“Well, that’s an interesting expression. Your mother? Okay. She’s from another generation. But I’d have thought you were, well, a lot cooler about the ways of the world.”

“Charlie, I have nothing against your lifestyle. How you live is entirely your business.”

“Thank you,” he said, still giving me some self-righteous attitude. “Although I don’t need anyone’s permission.”

“But you should’ve told my sister the truth before you married her.”

“Maybe we should talk in the morning,” Leslie said. “Come on, I’ll walk you to the door.”

“So, I’m being thrown out into the night? Dismissed like an unwanted visitor?”

“Come on, Charlie,” Leslie said and took his arm. “We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”

I said, “Charlie?”

He turned back to me.

“It wasn’t a black-tie wedding. You’re, like, way overdressed.”

He shrugged his shoulders and left.

Well, it wasn’t black tie, I thought.

I poured myself a glass of wine and one for Leslie. She would need it. I took a long sip and sat down at the table, waiting for my sister. It was a few minutes before I heard the engine of Charlie’s rental car turn over. Leslie came into the room with her arms raised, looking at the ceiling in an expression of Why me, Lord?

“Do you believe this night?” she said, taking the glass.

“When Charlie showed up, I thought you were going to have to send someone to scrape my body up from the ground.”

“Yeah, he sure made an entrance.”

“The best part though, was the seagulls,” I said. We toasted. “Not one but four.”

“Agreed, but Charlie ran a close second.”

“For sure. Here’s what I don’t get. Why doesn’t he understand that you have your own feelings about his decision to be doing this?”

“You know what? I’d have to say because at the bottom of it all, he’s a man like all the rest of them. Part mule.”

“There’s just so much I don’t understand,” I said. “So much.”

“Yeah, look what you’re missing out on.” She paused for a moment. “Are you all right? I mean, about Archie getting married?”

“Of course not, but what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, at least you have the affection of his children. They’re such precious little boys. They were so cute in their blazers and neckties. Little men.”

“I know. It’s crazy, but I can’t wait to have them for a week.”

“Are they staying here?”

“No, I’m going over there. What are you going to do about Charlie?”

“I don’t know. I really do love him, you know? I keep telling myself he’s just going through a phase or something. But this seems beyond phase behavior.”

“Yeah, boy, in my expert opinion? It’s beyond phase.”