Dear Prudence,
A few days before Christmas, my closest girlfriends and I will dine out
at a fancy restaurant. We are seven young women who were college
classmates who now live in different cities. We keep in touch, but we
rarely ever get a chance to be all together. It has taken a lot to
schedule the date and we all can't wait to see each other in person.
Plus, I have an important personal announcement to make, and I'm sure
that I'm not the only one. However, one member of the group just
announced that she will bring her husband along. She didn’t ask, she has
just dropped a line to one of us saying, "He's coming.” When my friend
called her and gently told her we'd rather keep it "girly," she got
annoyed and said: "Either he's coming, or I'm staying home.” He could be
heard in the background saying, "Tell them I'm coming, period.” He's
got jealousy issues, and he rarely lets her go out on her own. She
accepts this without complaint. The rest of us would really prefer he
stay at home. Is there a polite way out of this, or are we forced into
having him and making small talk all evening, instead of our usual
hilarious chit-chat?