All Comments on 'February Sucks - In Cold Blood'

I kinda' liked this version . . . though the idea of doing things she hadn't done with her husband, while common, kind of detracts from the story. The idea that it's not who you lie with, but who you lie to, strikes me as a stronger message, and one Linda had to learn the hard way.

Exactly, some things seemed outdated.

In this plot, sex is incidental.

It's about betrayal, total disrespect and public humiliation.

Who does that to someone they love? You wouldn't even do it to a stranger.

Personally, I don't believe that in very old age, one remembers a night of sex to qualify the beauty of one's life.

Special moments with your children, moments of intimacy and connection with your wife, moments of love and friendship with your loved ones........ that yes, but certainly not a big cock and a few orgasms.

I say keep them coming. I'm amazed at the imagination of authors on this site. How they can keep coming up with new endings is great so I for one am happy to hear more.

I do agree with the commentators below that her giving the stud things she never gave her husband is unnecessary. It's the betrayal that is the crux of this story. Even if she only stayed the night with him, her betrayal is unforgivable. 5 stars from me.

well done, taking steps, exactly the right thing to do. in that situation best thing for both

5* A good take on the "old story". This feels a realistic response - she destroys him (and their marriage) and he clears off. He's got the message loud and clear. I'm not sure that the children would readjust to being with him as quickly as you suggest but it is your story so I accept it. Thank you for posting it.

It's over the top and could be toned down a little, but it beats the #!*@$ out of the RAAC versions.

The biggest problem with this story is that in the original, Jim was mostly concerned with his kids, where in this one he takes off for parts unknown without any concern for the kids he abandoned, and left Linda with almost no money to care for them. That’s a major disconnect.

I do like the phone conversation, interesting take on the story, I don’t like running away from the children, therefor 3*

Well done. Good job keeping it brief and thanks for not reprinting all of GAs text

Awesome. One of the best followups to the original. Bravo!

Not a bad effort. Nicely done.

Leaving the kids is a problem. Still okay. D

one of the better and more realistic ones. I can't imagine the amount of hurt and rage a husband would feel in that situation.

Linda's life with cats... meh. I imagine she'd live a lonely life until she got some serious counselling. Once that's done I'm sure she'd try again to get him back... especially this version with a temper like she had as shown by her anger towards Holly.

The original had Jim very, very conflicted over what to do because of the potential impact on his kids. In this version, Jim didn’t give a damn given that he took all the money, leaving Linda with nothing. Hardly shows that he cares about the kids.

The beauty of GA’s original is that it placed Jim in a conundrum, where he had to take a lot of different factors into account before choosing the best shitty solution to a shitty situation.

I would like to add that his version of Jim wouldn't give a shit romantically about Linda after he moved on. no counselling or remorse could remove the stain of her betrayal.

I've commented on other "February Sucks" story take-offs that George Anderson's introduction (that you included here in your story) is really a setup for the reader to ask themselves..."how would I respond and handle this situation if it were to happen to me?" The Jim and Linda narrative serves as nothing more than example of how Anderson's introduction might play out in real life. But the actual truth is that the 'husband' reader either unconsciously or subconsciously begins to imagine how he would handle the situation if Marc LaValliere stole his wife. Thus we have many scenarios that become stories. Your story is real. I can easily see where the husband would just walk away and be done with it. No fighting, no reconciliation, no counseling, an no revenge. Obviously there is the fallout from separation and divorce and the subsequent consequences of starting a new life for both parties. I like your scenario, it's real. Not over the top. It's very believable.

There are a few obvious issues here and they nearly all centre around the kids. Jim can't throw the children in Linda's face when he effectively did a runner and withdrew all of the money by which they are supported. He's as irresponsible and conceited as Linda, only in a different way. Cutting off direct and physical contact with Emma and Tommy despite the likely impact on their wellbeing... How do you even justify that?

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So i don't think they'd rock up in Florida and be delighted to see him. Nor would they turn into decent humans again just like that. Linda was a terrible wife, but it's fair to say that Jim's quality as a father shared similar airspace.

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There's no escaping Linda's level fo delusion and the humiliation inherent to George Anderson's story, but you've made the husband an unsympathetic character in this re-telling.

Same old, same old around an outraged, clever husband and one-dimensional all but bimbo wife.

If I had read this ending shortly after the original, when the emotional response was still high, I would have rated this higher. The story showed the appropriate amount of anger, but it's been too long with too many other endings for me to respond that viscerally, so I had to give it an average 3 stars.

Sorry, but this story has been beat to death and I don't see where you have added anything to the continuing saga.

Not that much different than most others that have apeared , I just spied you have a part 2 so I better go read it.

One of the good follow-ons

Nothing but uninteresting tropes without anything new.

I particularly note the "ended his playing career" line as these leitmotifs always conveniently forget the subsequent prison sentences for the husbands.

February Sucks. All. Winter. Long!

a more normal ending, no nijas, cia, scotland yard etc. i cant see in the life of me even with children how this is not the true end.

I enjoyed the story but it kind of ended on an abrupt note, so only a 3. Maybe a follow-up from the wife view and how she felt the cost was would bring it up to a 4.

Don’t get me wrong she got what she deserved but it would have ended better with her understanding the cost.

one of the better follow ups no nitpicking here

Well done version. I really liked that the epilogue just provided a brief summation of everything. In most cases, all the detail on the specific interactions of people in those epilogue situations is unnecessary. The writer tied up the details without belaboring the point. Kudos to you.

Page 1 was okay, except that it's clear you are not a father. No good man is going to essentially abandon his children on a permanent basis as he was willing to do.

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Page 2, though, was rushed and seemed as if its only purpose was to check as many LW cliche boxes as possible.

3. Not terrible, about average. Some good ideas such as Jim just leaving rather then staying with Linda or in the area but the build up doesn't really pay off I felt. The epilogue should have really been fleshed out to show the supposed burning and to see the journey Jim goes on to heal.

Jim handles his situation quite well in this version. He never lets Linda get away with it by never letting her back in his life. He hammers at her betrayal until she sort of gets it. He never gives her the chance to yell Marc’s name during sex or any of the other stuff Linda would throw at him. Most importantly, Linda never gets to enjoy the memory of the greatest sex she ever had!

Fuckin' A!

Fine telling of the aftermath - thank you!

All these commenters cheering on an absentee and uncaring father figure. Very odd.

Gave it a 3. Probably deserved a 2. No father abandons his kids.

This is the issue -- a husband and father is stunned to learn that his two roles are in stark, direct conflict. If anyone wants to write a worthwhile story of this type, address that conflict in a way that the reader can accept and appreciate.

The best part of the story is the question posed by the waitress -- did his wife change or was he always married to a cheater who just happened to reveal her true nature the night before?

Thoughtful!

Excellent and exactly how this situation should have been handled … quick and decisively. 5*

This is the closes to being realistic as there has been out of all of them. So, I gave you a 5 for that alone.

His wife cheats in "cold blood". So, his reaction is to abandon her AND HIS CHILDREN, emptying her bank account and canceling her credit cards so she AND HIS CHILDREN are now penniless, and, the whole time, he keeps blaming her for HER cold-blooded actions? He even has the balls to tell her how SHE doesn't care about the children, because she couldn't be reached for a few hours? Did he forget about turning his phone off himself?

And then you tell us how he made them sweat for a while before giving them access to money again, but being such a "caring dad" sure helped turning them into "model children". Are you kidding me!?

Sorry, but I was instantly incapable of sympathizing with the guy. Almost every argument he used to make Linda feel bad about what she did, was instantly negated by him doing even worse.

All in all, considering how this story of yours adds absolutely nothing to the "February sucks" genre, it kinda feels like you just read all the other fan endings and strung together all the responses you had in your head, without spending a single second questioning whether it even makes sense.

1/5 for the story. 2/5 for the lack of typos.

I admire the effort but the effort had more holes than a colander in it. It was good to bring up the discussion the men had with women at the conference, but it really didn't play a key role in your adaptation. (It was the same mistake GA made in the original that left readers/writers driven to write sequels. You did well to emphasize that Linda left Jim standing on what was a "special night" rather than some random date night. That fact was what negated what GA tried to push on the readers. Where things for you fell apart was Jim is presented as a loving husband and doting father of two. Once he retrieved their clothes from the hotel, the rest of your story runs contrary to his character presentation in the original. In addition, you provided only a "digest" of events providing no depth to the story. 3.4*

For the ones tempted to roll their eyes and say, "Oh no, not another Febsux story!" good news: you're forewarned, and Literotica has several thousand other stories to read. Go, enjoy!

I enjoyed NOT reading your story. I mean, with an intro like this...what choice did I have? Yeah, while it scored high, it appears to suck, like the original story and the thousands of unoriginals. I was trying not to read it because, yeah, it's not original or good, really. But I couldn't resist until your intro. Thanks for saving me the time but giving me a good excuse to pan your effort, well George's effort, really...

I have no problem with this version. Can't say the same of some of the others. The man took care of business. Name of the game. % stars, the Bear approves. Screw the bitch. It's what SHE did.

The BEAR

Fair enuf and no more snow

Good job! Now please write some stories on a subject totally unrelated to a month of the year.

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""But Jim, what about our two children?"

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"Yes, you cruel slut, what about them? Last night you showed how much they mattered to you. If Emma had an accident and had to go to hospital, nobody had any way to contact you. What kind of mother does that? So now we know how much they mean to you. Not nearly as much as having a jock drill all your holes as you cheat on them like a teenage groupie.""

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And he showed how much the kids mattered to him. Eventually in the divorce, he'd have to return her half of the money, and start paying child support, but the kids need food on the table every day; how was Linda supposed to feed his children for the months a divorce would take? Howe was she going to keep a roof over their heads and the utilities turned on?

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In Mr Anderson's original, and even in most of the seemingly endless sequels, Jim is still a good guy, still a good father, whether he stays with Lind or divorces her. In this one, he's so consumed by himself that he's an asshole to his kids as well as Linda. She might deserve him being an asshole to her, but the kids don't.

It is both distressing and unsurprising that the story received high ratings and much congratulatory "well-done" comments even though the MC is the worst possible asshole -- see ReedRichards' comments.

@someoneother and @ReedRichards, your complaints are essentially: "you didn't include the details I what in your story, so I will insert my assumptions and call you names."

Not valid, IMHO.

funperson wrote about the husband-wife interaction, and glossed over the divorce process, only discussing the end results. You choose to ignore that her parents are local, and wife is a grown ass adult.

FAFO is justice.

I understand the sentiment, but ReedRichards nailed it. The kids were made victims by his desire for revenge. A more mature response is required if he wishes to retain his man card.

I'll agree that Jim lost sight of his responsibility for the kids, BUT what State in the USA gives a fair shake to fathers? Most Courts consider the only purpose of a father is to pay the bills - our guidance means nothing. Short of Jim doing a snatch-n-grab to a foreign country with name change - Jim was just a bill payer.

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Per the story it was the kids that broke Linda's back over their desire for Jim/DAD. Short of the kids becoming unruly Jim had no chance in getting them. The mother CHEAT gets all the benefits and DAD all the bills.

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Nice to see this one got the best for Jim and the kids.

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5.5****** Hooyah, Salutes

Disappearing from your kids lives because of something their mother did was far more cold blooded.

Leaving for 2 weeks, cleaning out the savings and moving to another state would suggest this guy doesn’t care too much about his kids. Very convenient that Linda gives them up as it makes Jim seem like a better father than he actually is.

Can we please stop? This poor horse, I mean really, people.

Except for the epilogue it was a good story.

Unrealistic to think he would have just run away from the kids like that, no matter how much she hurt him. Story made perfect sense if they were a childless couple, but his reaction was selfish and not the one of a loving father.....doesn't mean he needed to cave and in any way accept what she did, but it was hard to enjoy given how he basically abandoned the kids.

Not too impressed with Jim who apparently didn't care at all about his kids. He left them with Linda and went crying to his mommy in Florida. He should have filed for divorce and fought for at least joint custody of the kids. I just can't understand how a father could just desert his kids like he did. To me that made him look worse than Linda.

I"m glad Linda got her just dessert

not bad ending to the famous Jim and Linda story

February Sucks is a great prompt, but this doesn’t do anything new or interesting, 2*

What a pleasant BTB! The kids made the cake! I feel slightly unhappy that the shitty society we live in rewarded her treachery with half their assets, but WTF, he has a happy ending, and she is suffering, despite all her stolen money. WIN. 5 stars.

@c24j and @franceman - I don't think you got the point. The "anal sex" comments were not designed to prove some special point to YOU the reader - they were designed to prove Jim's point to delusional idiot Linda, who wouldn't understand anything OTHER than crass things like that. SHE wouldn't get that her lies and betrayals were bad, but she can at least comprehend "you gave your worthless ass to him but not me".

Would have given it 5* but for the excessive bad language. Was one of the best if not best February sucks sequels I've read

No better than any of the others

Well Done, In my mind you have accurately described the results of her actions

Should have fought it out

"I could not wrap my mind around how anyone could do that to someone they loved and planned a special night with. If, like so many Loving Wives stories, it was preceded by weeks or months of withdrawal, dissatisfaction, or even hostility, I would understand Linda's cold-blooded betrayal--not like it, but understand it. But literally minutes after declaring to Dave that all her dances were going to be with me, while we were holding hands at the table, making goo-goo eyes at each other, so much the others joked we should get a room? How does that compute on any planet?"

There are so many ways you could have written this without doing a weak 4th wall break. Why the reference to LW stories?

Better than many attempts but still problematic, as others have noted so I won’t belabor them further. One thing I will note: the simile “hung like a Holstein” doesn’t really work. It conjures up bovine imagery which is fine if you want an extremely unflattering filter through which to view a woman, but we are meant to think of Holly as being hot which your simile negates.

Nothing new after thousands of similar alternative versions, with useless dialogues about what kind of sex she had, and flat typical ending. Much better let the original tale rest in peace, once for all.

Buddy, you need help. Dead serious here; you have an unhealthy obsession.

1 star - nothing unique or interesting in this FEB-SUKS rendition - so one more one-star rating.

I am sorry, but no real man would walk away from his kids like this moron.

My dad took us to the other side of the continent for a year, and I would not walk away from my kids either.

Author is obviously not a parent. A decent father prioritizes his children’s well-being over everything else. No self-respecting father would abandon his children the way Jim did when he just up and skipped town, no matter how badly his wife hurt his feelings. Sure, you write that he got custody later, but that certainly didn’t seem to be his plan when he flew the coop. He criticizes Linda for not thinking of their children for one night, so how much worse is he for skipping town without a word permanently?

It’s not the kids’ fault, and the way Jim just abandoned them really undercuts any sympathy I might have had for him.

Nothing new but it is always nice to see the cheating skank slut Linda burned badly.

An ok ending but I'm still waiting for the one that reduces her to physical rubble, then reinserts her into mainstream life, and then reduces her to an even smaller pile of horse shit. Until she dies alone in tremendous physical and emotional pain.

Just awful. No new ground. Derivative.

The original tale and all its derivatives are to me like a bad drug. I know they are not good for me but impossible to not partake. As is another story ‘The Joke’ impossible not to click on and read.

This was worthy for having the following observation, which I don’t remember being stated in any of the variations I’ve read regarding impact on the kids:

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“Was it worth your kids growing up knowing their mother tossed away their childhood for one night, one single night, of sex? Their entire childhood was worth less to you than one single night with a fellow narcissist. How valuable will that make them feel growing up?”

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I keep going back to what author NoTalentHack observed about the Linda character — that her behavior can only be explained by understanding that she was a narcissistic sociopath. Trying to find any other explanation is futile. And trying to figure out how to get Jim to reconcile with such a person is also futile. That’s why this latest variation works…this Jim did the only thing possible: cut bait.

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5 *****

It's a plotline not a story.

Not bad. Four stars.

JPB

Concise and fun.

Nope, sorry. Just another scarred “writer” who’s fragile male ego is so damaged by a fictional story, that they had to work out their demons on their keyboard to restore their manhood. I hope it helped.

Or, is this just another of dozens too lazy to write their own Celebrity Hall Pass story? GA’s story is certainly one of the best, but if you type in celebrity hall pass in the search stories section of Lit literally hundreds will appear dating back over 20 years prior to GA’s effort.

Football contracts don't work that way y'all need to change it to a movie star or something more plausible. Very lazy ending, if ur not going to take the time for a real ending then don't write the story. I did like the concept of it though

meh....must have wrote this one while sitting on the toilet taking a dump I guess. Just rewrote someone else's story.

When you're served up a shit sandwich, you say "no thanks!" and then you move on with your life. You certainly don't eat it and you certainly don' t say - "May I have another!". Five Stars.

This is a question about the concept, not the actual story telling, what was the actual point of this story in drama and buildup? Unless Linda was drugged, she intentionally did something very cold and ruthless. Her opinions about earning forgiveness come from a one sided selfish point of view. This author NAILS the essence of the story. Either you accept such an evil narcissist in your life, or you don't. This concept has alot of retellings because it upset so many people, not because it's a complex issue. This author gets that! Finally an author that addresses how simple the solution is.

Excellent!!! Much less wimpy MC than the original. Make her suffer!

Somebody finally got it right!

Just don’t be there when she comes home!

"Come on, guys, don't be that way. It's not that big a deal." - Could ANY of those women HONESTLY say that they would say the same thing if it was her husband going off with some super model? I highly doubt it!

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And it's that whole "Event, with a capital 'E,' that they'll remember for the rest of their lives (and their husbands will, also!) that would make any reconciliation impossible.

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"It was only one night." - I only robbed one bank, but I'm not a bank robber!

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"Pretty women dump him for younger hunks. The only ones he can make it with now are dowdy sluts like you." - This sounds like revisionist history, both in Linda's appearance and Marc's ability to attract women.

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@franceman, you're right, as Linda now knows the "Event, with a capital 'E'" wasn't worth it, but she obviously didn't think that through at the time.

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@SDN1955, while I agree that thinking about the kids would impact his decision, but there's still no way that I can see a path to ANY reconciliation, let alone RAAC.

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@gstein, my problem with George's story is that he has the men (not just Jim) react totally opposite to his real-life inspiration, which was MUCH more realistic.

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@nickbgb, I agree with your criticism of Jim's actions, but the major thrust of the story is still Linda's actions.

This is now your THIRD Feb. follow-up, and if I recall correctly you have more in the pipeline? Why not put all that effort into ONE quality story, better yet something original?

A bit over the top, but amusing.

Good take I enjoyed it.

Ok, I smiled. Thank you!

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Be well!

Shoulda brought the kids with him from the start.

How to make it up to him? Well, when NEITHER of them remember what she did, then she has made it up to him. As long as they remember…either worst night of his life or best sex of hers…then she still hasn’t made it up to him.

Another version I agree no real father would his kids so nether one of them in this version cared about the children.

Better than average and without the MC being a total simp, which is a plus on LW.

Yeah l liked it, 4/5, unlike other l enjoy the Feb sucks stories where Linda gets it in the neck

The claims are unfounded.

He's a normal father.

He didn't leave them.

He moved to keep it for himself. a normal brain.

And the children later moved in with him.

"For the ones tempted to roll their eyes and say, "Oh no, not another Febsux story!" good news: you're forewarned,"

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So, you obviously think people are too fucking stupid to figure that out by the title. Just because people are "forewarned" does not absolve beating a dead horse to death, which is what all of these are.

She fucked around and found out. And he got the kids, and taught them a valuable lesson: Don't accommodate evil.

Has to be the worst one yet, he accuses HER of being cruel, yet he takes all the money and cruely abandons his kids? Then he gets them after they turn in to brats and suddenly they're perfect little angels? What a load of BS, if anything they'd be worse with him for abandoning them with no money, no care at all to their welfare.

Another February Sucks delight! Thank you so much for contributing your take. Got to love the Linda the cat lady ending. FS is a fairy tale to be sure but your version was well told and everyone loves a happy ending. High Five to ya. 5*s.

Well, I share comments from OverconfidentSarcasm. He abandons his kids. At least he did not pick them up in his current state of mind. He just forgot about them and went to his parents. The same author writes a couple of other stories about February-Sucks but the only odd thing this time is the reference to a horse thief (good shot). Not sure the original does get them reconciled but would have to re-re-re-read that one again. A 2 at most.

Oh no. Not another Febsux story!

Added nothing to the ever crueler flogging of this very dead horse.