a moment to place her. "Mrs. Sangle?"
"Hello, Mari. Your home is beautiful," she said as she stepped over the threshold. Mrs. Sangle had lived down the street from her family for as long as she could remember. Her husband had died last year, and Mom and Dad had been looking out for her.
"Thank you. It's good to see you," she said.
The man next to Mrs. Sangle held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Joe Heely. I'm a...friend."
"Nice to meet you." She gestured for him to come inside. He was tall with thick white hair. He seemed very distinguished.
"I'm so glad you're all here. This is my friend, Lieutenant Brody Williams." She knew she was grinning like a silly schoolgirl as she introduced him. "He's been helping me with the house. I could not have finished it without him."
They all shook hands, and then there was an awkward silence. "Let's go into the family room. It's at the back of the house. It's larger than these front rooms, so I thought it'd be best for us to hang out there until dinner."
"Um," her mother said. "That's great, honey. Is there a place that your father and I can speak to you privately? Just for a few minutes?"
They glanced at one another nervously. What the heck was going on? She'd never seen them act like this before.
"Sure. Brody, can you take Mr. Heely and Mrs. Sangle back to the kitchen? Get them a drink. And the cold appetizers are on the second shelf, if you could go ahead and set those out." She handed him the flowers her dad had given her. "And there's a glass vase in the china cabinet that will work for these. You can just put them on the breakfast bar."
"Got it," he said as he gave her a quick smile. "Folks, follow me."
He led them down the hallway. Her parents stayed behind. "What's going on?" she said quickly.
"Is there some place with a door?" her mother asked. What an odd request.
"My office?" She motioned for them to follow her. Now she was really nervous. Was one of them ill? Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked them away. She wouldn't borrow trouble.
Mari leaned on the edge of the desk and her parents sat on the sofa.
"We've been trying to get in touch with you for several months," her mother said. "But you've been so busy we haven't managed more than a three-or four-minute conversation."
Mari blew out a breath. They were going to lecture her about being a bad daughter. She deserved it.
"Yeah. Sorry. After the breakup, I just needed some time. You guys always seem to have it so together in the relationship department. It's tough when I can't seem to get it right."
"We're divorced," her father blurted.
Mari's hand slipped off the desk and if she hadn't been perched on the edge she would have fallen. "What?" she squeaked.
"Last year, actually. Very amicable," her mother said. She grabbed her father's hand. "We're still the best of friends and love each other dearly. But we haven't been in love for a long time."
This was some weird nightmare. A. Horrible. Horrible. Nightmare.
Wake up, Mari.
"I can see this is a bit of a shock," her father said. "We didn't want to spring it on you tonight, but there was never a good time. And we've been with our new partners for a while now, and we wanted them to meet you."
Her parents were divorced. How did this happen? She'd spent her entire life admiring their deep love. And here they weren't in love anymore.
She sniffed. "But if you love each other, you make it work," she said on a whisper. "You always told me that."
"We had, we still have a wonderful relationship based on trust and friendship. But for the last twenty years or so, neither of us has had the passion for one another that one should in a marriage," her mother said.
"Passion isn't what makes a marriage. How many times did you tell me that? When I came to you for advice and you said that a solid foundation isn't built on passion alone." Anger boiled deep in her gut. They'd lied to her. All of these years they hadn't been happy. Her whole life had been a lie.
"It isn't the main ingredient for a successful relationship," her dad said, "but it is a necessary one. For happiness, you need to be passionate about that other person."
Her parents were talking about passion? "Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I refuse to accept this. You two need to work it out. All marriages go through tough times. You told me that, too. You've never had a rough patch. Ever. And at the first hint of...maybe one of you is going through some kind of midlife crisis you just give up." Her voice rose. Never had she been this upset at her parents. Not even when they refused to let her date when she was sixteen. Not even when they refused to let her go to an out-of-state college even though she had a scholarship.
They'd always been protective and loving, sometimes to a fault. And now this. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Mari, watch your language," her mother said.
"Watch my language! I'm not twelve, Mom. You can't tell me to watch my language when you guys have been lying to me for this long. And now you're saying that your marriage was a sham? Really? Which means you've been lying for years!"
"Screaming never helps anything," her mom said. "And our marriage wasn't a sham. We've been talking about this and we didn't see the sense in hurting you and your sister, or breaking up the family unless we each found someone else. But we didn't."
"At least, not until last year. Your mom met Joe at one of her art classes. And Janet and I have been growing closer since her husband died. We decided that before we did something we would regret, we'd go ahead and divorce."
"Wait, so does Daisy know yet?" Her sister would have called her surely. No way she knew.
Her parents glanced at her. "Well, she was our mediator for the divorce. We asked her not to say anything to you until we had a chance to talk to you in person."
And they'd chosen tonight.
Oh, my god. My parents brought dates to my party.
"Those people out there? You introduced them to me-tonight? What is wrong with you? Do you have any idea how important this was for me? I can't believe you've done this on the one night when I needed you."
Mari twisted her hair around her finger. Disaster. "Listen to me. I have very important people coming tonight. Clients I'm trying to impress. You're not ruining this for me. You will go out there and pretend to be happy. You'll be the old you. Not these people I don't understand at all. If you ever loved me, you'll send those people home that you brought with you. I mean it."
She stormed out and slammed the door.
The doorbell rang.
Not now. She pasted on her everything-is-perfect face and met Brody at the front door.
"You okay? I heard yelling." He was so sweet. Tears threatened again. "Mari? Babe, what happened?"
She shook her head. She was going to show him what a wonderful loving relationship her parents had. What a joke. She sniffed and blinked several times. "I will be fine." After taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. "Let's just get through this."
She opened the door.
"Mr. and Mrs. Harker, so good to see you." Mari introduced the couple to Brody. "This is the couple I was telling you about. They want a redesign of their kitchen and dining area."
Brody shook hands and hung Mrs. Harker's jacket in the hall closet. The doorbell rang again. The handsome man on the doorstep had to be Brody's dad. He was an older version of the man she so cared about.
She held out her hand and shook his. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Mari."
"Ah, so you're Mari. No wonder my son is so enamored. You're a looker."
"Dad," Brody interrupted. "Stop hitting on my girlfriend." He put a protective arm around her.
His girlfriend. Nerves fluttered around her belly.
She'd waited weeks for him to mean that. But she wasn't sure he did now. It might still be an act. His CO was coming up the drive and Brody might have said it in case the other man heard.