DEAR HARRIETTE: I decided to make peace with my former husband. I sent him a text message to see how he was doing. To my pleasant surprise, the conversation went well, and we are planning to go out to dinner in a couple of weeks. My former husband is aware that I remarried, and I made my current husband aware that I made plans to see my ex. How should I approach this dinner? We are planning to go to a restaurant frequented in times past. -- Back to the Future, West Orange, New Jersey
DEAR BACK TO THE FUTURE: My question is why are you meeting with your ex-husband? Is there a reason for you to rekindle your relationship? Even more, why are you going back to a restaurant that used to be one of your haunts? This feels like playing with fire to me.
If you have business to handle together, go to a benign location that feels businesslike. If you want to make amends because of something bad that happened between you, do that in a neutral location that has no memories. If you want to establish some type of friendship, have your husband come, too.
The path you are following right now does not seem to be a wise choice.