Marilyn gasped loudly and chastised her sister with a wag of her finger. “Don’t even say things like that! You’re going through a tough time, it’s not a big deal. Don’t just pack it in at the first sign of things getting tough. It’s an adjustment period is all.”

Peggy rolled her eyes, “You sound just like Nick.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nick asked as he walked back into the kitchen, only having caught Peggy’s previous statement. “I don’t understand why you’re being such a bitch to me this morning.”

“You don’t?” she laughed sarcastically, pulling on the end of the long brown ponytail that was slung over her shoulder as if to keep herself from lashing out at him. “You embarrassed me so much last night. I don’t know how I’m ever going to look my friends in the eye again. I can’t imagine what they think of you...and of me for being with you.”

Nick scoffed, crossing his long arms across his chest stubbornly. He had never been the person who cared what other people thought of him. If he let those kinds of things get to him he would have never made it in the entertainment industry. “Who gives a shit what they think? They can think whatever they want.”

“I give a shit! They’re my friends! You acted like an idiot last night.”

“I don’t even remember what happened last night! And don’t call me an idiot.”

“You just called me a bitch!”

“Whoa,” Marilyn interjected. “I’m stopping this right now. I’m not going to stand here while the two of you bicker like children.”

Both Nick and Peggy stared down at the kitchen island sheepishly, not wanting to look at each other and avoiding Marilyn’s authoritarian gaze at all costs.

“What’s really going on here? You need to talk about this like adults.”

“He can’t talk about anything like an adult,” Peggy complained. “All he knows how to do is argue. He turns everything into a fight. Like I told you last night, maybe we need to take a break.”

Nick scoffed loudly, laughing at the audacity of her statement. He would admit that he had a tendency to let himself get out of control when it came to arguments but she put just as much effort into each and every argument as he did. He always thought of it as both of them just being passionate people.

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” he said, annoyed. “You’re not perfect. You fight too.”

“All couples argue!” Marilyn cut in, letting out a small grunt of frustration at the pair. “No one expects you to be perfect, it’s natural that you would fight from time to time. If Allen and I learned anything in couple’s therapy years ago it’s that fighting is part of relationships, it’s how far you take it that makes the difference. Accept that you’re not going to see eye to eye on everything and compromise.”

Peggy looked at her sister in surprise. “You guys were in therapy? But... you have such an amazing relationship.”

“Yes,” Marilyn nodded. “Because we have worked really hard at making it amazing. If that means getting someone else to mediate to help us work through issues and learn how to be better together than so be it.”

“Elizabeth and I did that, too. That’s why I suggested we try and work on things after we fought last night. I know that these types of things work.” Nick commented and this time Peggy’s surprise was directed towards him.

“You went to therapy with her?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged nonchalantly. “It was during my... rough patch.”

“Your rough patch,” Peggy repeated with an edge of sarcasm. “You know what? Actually...nevermind. Forget it.”

“No, what were you going to say?” Marilyn asked. “You two need to start being honest with each other. About everything. That’s the only way you’re going to make this work. The reason you’re fighting is because there is clearly a lot going unsaid. Start saying it. Right here, right now.”

“In front of you guys?” Nick questioned skeptically. “You won’t judge?”

“Of course not, you’re family.” Allen cut in, reaching out to clap Nick’s shoulder.

Nick smiled slightly but on the inside he was doing a little happy dance. Not only had he found it difficult to get on the good sides of Peggy’s family members but it wasn’t that often that he was welcomed into people’s families and it felt good.

Allen smiled in return, “It’ll be better in front of us because we’ll keep you from picking up weapons.”

No one could resist chuckling at the joke, letting it break the ice and ease the tension in the room. Nick and Peggy both agreed to let the other couple be their mediator and Marilyn once again encouraged Peggy to let her boyfriend know exactly what she had been prepared to say.

The younger woman let out a heavy breath, calming her nerves. Turning to Nick she looked into his bloodshot, hungover eyes and mentally composed her words before she spoke. “You always refer to your rough patch as if it’s something that’s in the past, but you need to get real. You’re an alcoholic.”

Nick rolled his eyes. He had heard this story before. Peggy was not the first person to accuse him of abusing alcohol but they didn’t know anything about his tolerance for liquor. “I know my limits. My rough patch had nothing to do with alcohol. There’s a big difference between being an alcoholic and being a coke head. I was a coke head. Big difference.”

“It had everything to do with alcohol! You almost died!”

“You didn’t even know me then!”

Peggy sighed, this wasn’t exactly the way she wanted to tell her sister and brother-in-law about Nick’s shady past. Although, given how much time her father had spent on the internet reading every tabloid he could find she was positive that the news didn’t come as a shock to anyone in the room.

“I didn’t need to,” she sighed. “It’s been the same ever since we met. You say you shouldn’t drink because of your heart, because you don’t drink much anymore, or whatever other excuse. We go out... and it doesn’t matter where we go, Nick! We go for a nice dinner, we stay in, we go to a club, it doesn’t matter. You have one drink, your so-called “limit” and an hour later you’re guzzling vodka straight out of the bottle. Normal people don’t do that! Normal people nurse a drink for a while and maybe they get another one if they’re not driving or they switch to soda if they are. The designated driver is not supposed to end up standing half naked on a bar, dancing with a girl who looks like she sells 10-dollar blow jobs, chugging a fifth of vodka. People were taking pictures of you, they’re probably all over the internet.”

Nick leaned his elbows onto the kitchen island, running both hands through his hair anxiously. It was a stark realization to hear those words come out of Peggy’s mouth. He knew he had a problem but he thought he had been hiding it well enough. It was painful to know that he had not only been so obvious to everyone but it had been negatively affecting Peggy.

“I don’t care about the pictures,” he said, holding up a hand to silence his girlfriend when she went to interrupt. “I know, it’s not only about the pictures. I’m just saying I don’t care about what everyone else sees. I only care about you. I don’t remember a quarter of the shit I did last night but I’m sorry. I know I need to stop using alcohol to make myself feel better every time something doesn’t go my way. I know that. I’ll work on it, okay?”

“You need to do more than that,” Peggy sighed.

“I can’t give you more than that right now. All I can do it try.”

Awkward silence fell over the pair. Nick stared straight forward at the fridge that was covered in crayon drawings of sunny days and bubble letters, his fingers running absentmindedly over the beard on his chin. He could feel Peggy staring at the side of his face but he didn’t know what else to say to try and make her feel better. He wished he could go back and fix the night before but it had happened and, much like most of the things in his life that turned sour because of his own stupidity, he was now having to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Sensing that the conversation wasn’t going to go further on its own, Marilyn smiled and clapped both hands together. “Who wants coffee?”

“Sure,” Peggy nodded. “Milk for me, just black for him.”

“How do you know I wanted some?” Nick asked.

Peggy shrugged, “Because I know you.”

Not wanting his wife to do any work, Allen took the reins and fixed both cups of coffee before setting them in front of the other couple. The two of them looked pathetic, both of them with sad, dopey eyes, clearly trying to work through all of their issues internally.

“One thing we did in therapy was go back and forth telling each other things we’d never said. Rather than being passive aggressive and letting all the stupid, petty things drive you absolutely crazy we just came right out with it. Sometimes once you say it out loud these things seem totally ridiculous.”

Marilyn laughed and nodded in agreement, “Like when you said that me not pushing the toaster back against the wall after I’d used it was driving you crazy. I remember once you actually heard yourself say it the story was almost funny. How petty can it get when something as silly as moving the toaster two inches back is a cause for you to be upset?”

“So we just say things that bug us about each other?” Peggy wondered, unsure about whether she wanted to start this.

Allen confirmed with a nod, “You just have to go into it with the understanding that you can’t get mad. You can’t take this home with you. Once you’ve been honest that’s it. You deal with the issue if you need to but it doesn’t turn into something you hold onto forever. No hurt feelings are allowed to leave this room.”

“And it can be anything?” this time it was Nick asking for clarification and the older couple both gave them another nod.

The room returned to silence again, neither one confident enough to be the person who volunteered to go first. Reluctantly, feeling as though he owed it to her, Nick decided to be the one to bite the bullet. He turned to his girlfriend, taking a moment to look her over. She looked tired and sad and he hated that he was the one who had caused her that much grief.

“You’re messy,” he finally spoke. “I want to get another dresser because I can never find my stuff buried underneath all your unfolded, wrinkly clothes.”

“Then get another dresser. It’s just clothes.”

“I will, but I want you to clean up your side of the closet so I don’t feel like I live with a slob. That’s my closet too and I keep my side tidy.”

She agreed, silently wished that he had just told her all of this in the first place and suddenly the purpose of the exercise became abundantly clear. “Your mood swings... they make me dizzy. I never know from one moment to the next what kind of mood you’re going to be in. You go from being really cute and sweet to being a total dick when you don’t get your way. If you’re not going to be nice to me then you need to just leave the room or something because I’ve done the asshole-boyfriend thing before and it didn’t work out so great.”

Soon they felt comfortable enough to keep going back and forth on the issues that they believed to be big. Everything from Nick’s jealousy problems, to Peggy’s lack of love for the dogs and everything in between. Once they were on a roll it seemed impossible to stop but the issues quickly became more and more petty and just as they had been told, once they spoke them allowed they seemed ridiculous.

“I don’t really like showering with you,” Nick admitted. “You always wash me and it’s bizarre. I don’t really find it sexy when I just have to stand there while you scrub me down. It kind of feels like I’m showering with my mother.”

“So that’s why you never get hard in the shower?” Peggy asked in surprise. “I always just thought it was something about the water.”

“Water’s fine, I like water. I wouldn’t mind the shower so much if you just... cooled it with the loofa. I’ll make sure my balls are squeaky clean on my own time.”

Peggy couldn’t help but laugh. A piece of hair fell into Nick’s eyes and out of instinct she reached out and pushed it behind his ear, the two sharing a smile.

“You make me sleep in the wet spot.”

“No I don’t!”

“Yes you do,” she chuckled. “Every time we have sex you make a point of coming onto my side of the bed. Then once it’s all over you escape back to your side where it’s nice and dry and I’m left to sleep in the wet spot.”

“That’s gross, I’m sorry.”

Peggy shrugged and motioned for him to continue.

“You ask me questions during sports. Like... I’m trying to watch the game. If you want to know the rules of football or what the positions are then maybe you should Google it or something because when I’m watching the game I don’t want to talk.”

“I’m just trying to like the things you like.”

Nick smiled and took her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles. “You don’t have to like the things I like, babe. I watch your eyes glaze over every time I put football on tv and that’s fine. I’m not going to start asking you questions about Grey’s Anatomy while you’re trying to watch it. It’s okay if you don’t like football, or you don’t understand it, or whatever. I love you because you let me watch it and you sit through it even when you don’t have to.”

“I just get so caught up in trying to make you happy,” Peggy admitted sheepishly.

Nick leaned down and pressed his lips to the back of her hand. “You make me happy,” he said against her skin. “I’m moody and complicated. Don’t take it personally. I don’t want to lose you because I don’t always have my head on straight.”

“You won’t lose me. I’m sorry I called you an idiot. I don’t actually think that.”

“I’m sorry, too. For everything.”

Marilyn smiled behind the rim of her coffee cup, feeling somewhat responsible for the reconciliation she had just witnessed. With a small chuckle she thought of how much more economical their couple’s therapist was now that they had managed to get a two for one deal through passing on their knowledge.