All Comments on 'After the Future is Gone Pt. 02'

Please resist any and all temptation to have Mike father a child for Rowena. No, just don't do it.

It was okay, but the confrontation with Lisa fell a bit flat. It made sense for the conversation to play out the way it did, but it just seemed anticlimactic, because he didn't care about her anymore.

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I'm glad that Lisa and Pete got married, only for their relationship to fall apart and end up in a well-deserved divorce. A man that has an affair with his best friend's wife is absolute scum, so it was fitting that their affair ended really badly.

Good story. You’re not a hack.

Happy that Lisa's life is miserable.

The reason why the forgiveness thing is so repulsive and so disgusting is to cause the husband is so incredibly weak throughout this entire story.

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Yes the husband main character played a role in the breakdown of the marriage but what the wifeted is far worse and far more Awful. If she's no longer interested in the marriage that's one thing but she doesn't have to end up engage tonight multi month long affair with the husband's best friend.

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Even worse is that when it came to choosing friends the husband never Told the real story about how disgusting and heinous his wife and his best friend were Towards him and what it was like that day when he came home.

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And the therapist saying well they may be suffering some form of guilt turns out to be complete nonsense. In the 1st chapter.... The husband is at a restaurant and he runs into his ex wife and his best friend and they're laughing and holding hands and carrying on. But not showing the slightest bit of guilt for regret.

Yuck. Couldn’t get past page two.

First he doesn’t get introduced to Abe as the boyfriend, so how’s he supposed to feel?

Then he’s apologizing to the ex-wife?

WTF?

The paragraphs after his meeting with his ex wife is really important. A husband that's working too hard and trying to get a promotion for financial stability in the marriage for the family is not justification for a wife to cheat. And yes this also applies to cases where the wife is working hard and Is the primary income . Most of this was the ex wife's fault. .

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It would be one thing if the ex wife was constantly telling the husband how unhappy she is in the marriage.. But Lisa never did that.

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Also when the other guy Abe shows up the gym and says thanks for taking care of my woman..... He really should have cut everything off. They obviously have some kind of connection which Emily was covering up

Great read -- both parts.

An excellent story, well told.

Well done.

Excellent story definitely worth five stars with the nice heart warming ending

Happy endings are good. D

Daddy. Urrgghh.

I know this is literotica, but I skipped most of the sex scenes, was more interested in the story.

Not sure how the whole "I forgive you" thing works, I get not carrying around the hate, but damn, he was calm after her utter betrayal.

Beautiful. What a well rounded tale. You hope you have a great Christmas and holiday season.

This is a good story that tells why and how marriages can detorate. No martian slut rays, ex-seals, wired houses and other crap that happen in 0.01% of all cheating that happens. Oh and good sex scenes too

I hope you'll do more, honestly

Very good follow up

Very well written story. I know this is unusual but I was left very sorry for Lisa. Yes she cheated but Mike knew he played a role in that by burying his head in his promotion push, so yeah, she screwed up her life and knew it. Mike? Well his life repaired after desolation, good things come to those who wait.

Keep writing, I'm now following you and look forward to more.

The LW algorithm spits out another uninspired, cliched, unpolished turd. Congratulations.

I like you writing style NoTalentHack.

But honestly, I did skip almost all the talk between Lisa and Mike.

I felt no need to know what justification Lisa would spit out.

She was bored and was out of the marriage before she cheated (or so she said I don't believe it though). And for me that was enough to know.

But I did felt there should have some details why Pete and Lisa are divorcing.

Maybe that will work as a little revenge to the dastardly cheaters.

All and all generally it was a good story.

Thanks NoTalentHack.

Wow!

The meeting and conversation with Lisa was phenomenal. I love how he got what he needed from the meeting and at the same time disrupted her plan and possibly left her feeling a little empty that she didn't get to feel like a martyr and turn things around to make it his fault.

This might be one of the more realistic and compelling stories I've seen in LW.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Well written this was a joy to read.

Great story again. I was worried the plot line was going to fall apart during the separation and spoil a happy ending.

It evolved into more of a Romance story than an LW one, but I am glad that you kept both parts in the same category. It began as LW and this category has a bit of every other one in it, anyway.

This makes two very good early submissions for you now NTH.

Keep it up and you may eventually find yourself being spoken of as one of the site "legends". I'm looking forward to that being the case, as overall site story "quality" seems to be in something of a downhill slide lately. Your work so far (batting a thousand, in my opinion) should help bring it back up, somewhat.

5-stars (again), and I look forward to your next one!

over all good story, but the ex-wife wasn't worth the effort or trouble. this closure crap is iver rated.

5 stars

Long but well worth the read. Would read it again!

Good stuff

A sad breakup and a wonderful new love, all beautifully told.

Well done!

Simply one of the best offerings on Lit all year. QED.

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You managed to really REALLY transmit to readers how completely in love Emily and he were. Emily is, without question, one of the most interesting and endearing characters ever to appear here. This really was a top shelf romance.

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Lisa was a conundrum. It was never really clear what she wanted. Her “reasons” for drifting away from him seemed to be the classic “I gotta be me” stuff — marriage is too confining…”I gotta be free”. But then she immediately hooks up with another guy permanently? But proactively hiding her problems from her husband pretty much demonstrated that she never saw him as tne partner in that marriage that any spouse wanting to succeed should be like. The bottom line was that for all her protestations, Lisa was never a good wife and partner. He was well rid of her. Was not a surprise her marriage to Pete failed as well.

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Just so good.

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5 very easy *****

Would like to have heard more of Lisa’s pain and regret at her divorce. Decent story, well written.

Good story of recovery. Seems like Pete should have had some pain come his way after the betrayal.

Perfect landing to a perfect story. I was thinking in the back half of the story, if what Lisa told him was true about what happened in their marriage and the affair, then her and Pete were finished before it started. You tied that bow up nicely! 5*

I don't understand why he didn't fuck his ex when they went to his apartment? She was guilty and ready. Yes, and Rowena could help to have a child in friendship.

Gotta' love a happy ending. Would have enjoyed seeing the ex eat her heart out when new hubby's eyes bugged out over the new wife. Maybe that happened and I missed it. I find the sex parts boring and skim them. Old I guess.

Loved it.

That sit down was total bullshit🙄... she "fell" for his friend because deep down she wanted to.. a wife that actually loves their partner and want to be with them would COMMUNICATE with their partner🤷🏾‍♀️.. they aren't keeping detrimental secrets.. they aren't keeping their unhappiness a secret.. they would sit their partner down and have a come to jezus moment with them.. BECAUSE THEY WANT THEIR MARRIAGE 🙃.. it is impossible for a relationship to work without communication 🙄.. she expected this man to be psychic or some shit.. she didn't tell him how she was feeling because she wanted to place blame on him to ease her lies and her conscious.. the ex friend and the tramp are idiots...if they think God would bless this unholy bullshit relationship.. God is not blessing you with someone else's wife/husband fools 🤭... I understand people falling out of love.. it happens....this wasn't what happened here.. this lady had all these things going on in her head and kept them from him. She opened herself up to cheat. If it wasn't his ex best friend, it would've been someone else.. there's a reason she didn't tell him what she was feeling.. I don't see any husband disregarding their partners feelings.. if they do, that is when it's time to call it quits....NOT START BANGING HIS FRIEND 🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️...this man would've got himself together to fix their marriage... had she given him the chance, respect, loyalty, love, communication to do so.. the marriage never had a chance.. she never gave him or the marriage 100% or 100% of herself.. I don't believe she wanted the marriage to work.. impossible!. Hubby was your typical man.. you have to tell them what's bothering you.. you can't expect them to "pick up" on your feelings.. it's ludicrous to believe had he not been so busy working and paid attention to her, she wouldn't of been banging his friend.. I'm not going🙌🏾.. she never spoke to him.. she turned to his friend for emotional support. She turned to his friend for her needs. That relationship was over from the beginning.. his ex friend just exposed it.. if it wasn't him it definitely would've been someone else.. that " friend" wasn't anyone's friend.. friends don't fuck friends wives 👀... a true friend wouldn't of even thought about betraying/hurting their friend like this.. only a fucking 2 face snake would do some shit like this.. neither of them are worth any tears.. they belong together.. 2 cheating backstabbing snakes...I understand why he met up with her.. he wanted to know what happened, so as not to make the same mistake he made with her.. his only mistake was trusting her.. trusting her to love him, have his back, respect him. he didn't do anything wrong.. he couldn't fix what he couldn't see or know.. men are dense at times.. I assumed all us women knew this... she wanted to fuck another man..... perioddddd 🙃😏..I refuse to blame him for trusting and loving his wife.. he thought their relationship was strong. He thought he had a good marriage.. he believed that because she let him believe it.. she wanted him to believe the facade.

Thanks for this update. Can you let us know how many chapters you plan? Also, I realize you don't want to write a btb but could you at least not allow the ex-wife and best friend to have their happy ending together? I know it happens in real life but wish it didn't have to here. Anyway, thanks again. Looking forward to what's next.

I never understand how women think a man capable of betraying his best friend this way is a good man.

Knocked it out of the park.

Glad to see you toned down the daddy/daughter thing and I really liked the meeting between Lisa and Mike.

It was…so well done. Guilt, confession, honesty and forgiveness. It was real.

5 stars isn’t enough

would have like to see the confrontation with Pete. He's not innocent in this either. great writing!!

Been reading this site for a long time. I am not a critic,I just enjoy the reading and this was a great story

The prose flows well, but the Oprahesque psychbabble, the inane, infantile, feminized male blame speading, and the occasional rancid cliche (e.g. "Get a room") seriously detract from the story. You have the talent to do a lot better than this.

Well done it was a great read. Maybe the Lisa confession was a bit too long and I think there should have been a confrontation with dear Pete.

Look forward to more of your work!

Wonderful story!

The Lisa saga should have been at the beginning of the story. Not very clear why he needed to see her after the fact, Also, why forgive her?

Wonderful story well told. 5*

Great series. Loved it!

I loved it. Small complaint, 3 days between posting pt.1 and pt.2 doesn't sound like that much and when compared with others that can take weeks it's not really, really bad. Just when you want it, you want it. Thanks for the story.

This was excellent. This part two really fleshed out the emotions and baggage cheating creates.

I was in a much similar role as Mike, but much younger. Ex had cheated, lied about it, hid the problems, and tried to gaslight me until caught red handed. Mutual friends...maybe not sided with the ex, but were somewhat aware of the cheating and chose to keep me outta the loop. Including their mom and sibling. I didn't kill anyone, but it was a close thing. I put a few holes in a few walls, broke a few things, scared at least one of her lovers into never trying to contact me again. Ex became scared of me. Even though I never raised a hand to them. I did call them every name in the book though. Not proud of that.

It took over ten years to forgive the ex. Mostly because they kept playing games with me, made it harder to heal. They clearly didn't want me moving on and being happy, but they pretended to. "Concern trolling", I'v heard people call it that. I did send them a short letter forgiving them, admitting my part in the breakdown. I told them honestly how the initial betrayal made me too angry to be civil and apologized. I also said how I'm very happy with my life and hope their life is happy too. And I meant it. From what little gossip I get though, they are not seeing anyone currently and seem pretty lonely. Maybe they never read my letter, and maybe they did and don't want to respond. Maybe they can't forgive them self, or could care less about me. All I know is I'm very happy to have a partner like Emily that communicates. It's no small thing. Love by itself can't do much without trust and communication. I am a problem solver like Mike, took me many years to just let others vent when that's all they want. Glad I found people that love me enough to teach me that.

All I know is as much as betrayal hurts, it gets better. It's hard to learn from a betrayal though because we rarely get an honest dialogue from the cheater and the cheated. It's a lot of raw emotions. Great story that highlights how important trust and dialogue are. Even after a relationship ending betrayal, both people got something invaluable outta it.

Great story, loved it.

Pete deserved a punch to the dick. Otherwise, 5*

Threesome with Rowena??? Hmmmm? Possible?

Good story and well told. Looking at the comments it appears there's more chapters to come, I must have missed that note. I think it's finished...but it is your story. Thank you

An All-Time Literotica Top-50! Entertaining, evocative, masterfully-written and very believable. It is complex but perfectly explained!

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This is how good dialogue is written: [She laughed. "You know me too well, Mike." A small shift in her expression, a little pain quickly hidden. "Thanks. That would be nice." She went to open her purse, but I waved her off.] So much more than the dialogue flows from this simple passage. Too many writers scribble an exchange that comes off as flat and lifeless, because it is written like a transcript. Action beats and creative dialogue tags, along with the characters' unique reactions and expressions creates a scene where we see, hear and feel the action.

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Just below that, is this paragraph of commentary: [I returned with our drinks and sat opposite her. As we drank, we furtively assessed each other. Our eyes did the dance of two people who had known each other intimately, but who had not seen each other in some time. We looked for the subtle changes that had moved us further away from who we each used to be and for the familiar details that showed us that the old person was still there.] Again, this writing and the following paragraph is packed with a wealth of feeling and visual energy that expresses so much!

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Lisa's explanation of where their relationship fell apart is one of the most well-written and insightful pieces on here, ever. At one point, she makes a statement, a simple but powerful sentence, and then repeats it. That's the way people speak. That resonates with the reader.

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But this? Sheer brilliance of plot: [In her mind, my reaction would be the fury of a scorned husband. She had prepared herself for that, but it hadn't happened. I hadn't given her what she needed. She had needed me to excoriate her, to make her a martyr to my rage. But I hadn't given that to her. I wouldn't. I was done giving her the things she needed at the expense of my happiness.] Wow... never saw that one, and that final sentence is better than a nuclear BTB. However, some on this site will see it otherwise. (Ref: "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.") And this was so expertly arrived at: [Lisa eliminated any chance to get us back to where we should have been because of her stupid pride. She stopped even trying to be my partner.]

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Best of all, the details of Pete and Lisa's ultimate split were relegated to the realm of realistic vagueness. Yeah, like real life! Superior quality writing, here! 5++++++/5!

"No Talent Hack," my ass! But I guess "Beaucoup Talent Hack" sounds pretentions!

You're an excellent story teller, all in all good work. A few observations. Emily should never have let Abe talk to Mike like he did. She should have shut him up immediately. She was also wrong to go off on him when they got home. Forgiving the ex is OK but he should have left her sobbing. Why would he do her work for her? She was a cheating, lying slut, nothing more. Some others have said it, but Pete should have paid a big price. What kind of terrible person does that to someone they consider a best friend?

Won’t score until it’s done, but this chapter dragged a little. It got bogged down in minutiae.

Good story quite deep of this mind thing, but so real with the feelings that you put them through, not so much all the sex but it is a story on “ Literotica” after all I liked it a lot

I rarely read stories this long. The writing and lack of senseless minutia kept it interesting. I was pleased that the ex-wife was humanized in the second part. Too many cheating wife stories relegate the cheating wife to a one dimensional cartoon character. excellent job.

Glad to see in this case the good guys won

Good job! I am not a big fan of self blame when clearly she withdrew from the marriage and made every effort to hide her feelings from him because she didn’t want HiM to try to fix it. Could he have done more? Sure, but isn’t that ALWAYS true? We can always do more, but sometimes we just do what we can and it should be good enough ... if she is trying too.

This is a good one, for once the cheating wife isn't hit by martian slut ray, the story sadly has realism to it,that marriages fall apart for a lot of reasons. It rarely is the wife is a slut or the husband is abusive. You could say the husband had a part in the breakup,, but she never tried to open up, couldn't.

He found the right woman w Emily, someone who could share with him, and be a couple.

As for Lisa and Pete, likely it was that what they thought was love was two people who screwed up other relationships trying desperately to make it right. Likely she or he realized they loved the concept of being with the other person more than being with them, that the love was likely nothing more than two people who fell into the others arm and bed to have something.

Nice job, it is an intelligent and yes,sexy story. Gave it a 5

I had a feeling that Rowena was gonna accompany Emily into their bedroom that night for the threesome that she hinted "Santa might bring him" and therefore give her the baby she's wanted. But great story

Great story, probably belongs in the Romance category but then you wouldn't get to enjoy the incels in the comments.

While I admittedly liked part one better, it was still an all-around five-star story. Hopefully, we will see a lot more from you.

This is a 5star story as is part 1. Very well done and easy to read. I also enjoyed "I know my wife" also 5 stars. I hope to read more of your future stories. 5stars

You certainly write miles beyond the average writer here. As much as every beta hated his sit down with Lisa, it actually smacked of a good deal of truth of affairs. Though him taking more than a smidge of blame was the usual cliched Hero Husband.

Other than that and being a bit padded it was a really good read. His ex and his ex BFF got reaped what they sowed.

I'll be honest, we did have a writer here that wrote about on par with you, but he aimed for a different crowd. Now add in your name.....................

I really liked it but there should have been a reckoning with Pete. He was his friend for 20 years and that's not a betrayal that can easily be forgiven.

Thanks for writing

You know, the one who counseled his wife to talk to her husband, for months, but in that time HE never talked to her husband, his "best friend." He just started fucking his best friend's wife as soon as he got the chance.

Lisa ended up being a Bad marriage partner. So far Emily appears to be a good marriage partner. The MC (main cuck) didn't deserve either of these women, he just had bad luck the first time, and, so far, good luck the second time. Maybe some day he'll figure out that a successful marriage has Nothing to do with luck. I wonder if Lisa knows that yet? Even the dumbest thief is too smart to trust another thief. Lisa probably married Pete as a gesture to signal that her cheating on her husband was really driven by true love for a new man. Now she knows in her heart of hearts that her main flaw in not a lack of ethics, morals, or character. Her main flaw is that she's too stupid to be a good wife. It will be hard to fix that.

As far as the psychobabble and self denigration for not being a mind reader, that was just some weird signalling? That its not All or Always the whore's fault? Hope that gets you some pussy, but it just looks weak and lame. Any woman who finds That appealing is not going to call you Daddy, she's going to think of you as baby. Maybe grow a pair? In the mean time, thanks for the effort.

Where the first piece was a solid, complete tale, this section is bit all over the place. Looking at the whole story, it now seems a bit like a jigsaw puzzle with some pieces being put down in the wrong order in places. It hit on several clichés without bringing anything new.

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By early in this part of the story, Mike is now in touch with his feelings, into kinks and is super-expressive. But suddenly we're to believe he gets jealous over her interaction with the gym ape, Abe. OK? That interaction should have happened much earlier in the story, before he was transformed into Sensitive-Man. Happening at the point it does, his reaction is waaay too forced. Simply, if Emily is *that* gorgeous, like we're told she is, this would have happened early and often in the story. By now, it's like "why wasn't this there, pages ago"?

******

In fact, all of the early scenes all went on too long. Good writing, but once the point was made, there's no need to beat it into us.

******

Then, there's the meeting with the ex.

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As I noted in my comment on the first section, the LW angle was all but dead by the time the first chapter ended, so, if there was to be a reckoning with the ex in this section, there needed to be some real drama to follow up for the scene to be interesting. That never happened. It's literally, "I ran into her in a coffee shop." Mike's interaction with his ex had no heat at all. Remember, he's turning into Sensitive Man now, but he just sat there and listened to her complete and utter feminist nonsense for almost 40% of this entire chapter. All the tropes show up for their own cup of coffee before moving on: she needed adventure. She married too young. She felt trapped. She made such sacrifices but she felt she should suffer in silence. She was torn between two men. Blah, blah, blah. Her claims for taking responsibility were hollow like a fragile Christmas ornament, yet we sat through it, all for Mike to absolve her, Christ-like, with a wave of his hand. There was no inner conflict or hesitation on his part after hearing this story. His ascension to Sensitive-Man was complete.

*****

Mike and the ex went back to his place to talk about her betrayal? For privacy? Really? How many reasons are there for this to be a terrible idea?

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I really don't see how this was closure for him, or made him a better man. Ex needed adventure. Emily had adventure already in her life and now wants calm. He already got the promotion so he doesn't need to work as hard. So he won't neglect his new gf and can pay more attention to Emily. Every point that had been a cause of conflict in his original marriage and a reason why she cheated was now completely removed in the earlier plot of the story. Even Abe, the male competitor is all but emasculated to be a caricature-ish clown so he wouldn't be a risk of betrayal, unlike Pete. Why do we need any of this scene? How does any of this help Mike? No wonder he was able to move on so quickly. Again, if this happened earlier in the story and Mike made changes in his life to accommodate Emily and he actually grew, then there's something there. But this all comes way too late to be either functional or revelatory.

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It's good writing. But my earlier concerns that part 1 was already the conclusion of the story were proven true in my eyes. Not much is added here that we didn't already know, other than Mike's elevation to near sainthood, and his earthly reward of the energetic nymph, whom he also elevates from her troubled past along with him.

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This story is done. There is no need to revisit it. But keep writing. Keep messing with the concepts and try moving them around in your drafts so you can see where things would get interesting. Good luck!

Pete should have taken more damage for his part in the breakdown of Lisa and Mike's marriage. In a group of close friends the males would have been less likely to warm up to him. Knowing the circumstances, he would have gotten basic courtesy as Lisa's new significant other but little else. Why reward a man who had an affair with his best friend's wife?! If he has no qualms having sex with her he certainly won't feel restricted from doing so with the wives of the new guys he's met! Pete needed an adjustment to his senses of loyalty.

Well done

A great end to the tale, I love how dedicated Emily was to him after Lisa. I also enjoyed the scene with Lisa and that Lisa and Pete didn’t get their happy place. She screwed him over with Pete and Pete should have known better as should most of their friends.

That he was better of with Emily was obvious. I also loved how her coloured history brought her a lot more zeal and dedication towards him.

Great story, bookmarked!

Thanks for writing!

Excellent, truly excellent

Jesus christ that was hot. Only one other writer on here gets to me. Interesting.

Very well done but a couple of comments. No way Emily can let Abe talk to Mike like that, and once she did, don't see any reason for him to stick around. Disrespect is disrespect and it probably will only get worse not better. That she couldn't see that and chided him for his reaction shows a different side of her you didn't develop, so him sticking around feels way off. Also, Mike's talk with Lisa ended with him taking the high road or so it would seem. His forgiveness felt completely insincere. He came close to the truth when he said he did it for himself, not for her. If you have no feelings for someone there is no forgiveness. He was just digging the knife in deeper, which he admitted. He wanted her to suffer so he said the words, "I forgive" but what he meant was, "I don't care." Not the same thing.

The therapy speak got a little old, but it was pretty well thought out. Why someone would forgive cheating is beyond me. My ex actually used me as a job referral after our divorce. I think she finally figured out why she wasn't getting her dream jobs.

Great story. Full of the real feelings people who go through that have, and more often than not, hold onto.

Well, you certainly have the talent you hack!

I really enjoyed the story. I felt the pain that Mike went through and loved Emily. I wish somehow they could’ve met up with Pete and Lisa just so they could see how happy Emily made Mike.

And as for the anonymous comment below about the gay couple… What an idiot. Love is love no matter who it’s with. I can’t believe there are still homophobic knuckleheads out there.

Four pages of fucking. One page of story.

I know this is a porn site but maybe change the ratio a little.

Well done.

Strong story and well written.

Top ratings from me.

Probably what, 75% of the commenters on this site are too mentally damaged to understand that people in fiction, say, think, feel and do things YOU don't like. One smooth-brain said he skipped over the conversation between Lisa and Pete, and then stated his assumption of what transpired, which was incorrect. The full-wit (not to be confused with half-wit) in The Old Dominion State prattled on about how the characters shouldn't have comported themselves thusly; he scolded the writer for not writing to HIS expectations. Another critical genius said that OP shouldn't have let Abe speak to Pete as he did, although when Emily explained Abe, it made total sense. Finally, I appreciate DevlinCarnate's reasoned, well-written critique, and HE has a resume of work. Ditto with that Legion dude. They have cred. Caution, though, you really should comment as anonymous because the rabble will hold it against you and one-bomb your stories. I learned the hard way!

A great story. Thank you for sharing.

Blah, blah, blah…

Well done.

The pervasiveness of the “Daddy” business creeped me out in the first part. I appreciated your recovery here: it became a minor, occasional theme, not the defining paradigm for their whole relationship.

Clearly much hard work went into this one. It left no stone unturned with the characters and how things developed. The scene with Mike and Lisa addressing the affair was extremely nuanced and well done. Was only sorry Lisa divorced instead of somehow being brought back as a sub-godmother or something.

While not the wunderbar of Part 01, it was a good read. I look forward to more of your tales

Keep Writing

JH4Fun

Really liked the first part, this one was “less than”. 3/5

That was a well thought out and nicely written conclusion. 5*. Beneath it all, Lisa was quiter controlling, wasn't she? But she couldn't control herself.

Lovely story all round. AAAAAA++++++

Good story. Thanks for counteracting the cuck crap. I think Lisa's explanation took up too much space. Can't understand why Emily didn't make things right when Abe thanked Mike for looking out for his girl. Maybe I'm miss interpreting the statement but at least she should have introduce Mike as her lover. Was this over looked? If not then Mike had every right to be upset because of this lapse and the fact that Abe's name nor the relationship never came up. I do mean relationship because a gym buddy is very close at times. "I can't make me trust you". She shouldn't make it hard, considering his recent history. This may sound strange but this would have been a great story if it didn't have so much sex in it. More tawdry than sensual . 4

Getting better all the time. Well thought out and well written. I’m glad you kept up

Good chapter!

5

Thank you for continuing this engrossing story. I very much like the way you explore, over the two stories, Mike and Lisa's thoughts and actions. Mike, if not Lisa, had learnt from their earlier mistakes. That makes the passion (and shared nerdery) with Emily clearer to understand because of the contrast. And I love a happy ending.

After Chapter One this story had no place to go, but it was stretched out because of Lisa's confession. I guess it did give Mike a chance to realize that he was partly to blame, but so was Lisa. Could they have made it if she had been 100% honest? Who knows, but it does look like Em and Mike were a lot better off than Lisa and Mike might have been. Who knows? All in all it was a good effort by the self-proclaimed NoTalentHack. Worth 4* in my book. FYI - I was less and less interested in the happenings in Chapter Two and lapsed into my skimming mode and completely missed the advertised corny joke. And I didn't have the patience to go back and hunt for it. Cest la vie.

This is a case where part 2 was a let down from part 1. I was perfectly fine where the story ended with part 1 and this part didn't really add any depth to the story. If anything it subtracted from the story.

The meet up with ex-wfe Lisa was just a platform for Lisa to express every trite cheating cliche in the book that was nothing but self justification and self pitying over her shitty way she decided to end her marriage. Isn't it funny how every time a married woman needs to find herself its always buy fucking someone else beside her husband. Lisa quit on her marriage and wanted out. Instead of ending it amicably she blew it up in the most dramatic way possible....... getting caught fucking her husband's best friend. in their martial bed. Can't get any selfish or crueler than that.

As I mentioned in the end of Part 1; in order to move forward in life and let go of the past you DO NOT have to forgive those individuals who wronged you. Living a happy and full life, not being consumed by bitterness or revenge and living with enough joy and positive relationships to feel “good” - these things should not hinge on the attainment of one valiant act of forgiveness. You can be happy and you can carry on with life without forgiving those who have hurt you. In fact, that heartbreak and anger can be used as a catalyst to drive you to do more good in life for yourself and others. The ability to have the life we want, at the level of positivity we desire, despite our past hurts, is a goal worthy of itself.

Also, Emily "the great communicator" pretty much shit the bed with the whole Abe the Muscle and the encounter with Mike at the gym. Her complaint; "I can't make you trust me" was a pretty hollow statement. You earn trust by being trustworthy in all things and you avoid the appearance of impropriety. Now the question is did Emily's behavior, familiarity and flirty interaction with Abe the Muscle pass the test of " avoiding the appearance of impropriety" given that Emily had never mentioned or explained her "friendship" with Abe the Muscle to Mike? Given the circumstance of the encounter, her knowledge of Mike's past and their previous discussions about being open and communicating then the answer would be a big "no". She also failed to quickly defuse the situation by recognizing Mike's reaction and then taking him aside to "talk" and explain that Abe was just an old gym buddy and nothing more.

BTB, is the only acceptable action here.

Common theme (part 1 and 2) but well written. I do wish for all men who get cheated on that they too find a younger, sexier, faithful woman just waiting for them as they continue toe financially secure and have a great family in the end. That in itself would make any divorce worth it!

In spite of your nom De plume, you are quite a talented hack, to me, at least.

Look forward to more than this pittance of stories.

Another totally meaningless story,

Brilliant, mature, thoughtful adult story. I especially appreciate the M’s and his ex’s post divorce conversation. Incredibly thoughtful and healing conversation, for both of them.her down-to-earth candid and sincere self accounting and remorse, and his capacity for foregiveness and acceptance of his own shortcomings was inspiring, although I’m sure it left many of the knuckled rafters who troll this website spewing expletive about “whimp

cucks” and the like — only further proof that you got it right. The MC’s constructive self reflection also bodes well for his and Em’s future together. This was Spot on and refreshingly brilliant. More please.