It's Marian

Spencer and Tarquin are watching TV, Arnold upstairs preparing for the double dinner date (that he had totally forgotten about, just like Brenda) and Brenda opens the door.

A relativly short girl stands on the other side, barely larger than Spencer. To Brenda's the girl was basically the exact image of a stereotype Ginger, a little less pale and no freckles, but long flowing ginger hair, slightly more red than orange which you'd normally expect. A tight-fitting dark green sweater accentuating her large breasts and what seems to be a short pair of purple gym shorts not unlike what Brenda herself had been wearing this morning.

"Hello there, you must be Marian?" She said as she welcomed the girl inside. Upon hearing this, Tarquin jumped and speed walked to the door "Oh hey, you're early!" he said as a smile appeared on his face. "Hi Tarq!" she said in a soft, slightly high pitched voice. "Hi Mrs. Harper!" She said as she turned to Brenda and stretched out her hand as a greeting.

Brenda looked at her son, looked back at Marian and took her hand and shook it. "Welcome, now, my husband Arnold and I will be gone for an hour or two. I hope it's not a problem you guys have to look after Spencer until we get back?" "Don't worry Mrs. Harper, I have a younger brother myself that I need to take care of sometimes, I'm used to it!" Marian replied, a large genuine smile on her face. Clearly this girl doesn't see any problems with the situation. "My god, such an innocent young girl, I can barely believe she's in Tarquins class..." Brenda thought, but at that point Marian walked past her, and was lead to the sofa by Tarquin. Once there she greeted Spencer who was far too interested in whatever strange thing they were watching on TV.

Arnold finally came downstairs, "alright honey, are we ready to go? See you later boys- OH, hello!" only now noticing the fact a third person was sitting on the sofa. He looked the strange girl up and down, made eye contact with his oldest son and gave him an approving nod. Marian jumped up and walked up with outstretched hand "Hello Mr. Harper, I'm Marian" she said with a friendly smile. "Hello there, please, call me Arnold. I assume my wife Brenda informed you about us being gone for the evening?" "Japp, I'm sure Tarq and I can keep an eye on the young one." Arnold seemingly flinched at how direct and easy going the girl seemed to be. "Well alright then, have a fun evening and we'll see you in a couple of hours! Goodnight Spence!" he said quickly ruffling the boy's hair, "See you later, have fun guys!" and with that Arnold grabbed his wife's coat, helping her put it on as the gentleman he was and then put on his own and out the front door they went.

After a 15 minute drive Brenda and Arnold had arrived at the restaurant, Brenda took a quick look around and found Sue and Clive easily and she and Arnold joined them at the table. "Hey Sue! Clive!" she said, it was good to see them. No matter that it was only a short while ago when she had seen Sue, she always enjoyed seeing her and her husband Clive.

"Hi Brenda" Sue said, standing up and hugging her friend. The men were far more simple and their greetings, a quick handshake and a nod while saying each others names was all that was needed, the ladies on the other hand kept hugging and seemingly had an entire conversation before they both took their seats.

"Sometimes I just don't understand how they do it Arnold... Do you?" Clive asked, looking at the two women taking their seat. Arnold's response was a shake of his head and a "Nope." The ladies pouted at their husbands until all four of them laughed.

As the dinner got underway and the four of them talked about life and what they'd been up to lately at one point Sue stood up and said "I need to go visit the little ladies room, if you'll excuse me." Brenda stood up and said "Let me join you, I need to powder my nose anyway." whereupon Sue and her walked off leaving the guys behind.

As Sue entered one of the stalls Brenda went to one of the sinks and opened her handbag to fix some of her make up. She was lost in thought wondering whether or not she should tell Sue about what was really going on at home with her and Tarquin. Sue had been her best friend for years, they told each other everything. Sue was also great at keeping secrets, which was partly due to her job... Even when drunk she had never ever spilled any secrets. Not that Brenda and her other friends didn't used to try.

"So" said Sue, who had left the stall without Brenda even noticing, "you've been thinking about some things the whole evening, what's on your mind?"