tedwords

Some of you may recall a story I posted back in December about my friend Pauline's new boyfriend, Bombastic Ben. He spent one evening berating me for daring to suggestion that Christmas trees may have pagan origins.

Things have been pretty quiet since then. We saw Ben at our annual Skanky Swap New Year's eve party, and he was on his best behavior, possibly because it was held on our home turf--Josie's house. Since that time, he and Pauline have stayed together and they actually appear pretty happy together. The two went on a trip to Cancun together just about two weeks ago.

So I guess it was inevitable that the time would come where another game party would have to be in the offing, and that occurred this past week-end. Honestly, I was dreading the whole thing, knowing that Ben would be invited, and wondering whether we would be treated to Gentle Ben from the Skanky Swap or the bombastic fellow who showed up that first night.

Unfortunately, the Bombastic side of Ben made a reappearance on Saturday night. He got into a total snit over the fact that Amber tried to separate him from Pauline during one game and pair him up with Corb, and spent the entire game muttering under his breath and saying "Whatever HE wants" when it came time fit their turn.

At one point, at the start, Corb turned to him and said, "I may not be your best choice, because I'm really bad at history and sports."

"Let's get one thing straight," said Ben. "You weren't my choice at all."

It wasn't just Corb who noticed it. Annie is furious with Ben for the way he treated Corb, as is Josie. And we think Pauline is aware of how abrasive he is, because she asked Josie why Andrew wasn't around, and asked if it was because of "certain company." God knows she couldn't be speaking about ME.

Corb says it's not a big deal, but I'm kind of mad about the whole thing. He thinks I should just ignore what happened, but I'm considering saying something. Would it make a difference, though, or just make things worse?

Besides, I don't want to interfere with her relationship. It's better she have someone who loves her every day than friends who only see her once a month. I would never want to be seen as a troublemaker. He already hates me enough because of the Christmas tree thing!

I guess I should just live with it. Friends change over time, that's just the way it is. Still, a thirty year relationship is hard to replace. Any suggestions?