Well I ended up working the day after thanksgiving... not so bad, I worked a little, mostly worked on getting through the day, but not really much more than that. When I got back to my truck at the end of the shift I had a text from a friend asking for help rearranging her living room, since her husband was at work and wouldn't be home until late. No big deal I've helped them out like this before, and I have other married friends that I lend a hand to from time to time in the same way, after we finished getting the layout how she wanted it she insisted on feeding me to say thanks you, and we sat down to watch a movie to make sure the TV and all its accessories were properly setup and working the way we wanted them to. As the movie was winding down her husband finally gets home from work, "Hey man, how was work?" "Good... wow... this looks weird," was the response to the questions and the new layout. Which got a snappy reply from her, so now I'm starting to realize that this may end up being a long night. As the evening progresses she gets more snappy, and he gets less responsive, until he isn't talking and neither is she, and I finally take him out side and have a talk with him. One of those talks that starts with, "Whats going on man?" "Not much." "You misunderstood the question. Whats going on man?" He gives me a long pause as he takes the time to think about his next words, takes a deep breath, and starts talking with me... sorry folks, any further details of this conversation are between me and them. After he and I finished it was her turn to have the outside chat with me, this one started with, "Whats going on sweet heart?" "What do you mean?" "Whats going on?" "In what context?" I pause for a few seconds, look her in the eye and ask, "Whats going on?" from that point on she was crying into my chest for the whole conversation, while we went over all the same points he and I had just covered, but from the perspective she needed to hear and see. When we were done I walked her back inside, gathered my coat and headed out, reminding them both of the "assignments" I had given them in our conversations (apologize to each other for their behavior for the night) without telling them in precise words, and that they needed to mean it not just follow through hollowly.
Now it's to the point where all I can do is wait to see how far my words sunk in with them both, but the thing that occurred to me on my drive home, and struck me with a bite of, "What the Fuck?" was that I, as a single guy, am giving relationship advice to my married friends... What the hell is this world coming to??? And why the hell can't I find and make a relationship work when I'm sitting here telling these two what parts of their ass they each need to pull their heads out of?