All Comments on 'The Bridge - A Little More'

I guess I'd rather have you murdering other writer's characters and stories than people or small animals, but perhaps instead you could take up golf or building ships in bottles. Something less annoying to the rest of us. What you wrote bears no discernible relationship to the original story, and merely detracts from it.

1 star.

Even if they are serious, they are given in advance, i.e. "Honey, if you ever get a chance to fuck Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt, go for it!"

They are NOT excused AFTER the fact: "Bitch, you cheated on me!" "But, Honey, it was Brad Pitt!" "Oh, that's alright then."

"But it was amazing how seldom one of those real Princes ever called me again for a second date, while the fakers inevitably did." - It's not so amazing! They know what you are, and if they got into a relationship with you it would only last until a "better" Prince came along.

"OK - maybe I was the one who really failed...but I am a trained psychologist!" - The "but" is supposed to mean that the second statement excuses the first, but here it makes the first statement worse! As a "trained psychologist" she SHOULDN'T have gotten it wrong!

"She was beginning to think her life had reached it's absolute pinnacle - zenith - one Memorial Day weekend" - It's interesting that she still considers that weekend her zenith, when it was the direct cause of her destruction!

"She was a real catch now and knew it." - I think I may have said this before, but if she's such a catch, why does she want Kyle so desperately?

whatever it is.

I must say I am impressed by all the comments it has garnered - and still does.

I hope at a minimum it gets even more people reading Richard Gerald's work.

I've found almost all his stories thought provoking.

And thanks again to Richard for allowing me to publish this. The new rulers at Literotica seem much more stringent allowing follow-on stories than perhaps before, based on FTDS works and other follow-on stories I have slowly discovered.

As an author myself of more work - I appreciate their caution in this regards, actually.

However, your efforts are well rewarded and feel free to do a sequel to fix RG/MM's latest piece of garbage.

better, because there actually was a story.

your Gloria is just mean bitch.

that's all. no story

1 starr

I am still outraged over RG's latest story. As a veteran, I hated the outcome of that story's treatment of the hero, turning him into a loser. Now reading RG's letter to Rob where he has hope for Gloria and condemns Lyle's actions, I am mystified by his thought processes. RG created a hero in Lyle then condemns him??? Like so many self described "Alpha Males", Gabe mistook decency for weakness. A true Alpha, looks out for his pack, protects them and provides for them. When the pack is threatened, the Alpha turns from caring guardian to vicious defender. Lyle was a total Alpha. He cared for and provided for his family and when the threat (Gabe) came to destroy the family, he attacked and wiped out the threat. Afterwards his main concern was again for his children. To ensure their long term safety, he should use his new wealth to have Gabe "disappeared". He would not be missed.

Honestly, you should have left it alone.

You did nothing "for" his story, as incomplete as it was. You only further validated what ANYone already knew reading his story. She was a cruel , emotionally sadistic, cheating cunt.

Scorpio absolutely NAILED Richard in his comment. I too had found what he eventually wrote to be despicable, but unlike Scorpio, Richard's letter to this author does not surprise me. It is par for the disgusting stuff that he put out once you read enough to see it.

That MIGHT excuse a discreet fling or even affair. It does NOT excuse TELLING your husband you're going to fuck his boss, whether he likes it or not!

I thought your attempt to complete "The Bridge" was a failure. It took a great story of a man refusing to accept his wife cheating on him and tried to make him into a groveling wimp. Your argument might be that in the end he walked away without giving in to his plan but your attempt to get there was not worth the time to read. Sorry but one star is being kind to you.

I found the end of The Bridge to be unsettling and incomplete. So I read your follow-on story with some excitement. However your portrayal of Gloria as a conniving bitch isn't at all where I was hoping you would take it.

Yes, Gloria made foolish mistakes and disrespected her husband by openly sleeping with Gabe at the weekend retreat. But I never interpreted that has her having never loved her husband or that she settled by marrying him.

That's a line of reasoning I would never take from the original story.

I think you did a good job finishing the story. Some people must not have read the first story very well, because she was just using her husband. That was in the first author's story. Good finish to her, just need to find him a good wife and get his kids away from the crazy ex.

and you're certainly not one now, is the quote, or close to it, that nails this as the perfect continuation of the original story. When you are actually in love, you see your lover as beautiful, not as an also-ran. She used him, she never loved and respected him, and in this continuation, he got over her and got one over on her with the business transformation post-divorce. Great finish.

Yet !? Here we are, TK U MLJ LV NV

You make her out as really needing therapy. How can you work with troubled people and not know you nerd help ( her having a doctorate in Psychology). You don't struggle with someone and make it thru, You can't know anything about marriage or people in marriage. You can't struggle thru life with someone and not know them because you have seen them under pressure. This didn't clear anything up, but made a decent story less credible. One lasthing thing. How could go from looking plain to beautiful. You can lose weight, but you can't lose plain.

"A Little More" is different. There is NO reference to Gabe's videos before the Memorial Day weekend; no evidence of Gloria's cheating before that in The Bridge but plenty in "A Little More". Lyle was surprised at Gloria's action in "The Bridge" however not in "A Little More". If Gloria was the wife like in "A Little More" then she got everything she had coming, because she was a selfish person.

Bottom Line NOT a real follow-up - 2 different authors.

The woman he mentioned is just like any other woman who think she can cheat without consequences because she finds somone especially attractive.

But the fact is that is what marriage is to protect you from.

If it's a great marriage the love and respect will help you resist the urges you have .

Wanting the dominant male is no different than any other cheating urge and there are women who resist it and don't want it as bad as they want a monogamous trusting relationship.

lmao. I can't make heads or tails of that.

As Sgt. Schultz would have said. The fact is that very many psychologists a/or psychiatrists become these professionals in order to get "free" requisite licensing standard counseling sessions from their contemporaries. So her blindness about her own psychological issues are not difficult to believe. And while new factual elements have been added, these do not seem out of place from what we know her attitude about Lyle is as expressed at the Christmas Eve meeting. While this might have been just a little over the top, I thought it added a satisfactory ending to the story.

I am not sure if I can put my finger on the differences, but Gloria in this story is way out of character. Here she is devious and manipulative and seems to be a real villain. In "The Bridge" she seems to be less aware of what her actions are doing to her family, and just does what she wants to enjoy her weekend. As she said at the lodge "she has worked hard and deserves a fun weekend". She seems oblivious to the fact that Lyle has worked just as hard and taken jobs that would provide income for his family because he felt obligated to supporting his family (that would include his wife).

In both stories I believe Gloria is very self centered and not in love with Lyle. I feel that she believes that she deserves to be supported by Lyle and that because she has become "beautiful" she can fuck a prince and then have Lyle continue to financially support her.

from the start he showed he is real man, in fact a man who can not divorce a cheating wife should not even be called a man but she male.

I liked "The Bridge", and I like this follow up. I do think that the character of Lyle is true to RichardGerald's version of him. There has been more revelation of Gloria's character that goes beyond what we learned of her in "The Bridge", but it does not invalidate what was revealed in the original work.

Richard Gerald had Gloria as a confused dumb woman and left reconciliation as a possibility...this ending makes her a slut who cheated on him from day one and no chance of a happy ending...if you write sequel you should stay in character.

"loving husband" – I like how she put loving husband in quotes, like he really wasn’t. But he WAS a loving husband; SHE’S the one who should be described as a “loving wife!”

“Did my husband REALLY think I was doing all this just for him?” – Of course he did! Why wouldn’t he? Didn’t you REALLY think that he did all HE did just for YOU?

“Did my husband REALLY think I was doing all this just for him?” – Gee, not TOO self-centered, are we?

“but as expected from the wimp he never said a word about that” – While I believe that he should have stood up to Gabe then, I never really thought of him as being a wimp. I thought he was a decent guy who trusted his wife and didn’t want to make a scene and embarrass her.

I don’t like this as much as I originally did. Too many differences from the original story. If she was to be believed in the first story, and RG gave us no indication that she was lying (other than the situation, of course!) she never meant to hurt Lyle, yet here, that was part of her fun! In the original she was supposedly faking her reactions with Gabe, here they were all too real.

Loved it- ties it up quite well as an afterthought

This was just a bunch of psycho-babble,unworthy of the original story,which ended right when it should have.

"16 years is a long time for him to not recognize things about her" - She wasn't always like this, it wasn't until she turned into a "swan!" I don't remember how long ago that was.

"16 years is a long time for him to not recognize things about her" - She wasn't always like this, it wasn't until she turned into a "swan!" I don't remember how long ago that was.

I just looked back, they go married at 22, and she started her serious workouts at 30. So, forgetting for the moment that it would take some time for her to blossom into a "swan" and even MORE time to develop her entitled attitude, that means at the MOST he had EIGHT years to "recognize" things about her.

She didn't know her own husband after 16 years. Question? Why didn't she lose weight in college and then go after a alpha. For her to be a psychologists her head was pretty screwed up. She was not capable of rational thought, how could she help others.

I did read and enjoy the original story but this continuation just threw everything out of whack for me. Nice try though.

What is it with millenials and this alpha/beta bullshit? Wolf packs don't function like that. It's pseudoscience of the like that led Kellogg to believe eating corn flakes would stop masturbation and is entirely out of character for anyone from 'The Bridge' to discuss.

You tried, but it's 🖕 star.

Why, in so many of these stories, does a husband who goes along with his wife's decisions simply because he doesn't care that much about the issue, cause her to think that he will therefore accede to her wishes in all things.

I must say that in both this and RichardGerald's story the characters behave in a predictable or I should say typical LW way. I would like to see a story about Paula, the entitled woman who was at the weekend to watch and take care of Lyle. Her attitude of superiority and that she and other alphas were the inheritors of the earth and its treasures at the expense of the Lyle's of the world I found interesting. I would like a story about her (her life and experiences that shaped it) and her reaction to how Lyle rocked her universe by proving the meek can sometime overcome the self entitled and self important class. There are many writers who could do such a story justice, WhatDreamsMayCome and Richard Gerald to name a couple.

anon.1

re:

Paula, the entitled woman who was at the weekend to watch and take care of Lyle. Her attitude of superiority and that she and other alphas were the inheritors of the earth and its treasures at the expense of the Lyle's of the world

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The peasants and other lesser types only exist to serve the whims of the ̶a̶r̶i̶s̶t̶o̶c̶r̶a̶c̶y̶ elites doesn't everyone know that?

What is wrong with the schools these days?

You'd think they were filling students heads with some sort of equality nonsense.

Why would you find some silver spoon cunt "interesting"? There's no great mystery behind her; she's just like all the other sheltered, spoiled rich bitches who've coasted through life on looks and trust funds.

At first I understood this story as telling about dogs, or probably wolves. In groups of these socially living animals there is always an alpha male This does never appply to human beings. But halfway the man says "I am not a dog", So I lost all understanding about this story. It is just about fools and sexuals abusers without morals.

I don't believe that a woman has to be nice to be interesting, SS. Paula was somewhat interesting in the role of minder that she was cast. She could have been more so if she had been more involved in the planning.

I find manipulative women in fiction to be quite "interesting", especially when their motives are complex. Paula not as much as she could have been, as she was doing mostly just what she had been told to do. JennyGently's Carmen in Journey Into Cuckoldry was a character that I found to be one of the more interesting manipulative women in LW stories.

Lue

Seeing as how most women, in fiction or otherwise, are manipulative in some way, shape or form, you must have a lot to be "interested" in. And don't even act like that's some sexist statement; the truth is gender neutral.

Anyway, Paula being a woman and a manipulator(though she's probably the LEAST manipulative character in the whole story, aside from the MC)has no bearing on what I said. I was responding to anon1 saying that he found her elitist attitude "interesting", when there's really nothing interesting about it. Oh wow, a silver-spoon yuppie with rich friends is an arrogant asshole? Shocker. Almost as surprising as you finding manipulative women interesting.

Like I said, there's no great mystery behind her character or any of her friends. That's how people with money and influence tend to act. They think they can get away with anything and don't care about stepping on the "little guys" because they "know" there's not much anyone can do against them. And they're kinda right. Money talks, and when it speaks most people listen. Gloria sure did.

Actually, SS, there's not that many in LW that I'm interested in. The manipulation depicted in most LW stories has an errant wife manipulating husband and/or adulterous partner so that she can have her own sexual pleasure.

It's the manipulative female character on the sidelines that I find interesting. A puppeteer-type character. I tried, not very successfully, to write one with my Vanessa character.

Paula in 'The Bridge' could have been an interesting one, but was rather insipid. Jenny Gently's Carmen is the best I have found in a LW story.

Lue

From what I've seen, in-laws are frequently portrayed as "pupped master" type characters in LW stories. Usually the wife's mother, but if there's a rich daddy present in the story, it's safe to assume he'll end up playing the role. And then there's the ever-popular insidious wife's friend. But these characters are usually so bold and blatant about what they do, that they might as well be Bond villains.

The only one I can recall that was even remotely interesting was from a story I can't remember the name of. I remember the summary for one of the chapters, "I find out that my circus always had a clown", but the actual name escapes me. That story featured a corporate whore of a wife, her hapless husband and her best friend. Throughout the story, the best from was just about the only character worth a damn, but in the end she turns out to be the mastermind. She was the wife's lesbian lover/Dom/pimp and had orchestrated everything, including the marriage, for some convoluted plot to score some huge payday, then disappear with her pet before the dust settled.

Regardless of how I felt about the story(needlessly complex and too cynical even for my tastes), I had to admit that it had one hell of a twist and it got me. Just when it looked like the husband was about to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, nope. Turns out he just fulfilled his role as a means to an end and was discarded like yesterday's trash once the pair got their money. Didn't like it, but I respected it, because it's not often I get fooled by anything.

This was a sequel that should not have been bothered to be written. I'm glad it wasn't RAAC, but it was pretty useless.

any man who would knowingly put up with his wife's cheating would not last long as a friend around any guys I know.

Second, as to RG saying Lyle's behavior was unusual or wrong AW HELL NO! Treated his wife like a queen (as a husband should) till he really figured out she was shitting on him. Then his actions were the stuff of legend.

Now his recent catting around and using women, well that could be criticized but what he did to Gabe and his wife? Outstanding!

Made the character WAY over the top. From slut to sociopath. Clearly the author and I had very different takes on the original story.

1st- to the previous commentor saying she was unbelievable portrayed as a sociopath, in the rg story she came across that way to me . her im going to fuck gabe deal with it, and her asking for help getting back from the cabin,after her slutty actions further put this as a major part of who she is . the final piece was her disgusting attitude, Asking if he was better off alone than with her arrogant cunty person. the ending id write would be her kids hating her slut ass, no redemption, blow up career, and ultimately suicide, as she lost all the superficial things,and hasnothung to live for as shess vacant and souless

Total "5".

Where the husband does the BTB on her and Gabe again? And how about letting him fall in love again with someone special?

In retrospect I could imagine that her fantasy from pre marriage was to be the mate of a rich alpha male.

But being as intelligent as she claims, she would have realized that trying to hook her prize after 16 years of marriage and 2 kids was a pipe dream.

Her plan should have been marriage, prevent conception, get in shape ASAP, use her PhD to hobnob with the elitists, cheat, grab a rich alpha male of any shape or size as quickly as possible, dump Lyle and move on. Forget having kids, they just delayed her plan. In fact, her 16 years of marriage was totally counter productive to her plan.

The whole opening dialog by Gloria just doesn't make sense because the appearance of Gabe was pure serendipity not a planned event. Are we to believe she schemed for 16+ years passively waiting for a sugar daddy to come along?

What makes more sense is she saw an unexpected opportunity with Gabe to trade up. Figuring Lyle would forgive her, she went for the brass ring. Her decision was calculated, her betrayal willful, her submission total. But she always thought she could fuck Lyle back into her control if the plan failed.

What all her education failed to teach her is that an honest, moral person can erupt into an avenging angel when they and/or their loved ones are betrayed and humiliated. All that extraneous BS about videos of her prior to the weekend, etc. is unnecessary and detracts from Lyle's character. He didn't have to see what a slut she was multiple times. Once was enough to reveal her true nature and end the story.

Thanks for your remarks.

I can see some of your logic and you are certainly eloquent.

Looking forward to reading some of your own works here. Yes? ;-)

I never imagined Gloria was actually plotting for all 16 years, but she WAS manipulative of Lyle right from the beginning. She got herself pregnant "accidentally" at the beginning of their marriage.

Rather than discrete "plotting" Gloria merely retained her fantasy and her "control" of Lyle and their marriage from the beginning. One question becomes WHY did Gloria become a long distance runner, when she did? (I was a fairly fanatic long distance runner myself for pretty much all my own life - starting as a very athletic boy and then thru more formal sports in college and throughout my professional career. But why did an overweight housewife start? And what was the ultimate outcome of that if NOT a certain amount of plotting to become a VERY sexually attractive woman - and for whose benefit? Just Lyle? Not likely, as it turned out in the original story.)

Like you, I considered "The Bridge" as to be one of the best, and most thoughtful insightful stories in "Literotica". Like you, I had also considered writing some kind of a "chapter 2". But your "chapter 2" was so much better than I could imagine it. I tried to think of something as a challenge to either equal or beat you- and, I couldn't. So I gave up after 3 months. Very insightful and thoughtful indeed.

Well, thank you for your kind words.

I would suggest that maybe you NOT give up but go ahead and write something else. You would have my permission but you would also need to get the original author's permission as this site - thankfully - is pretty serious about protecting "intellectual property" rights.

If I rewrote this myself or even continued the story I might even have this pair get back together now. I am not adverse to reconciliation at all - when I feel it might be warranted and wanted by both parties. Of course, that would upset an awful lot of "anonny's" here. Maybe Gloria would have finally gotten over her "Princess" fantasies after a year struggling as a single mother.

OTOH, real world, she would probably soon settle for the first man who asked her to marry him, irrespective of how "Princely" he was. She settled once for "just" Lyle and she just might settle again in her new kind of lonely desperation. Having low self-esteem issues for so long in her life, they just don't go away when suddenly she views herself as beautiful and "wanted" by "a Prince". Lyle just dumped a whole load of brand new esteem crapola on her by leaving her so easily as he did.

But it didn't fit with the original story

is better

Richard Gerald in his note to you reveals some interesting and self-deprecating opinions about being a man.

"The strange behavior comes from Lyle. I am actually fascinated by the man here. he is a good self-sacrificing individual. We expect such men to behave, and when they don't society is shocked. But I think that, just like Gloria, Lyle's actions are a case of the right circumstances. The thing is I believe Gloria has a way back. We will accept her behavior. We may admire Lyle but we condemn his actions."

I have to wonder if his opinion reflects the huge gap in our current society. How could ANYONE be surprised by Lyle's actions, and not aghast at Gloria's? "We will accept her behavior."? On what planet? She's a lying cheating selfish whore! And who condemns Lyle's actions? I think the fact that Gabe is still alive and not living in a wheel chair reflects Lyle's great restraint and discipline.

I wonder if I am the only one who sees Richard Gerald's opinion of the characters as an extension of Liberal versus Conservative, Right and Wrong versus Situational Ethics, Truth and Reality versus Idealism and no such thing as Personal Responsibility.

I think Richard Gerald reflects the lingering SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) personal identity confusion, promulgated by the overall belittling and denigration of all things that are male, manly, husband-like, and fatherly. His finding Gloria's cruelty, betrayal, and narcissism as something forgivable is mind boggling. Gloria is a psychopath, and Lyle should do whatever is within his power to shield his sons and himself from her influence.

Thank you for asserting Lyle's new found insight into the true character of Gloria. She should find herself a suitably chastened and submissive drone, perhaps like Richard Gerald, to give her the indulgent and self-centered life style she thinks she deserves. Its only too bad Lyle did not discover her true nature before she had the opportunity to pollute the gene pool. I hope her children can recover from her influence in their lives. Its always the kids who suffer most.

Thanks again for your time and effort.

you forget that lyle was a lawyer. they got married because gloria stopped taking birth control and got preggo. she didnt ever have some great job or social life, so there was not enough for that level of hubris to take root. if she was as selfish as all that from the beginning, she wouldnt have hooked him into marriage and waited tables to put him through law school.

First, the tone was completely different. Second, you make Gloria into a caricature of a woman. You point out a line from the original and then completely contradict it within the same paragraph. Gabe tells Lyle when he is pissed at Lyle and wants to hurt him that "I will tap that from NOW ON...". So between Xmas and the "weekend" he was not tapping that ass.

Being the fat girl that was left out, obviously the wife had major envy issue of the "in crowd", the popular kids. All of a sudden lookwise she got there where she was paid attention to by the "princes" as she called it. The question for Lyle (from the original story) was this something that the wife had to resolve for herself and realize what really counted, or was she going to pursue the "princes". And the question would be after a 16 year marriage can there be allowance for that kind of aberation for a period of time by a spouse of self discovery when it is so detrimental to the other spouse.

I will say this as I've experienced a bit of what the wife did. In high school I didn't date much and then all of a sudden when I hit 18 or so and started college I guess I changed enough physically that I was highly attractive to women. I was literally dating girls from 18 to 35 and they were throwing themselves at me. Very attractive girls. There were Saturdays that I literally had 3 dates, and going out with different girls almost every night of the week both meeting from college and work. I started getting pissed at girls a bit actually because I worked as a teller at a bank part time and all the girls there were trying to date me or were dating me (along with a lot of the customers) and they would get snippy with one another for my attention. So it is like a drug to get a lot of attention all of a sudden from women and I can see a woman who was chubby and struggled with money all her life (though not sure why they struggled so much with him being an attorney and her a doctor, but whatever) that she wanted to experience "the prince" she never had access to who was not only handsome but had money and resources.

I think it was Chris Rock in one of his HBO standups says so many wives look at their husband funny all the time because they know he is the one they settled for as opposed to the one they truly wanted. I guess that is true of men too.

Sometimes I look at average looking couple or even ugly ones and they look miserable. I wonder why don't they approach things positively and knowing this was their potential and be truly happy as opposed to thinking god I wish I had someone better. Their quality of life would be so much better, as opposed to wasted energy. It's like that AA saying of "let me accept that which I cannot change".

Even in the original. Read the thing again. This is a pretty darned logical description of a clearly disturbed woman who hopped in the sack with an equally disturbed and deranged man to humiliate the only normal person in the stories.

Ending. Thanks.

Only because Lyle held on to his balls, what little he has. Don't think this was as good as the original, and that one was more than bad enough. Better luck next time. ...ROBT

What he/she said.

Everyone’s pretty much said what I was thinking, so little to add.

My biggest peeve was the tone of voice, and the format, of the story itself. In the original there could have been just a little more detail in thinking. RG let actions speak for thought, for the most part. Sometimes the actions had me a bit puzzled, so could have used a little more “action” (read “description”) or internal dialogue . Here, about 60% is introspection. Totally.goes away from original. Of course, who said a sequel had to sound and feel like the original. It’s just expected.

I think everbody else has picked over the errors/inconsistencies that I saw. So I’ll leave it as that.

to realize They Are Not. TK U MLJ LV NV

Reminds me of my own life.....

Between these two stories over 500 comments have been posted. Clearly RichardGerald struck a chord among the readership.

So why this continuation by justbobkc? Well my take on it is that justbobkc interpreted Lyle's closing statement in the original story as too indefinite. As though Lyle was equivocating on his decision to divorce Gloria. Maybe reconciliation is in the offing?

Perhaps justbobkc wanted to make sure there was no turning back. By showing Lyle is successful and that has brought money and power to him as well as copious sex he is now future focused. Gloria is the past. Thus there is no incentive for reconciliation.He will never play the "pet" role again.

What I find most curious is that is not what RichardGerald intended. He clearly stated in the Introduction to justbobkc's story that he saw Gloria's action as not unreasonable and thus there was a way to reconciliation. Conversely, Lyles's behavior (burning the bridge and bankrupting the company) was appropriate even laudable but clearly out of character for him. But his decision to divorce was wrong, if we except that Gloria's action was "not unreasonable".

I think I understand what RichardGerald is trying to say. How many women would publicly risk their marriage for a chance to have sex with Valentino, Gable, Redford, Pitt, DeCaprio, (pick your generation)? Unfortunately thousands maybe millions. Their behavior would be unacceptable but not unreasonable. And in RichardGerald's opinion most male spouses would reconcile with them. That would be their way back.

But Lyle refuses reconciliation so he is in the minority of male spouses therefore we condemn his position.

Given that understanding of the original story, I can understand Lyle appearing equivocal in his final response to Gloria, after all he is aware that his continued refusal to reconcile is an action to be condemned.

While I personally do not accept the basic premise of the story nor is the story line itself consistent with the example RichardGerald describes in the Introduction, the ending of the original story is consistent with the author's opinion of how things should have played out vs. how they did. Further, while justbobkc's ending is more satisfying to many readers it is not consistent with the essence of the original story.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I saw your reconciliation rewrite suggestion, but I didn't see any hints about making that happen. Or why. He's very eligible, not some autist with no hope. Now you've somewhat incensed me, after having read the story, to suggest that...although you've broken her character into small colorful identifiable pieces, it might be fun to try. The story end is set up right for her being able to experience some of the things she thought about him I guess. Not like punitive punishment, but more corrective punishment like seeing your hypocrisy after filing up your lungs for a self righteous rage at seeing your partner sleeping with someone else. With your mother, no less. And then letting it out like a balloon, flying around the room landing limp somewhere on the mantle, behind the family picture. Is it wrong to laugh?

Cheating requires at least one fundamental problem. Not respecting the other spouse is good enough. There are many reasons for that, fault lying where it shall.

Maybe one spouse refuses to let the other visit family, because of their unresolved rage at their own parents dying in a meth lab explosion. Lol.

Reconciliation requires identifying the fundamental problems, formulating solutions, then working towards resolution.

Then acceptance of the inevitable debt. Yes debt, not too unlike the one created by murder. Reconciliation is unfair; it can only join the broken parts, but not make it whole (the scars and joins remain, and, hell, a good joint is stronger than the material being joined, stressing other parts more).

Nothing will erase the memories, or event, intellectual, and emotional associations created by a cheat. No amount of reassurance, loving, or a third item. Just like you can't unkill someone.

If you're not going to do line 4 thoroughly, best just cut your losses. Ah fuck it, I'm erasing this entire comment right now. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

No character growth on either side. She does have the upper hand in the sense that he could do nothing other than rant and 'prove' her shallowness to her (which you then have her not believe). Then to belabor the point several liaisons not in the original are added. But he has to enumerate her faults, problems, and betrayals . . . So in the end he does come off as kind of a whiny wimp, but a good-looking, well-off one. And he obviously hasn't gotten over his ex, or he wouldn't have felt the need to say all he did. As you've written him, he'll probably end married to someone just like his ex in a couple of years, while deep down still pining for her.

I'm happy to still be getting comments on this but I've also thought about just pulling the story. If I rewrote this today - well, let's just say it would be different.

I periodically reread the original RichardGerald story and it is always a great read.

This - not so much!

I might actually write a reconciliation ending, now. If I did a rewrite.

I have read a lot more of LW stories here and elsewhere, and the question seems to often be - what to do with the women who just can't help themselves - living in a society that basically supports maximum "personal freedoms and hedonistic selfishness."

Gloria finally did the work and remade herself - her body - to be sexier. I just finished reading Metamorph where a 300 pound lazy nerd jerk ALSO redid himself to reclaim his strayed wife. Why did not these two people work on themselves from the beginning? Just stories and since neither author spelled it out we all have to guess ourselves.

People decide sometimes to change. And women who do suddenly focus on themselves and their attractiveness successfully can get a feeling of newfound "power." And power does corrupt. And corruption often equals stupidity.

But corruption stupidity doesn't have to be permanent, does it?

Please don't pull this story. First, it is a good read. Second, the note at the beginning from Richard is fascinating. So both IMHO should remain.

Actually an interesting dissection of the cuckoldress/bull mindset. Leave the story as is (if only to swat the noses of the cuckoldress/bull crowd)

I like reading The Bridge and your story behind it If you want to rewrite it go ahead but leava this one It fits well with RG'se

"I might actually write a reconciliation ending, now."

That might be an interesting read, but please make her actually work for it.

Gloria behaved like a total cunt... I mean, what kind of disrespectful bitch casually informs her husband that she'll be fucking his boss all weekend?

After treating Lyle so appallingly badly, she'd need to go massively above and beyond to win him back. An apology just isn't got to cut it, nor will a load of psychobabble justifications. She'd need to show real remorse, with no blame-sharing, and actually have to make some serious attempts to atone for her despicable behaviour.

Original story was pretty good but needed and epilogue. The ending was, in my humble opinion, awful. It was a hate bitch story with auburn the bitch ending. I don’t think the original author would have gone that way at all. Need someone to write a better ending with the wife not be this evil harpy as shown in justbobkc version.

It seems she thought she deserved a prince and forgot to look at what was right in front of her all the time. Women, especially on here seem to do that. The real prince was Lyle, she just never knew it as she thought she settled. If only she never went to the Gabe in the first place she wouldn't be sitting across from Lyle asking him to be friends with benefits. Seems it needs another ending maybe where she finally sees the light-and Lyle sees her as she is now. But just never to remarry. One story on here had the wife living with the husband cooking, cleaning, providing nanny services and sex. Could be interesting. Richard Gerald says he knows someone like that-maybe-we don;t know. But my one question is this: if you are not married to the other person that just makes you an adulterer. I read somewhere once you cross this line you never can go back to being faithful. I don't know.

You depicted Gloria just as I imagined her. This finish to my favorite LW story is spot on for me. She was an evil, manipulative bitch who in reality lost her prince. To give up true love for fleeting carnal pleasure is an overused theme. But in this case, it works perfectly. A Phd. Psychiatrist behaving this stupidly makes no sense, unless she is, indeed, a soulless cunt. If you do write a reconciliation, and I hope you do, please make her work for it.

I definitely won't pull this little epilogue because of the 173 comments and still getting them. It would not be fair to all those who have commented both negatively and positively.

RichardGerald is my favorite author here (still publishing at any rate! ;-) and I find his stories are often deeper than I "feel" at first read. He conveys so much info so economically and with no wasted words one can get lost in the story and only reflect a bit afterwards.

In The Bridge both Lyle and Gloria have definitely changed. Actions have consequences and the bell can't be un-rung. Gloria was corrupted by her new "power" to attract at least one Princely man and she literally lost any commonsense in thinking she could rub it in Lyle's face without bad consequence for herself.

Lyle was also changed - and even corrupted - by Gloria's and Gabriel's corruption. Richard often writes these kinds of stories - where a wife falls first but then inevitable her corruption pollutes all around her and the back splash is messy. Patrick Moynihan warned of this way back when he called it all "defining deviancy down" for broader society where sexual liberation was only part of it all leading to unintended consequences.

Lyle and Gloria could possibly get back together - at least living as husband and wife. Lyle would know legally this would constitute a common law marriage anyway, but he might feel more comfortable in basically thinking they would actually be living in an open marriage situation with other partners when the urge struck either one.

Could Gloria accept that new status - kind of a faux marriage with sex with Lyle but little or no romance? Together for the kids but both always thinking the other might be out with someone else more fun - more exciting? Even if Gloria has "learned her lesson", Lyle also learned his own lesson - the rug can be cruelly pulled out from under at any time.

In reading so many stories here in this basically "marriage" genre - the major question I'm left with is: will the modern libertine open marriage 2% win? They certainly have a lot of advantages in this guerrilla warfare. Lust only has to overpower love occasionally to destroy the love in a marriage. Love has to be constant and faithful every single time that lustful temptation arises to survive (for most marrieds).

The original was just plain excellent. This story took a different twist but was very good.

good job

It’s exactly what Gloria deserved.

1) I was conflicted about The Bridge -- is this a good story? But I could not forget it (like I do hundreds of others). 2) I am no big fan of justbobkc 3) I've read enough sequels that did not improve the main story or were worse 4) I like happy endings.

YET I thought this sequel by Justbobkc was spectacular. Dam. Thanks.

A thread through story and comments seemed to be that education (eg. the psychology degree) indicates intelligence. Maybe also that it means a better life. IMO not necessarily. I knew a fellow worker that was smarter than me in many ways (and maybe overall). Considerably better welder. After no longer a fellow worker, was an ingenious self-employed guy. Yet he had only a high school degree and I have 8 years after high school. It's possible that there is a genius smarter than Einstein living among the aborigines of Australia or the tribes of African natives.who just never had any opportunity for education. Maybe this genius is the janitor where you work?

Psychologists? May be good. I don't know. My Dad (now long deceased) described the oddness of a psychology professor when he went to Kansas University. Dad said he was eventually sent to Ottawa to a mental hospital ("nut house"), which the university tried to keep hushed up. More recently here in Oklahoma, a woman told me that the psychologists that ran a mental health facility (I think it was for teens) were nuttier than the patients.

Maybe a janitor, even if his IQ is low (or because of it?) can enjoy life as much or more than the brainy, educated, wealthy CEO of his company. IMO happiness is better. Although I concede that sometimes, especially for some people, intelligence, education and money can help you be happy. A rich man was asked, "How much does it take to be content?". He replied, "Just a little bit more." It is certainly possible to be too poor to enjoy life (such as hunger). "So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content" (The Bible, I Timothy 6:8 ESV)

Paul in Oklahoma

And an interesting way to depict Gloria as the selfish bitch she was. Also interesting that the author of the original story pointed out that he didn’t see Gloria as a major character in his story. And that I don’t understand. The whole story pivoted around her cheating with her husband’s boss and rubbing hubby’s nose in it. How can she not be a major player. That said, I don’t think this “sequel” really added much to the original story. It was plain to me she was a cheating, conniving bitch and justbobkc’s short addendum only served to verify that.

In my opinion, The Bridge was one of the best stories I've read in this section (LW). There was no segment that took us into the future, but that was Richard's story. This story was an attempt to make Gloria a real entitled bitch (more than she appeared in the original story early on) whose ego got in the way of her life. I think that was exaggerated here to an extreme. Here, she has no redeeming features. Not to support her, but from my memory, that wasn't totally how she previously came across. She was clearly well educated, but that clearly does not parallel being smart, and she fit that lack of connection.

There are a good number of ways to portray the aftermath of what occurred with Lyle, Gloria, and as importantly, with the children of their marriage. This story was good, but not that good. Sorry justbobkc!

T.T.

gloria, not bad looking, dumb as a rock and a pussy like a yawning hippo. lyle should string her along for a while for rough facefucking and ass to mouth sessions, you know for those times when the pubs closing.

pub with mates, fish n chips, hatefuck gloria, home to bed. sorted.

I really enjoyed the original and was happy Gloria got what she deserved. But this makes her into an almost cartoonish baddy, Sorry thanks for trying, but I don't personally feels this adds anything.

"Wouldn't even consider infidelity".

UM few do with someone they are not attracted to.

Really after that was said she considered and decided to commit adultery

if the person was attractive enough.

That particular author simply misjudged what kind of a person she was.

Ibagree with ugh no . You made her less, nust to burn her more, and made him less in the process.

I didn’t think this added anything to the story at all. The Bridge was one of the best stories ever posted on Literotica. This author turned all characters into cliche cartoons. It was well written, so maybe it would have been better as a stand-alone, as opposed to riding the coattails of RichardGerald’s story?

who claim that this departs from the story and adds nothing. It follows exactly from the Saturday AND, especially, the Christmas Eve soliloquy. Gloria was a narcissist, and the author unpacks it well

"The Bridge" is one of those borderline stories which could easily go BTB or RAAC, which was the beauty of RG's work - he left just enough rope at the end to allow you to take it in either direction, depending on your own particular bent.

That said, the view on Gloria here is extremely cynical, but I understand it was for the purpose noted later on, to contrast how little she knew of Lyle despite so many years together. It's not that it's a cynical view, it's the degree of cynicism for the character which I'm trying to get. My take was not to read nearly as far into her conniving nature as JBKC did here. The take on Lyle is still cynical, but with a more reasonable touch, well, at least compared to that of Gloria. His arc here is a bit more understandable.

My thinking is that Gloria came into her "swan" stage very late in life, after being an "ugly duckling" for so long, and well after her child bearing and after her education. I would think that those life experiences and maturity would temper her desires to explore the new-found power she had rather than in the manner shown here. All her life experience, all her education and her roles as wife and mother, all just thrown away from a Christmas party. That's a pretty powerful transition to make, based on what JBKC wrote.

This is especially strange in light of Gloria's own struggles. Nothing came easy for her - she had to work for her beauty, she had to work for her education. You would think that she would see the value in long term planning towards a goal. One of the problems I have with the original is the fact that she's in her late-30's and cannot see that she and Lyle together would be very well positioned later in life instead of "being always broke" as RG wrote in the original, just seems strange. But this is the essence of the conflict in the story - a planner missing the plan.

Yes she made a horrible mistake and tried to exert her power at the expense of humiliating her "lesser" mate, whom she's horribly underestimated (in itself, the crux of this story, Gloria not knowing her spouse at all after so long is my favorite bit here in JBKC's story). But the whole "she's been a slut for months" thing is really off for me. I can see a one-time exploration, but the whole long-term thing with Gabe (and the "alpha-males") seems very out of character, since they have little to offer each other besides sex. Gabe's long-term seduction, over months, to wear her down, fits much better with her nature and her experience.

By making her into an "instantly seduced" slut, there's a disconnect. For an "alpha", she's too old for child bearing and she's not from an elite family to build a powerful family dynasty. Her only use is sex, and after being with one husband for sixteen years, how much value does she have, once Lyle's been humiliated? None. I can't see her keeping any "alpha" longer than a few weeks, once she's been "conquered". Gabe's long-term interest in her for the story becomes ... a bridge too far. She would likely understand this very quickly, at least from my understanding, and thus, likely return to Lyle, with her secret, before the Memorial Day events of the original.

Anyways, this was enjoyable. If stories went how we each expected them, there's be no point in reading anything. I enjoyed where this went, even if the way there was not the route I intended. Thanks for this.

He says that "we" don't approve of Lyle's actions. This shows how feminized RG is. Men want justice, and, in this declining culture, family law, employment law, and many other areas of law and "social practice" are not merely unjust, they are virulently anti-male.

I think most readers admired Lyle's actions; they represented getting justice in an unjust world. Only a thoroughly feminized man would think otherwise; only a dolt thinks that "the law" is necessarily to be respected.

I also think that RG doesn't understand Gloria. Far from being a "minor" character, she the pivot around which all the action turns. Her big moments - at the camp and on the doorstep - were what gave the story dramatic tension. They were also extremely revealing in a compact way. A major character doesn't have to take up a lot of lines in the story (in a first person story told by Lyle, how could she?). Rather, it's the character's importance to the action of the story that matters. Here Gloria's character has depth; she isn't just the typical cardboard character of a cheating wife that we see over and over again in LW.

What makes this continuation a 5 is that the author does, as someone else notes, unpack Gloria's narcissism quite well. She is a cunt of the first order. It takes intelligence and creativity for someone to read what RG reveals about Gloria and flesh it out as well as it's done in this story. Whether RG understands it or not, the soliloquy on the front porch shows why Gloria is deeply irredeemable. Perhaps RG's writing is deeper than even he realizes.

I do find it interesting that there is an assumption in the RG story that someone with a Ph.D. in psychology is highly intelligent. As someone with a law degree and a Ph.D. (in a more demanding field than psych), I am amused. Psychology doesn't generally attract the sharpest knives in academia (better than, for example, education majors with E.D.s, and "studies" Ph.D.s, but not much). The issue in part is that, to borrow Gertrude Stein's words about Oakland, when it comes to psychology "There's no 'there' there." It's a "discipline" that has no real theoretical basis. For nearly 50 years Freudianism has been known to be a fraud and ridiculous (psychiatry was saved from extinction by the pharmaceutical companies). Behaviorism hasn't been taken seriously since B.F. Skinner. "Humanistic" psychology (Carl Rogers) never had any sort of rigorous theoretical basis and was repudiated even by his leading "discipline" (who spent the rest of his life warning people about how harmful Rogers' approach was). All we have now is speculation and clinical flailings published in journals of "irreproducible results". Some years ago a Vanderbilt study found that any good listener (uncle, aunt, friend, pastor, etc) was as effective in helping someone with problems as a "trained" psychologist. So, unwittingly, RG in part exposes Gloria's narcissism through her self-regard that is partially based on her degree. This continuation does a decent job of puncturing that balloon.

Finally, I don't think most women are like the friend RG based the story on. They exist, of course. But if I were that woman's husband, and she were to tell me at the time that she would have fucked the politician (celebrity fucking is something that only a dumb cunt would do, and politicians are among the sleaziest "celebrities"), and there were no children (possible because she was late 20's), I would have divorced her. No sane man would want to be chained by children and growing economic exposure to a woman who is potentially susceptible to a the famous LW "Martian Slut Ray". Even if there were children, I would find it difficult to remain married to such a woman. BUT, Gloria doesn't cheat because of the Martian Slut Ray; she cheats because of her narcissism.

The author was very insightful in this story.

I thought the writing from Lyle's POV was much better than the writing from the wife's POV which seemed a bit paint by numbers formulaic. Not a bad effort.

"The women, you normally see in these stories approach sex physically the way men do. But I have never known a woman like that."

Oh HELL yes. Truer words are seldom written.

"Now this good wife and mother has admitted on several occasions that all the politician had to do was ask and she would have gone to bed with him. This is a woman that, as far as I am aware, has never been unfaithful to her husband. But, under those circumstances, she would have been. I also know that she would have expected her husband to forgive her, and I believe he would have."

Oh HELL no. Time to start hiding money just for her willingness and yes I'd want to know.

"We may admire Lyle but we condemn his actions."

Oh HELL no. If he had shot them both that night and I were on his jury I'd say I believed he was innocent by reason of temporary insanity and hung that jury if I couldn't get him off. I congratulate him for his self control in not doing more than he did.

It goes to show how far we have fallen as a society when there are people like the original author who think we condemn the actions of Lyle and accept the actions of Gloria. His friend admitting to cheating is another example of this as well. In either case divorce is the only option.

Clearly RG seems to be trying to rationalize cheating in such a way that it is acceptable. Gloria had no remorse, never apologized, tried to blame Lyle for not stopping her, and deserves everything that happened to her. Her actions were manipulative, planned, selfish, and she never once considered Lyle or what it would do to her family.

I thought the original story was good until I read the authors comments at the beginning of this one. Now I feel RG somehow accidentally stumbled on a descent story because he clearly feels that Gloria should be excused and Lyle is the bad guy. I think I will be changing my score and comments on the original story.

He wrote the great LW classic but didn't seem to understand why it was so popular. Lyle was the hero. He did the right thing and we are happy to read that Bob didn't change him. RG creates great characters like David in Jail Breaking. Then he turned around and made him wimp out in the sequel. Thanks Bob.

Characters from the original story are like cartoon characters of themselves, stretched out in all directions to make them pathetic. If the author felt this way , then he hid it well in the original. In the original the wife seemed like she cheated because she missed out on something by not being beautiful, and succumbed to the allure of being found beautiful by the beautiful people. This is an understandable emotion, akin to the ugly duckling suddenly being the popular girl in school. She is wrong of course, and gives into her frailty, wrecking her marriage. Even if that is just my view, turning her into a manipulative, controlling bitch seems way over the top , and I don't understand all the references to her training, as if that made her superior to anyone else.. At least the ex husband stays intact since he was "no prince, and made out better than he had a right to."

The bridge made me uncomfortable, and is probably why I keep rereading it. your story just made me want to stop reading it.

Are you on drugs? because your comments at the beginning of this read like you're on drugs.

"We may admire Lyle but we condemn his actions."

Really? I would think 8 or 9 out of 10 men would approve of how Lyle handled the whole situation, from beginning to end. Only those with no self esteem/self respect would go along with what Gabe and Gloria wanted. As a spouse, Gloria's attitude and behavior would have been abhorrent. There was really no way back for these two.

I think you made Gloria into a horrible person. And you tried to paint her as the "horrible" person in their marriage from the very beginning. That seemed different then the weak, pathetic person portrayed in the original story. The original Gloria seemed like she got used and wasn't very smart about it. Her original goals seemed murky or unclear. In this story she seemed to have an agenda since the very start of their marriage. She thought she was in control and the "smart" one in the marriage. But if she was, why did she wait so long to make any type of upward move? This simply wasn't a good continuation.

1 star

RG

Re your comments at the start of this story extension to The Bridge. The original tale was excellent. However, I can't agree with your assessment of Lyle as bad guy, and Gloria as the "victim''. The very reason why so many readers who have digested your original story appreciate it so much is exactly the opposite of your own views. As a husband and man, Lyle at the lodge faced being trapped in the lion's den. Considering that your portrayal of him was not as a karate black belt ex-SEAL he chose the only path let open to him...to leave and burn the bridge behind him. I took the burning as a metaphor for Lyle cutting loose the suffocating ties to Gabe the alpha prince, and his completely idiotic PhD wife. Fuck, they must be giving away doctorates in the States like candy! Gloria was a victim of her own narcisistic self-image. That's it...no more to be said!

Bob and RG, good reads both! As one who works with more than two dozen psych Ph.D.s, (m & f) some of them have educated themselves to try to deal with their own demons. So Gloria is not at all unbelievable to me. Keep writing please, both of you, and write your way, not for the anonnies...like me....

Also, the thunderstruck woman who would have slept with the politician is a dumbass for telling anyone. She gets over her temporary insanity and is a good wife forever, fine. If I'm her husband and she tells me that, I'm going to give her a divorce decree so she can go fuck whoever she wanted. Your friend who would have forgiven her is not worth having as a friend.

As to the MC's actions being too much, if he'd burned down the house with everyone in it, that might have been just a little too much. Debatable.

Agreed

On no sane psychologist would have done this.

And sane society would allow a woman like that , a child psych no less, around children.

Especially after intentionally damaging her own.

No man would tolerate a wife like her.

Victim no she's evil.

u wrote a female trump omg that was funny ty for the read enjoyed that