All Comments on 'Melting Away, Slowly... Pt. 04'

that were the problem some pills would have helped her. I still believe she is someones fuck toy at work. Personally I would not have stayed at all that long as the husband is described. There is no reason. It is obvious the wife makes more than him so she should pay alimony to him in the divorce. Abandoning her at the party was a stroke of genius. It rips away the false front she presented a work and tells her with no question that she no longer is the most important part of his life. A woman approaching fifty isnt old. It is her mind that is old, if she wants a life with love or intimacy she should try becoming a nun.

I tend to agree with the other writer, that I think she is getting some on the side, possibly with a woman. The guy though is not behaving exactly honorably, in fact I don't think he is thinking about his honor at all as it relates to his marital vows. After his first time with Stephanie, he should have made a decision whether he was going to continue his affair with her and if so, he should have asked Martha for at least a trial separation. On the other hand, I understand how this story is also more true to life and things can just slip up on you.

This story is the best puzzle. It's like a googly, you'll never know where or how it will turn. Wow! I liked this part very much, Mark ate the cake along with the cherry. I still don't think that Martha is cheating on Mark. The next day I think will be the 'Final Showdown' The second page was amazing and briliant. It shows the class of the writing (First class, A1). I read this story everyday, whenever I get time to see any clue, but after reading this today I GIVE UP. What you ate when you wrote this story? Share the secret maybe it'll help me :-)

Given the nature of writers and readers here at LIT it is only natural for many to think Martha the cold wife

...now ex wife... MUST be getting SOME on the side.

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If there IS a flaw to this story... IF... then it is that the husband never really explored the ide that she might be cheating with someone else.

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I dont think Martha is however stepping out.

Technically, I think you are the absolute best on Lit. That is not intended to imply that your story lines are not up to par. However some I like and some I don't. Mark is not a sympathetic character. IMHO he is a coward for not facing the issues head on. I believe the term passive agressive might apply here.

This is a GREAT.... no make that fabulous story. Most of the time the LW stories here at LIT or SOL talk about marriages which end fairly suddenly but that really isn't the case when it comes to reality. Most marriages usually end with a slow decay from the inside and the façade that everything appears to be normal finally gets blown apart by one final big incident... the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

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In this case however I don't think that the wife MARTHA is cheating or getting some on the side. Let's assume she IS seeing someone on the side. By moving her stuff out of the master bedroom and cutting Mark off from all physical contact for several months ... well those are pretty direct ways of telling a husband how uninterested a wife is in him. Yet when Mark finally leaves... Martha claims to want him back.

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If Martha was cheating herself cutting MARK and moving out of the master bedroom is only going to raise questions and make bigger problems.

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Surely <b>IF</b> Martha really wanted out of the marriage... why fight it? Since Mark was not telling anybody even his own family what was going with his Non marriage for many months ...if not years... IF Martha wanted out of the marriage... this situation appeared to be perfect for her because Mark was going to take all the blame.

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The next question has to be asked... If Martha it really has a lost of sex drive it can be helped these days right? Sure BUT only if she WANTS to be helped. Martha for whatever reason does not see the total collapse of her sex drive at the age of 50 or 52 as being "Abnormal" at all. Therefore why see a doctor or psychologist or psychiatrist?

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The one weak point in the story that I do see is that Martha is never challenged in any way about this peculiar idea. When Martha claims that Mark desire to have sex for the first time in six months makes him a pervert... see the begining of the story in part 1 and the end in part 4... he never challenges her.

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Mark NEVER says to Martha... <b> how is wanting to have sex1 time in 6 months make me a pervert?</b>

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Mark NEVER says to Martha <b>how can you defend the idea that having no desire for sex at all at your age over the past six months is Normal ? </b>

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When she tries to put forth a good-faith effort it's clear that she physically and mentally can't do have sex. Again that sort of reaction clearly is not normal and while Mark only wants out at that point he never makes an effort to drive home that point.

It would be great if the truth would come out that his wife Martha has been having an ongoing long term affair, in fact that the last child is her lovers child. The child that has mental health problems is a child from Martha and her lover.If the truth be known, Martha loves sex, but not with her husband. It least that is my vision of the relationship. Thanks for the good chapter.......Rich

Hooked on this story. Keep going Post scriptor.

Really enjoyable pace. Logical development. She should have reclaimed in front of the other women instead of ordering to behave himself. That was truly the end, for him...

Now we have a new beginning.

Sorry Rich but there is nothing in the story that supports your theory. And Harry, he has been telling her for five years that she is wrong about sex ending and she just is not listening......

Story is belivable to me because it happened to a friend of mine. His wife was passionate, even a little slutty when young than after kids were in school she got more into religion and just dried up. They went to counsling and he found out her father molested her as a young teen and as she got older the guilt came out, she truly didn't enjoy sex anymore. With help they worked it out and are together but it's not a marriage I would want, and he verified she wasn't seeing anyone else, just didn't want to be touched. Husband has put up with her for a long time, no change, so he's moving on without her, it happens every day to both sexes. The seperate bedrooms would have done it for me.

VERY CLEVERLY WRITTEN STORY ABOUT THE DISSOLUTION OF A MARRIAGE. i WOULD ENJOY IT MORE IF HE WERE A LITTLE MORE HONEST WITH MARTHA, tHE PLOT IS VERY WELL DONE, BUT iBEGAN AS A BIG FAN OF HIS AND NOW HAVE BEGUN TO FIND HIM KIND OF A VINDICTIVE CHEATER. tOO BAD. THE STORY IS GREAT,BUT NOW IT'S KND OF HARD TO FIGURE OUT IF THERE IS ANYBODY TO ROOT FOR.Humiliating Martha is not an admirable trait, no matter how frigid she may be. 60 Year old George

Realistic, good mix of story line, erotic content, and character development. I love that your characters are understandable and human, with both positive and negative aspects, not one-sided caricatures...

Technically, you write superbly. Sometimes I love the stories and sometimes not. That is the difference between a ‘4’ or a’5’ score with you. Unsympathetic characters can bring down to the ‘4’ score or flaw in story created by one of the characters. In this story, the two married characters are not very sympathetic, Martha much less than Mark, who at least is moving ahead to a more happy life. For Martha, we nothing about her level of happiness in the present. Nor do we know what could make her happier. Overall, this is a great story. I like how this marriage is taking its time to fall apart because that happens often in real life. This also gives the time for more character development, and possibly become a more forceful person for his own rights…. Thus, become more sympathetic person.

Given what has been revealed about Martha, she probably does not have a lover on the side. She may have a male friend that could grow into some more. Mark should look into this so he has the fact facts straight. Without that information, he could make decisions based on unsubstantiated information. Mark is seemly careful about moving forward one-step at a time…. Finding out what is wife is doing should be one of the steps forward…. Not necessarily to punish her, but rather to have more information when it comes time to untie the marriage knot. He will have a full picture in front of him and from the truth he will have more guidance as to how to treat her fairly during the breakup.

If we learn in the next installment that Martha really wants to end the marriage, then it is done deal... why fight it? The marriage itself is already a non-marriage living on the momentum of who there were together in the past and that is decaying. This marriage is sliding down hill, slowly at first, but gaining speed. This marriage is over unless Martha does an immediate about face, realizes she has a beautiful husband that she is giving up, decides to fight for him, take responsibility and does her part to fix the relationship.

I think you should not really bring forth Mark and Martha as much stronger characters for each to take responsibly to solve their marriage problem, one way or the other. The characters will become more sympathetic and your score will probably go up.

this is truely a good written story. so why am I the only one to be so low with the judging? The reason is, it starts getting cruel. and to wrongs don't make it right. if for any reason she turned towards a stone or for whatever reason she maybe always were like that. He just should come to a decision. because tortering each other does not even leave the slightest hope that they could for the kids sake stay friendly and polite for the rest of their lives.

I am really enjoing this story and the reverse cuckold quality that it has, I have to admitt I am chomping at the bit for the confrontation between loving husband and unloving wife. At this point, as others have noted, the relationship is becoming painful not only for him, but for the reader. And one aspect that the plot is missing is her point of view of the events. Hopefully this will happen in the confrontation, though a chapter with her "venting" her spleen alone trying to come to grips with her husbands actions and probably not understanding how her previous lack of intimacy has really affected him would in fact be interesting to hear. So while I am really enjoying this story, I am curious to see how it will play out. One other point, is that I think a part of him still loves and even lusts for her, but of course her need to control him and their life has so alienated him that I do not think he will ever cross her borders again, so to speak.

I've loved it all, but for me this was the best chapter as you can see it all coming together. However where is it going is anyones guess, and that's why it is so gripping.

Lovely story and can't wait for the next bit.

Sorry, got to go, as I've got to try and find a dance instructor!

Britease

I don't think it is a control issue on with the wife. I think she is just messed up and set in her ways. At this pint - sex seems to repel her and I doubt she masturbates. She does not shows much physical affection to anyone, including herself.

good story and comments.

This is a very good story! Thank you. I look forward to he next chapter.

Where to start. BRAVO, BRAVO for a well written story, that I am glad I found and just read all four chapters and hope there is more than one more coming. I the story totally plausable as written. Just the roles have been switched. But let me digress. It is entirely possible she has a boy toy on the side, judging the way she is treating her husband. But then again she is trying for a promotion and that is all she wants. She wants her life under her total control and I believe she thinks she has Mark trained to just be a dutiful husband taking care of her in her own twisted fashion. Cuckolding is a strong term, but I think it applies here. As for Mark I do think her has tried for years and is finally accepting the truth of what his situation really is and he is not going to take it anymore. Good for him. As for Martha I would like to hear what she is thinking, but it is interesting. Anyway it is coming to a head, and I for one will be standing by to see how it ends certainly hope there is more than one more chapter to this tale of marriaqe slowly melting away. After awhile one cannot rebuild what was slowly pulled apart by one of the partners in the marriage, no matter how much the other might want to save it.

A major part of intimacy consists of the physical part which in and of itself is not all sexual. If we were to rely on Martha’s words alone, the ‘Martha phenomenon’ could be explained only in a very partial way. Yes, there are people with very low sex drive, but that would not explain her refusal to be physically intimate with her husband in all the other ways emotional in which physical intimacy normally conveys itself (hugging, kissing, sharing the same bed etc.). Add to the above the intimacy of sharing thoughts and feelings – which have also disappeared, and it becomes obvious that the status quo between of two spouses has to do with much larger problem(s) than Martha’s refusal to have sex. It’s perhaps closer to the reality of their life than the pretence that every thing is a-ok, but not by much. <P>

Regardless of ‘who started’ the process of the distancing – by definition, it takes two to maintain any status quo in a marital situation. The wife’s passive aggressive stance –were unexpressed problems and feelings are expressed through hostile actions –was initially tolerated by the husband who became the enabler of her behaviors. Later on he joins her in the passive aggressive stance as he reciprocates in hostile actions (or omissions)of his own. <P>

Typically this type of tag of war deteriorates until it cannot be contained anymore by the thin veneer of normalcy. Something gives when one side can’t tolerate the charade anymore and changes strategy to an overt confrontation, or when the situation becomes public and other people change the dynamics of the relations "for" the couple… <P>

So far, it has bee a very good demonstration of this type of dynamics in slowly eroding relations. To me, the pace is a bit on the slow side. I feel that the key dynamics at each stage are well portrayed in about 60% of the current volume of the story. A bit of tightening could have made the story more dramatic and flowing in its effect (for future reference). Still, overall a very engaging story.

Martha was trying to control Mark, and had forgotten that a marriage is a partnership. I really liked how the retirement party played out, because it showed how much control over her husband Martha THOUGHT she had. The control was merely an illusion, and showed a lot of disrespect.

Thanks for the offering.

War has been declared! Yo ho, ho and a bottle of rum! Our hero has her backed into the corner, will he go for the knock out punch?

COOL _ LOL

or a divorce. With but one Part to go, I'm uncomfortable with hubby's makeshift accommodation to a women who doesn't know she's frigid, nor that marriage is mutual caing, who might well be better off single (as she seems to have already chosen in all but name). He's evading his responsibility to the marriage and to her impossibly restrictive notion of the marriage. Why?

Mark has finally rebelled against Martha's domineering attitude and conduct. She is the one who got angry with him when he tried on numerous occasions to talk with her about their marriage and explain his problems with it/her. There is noone more blind than one who refuses to see.

The straw, a diamond straw, finally broke the long suffering camel's back. He has a tremendous head of pent up rage banked up over several months and years. You expect him to be considerate of her feelings?

DHL

He really needs to divorce this wife who thinks she wears the pants. She has lost respect for her husband; it appears the VP position she's been lusting for has filled her head with delusions of grandeur. He's been allowing her to order him around and dictate what happens in their house for too long, he should have already addressed the problems.

BTW: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" is paraphrased from Rear Admiral Farragut, from the Civil War. Back then, torpedoes were actually what we currently think of as mines. Just saying...

Hey, the dancing at the retirement party scene had me thinking maybe this belongs in Humor/Satire. Smiling and chuckling inside. He's putting one back over on her. Good one.

Paul in Oklahoma

Excellent. When he left, I thought he excused himself to ask another woman to dance. Leaving as he did, again consistent with a gentleman handling the issue without making a scene. He had ample opportunity to embarrass Martha that evening, and she certainly deserved being humiliated by her words and inaction.

Martha, Martha, Martha tsk tsk, What are we going to with you

Real life, thank you

Been enjoying this series a lot…was going to wait to comment until after reading the last chapter, but I just have to interject here: Martha blew it up at tne dinner. Ka-Boom!

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I’ve not read the last chapter yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she literally doesn’t care that the marriage is over. It’s one thing to become uninterested in sex…but it’s a whole lot bigger deal to become uninterested in ANY kind of intimacy or personal engagement on any level with one’s spouse.

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Frankly, when she decamped to her own bedroom, he probably should have divorced her. He really tortured himself hanging on for so long.

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Oh well…now to read final chapter and see how it winds up!

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5 *****

mostly too long and boring. On the other hand, it is interesting watching a long marriage end because 1 partner becomes too self-centered.