This week Vikki heads to Orange County, CA to help untie a wedding knot. Chrissy and Tina have been together for 11 years, 6 of those years have been in a legal marriage. Tina believes that once she got an opinion and stopped doing everything that Chrissy wanted is when things went bad. Chrissy says that she stopped being happy and wasn’t getting everything she needed out of the relationship. They are in mediation to salvage a friendship whilst dividing their things. The main items up for discussion are a Mustang GT, two dogs, a t-shirt collection, and their dream house.
Before Vikki can begin to get into the mediation, Amy walks through the door. At first Vikki is told that Amy is their best friend who moved in after divorcing her husband. However, when pushed Tina confesses that after her and Chrissy got separated, she began to date Amy. Chrissy admits that it’s awkward and Tina acknowledges that the tension in the house rose from 10% to 100%. Chrissy isn’t off the hook though. Tina says that Chrissy has girls in and out of the house all of the time. Vikki knows she needs these two separated immediately before the jealousy issues explode.
They begin to go through the list of items in dispute. First up is the house. It was purchased for $646,000.00. Chrissy took a $41,000 401K loan out for the down payment while Tina put in $9600. Chrissy wants to keep it as it is her dream house as she wants to raise children in the area. Tina wants to sell and move on. She’s not as attached at Chrissy.
The t-shirt collection is the next item on the list. Tina explains that they are gamers and sy-fi enthusiasts so they have a large collection of those types of shirts. It comes out the Chrissy took one of their favorites and hid it from Tina. Vikki is incredulous that it’s a fought over item, but she makes a note on it.
Vikki moves on to the car. It’s a 2006 Mustang GT with a purchase price of $35,000. They both love driving it and have no intention of giving it up. However, Vikki reminds them that it is a marital item and it will be split somehow.
The last items on the list are more heartfelt, Chrissy and Tina’s two dogs, Suka and Dexter. They don’t want to separate them to punish them, but yet neither lady wants to lose both of them. Tina’s argument is that Chrissy’s schedule doesn’t allow for her to take care of the dogs properly and she gets emotional talking about them.

It’s time for the appraisal part of the mediation and the Millea Brothers enter the picture. They take a look at the Mustang first. They take a look at the model, how it runs, how much mileage it has. All of these details go into the value of the car right now. After a successful test drive, they move inside the house to view the t-shirt collection. They say there could be some value if any of the t-shirts are vintage or rare. As they peruse the shirts they find a lot of gamer and sci-fy things, but nothing too interesting.

Back in New Jersey, the Millea brothers meet up with Vikki to discuss their findings. As expected, they reveal that there is no real value in the t-shirt collection. It is merely sentimental and Vikki will have to determine how to split it up based on feelings and not funds. The big ticket item is the Mustang GT. The brothers tell Vikki that, according to dealers and the Blue Book, the value of the car is valued at around $16,000. Vikki wishes that she could cut it in half, but since she cannot, she must come up with a solution.

The last step in mediation is for Vikki to reveal her decisions to Tina and Chrissy. She asks them to meet at a neutral location so they are on fair ground with each other. Starting off with the t-shirt collection, Vikki senses that wearing the shirts is actually more Tina’s thing than it is Chrissy’s. She states that Tina gets them and Chrissy gets no credit for them. In the end, they just needed someone from the outside to make the emotional decision for them. Next up is the car. Vikki discloses the value of the car is at $16,000. Since they owe more than that, the car is underwater. Tina will receive the car and incur the debt that is left on it. Since there is no value in it as of this time, Chrissy receives no credit. In the hardest emotional decision, Vikki tells the couple that the dogs will be split. Tina gets Dexter and Chrissy gets Suka. However, Vikki requests that they have bi-weekly parenting dates where both dogs get together and play. Chrissy and Tina find that easy to agree to and they move on to the last issue. Vikki says that she knows Chrissy wants to keep it because it is her dream home. However, she doesn’t see her being able to do that on her own in the short term. Her recommendation is to sell it within 30 days. Chrissy immediately chokes up at the decision but she seems to understand the reasoning. Vikki goes on to explain that usually whatever the sale price turns out to be is split between the two parties, however she is not going to do that in Tina and Chrissy’s case. Chrissy gets 55% of the equity and Tina receives 45% because Chrissy has put a large chunk of her 401K into the property. In a surprising move, Chrissy speaks up and says that she understands the decision but she’d rather do the 50-50 split on the house because it was a joint effort and it’s a nod to their 11 years together. They hug on the decision and are grateful that they are able to remain friends after their divorce. Vikki is happy to be reminded that compromise is the root to the untangling of all relationships.