Work with Me, Man. Work with Me!

A few years ago I worked closely with a good guy, Mark. He was in his mid 40's, had a couple kids and had been married for about 15 years. He was going through a stressful time in his marriage. He was not where he wanted to be career wise, he wasnt bringing in the same income as her which was making all the monthly bills a bit overwhelming. It was pretty much a daily occurance that you would hear a somewhat elevated and heated exchange between Mark and his wife over the phone. They would never be full out scream fests but you could tell things were not as smooth between them as a married couple would like. I always felt sympathetic to the situation. Mark was a great guy, I was sure his wife was very endearing and I knew that they were raising some great kids. Well, one day Mark's wife walks into the office and is hanging around for a bit. I remember seeing her when she walked in and thinking to myself that this is a very attractive woman. This is before I realize she's Mark's wife. Before long I see her and Mark talking and I do figure it out. And as I walk past them Mark stops me and introduces me. Now I'm not always a smartass, 89.5% of the time yes, but not always. This was one of that other 10.5% of the time. Perhaps my reputation preceedes me, I don't know. At any rate, I saw this as an opportunity to help old Mark and his better half have a nicer day together than it would have been otherwise. Now it's about here that all you readers are thinking "Damn Brico, what did you do?" in your little belittling we-have-better-judgement-than-you voices. Well I say to you all "Talk to the hand! You don't know me!" THIS is what I do: As soon as Mark introduces me to his lovely wife I look at him and say (very politely and pleasantly mind you!) "You weren't kidding Mark, your wife is beautiful." And I catch in my periferal vission a wonderful sweet smile begin to emerge from the corners of her lips as she turns her head slightly to look into the eyes of the father of her children. This is the point where any man would have turned his head toward his wife and reply "Yes she certainly is." Unless you're Mark that is. If you're Mark, apparently the protocol for such a situation is to jerk your head quickly to the friend (me) and reply without hesitation "I never said that." And just like that the corners of her sweet smile vanished. I tried man, I tried. You gotta work with me!