Bad enough to dredge all that back up after this many years anyway; explaining it to someone who ought to know just put a whole new sheen on ridiculously unfair.

"A bunch of things, I suppose; it's so long ago I'm not sure I could even say where it started." She could say where it finished, though. "There was always some new crazy person showing up from her old life, and me not getting told until somebody got hurt and there was no way for her to avoid it. The last time it happened, she pushed me out of her life so literally I ended up with a broken rib; that's how I met Brad." Francine snorted. "I think in romantic comedies they call that a Meet Cute."

Best conversation topic ever, and not at all awkward or awful. Not that Francine's attempt to segue with "What about you and Arthur? Are you still..." and a heavily-forced smile was any less awkward, or remotely subtle.