Barb and Robert were sitting up straight at the table rather than slouched over their food like had been past practice. Each time they slouched, Max would point out that they should sit up straight. Barb was ready to kill. This had been the most humiliating week of her life. All of her friends acted sympathetic about having her cell phone taken away from her, but she knew she was a hot topic of texting.
That was just the beginning. Every night that week, she and Robert had helped their mother prepare dinner. Her father just wouldn't accept that it was the mother's job to cook. She wished that he would get a job so that things would return to normal. Having him around the house had really upset the status quo.
Marylou said, "After Barb washes the dishes, we're going to the movies so that your father can have a business meeting."
"What business meeting?" Barb asked.
"I'm looking at setting up a small business until I find a regular job," Max said.
"So you'll be out of the house more?" Barb asked.
"No. I'll be running it out of my office here at the house," Max said.
Barb said, "You should really get an office away from the house."
"No. I'm perfectly happy here," Max said with a smile.
"I'm not," Barb muttered.
"You don't like having your dear old dad around the house?" Max asked knowing the real answer to that question.
"It just isn't natural," Barb said. She knew better than to insult him. He was pretty good at twisting things around until she felt like pond scum. Her father smiled at her from across the table.
Robert asked, "What movie will we see?"
"I thought I'd let you choose," Marylou said.
She didn't care what they saw. She just didn't want to be around the house when that woman showed up. Listening to Maggie trash talk her husband with that other man had infuriated her.
"Action," Robert said.
"Romance," Barb countered.
Marylou said, "I kind of feel like a romance film."
"Yes," Barb said feeling like she'd finally won a small victory.
"You're always taking her side," Robert muttered.
Max said, "Robert!"
"What?" Robert asked.
"Think about it. Your mother is a woman. Of course she'd prefer a romantic movie over an action film," Max said. "She's not taking a side."
"Maybe so," Robert admitted grudgingly. It did make a certain amount of sense.
"You might want to keep that in mind when you're dating. Taking a girl to a romantic movie impresses her more than taking her to an action film," Max said.
"I didn't think about it like that," Robert said looking at his father with a little more respect.
It seemed to him that his father was always dropping little pieces of advice like that. Every time something like this came up, he would make a point of making a lesson out of it. He realized that his father worked things from a whole lot of angles.
"Barb," Max said.
"What?"
"Keep that in mind. When some guy gives you a choice, pick the action film. You'll be sending the message that his desires are important too," Max said.
"Like that matters," Barb said dismissively.
"It matters a lot. Guys talk. Girls can get reputations of being high maintenance real quick," Max said with a smile.
"So. I like it when a guy spends money on me," Barb said.
"High maintenance women attract assholes. You wouldn't want to date an asshole who treats you like dirt, would you?" Max asked.
"How is he treating me like dirt when he's spending money on me?" Barb answered. She had him there.
"He's probably dating another girl, too. Assholes tend to do that," Max said. "You'll just be one cow in his herd. Does that make you feel special?"
It infuriated her how he always turned things around like that. She answered, "No."
"So if you want a nice guy, then you have to pay attention to the guy's feelings and pocket book," Max said. "When your mother and I were dating, she used to order the cheapest item on the menu because she knew that I didn't have much money."
"You noticed," Marylou said with a smile.
"Of course I noticed," Max said. "That was one of the things I liked about you. I could tell that I was important to you."
"Gross," Barb said. "No sweet talk at the dinner table. I'm going to lose my appetite."
"You might want to listen to them. They're telling you something important," Robert said.
"Like what?" Barb asked.
"Like how to make the people around you feel special. God, you are a real bitch at times," Robert said.
"It isn't nice to call your sister a bitch," Max said.
Riding herd on those two was a full time job. If deciding which movie to see created so much discord, it was no wonder Marylou had given up fighting them on everything. Max felt that he owed her an apology.
"I'm sorry," Robert said sullenly.
Barb was giving Robert a look suggesting that he was dirt.
"That doesn't change the fact that your sister's attitude lacks empathy," Max said.
"What does that mean?" Barb asked indigently.
"It means that you don't give a damn about other people's feelings," Marylou answered.
"Dad's the one who lacks empathy!" Barb said.
"I don't know about that. I've found that your father is very considerate of other people's feelings," Marylou said.
"He just loves to stomp on my feelings," Barb said.
"No. He's just pointing out some areas where you need a little improvement in your social skills. If you find it hurts your feelings, it may be that you know you aren't being very nice and feel guilty about it," Marylou said.
"Why are you always turning things around so that it's my fault?" Barb asked.
Max said, "We're not assigning blame. We're just making observations about your behavior so that you can improve yourself. Consider it ... oh ... constructive criticism."
"I don't need improvement," Barb spat out.
"Sure you do. None of us are perfect," Max said. "I sometimes have a tendency to be a little heavy handed, as you've so rightly pointed out to me on numerous occasions. I've tried to temper my natural enthusiasm."
"You're not doing a very good job of it," Barb said.
"I would say that I'm doing a remarkable job. Instead of calling you a bitch, I merely point out that your behavior isn't very nice," Max said.
"You just called me a bitch," Barb said.
Max said, "I most definitely did not call you a bitch. You interpreted it that way."
"You implied it," Barb said.
"It was an example of what I could say and what I actually do say," Max said. "Sometimes people hear things that aren't said because they want to take offense. Is that the case here?"
Robert was watching the exchange with a smile.
Max asked, "Whats so funny, Robert?"
"I was just thinking that you're a lot smarter than I ever gave you credit for," Robert answered.
"Why do you say that?" Max asked.
"You're doing to her what you did to me at the hardware store," Robert said.
"What did I do at the hardware store?" Max asked.
"You turned everything that I did wrong into a lesson on how things should be done and why they should be done that way," Robert said. "You are doing the same thing to her. You're teaching her a lot of lessons, but I don't think she's listening."
Max glanced at Barb and then said, "She's listening. The next time some asshole treats her like dirt and gives her some little trinket, she'll look around and see that there are three other girls with similar trinkets. She won't feel so special and she'll remember this conversation. There will be an occasion or two when she'll draw upon her empathy to treat someone nice for a change because she's interested in him. She's learning."
"Okay," Robert said doubtfully.
"But it was a very good observation on your part," Max said.
"Thank you," Robert said.
Max said, "On that note, let me say that dinner tonight was much better than last night. You kids managed to get the salt right and the meat was cooked very to near perfection. It was very good."
"Thank you," Robert said.
"We're learning," Barb said.
"Who did the mashed potatoes?" Max asked.
"I did," Barb answered.
Max said, "They were great. Usually I put too much milk in them and not enough salt and pepper. Mine are usually too runny and bland. You got these right. Very good."
"Thank you," Barb said feeling proud.
At eight o'clock, Guy and Maggie arrived at the house. Maggie was dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase. Guy was dressed casually. Max let them in and took them to the dining room table to work. There was a computer set up on the table with the prototype of the knitting website running on it.
Maggie looked at the website and said, "Hey, that looks nice."
"Thanks. It's still a prototype."
"Prototype?" Maggie asked.
"It isn't the final product, but shows what the final product will be. We're waiting for the professional photographs and artwork to arrive," Max explained.
"So that is what you're doing," Maggie said looking at it.
"Yes," Max answered. "Try it out."
Maggie started clicking on various parts of the windows. She oohed and aahed when pages with articles and pictures showed up. There were blocks with little pictures indicating that was where the advertising would be. She was pretty impressed.
Max said, "When we are ready to go live, we'll have real advertising."
"This is great," Maggie said.
She was looking over a page that was showing different kinds of knitting needles. She had assumed that all knitting needles were the same. She was surprised to discover otherwise. There were straight needles, hoop needles, and cable needles. There were needles in all different lengths and diameters.
She clicked on the members only link. The first thing to catch her eye were videos showing how to do various knitting tasks. She watched one of the videos illustrating how to start knitting by doing something that was called casting on. She'd never heard the term before and was amazed by what she saw.
Maggie said, "I didn't know any of this stuff. I really like video selections in the members only section."
"Thank you," Max said. "My wife is putting that together a number of instructional videos with an elderly neighbor down the street."
"Where is your wife?" Maggie asked.
"She took the kids out. It's hard to have a business meeting with kids running around," Max answered.
"You're so right," Maggie said.
Ready to get to business, Guy said, "We have two copies of the contracts. One for you to keep and one for us."
"Excellent," Max said. "You did bring the checks?"
"Yes," Maggie said. She opened the briefcase and took out her check. She held it up for him to see.
"Excellent," Max said. "Let me look over the contracts and then we'll be done."
Guy leaned over and asked, "What do you think of the website?"
"I can see where you could get a couple hundred people signed up for this site. It is fascinating," Maggie said.
"I'm glad you think so," Guy said with a smile. He knew that she wouldn't like the website she was actually investing in.
Max said, "When we get that one rolled out, we're going to start on a woodworking site."
"That sounds real interesting," Guy said.
Max said, "There's a lot of potential there. I mean, you've got wood, tools, and projects that can be the subject matter of articles. There's a lot of material there. The hard thing is going to be organizing the site."
"I can see that," Guy said.
There were a lot of hobbies that people pursued and each of those hobbies could be the subject of a website. Guy felt that Max was pursuing a potential goldmine with this idea. The one thing that he liked the most about this opportunity was that Max and Marylou were working together to make it a reality. They were a team.
He glanced over at his wife thinking about how she had jumped on this opportunity without considering going after it as a partner with him. Of course, he was guilty of the same thing, but for good reason. He imagined she had her reasons that justified her behavior. He didn't know why she was doing what she was doing. The fact of the matter was that he didn't care to learn why at this point in time. It was a sad commentary on the state of his marriage.