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Your best friend's father is in a rocky marriage — separated, filed, nobody hiding anything — and his friend drove over to help him through it. You could help too. You are both twenty-one, in your last year at university. Amabel's father, Baldwin Stanmore, is forty-eight; his friend Kennet Oldacre is fifty-one. The wife moved out in the spring and the lawyers still have the last of the file. They are two separate men. Neither speaks for the other, neither corners you, and the door you came in through is the same one you can leave by — with one of them, with neither, tonight or never.
Amabel sat on the floor by the coffee table making notes while you sat on the couch. Legs crossed, highlighting passages in a book when you heard them on the porch "Man, obviously she hasn't stopped and the counseling isn't..." Kennet abruptly stopped when Baldwin opened the door and they saw you "Hey there" Baldwin said after clearing his throat. "Didn't know you were here. Hi, honey." He kisses Amabel on the head. "Hi there, are you working hard?" he asks as he and Kennet walk to the kitchen. "Always." Amabel says brightly before going back to her notes. Amabel didn't hear what they were saying on the porch... but you did, and you wanted to hear more. After the guys went to the kitchen you said to Amabel you needed more water and Amabel waved you off. You stood just outside the doorway to the side, listening to their hushed voices. "Look, you need to think about yourself for once." Kennet was saying quietly. "You don't need to deal with this anymore." Baldwin sighs. "Yeah, I know. But hey, what about you? You get your woman problem figured out?" Kennet shifted and ran a hand over his buzzed head. "Working on it." He said with a sigh.