H did attend the 'before' party, and even drove our family car with me and D16 in it to pick up her date.
He stood with me most of the evening (only an hour and a half) and conversed civilly. Really, no-one could have told there was anything wrong between us.
I think he went, in the end, because I didn't ask him. I got D16 to tell him about it and do all the requesting.
He ended up having to call me on the day of the prom to ask what time he was supposed to be there.
A couple of glitches along the way - when he arrived at our house ready to pick us up, he was wearing a suit.
It was 41degrees Centigrade, and he asked me if he should wear his jacket.
I said 'No' as I thought most parents would be wearing casuals pretty much anyway.
He then turned on me and demanded to know why I'd told him to wear a suit.
I just said quietly that I hadn't spoken to him about the event much at all, and in any case, if I had, I wouldn't have told him to wear a suit, but he was adamant that I'd done so.
Truth be told, I was always the one who would have advised him what to wear to an occasion like this in our previous life.
The other issue that caused a little friction was his driving.
He has taken to driving extremely recklessly - I think because in the latter stages of our relationship, I did comment a bit on his driving and he said he hated it.
Well, today, when he was back behind the wheel of our powerful family car, he was throwing it around the road like a 16-year-old on a dodgem car ride.
I 'eeked' at one stage, but tried to cover it up by saying I'd just caught my foot on a package that I had stored in the footwell.
So, a good day I suppose, yet I feel so empty and sad about the event.
There's really not much joy to be had in anything at this stage. Either he doesn't go to things, and the kids and I are sad about it. Or he does go, and it all seems weird and unnatural.
I suppose that's exactly how he feels about things, too.
