All Comments on 'Affair'

Damn fine story. 5+++/5!!

Satisfying, encouraging, feels real.

Genuine repentance is ultimately rewarded with a second chance at happiness and, finally, forgiveness. An unusual and courageous offering to this audience by one of the masters.

sometimes you need to know when to stop

Thanks. Great story. It resonated with me.

Unfortunately my ex-wife cheated a few times b4 leaving me & telling the world it was an abusive relationship. You can’t fight back about that even if you have the scars to show that she was the one that gets punchy when drunk.

Being in advertising she knew it was all about telling a lie repeatedly & convincingly. That worked with our mutual friends but my friends saw through it.

Three years later her business partner moved in with her and our two daughters. Neither my daughters nor his two kids have asked about their business trip to Italy prior to our marriage breaking up. Shame I put $1.3 million into that business and saw none of it.

Whilst I would love your story to be true regularly, in my case the reverse is true. A cheater cheated and parlayed that lie into social acceptance and a business.

Humans have a terrible time understanding risk and probability. Daniel kohaman In his book thinking fast thinking slow talks about this quite a bit.

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Humans think that if you don't get caught the 1st few times It leads to 2 specious assumptions. The 1st one is that you won't get caught because you haven't been caught in the past. And everybody pretty much understands this particular flood assumption.

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But what humans do is make a second mistake which is tge assumption that because they haven't been caught ....that IF they are caught the Consequences are somehow alleviated or won't be severe.

I liked the prose. It definitely carried a melancholy mood. But what the ex-wife calls forgiveness I would call her ex-husband just not caring anymore.

I liked it but marriages are the work of two people. Yes she cheated; but Why. What was she missing in her relationship?

That he never took responsibility for his part in the demise is irritating. Then the invasion of privacy by her second husband with a 20 yr probationary contract?

Fuck that and fuck him. He had her investigated as though she were running for President. He invaded her privacy, including breaking confidentiality rules with her therapist.

FUCK HIM! And Fuck you if you think thats acceptable. Would he stand for the sane level of investigation? And why’s he still a bachelor in his 40’s? How many women did he fuck. How many did he get pregnant. How many children does he have with other women? Is he some kind of abusive husband?

Wheres his 20 year probationary contract where he is presumed to be guilty of domestic violence and rape? Wheres his punishment for immorality…or do tou just blame women.

Fuck you and your Sharia law loving ass.

Thanks for sharing.

A moving and emotional story. It could have been better with names rather than X's. A little more detail about the the discovery and the actual interaction of the break up would have made a better story. In my opinion. I am referring to the proverbial train wreck that you can't turn away from. That being said, a really gut wrenching story. I loved it.

Not sure how high to rate it as erotica, but worth 5* as a reality check.

2 stars only because the slut was holding herself accountable for the stupid shit she did, now to the idiot of an ex husband never give a cheating anything a second chances

Thanks Q! Very realistic story. Moving on by both parties. The BTB in me always wants cheaters, all cheaters, to suffer. Cheating by definition is a deceitful act done behind the back of someone or ones that trust you. It isn't swapping or sharing, it just a shitty, selfish act. Rarely does the cheater ever really feel the pain their actions cause. Unfortunately, in real life that doesn't stop them from moving on and having a good life while leaving the wreckage of their betrayal in their past. Loved the counselor's burn analogy. Thanks for sharing, Q!

Killian

Very well written, very sad, but possibly a reflection on many modern day relationships. The wife felt entitled to have fun believing she was inviolate and would always come up smelling of roses even if caught.

Her paramour, meanwhile not only left behind a trusting wife but a five year old son. The harsh reality of cheating.

Lol as if a contract really means something to you.

Hope he cheats on you. That way you can really understand.

Also I hope that the chick your ex hooked up with is younger and prettier. I bet they make fun of your insecurities.

An interesting story that was quite different from the usual fare here. The unfaithful wife was very lucky to get a happy ending like that. She would've been over 30 when she met the guy she eventually married and had kids with, but most eligible bachelors would be getting a lot of attention from women 10 years younger than her.

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There's usually a very good reason why guys are still single in their late thirties. That baggage would mean that she'll never be quite as happy with him as she was with the first husband she betrayed.

Obviously I have no knowledge of whether this this truth or fiction. If true I am sure writing it will help provide the therapy you need, if not it shows a tremendous empathy with people. In either case it is a superb read and I feel ashamed that I can only give it 5*****.

Thank you, it was short but very powerful. It may even make others think before they act.

Really appreciate you departing from your usual fare to share this one. The aside about the scar and leaping the fire is one of the better metaphors I have come across. So many of us tend to devolve into one size fits all with relation to adultery. The truth of this woman’s experience provides a mature vision of hope that there is real forgiveness and future paths of life restoration through the pain and suffering. This woman’s story provides healing water in a sometimes seemingly endless waste of broken lives and relationships.

Thanks for a real and uplifting walk in mature truth. 5 stars.

Pretty good. Even if the story is a bit familiar, the writing is quite evocative.

And yeah, cheating is shitty, selfish, and destructive, but a lifetime of suffering isn't an apt punishment.

Feels true to life that she suffered for years, then got back on the wagon and was able to live again.

Brings to mind one of my all time favorite movie scenes, paraphrasing Iris Gaines (Glenn Close) in ‘The Natural’. “I believe we live two lives, the life we learn with, and the life we live with after that.”

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Also reminds me of ‘Nita’s character from one of my very favorite qhml1 stories, ‘Condoms and Pantyhose’, a tale of mistakes, forgiveness, and redemption.

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A powerful and edifying piece of wordmanship. Thank you very much

Normally seeing a new story by you is cause for celebration, not so this time.

boring 3*

This was a very believable, cautionary tale. Well done!

Definitely a story worth passing on - thanks for the read! 5*

A slice of reality. Thank you qhml for your fine writing.

Really liked it. It's realistic and not over the top with revenge crap. 5*

Wow it blew me away! Thanks. SK742

Very real and honest, more like it usually goes instead of most of the endings we have here. Good Job.

She should cheat again, cheating is fun!

Great job Q - beautifully written and message delivered, and both spouses lived happily ever after!

Once in a great while we get a story like this. Completely realistic and believable with a moral at the end. Good job Qhml1

Very well done and poignantly thought provoking. Felt good reading your piece. xxxxx

Gave you 5 stars for a well written piece. Nicely thought out.

You’re right. Some things need to be said. Sometimes we make little mistakes, sometimes big ones. We learn from them, hopefully, and life goes on.

Redemption is real, if we work for it.

Crap, it all works out so well for her after all. She has a few bumps in the road but she gets a better job and a wealthy new husband.

Why couldn't she remain alone or if she does find someone he is not super handsome and not rich at all?

I don't see the real lesson here. To me the lesson is basically go ahead and cheat. Expect a divorce if you are caught, but just wait it out as soon enough some rich desperate guy will pick you up. But in the mean time just get all the sex you want.

I gave this story a 3, simply because it was so dryly written.

"Even if they didn't mean to, even if they don't get caught, it will follow them for the rest of their lives," the narrator said. But if you don't get caught, and most one-night stands don't get caught, though longer-term affairs do, no, it really won't follow you for the rest of your life, unless you let it fester in your mind. It really is all in your head!

It was well written.

But it was somebody's story not yours qhm1...

or was it?

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Anyways thanks for sharing this. It is never a good choice to betray a loved one in the back. Ask the Ukrainians. They're practically Russians but that didn't stop Putin from betraying Ukraine's trust in him not to do some stupid actions.

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It seemed realistic. I do hope those who like to try cheating would find some moral lesson somewhere in this story.

I am glad you published this.

Very well written.

The jumping the fire analogy was brilliant.

5 stars.

⭐⭐⭐

Once a cheater is not always a cheater, especially in a new marriage. Very good story from a woman's POV

I enjoyed this story. I happen to be one that believes “Once a cheater, always a cheater” is a load of crap. Like everything in life, it depends on the individual.

Well worth telling and well worth reading.

I think this is a fable, not a story, and as a fable, it works well. As a story, it lacks characters with whom to empathize. I would think that by now, most people know that a "work spouse" relationship is bad for a marriage.

Just a genuine life story, worth 5 stars ! Thank you for writing such nice stories.

I liked the straight to the point notice about not scripting the sex parts. It wasn't needed. The sorrow in the story just didn't allow for those tidbits of unnecessary details.

Very well written, an old French saying with regards to cardinal sins is that the flesh is weak…

Long and winding road. Very good.

Good to see the honesty and feel the pain , it’s like therapy or more like an AA meeting . I’m sure someone will benefit from it , maybe a lot of someone’s ! Good story

Very good story. It separates the concept of forgiveness from the reality of separation. They don't always go hand in hand.

Really enjoyed this.

In under 2 pages you did a great job of showing that redemption, when truly sought, is possible.

Unless completely narcissistic, I don't see how people can live with themselves after cheating. Your phrase, "What if this is the day they find out?" would eat me alive after a while.

Thanks for sharing.

The story was very good, only in real life, it's very difficult for a man to forgive a woman whom you love with all your heart and soul for having an affair with another man. He may accept it but in the back of his mind, he will never really forget it. Almost every time she is away for an extended time, he will wonder what she is really doing, or if she is being faithful. Even after divorcing her, it can remain a pain in his heart that the one he gave his total love to cut it out and stomped on it, trying to kill him and it almost did.

This one really needs to be read twice. Any first reading is compromised by the reader’s expectations regarding any story in this genre and as a result, the visceral impact of tne content of this masterpiece is diluted…or missed…or not appreciated.

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Reading a second time it knowing where the tale went and how it ended allowed for a greater appreciation of all of the insights strewn throughout. Of the many, this one stood out:

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“We went through counseling, and it helped. It helped us to realize we were over. I'd broken his trust, and no matter how hard I tried, how much I worked to mend his heart, the wound was just too great.”

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Trust. It really IS the lodestone of any successful partnership, be it marriage or business or even a sports team. Without full and implicit trust, a person holds back…doesn’t fully commit….can’t enjoy the moment to its fullest. In this example, the husband just couldn’t regain the level of trust he had in his wife before she betrayed that trust. Just not possible.

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Q has given this forum a remarkable treatise on why any adulterous affair is so hard to recover from. And why reconciliation—true reconciliation—is so very very hard.

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5 *****

I have enjoyed some of your earlier works far more so than this. Something seemed a little off. Just felt too sterilized... JMO, and please keep your stories coming, they are amongst the best here.

Nice that there are readers who still believe in Santa Claus and like your fable. For me, someone who cheated in their marriage has a character problem that they don't solve by rushing to a therapist and then writing a story. Just as stupid is the statement that you learn from your mistakes. I know people who get a monthly ticket for speeding and still don't learn. And when I look at Ukraine now, I wonder what people have learned over the last forty thousand years. The only thing your story suggests, don't give up, some rich idiot comes along who also marries a cheater.

I usually like HEA stories, but not for a cheating spouse. She destroyed a 2 familes and for sure did not deserve another one, You need to start using TAGS in your stories as well.

Thanks.

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But as you noted, this isn't YOUR story. Something got lost telling it for another.

A bit airy fairy, but ok.

Scores 3/5

Great story about how simple life decisions stay with you forever. Only problem I had was that X completely disappeared from his son's life. That alone tells me all I need to know about his morals and character.

Leave it to ReedRichards to feel the need to get away with cheating after reading this story. Obviously he has the morals of an alley cat.

Guess I'm some what alone but what I got from this was go ahead and cheat, get divorced, and sooner or later you find some rich sugar daddy to make your life happy ever after.

Well written but had no sympathy for the character at all. She dug her own grave.

I gave this 3 stars. With that being said I believe it was a very good read, well written, and a story worth reading to see a different point of view from what I would have in the same circumstances.

At the start I was wondering if I would even finish the story. But as the story progressed it did turn interesting to me.

3 Stars from me is a good rating. Please continue to write.

One of the best stories on Literotica of late. Thanks for bringing this 5* story to us.

Great story, maybe a little too real life for the fantasy porn of LW. It’s really great to show these newer authors what a real story looks like.

Great story telling . 5 stars for a great writer. Mistakes made lives continued . Good story.

Well told, thru the heart tale.

oh are you going to get it from the fragile male readers for this one.

Yes, it was a good and very realistic look at the destruction of a marriage but you gave the wife a realistic ending and we all know the little boys wet their panties if the wifes ending isnt her being alone forever, or just being used for sex, broke with sagging tits, living in a trailer, with a nasty STD that never goes away. They do NEED that LW template in order to feel better.

Personally I say well done!!!

Nice piece of work. Thank you for sharing it.

@Anonymous Re: "work spouse" - Certainly in LW world a work spouse is bad for a relationship, but I fon't know if that is true in real life. I don't know how much they exist in the real world, but my understanding is that there tend to be more work wives than work husbands, and that they're much more innocent than portrayed in LW. A work wife is more likely to make sure that you don't miss an appointment, or that your tie is straight, etc,, than to have a sexual relationship. Heck, they're more like a "work mom," than a "work wife."

To the Anonymous Commenter who said,

“I think this is a fable, not a story, and as a fable, it works well.”

A fable is a story that is based on a true story but not the true story verbatim. Also, to be a fable there must be a morel to the story and there certainly is with this story. Thank you to both the author and the woman from whom the story originated. Four Stars (I’m a hard taskmaster and almost never give five stars.)

Damn, a story that feels like real life! Your stories are always a treat.

When I read a story I enjoy, I often also read the commitments of other readers. I’ve already commented on one anonymous reader’s comment, who appears to think a fable is not a story.

ReedRichards believes the story was “dryly written.” I can not get inside the author’s mind, but I don’t think the author meant it to be a thriller or erotic or comic romp. It is, in fact, loosely based on a true story told as a moralistic fable, and I believe it is well written. The main female character felt great remorse for many years following the discovery of her affair. Would she have held the same level of regret if she wasn’t found out?. Who knows

ReedRichards also commented on regrets. I can only assume he lacks empathy for even those close to him from his comment, as he seems to believe anyone who gets away with adultery can have no long term regret and can erase it from their memory. I truly hope the majority of people don’t agree with his assumption. I’d prefer not to be a part of a world that conceited. Perhaps we might not show it, but surely the vast majority of us feel sorry for and regret our past errors.

Nice story... Enjoyable read. 5 stars

My only complaint, when I read the ending, I thought "Why wasn't it titled, Scars?".

Excellent story, as always.

A haunting and cautionary tale of the dangers of cheating and how the effects will stay with a person for many years and maybe even a lifetime. In this case, the main character is lucky to move on with It’s a bit dry in the telling but that seems appropriate since it’s told as a warning rather than as a celebration. Very nice job.

Yes I do. Tell us the details.

Literotica is supposed to be a site with erotic literature, not a set of moralistic tales.

Why does nobody write decent sex scenes any more?

Whatever happened to Loving Wives having extra-marital fun?

PB

Consequences- they're real and life altering. Sometimes life destroying. My first 5 for a Q story- yes, he's a very talented writer, but his heroes are just too 'larger than life'. This one was real.

This is the bitter truth behind an affair. Some will want nothing less than a painful death for the ex-wife, but this is more true-to-life than most.

not a favorite one of yours.

Q, another very good read. Please keep writing.

Great story. If a women cheats, the hard mental break down to man is a defeat and feeling worthless and humiliated. This can never be solved in short time. Women's betrayal go deep which no one can see it.

Sad, honest recount of adults making very stupid decisions when they lack even a little self control. A wee bit of self denial and self control is what keeps mature adults from making stupid selfish decisions.

Very well written, as is your usual.

I believe in forgiveness. Maybe not for everyone, but I do think that not everyone that screws up is beyond hope. Thanks for sharing!

Mr Compass said that he’d not want to be part of a world in which people who do get away with adultery can have no long term regret and can erase it from their memories. If that were the case, no one who ever committed adultery could ever have his marriage survive.

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Mr Compass also said that surely the vast majority of us feel sorry for and regret our past errors, but to do that you have to be able to push those errors far to the back of your mind, it you’d forever dwell on them, to the ruination of the present day. I’m pretty sure that even those who have gone through life without committing adultery have sinned in other ways.

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Yes. I have fucked married women before, four of them, and in two instances, I have no idea what happened subsequently in their lives. There are, like probably everyone here, single women I have fucked, from whom I’ve moved on, and have no knowledge of what happened to them.

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Human memory is a wonderful thing; it’s fallible enough to allow us to keep living after we’ve done some things we might better not to have.

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Think of all the mega-BTB stories that are so popular here. In the real world, shouldn’t a person regret the harm they’ve done to someone else, even if he believed that the person to whom he did so deserved it? Many readers here celebrate when the cheating wife winds up in the proverbial Mexican whorehouse, and her boyfriend winds up missing his balls, and think that the offended husband should never have any regrets.

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Well, real people, even those who’ve been cheated on, will have regrets about those things, and if they can’t move on from them would be in misery for the rest of their lives.

Always good to see a new story from qhml1, even if it is not his story! A wonderful job of telling her story, thanks for telling of it!

5*

Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, and yep. Thirty years ago, I made a number of similar seemingly inconsequential choices. As I began to fall in love with another woman, my guilt caused me to confess to my then wife of 20 years before the new love affair had been sexually consummated.

A significant backstory is that my wife had been suspicious of me throughout our entire marriage and had falsely accused me countless times of infidelity. Nothing I said or did could sway her paranoid mind and, after one particularly hurtful accusation, I subconsciously came to the mindset, “if accused, I may as well be guilty.” By the way, this latter event occurred months before I met this other woman entirely by accident.

Perhaps needless to say, my wife finally felt vindicated & justified in her view of me as a traitorous husband, and immediately decided to separate. Sadly, our two pre-teen children were dragged into this and, of course, my wife presented herself as the injured party. I couldn’t counter that with the children or our families other than by undercutting her by exposing the history of suspicions & accusations. (I did go on to become intimate with The Other Woman, someone who, frankly, I still love to this day.) However, I was able to accept quite quickly that it was my lack of courage to actively counter my wife’s habitual behaviour by other, more constructive, remedies (outside of commencing a love affair), and so I bore the burden of guilt. We did reconcile but, after almost four years, she informed me that she again wanted to separate – perhaps for a few weeks. By this time I’d developed more self-assurance and countered by saying that if she hadn’t been able to develop a sense of trust in me over the past few years, a few weeks wasn’t going to change anything. We agreed to separate for at least six months and make it permanent if the hiatus didn’t change her feelings about me. No surprise, we eventually divorced, but on relatively amicable terms.

When I met another woman about three years later, our initial meeting was for a quick get-to-know-you Sunday lunch. That lunch was over three hours long and, in that time, I detailed my failed marriage. The woman (who became my second wife) told me sometime later that she left the lunch thinking either I was a complete flake, or I had no filters in sharing information. She said I’d portrayed myself as being entirely at fault for my failed marriage, a conclusion she could not share if the story I’d told her was accurate. We’ve now been married for 21 years, and never has she expressed the tiniest doubt in my fidelity.

So what’s the takeaway from my experience? The decisions that lead to infidelity arise out of a myriad number of situations – not merely following one’s lust. One common factor though, I feel, is a lack of self-awareness & self-assurance. Another might be the inability to step outside immediate circumstances, so that one can contemplate potential fallout. I’m often reminded of a little episode from Sesame Street where a boy is standing at the top of a steep street. He’s imagining pushing his wagon down the hill. Then his mind starts presenting possible scenarios, like his friend, Lily, being hit by the wagon, causing her to fall and break some bones, while the wagon careens on and causes a vehicle accident, etc., etc. Unfortunately, all too often the libido is able to completely subsume considered thought and the result is massive unhappiness for scores of peripherally involved individuals.

Absolutely loved this story. I love your stories. This is right up there. You are good. Keep writing.

This is a story every person who wants to have a lasting relationship should read. For some, relationships are extremely important - for others, much less!

***** stars!

Burninglove

Thank you.

I always find it hard to understand how you can trust a serial cheater.

A friends wife cheated on him. Divorced him while he was fighting overseas.

The catholic church of course blessed the two cheaters by approving of what they did by granting her a divorce then marrying the two adulters.

Divorced while he was again fighting in Afghanistan and told him via mail after the fact.

Now her new man, a military officer, yes this is supposed to be a bad thing, was so upstanding he was pursuing a married woman. And he married a girl he knows for a fact is a cheater.

How? Even he should have had second thoughts.

So I wonder in these stories, why would you marry a woman like that?

Different than your usual, but thoughtful and well-written. Nicely done.

I always enjoy reading your stories and this was no exception it was very well written but not terribly interesting. The idea of the husbands initial forgiveness and then have it turning into discord and unhappiness has a unbelievable feel to it.

Sorry, but someone who knowing destroys her husband doesn't deserve a happy ever after ending. Took a wonderful 5 star story and ruined it. 1 star.

One of the best stories on here. You packed a powerful punch into this one. Thank you for sharing.

I hope some read this and take it tp heart if they are even contemplating cheating on their spouse. My ex decided after 13 years she wanted to 'go out and look around' but then added 'if it doesn't work out can I come back?' What would you say? I cried a little got up and walked out. Her Wanting a divorce was a very selfish act. Why? No thought was given as to how that would affect the children let alone me. End of story.

Excellent story. Sorry the BTB and moral police are shocked, absolutely SHOCKED that infidelity had occurred. But that is par for the course. All the suffering and regrets were here, and a new and happy life came from the ashes. Why do these commenters not believe in forgiveness?? Hopeless and sad people. Back to the story: this was one of the better succinct depictions of regret and aftermath that I’ve read in quite a while. Keep up the good work.

I get it.

The reason for writing this story, that is.

I have no problems with that.

The thing is, I have no interest either.

In cheaters and their self-inflicted pain.

They deserve it for hurting others.

So no ratings from me on this one.

A very real story on cheating, work cheating with travel which is a very high percentage because it’s harder yo get caught, the destruction/fallout with family and friends, the affect on your job if found out, the real suffering of spouse and kids if any and also how the cheater suffers. These stories in LW are based on cheating for entertainment which is good if you enjoy but cheating is a very high percentage of married couples many not getting caught. The involved think with their dicks and pussies and not with there brain and heart. The devastation and fall out for all involved when caught is huge

A very real story on cheating, work cheating with travel which is a very high percentage because it’s harder yo get caught, the destruction/fallout with family and friends, the affect on your job if found out, the real suffering of spouse and kids if any and also how the cheater suffers. These stories in LW are based on cheating for entertainment which is good if you enjoy but cheating is a very high percentage of married couples many not getting caught. The involved think with their dicks and pussies and not with there brain and heart. The devastation and fall out for all involved when caught is huge

I disagree with the comment that the husband's attempt to forgive and reconcile, followed by being unable to set her affair aside and ulitmately lead to divorce as being unbelievable. To me, this reaction by him is very believable, and perhaps, probable.

I can picture a man, when kissing his wife, as her tongue slips into his mouth, suddenly have an image of her paramore's cock spueing cum on that very tongue. It would finish my ability to be in her presence, let alone make love to her.

Great story, one all prospective cheaters should read prior to stepping out. *****