Confession Time: Couples Therapy

"Have you thought about what I said about divorcing Ellen?" Glynne said as she returned.

I frowned. "I don't know," I said, slowly. "There might still be a chance for us."

It sounded strange, even to me, to say something like that given what I had just done.

I continued, "Although now I'm not so sure, now that I've had sex with you."

She waved the thought away with her hand. "Oh, you shouldn't feel guilty about that," she said, nonchalantly. "She's been having affairs for a long time."

I was shocked. "What? How?" I sputtered. "With who?"

She shrugged. "Oh, I have no idea who she's sleeping with, but it's at least one person, probably two or three."

Her confidence in her statements unnerved me.

"It was obvious when we went out to coffee after that first group session," she said. "She was projecting all kinds of things onto you, with such specifics that only someone who has been cheating for a while would focus on."

I struggled to remember the topics of discussion on that day. Ellen was always accusing me of cheating or sleeping around on her even though I hadn't done it until Glynne.

She cocked her head to the side, a thought striking her. "You really didn't know?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Funny," she said. "Even Aaron picked it up, and he's as dense as a brick."

Glynne started gathering her things. "That's why I met with you at the park, actually," she said. "I thought that you were as frustrated as I was, and that you knew Ellen was playing around on you. 

"When I decided to divorce Aaron," she continued, "I figured I had nothing left to lose with him. Although, if I knew you didn't know Ellen was cheating on you, I wouldn't have seduced you."

She paused, and then looked at me with uncharacteristic softness. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this," she said, kindly. "But you have nothing to feel guilty about. She's been stringing you along for a long time, and has been manipulating you into thinking that you were a bad husband. She's been accusing you of doing the very same things that she's been doing to you."

She moved to the door, and I followed her. She turned and kissed me on the cheek. It was affectionate, and completely unlike her earlier raw sexual behavior. "She's been abusing you," she said, softly. "You're a really sweet guy, you know. Get out before it's too late."

With that, she was gone.

Epilogue

Sadly, I never saw Glynne again. Many of the remaining clients that she had lined up didn't pan out. The last I heard, she had filed for divorce from Aaron, but I never found out the outcome to that story.

Two months later, I had enough of her penchant for public humiliation so I asked Ellen for a divorce. We agreed on a separation at first, and she moved out of the house to an apartment closer to where she worked. The final straw had come when she had become more physically violent than I could tolerate, over a disagreement about trying to join her in some of her hobbies. The abuse had gotten so bad that I realized that I would find myself in a hospital if I didn't end things. 

Three months after that, I found out why she had gotten so violent. It turns out that Glynne had been right all along. Ellen participated in some activities where she had several lovers, and didn't want me anywhere near that group. 

It wasn't clear when it had started, but apparently she had been cheating on me for years, off and on. By the time Glynne and I had our moment, Ellen had been an old pro at having affairs. Looking back, I was able to piece together that she was her most abusive immediately after she had fucked someone else.

In fact, much of Ellen's projections of me cheating happened on the days when she had cheated, herself. She had fucked one of her training buddies the very morning of our first group therapy session, and had taken a nooner with him again the day when Glynne had first sucked me off in the SUV. Her reaction to me speaking with Glynne had been a direct result of her own conscience after cheating on me.

Not surprisingly, almost immediately after finding out about her affairs and having her out of my life on a daily basis, business started to pick up. She'd only been out of the house for about three months when my fortunes started to turn. Clients started coming in, and partnerships that I had cultivated started to pay off. The following year I turned a profit for the first time.

Without Ellen's constant disparagement, the business grew stronger and I did well with more clients, thanks to word of mouth. It turns out that having someone berate you and tell you that you're a shitty businessman is a fantastic way to fail. 

I grew more confident, which meant that I was able to close more deals on my own. That first client that Glynne brought in referred me to several more, so I had even more to be grateful to her about.

My attitude shifted without the need to be on the defensive, day in and day out. Three years after she moved out, I sold the company for a profit - none of which she was entitled to. We had no children, and neither of us wanted any legal or financial obligation to the other upon the finality of our divorce.

Ellen, on the other hand, openly flaunted her affair. He was a married man with three kids, and despite her protestations about the evils of me possibly cheating on her, she had no qualms or remorse about her behavior at all. When his wife found out (I had never met her; I didn't even know her name, so I had no way of contacting her), it got particularly ugly.

I didn't care. Not my rodeo, not my horse.

At the end of the day, my situation with Glynne was a very short footnote in my relationship with Ellen. And yet, it's ironic that I don't actually remember any of my sex life with Ellen while we were married. I do remember - vividly - my short interlude with Glynne.

Funny that.