Another sewing circle

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...in her cute little Victorian house in Cabbagetown. 

Mary Jane was telling the women an entertaining version of how her marriage had gotten rocky and eventually ended.

“So, I told him to drag his knuckles the hell out of my life,” she said, concluding the story, to appreciative and sympathetic laughter.

Judy gave MJ a little wink: on the night her husband had left her, MJ, devastated, had come to Judy’s home, and Judy had held her as she sobbed and sobbed. Judy reflected that MJ did an admirable job of coming across as world-weary and cynical about men, active in the singles scene, resolved in middle age to take them or leave them, but she knew MJ would love nothing more than to have a man to share quiet, boring evenings at home, in a monogamous relationship to the end of their days. 

Seema picked up the conversational ball and related how she had discovered by chance that the man she thought loved her and wanted to spend his life with her had stepped out on her, and now she was determined to develop no feelings beyond friends with benefits; love was out of the question.

Smiling, Judy prognosticated that in five years, Seema would be married, with two kids and an SUV, and fervently hoped she would be proven right. 

Janice was shaking her head, sadly. “The problem with men is that they have no moral compass.”

“Actually, they do have one,” Judy countered. “The problem is it’s in their pants.” 

The room filled with knowing laughter. 

“Although it’s not a very good compass: unless it’s pointing down or home, it usually leads them to trouble,” which brought the house down. 

As the women laughed and wiped tears from their eyes, Kelly thought, trust Judy to speak a painful truth and leave us laughing.