All Comments on 'The Cop and the Teacher'

I never get a first comment in, so let me start by saying this was a good story. It felt real and no one got totally destroyed in it, but I felt like you were about to go in that direction on the school principal and then you let him slide. This bothered me because I felt like Pat was a gullible book-smart lady with little real common sense who was a predator’s victim. Also, a bull rider has to stay on 8 seconds to get a score. 😄

Well done. I liked the direction the story went following "Pops" instead of the usual formula.

I think the guy is a bit of a muppet. At no time did he even try and discuss any issues with anything even remotely close to an open mind, very immature. Also, the mindset of a cop is more nuanced, and years on the force leaves scars, or at least tracks. I think he would be more reasonable. He can be just as tough at the end of the day, but that's not a starting point.

I'm a long time fan and very glad you participated in this event! Great story!

For a teacher, she was pretty stupid. So are a lot of then teachers I have known.

Well done, simple but effective.

Very good story with great character development of the two protagonists.

I was very angry at what Pat did to Chris. Although I was quite sure that her signing the contract without discussing it with him, that an affair was the odds-on favorite to be the reason.

At that point. one has to just think back to the original drawing up of the prenup agreement that Pat and the two mothers created behind Chris’s back. It’s a shame when what seems to be a really great marriage breaks up; especially after 34 years. I’m always upset (even though I know it’s just fiction) when a somewhat happy relationship falls apart. Truthfully, although I’m a sucker for a happy ending, I’d have done exactly what Chris did, only earlier just after Pat told him about her having signed up for another year of teaching without even consulting Chris.

I would have liked to see other characters developed more, and the entire story expanded.

One might say that the story did have a happy ending, just not with Pat and Chris reconciling. I would have to agree with that, although somewhat reluctantly.

Excellent story.

Cute and perceptive; 5* from me.

I like that you downplayed the sexual affair itself and concentrated on the lack of consideration for the MC's feelings and opinions. Of course an affair was the motivating factor for her to sign a contract and continue to teach but you downplayed that. I gave you 5 stars.

Just want to teach..,did she stay with the STD bearing scumbag? She gave up everything for nothing. Point of order, teachers get Social Security. Even with their 403B plans, they still have to contribute to FICA and will get paid when they file sometime between age 62.5 and 70.

A good story. Maybe I missed it, but I wasn't sure if the sex came before the contract or not. Even if not, she probably anticipated it. Also, if she never wanted to leave teaching, why agree to retirement? D

Ending is a little slim. Needs some fleshing out as to what happened to Pat and what lies in his future.

4 stars only the ending lacked your normal style it was almost if starting the ending of the direction to do but stop

A bit abrupt on the ending. Pat's character was hard to believe. 34 years of marriage and she throws it all away for another man? Not very believable. That being said, glad hubby kicked her cheating skank ass to the curb.

Yep there comes in the marriage

a time when wives believe we husbands should be put under their thumb

and say yes to anything they wish or want.

Just so happens the MC don't believe the crap.

So am I so I can relate with this story...

Nice job The Style Guy

I liked this a lot! 5*****! It did seem like the escalation came out of nowhere from working another year to infidelity, but I think that's how infidelity hits a person. Her willingness to demand and intimidate her husband shows the level of disrespect required. She may someday understand what she has lost, but as is often the case that comes far too late.

5 stars - I really liked this story and especially the way he discovered his ex-wife's infidelity.

Don’t agree with the alimony. The prenuptial agreement should have covered that - none, especially for infidelity. Besides, she was working full time and he was retired.

It was a good story but I couldn't help but be irritated by the author's use of that tired method of padding out a story; the 'time machine trip', you know, the one where at a pivotal moment in the drama we are suddenly transported back in time to the MC's youth and regaled with tedious details that contribute nothing to the story. Yes, it dealt with the prenup but that could easily have been done another way. What made it worse was being beamed back to the past in the middle a sentence being spoken by one of the main protagonists, with the same effect as the commercial break that comes at the crucial moment of your favourite TV drama. By the time the story caught up to the present I realised I needed to go back to page one and scroll back to remind myself of what Pat had been in the middle of saying before the interruption of her words by that worn out and completely unnecessary attempt at a tension builder. If a story is good enough it will easily survive on it's own merits without the need for this device.

A 5 star story. Well written, good character development, and excellent plot. I really enjoyed it. But....ending was way too abrupt. We are left hanging for more on the wife. Do Cat and the husband marry? What happens to the Wife? Is there any deep remorse? I'll give you 5 stars anyway. But as I always say...Finish the damn story!!!!!

Very good story. I'm not happy with the alimony, and the pre-nuptial agreement should have been used in the divorce. Also, if there was any evidence the principal should have been fired, and his career ruined. That school district is asking for a sexual harassment lawsuit. I think the rest of Pat's life ( 20 or so years) will be filled with What Ifs and regret.

This was a very pleasant read. Great job and thanks for posting this today.

Nicely done !

5/5

Like it.

I agree with SwordWeilder.

It's just a great story, well told. Thank you.

Great story and I'm happy he found a true woman. The ex was really a typical school board slut. The husband was too kind and generous especially after STDs. 5 Stars

I didn’t see the prenup come into play

Nice story, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you

The prenup: Recall Chekhov's gun? Still a pretty good yarn.

Cat sounds like an intriguing woman, but marriage would be off the table for me at that stage in life. Also, I'm guessing Pat was playing away long before she retired. I would have been fair, but maybe a bit more of an asshole and enforced more of the prenup. Thanks for sharing, always glad to see your submissions.

🤦🏾🙆🏾‍♀️Really the prenup her, her mom, and his mom wrote up without even talking to him about it should've been a deal breaker. That was her 1st time making decisions without even bothering to speak to him. THEY (soon to be husband and wife) should've been the one's writing that up. The fact that she turned around and made ANOTHER decision without even bothering to speak to him, shouldn't of surprised to him🤷🏽‍♀️. They wanted different things way before the marriage. It was no surprise she was banging her boss😂🤣😂. What was surprising was him just realizing it.. she didn't have any respect for him.. she thought he was a wimp and she wore the pants in the relationship🤧.. Therefore, there's no need to get his thoughts, opinions or feelings on things.. she felt his input was not needed. This is proven by her demanding/commanding he won't be going to FL. She never had any repsect for him.. he just didn't realize it. I also don't understand why he changed the prenup when it protected him??😒. Why pay a a disease infected slut for 5yrs?😕.. During the whole prenup talk, he said he didn't believe she would ever cheat.. NEVER PUT SHiT PASSED ANYONE😉... I've been with my husband since I was 19, I'm 39 now.. you bet your ass I don't put jack shit pass him.. he says I'm just naturally paranoid, I don't trust people.. I DON'T trust people..the people you trust are the 1st one's to fuck you over🤌🏾.. I can see why she thought he was a simp.. that prenup argument alone showed just how gullible and naive he truly is. it also showed how much of a simp he really is.. why he was surprised she was fucking her boss? I wasn't.. it's just like her to make such a HUGE decision regarding their marriage without any thoughts of him, his love, their marriage, his input or his feelings🤭.. She just came off as a total bitch who thought she wore the pants in the relationship... she never had any repsect or loyalty for him.. he just was too blinded by his love for her to see it.. he loved her, but she loved herself.. that's a recipe for a horrible relationship, let alone a marriage🤷🏽‍♀️. She was cheating for a year and caught the claps. That's how non existent her respect/love was for him. The marriage counseling made no sense.. I can't see a judge demanding counseling when the spouse was cheating for a year and caught a FUCKING STD..her banging her boss without protection and didn't even bother telling him she caught an std and he should get checked out, showed just how little respect and love she had for him🤧🤧.. I'm astonished this marriage lasted as long as it did with the level of disrespect and contempt she held for him. Was that even her 1st affair? I don't believe it was🤷🏾‍♀️. He didn't get the kids tested to see if they were his. She didn't suddenly start smashing her boss sir🤣🤣🤣..

Chris was an entertaining character but, it felt like half a story.

We go from Pat being the love of his life to 30+ years later she's morphed into a cliche liberal feminist who doesn't need to opinion of a man.

Some of her behaviors actually make sense based on how many years she spent teaching in the public school system but, it leaves me feeling empty that so many years of marriage don't even warrant a single actual conversation between two people who were supposedly so much in love.

Great story no need for vengeance just move along. Would love to see more with Cat and Chris.

Okay, you have won the ‘contest’

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This had excellent characters, some interesting character details, subject matter knowledge, some novelty in the way it was told, and had sufficient length to sink one’s teeth into.

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This is not to disparage anyone else’s offering and several had a good deal to recommend them, but to my tastes, this hit a sweet spot.

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Thank you

Excellent story! The husband hit the nail on the head when he said that he was a husband, father, grandfather and friend while his soon to be ex- wife was a teacher.

5

Great story as usual, TSG, max marks. That said, I can't resist pointing out that the story includes the best ever olfactorial endorsement of vagitarianism: “…a legal-size stripper produced enough meat for three months of fish 'Taco Tuesdays'.

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I’m probably showing my age, but I disagree with the commentators who said Pat abruptly changed after 34 years of married bliss; the marriage was doomed from the start. Not simply because the three women put together the prenup without consulting him, but because all three women assumed that the couple would keep their finances separate. That means that from the get-go there would never an “us,” it would always be “you and me.” Or, perhaps more accurately, “me and you.” The die was cast, Rubicon was crossed before the napkin colors were chosen.

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Were that not sufficient evidence, her opening line after serving the special drinks was "I stopped by Wilbur Cross [School] and talked with Steve." Not "with the principal” but “with Steve,” as if he were a mutual friend of theirs instead of just the latest principal.

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The lying began when she said “I do.”

Good story. I'm a bit disappointed that she didn't lose out big in the divorce financially, like the build-up discussion about pre-nup said she likely would (unless I somehow missed that detail). But the "living well" revenge was good enough - and her cheating was new enough - that I won't decrease the rating from 5 stars.

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Sad about Cat's misfortunes, but at least she will spend the remainder of her life with happiness in her heart and a good man in her arms. Good for her!

This is the best of the lot. Thanks for something different.

Very nice story, well written, it seemed to be well thought out.

Thanks for sharing.

Very well done. Great story!

A very good story with some very well thought out characters. I agree with other comments though, why spend so much of the story writing about the prenup if it was not going to be a part of the divorce when it came. Also what happened to him owning their entire home by the time they finished the renovations. This felt like there were two parts to the story that did not quite connect at the end.

A great story. Was her return to reaching a ruse to get with the school principal? I suspect that it was. 5*

VERY GOOD STORY!!!!

Nicely written story. I thought there would be a problem when Pat did not drop the prenup idea when her fiancée gave his explanation for opposing it. I am old school and never believed that husband and wife should have separate finances, and Pat's listening to the mothers rather than her future husband prognosticated a problem that Pat was not totally "into" her future husband.

Having said that, I still have some sympathy for Pat wanting to continue teaching rather than indulging in an indulgent life of leisure.

Good story, but I can't give the fifth star, because I'm missing details. Like what happened to the prenup? Why and when exactly did she start to cheat? What happened to her career after the divorce? Were she and her lover outed as cheaters? What about their mothers who condoned the prenup at the beginning? Are the still alive and what did they have to say about the cheating?

I didn't quite understand the author's idea. Does it mean that the fundamental thing in Pat's decision to sign a one-year contract with the school was still the desire to start (or continue?) to fuck with your boss, and not at all the desire to maintain a proper level of school education?

A legal-size stripper? Over 18 and 5' tall?

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I hate to think how this thing read before HDK (presumably?) identified some extraneous. While detail is good, you over-tell it. Your work reads like you either have an endorsement deal or are a snob. I know that neither is true, but that's the way it reads. I couldn't care less about Taco Tuesday, who took over your favorite author's franchise, or what kind of booze MC drinks. A level of detail was relevant when comparing their salaries/pensions in light of the post-nuptial agreement. Details are like landmines: use them where they will do the most good.

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The worst thing about this piece? MC was wholly unlikable. A pompous, know-it-all, unsympathetic, petulant, and (worst of all) passive-aggressive jerk. I ended up hating this story. Based on its style and writing, I gave it a 2.

Lazy writing: the smart, noble, perfect husband, who is always right, versus the uncommunicative, shrill, demanding, autocratic wife. It's so easy to write when it's all good versus all evil. Try writing something where the main characters are conflicted, have internal discord, and are not perfect or imperfect people. This is hyperbole, not drama.

It started out well enough but then turned into a childish bickering that's not fit for 30+ years of 'loving'.

Or was it?

What a thoroughly unlikeable person. Pat was wrong, but hubby’s reaction and vindictiveness was really wrong. Others have described this as “petulant.” Pretty good description. That was a difference—his wife was a teacher and Chris was just a guy who was also a cop, though even that seems a bit bizarre given how he new from an early age that being a cop was what he wanted to do in life. Still, give that to him. This could have been handled better, but it wasn’t the fact the she re-upped for a year without telling him; it was the fact that she loved teaching and wanted another year.

I am guessing that an alternative to what we got would have been to sure one’s anger at the decision and get guarantees to it was a “one and done” decision and then they would retire together, with a clear understanding of why it was handled badly—you know, like the other time he got cornered with the prenup. So what not to that route instead of pushing his wife into another’s arms by leaving, passive aggressively refuse to interact with her and the. Insult her in a manner MEANT to cut and hurt. It is the deliberateness of his actions that I find egregious. I wonder whether he would have handled it better if he was presented with the knowledge of the result of where his action would lead. I am pretty certain Pat would have handled it differently. My guess is that. He is would be OK with the result…

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Great story

Very good story. I would have personally like to see a little more looking into what led Pat to go back to working and doing it without talking to Chris first, was it because she had already started the affair before she officially retired. Also, some perspective from her view as to why she wanted to throw away 34 years of marriage so easily.

to much extraneous information. went from a 4.5* to a 3*. good luck with your next story.

A good story, but I don't understand spending the amount of time on the pre-nup story only to totally ignore the pre-nup at the end.

Not sure why people are singing this stories praises. It's the same character archetype in every single one of the style guy's stories. And the MC is always arrogant and condescending that it makes him almost impossible for me to relate with in any meaningful way even if he's in the right.

Hot head husband leaves wife and runs off to Florida. His wife is lonely and abandoned and seeks comfort in another teacher. Lousy plot. What did he expect? All the misogynists in the audience will cheer, but not me. Maybe I need to read this again, but our main character seems more like a loose canon than a man wronged.

Style Guy, no stsyle in this one. Boo!

Great story, by another great author

Scores 5/5 well done!!

It was unclear to me whether or not Pat was cheating before she signed up to teach again. Obviously the STD was acquired at some point during the Fall, so she probably starting fucking the principal NLT when Chris went on the cruise — him doing that probably triggered a “revenge” idea in her heard if she wasn’t already faking the guy.

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But it was clear that her affair was really only the final step she took out of that marriage. She really had no defense for not talking to Chris about returning to teaching before she signed back up. None. But when she went full out Slut, it was over.

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Why would Pat have thought that Cat was a teenager? She was at least in her 40s…. 😎

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5 *****

Great story!

@the anon who wrote an entire paragraph about being irritated about the "time machine trip".

How about you STF up? I was irritated by having to read your opinions about use of flash backs as a literary device. That's all they are. Is opinions. Wrong opinions.

Go write your own stories DA.

I also wonder what happened to the house. I suppose that I don't understand why more readers aren't sympathetic to the MC. The LW unilaterally disrupts their plans without a murmur, cops an attitude, and seemingly expected him to just cater to her as if his thoughts and concerns were beneath notice. Pat behaved as if he'd just knuckle under. She never displayed the slightest remorse, let alone contrition. I concur with MattBlackUK that the return to teaching might have been a ruse, to some degree, to carry on with her seeming affair.

Also, I see as a major theme his decision to let go of the anger that he otherwise might have directed at the LW and her boyfriend. Be free to look untroubled in the mirror, and live the rest of his life on his terms.

one star for cat and pat. Author should do everything possible to not confuse his readers.

No idea what happened to their marriage or why she cheated. No revenge or payback at all after 30+ years? Don't feel like the readers even got 1/2 the story.

Good lord! Did we really need to learn that much about comparative retirement plans of cops and teachers? Boring as hell

And now we are learning all about prenups. Not to mention food menu items. Thus far the story reads far more like a technical paper!

This would have made an average cheating wife formula story in about a page and a half. The other pages were simply filler. 2*

The author spent all that time and detail on a prenup. Where did it fit in the story at the end? Simply to justify the 2K per month alimony? Seriously?

Pleasant read.

I'm a little mystified by the whole prenup thing. A lot of effort was spend setting up for an "I warned you" moment then you didn't follow through, even slightly. I understand it demonstrates how he feels about being left out of decision-making processes that directly affect him, but I wonder if all the detail was actually needed. And as @Just_Words said, the infidelity came out of the blue and probably should have elicited a stronger emotional response from Chris. Even cops have feelings, don't they?

5* because I enjoyed the story and you compelled me to add a rare comment.

"I signed a contract yesterday." - Without discussing it with your husband?

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"My first withdrawals from my State Police pension account were to fix up the house." - We weren't given figures, but it would seem that the cash difference from selling the big house, the three condos, and buying a fixer-upper should have provided the funds to fix-up the house.

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"I'm a grown woman and don't need your permission." - He didn't say anything about "permission," he said "input." And as he said, if she cared how he felt, she would have talked to him before making a decision, nevermind signing a contract.

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It's amusing that she believes that she can make her own decisions, but he has to get her approval for his.

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"My plan is for us to have a deep discussion about your marriage, the reasons for its breakdown and if the marriage can be saved, which is my hope." - Why is saving the marriage her hope? While nobody WANTS a marriage to end, her "hope" should be for the best resolution for each party, which might very well be a divorce.

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Needed Pat's reaction to Cat not being a teenager!

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@Gortmundy, what was there to discuss, discussion should have happened before she made a unilateral decision.

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I liked his comment that his job didn't define him, as hers defined her.

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@A_Bierce,good catch on the " met with Steve," that slipped right by me. Especially since he was the NEW principal. She might have known the old one well enough to refer to him by his first name, but not a new one. Actually, I just checked, he's the latest, not necessarily new.

Wow. A decent plot, but kind of Martian Slut Ray-ish. This loyal loving faithful virtuous wife suddenly ditches her her husband, their retirement plans, and starts fucking her boss? And she OLD. Like the principle doesn't have All Kinds of young teachers who want to fuck The Big Guy, and he's banging this old dried up bitch in her 60's? Yeah, yeah, she's so beautiful and stayed in shape and fucks like, like, . . ., like she's in her 60's. Men age like wine, women age like cheese. A very dried out pungent cheese.

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And the ex whore's rejection of the divorce made absolutely no sense. She doesn't really want her husband, his retirement, or being in a committed partnership with someone who won't give her what she wants. She's supposedly so sexual and desirable, so why doesn't she just become the school bike? She can live out her fantasy and her compulsion; what gives? And why wasn't the prenup mentioned? It was such a big deal earlier in the story, what happened with that?

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Yeah, there were a lot of puzzling unanswered questions that would have made the whore more understandable, and probably deplorable. What did the slut say and do when she found out she had been replaced by a Cuban Bombshell? Why not give us that satisfying bit of payback to the cheating whore? I guess you did the best you could. It would be fun to find out how Best Fucking Teacher Of The Year crept into her retirement years.

The STD was a too easy device. She made a life changing decision without him. He gets to make some alone. Is there a way to do it without ending the marriage is more interesting.

Me its a sad story like most of these are you told it well. I appreciate all of you who write, my question however is why didn't he go after the principal and the school system for the destruction of a long term marriage.

Too much detailed, irrelevant background in this Femdom agitprop story, but I have a question. Did he not know the infidelity was coming? Cause I did. The Cat fūcking is superfluous.

Still reading. One comment. The word Angerly should be Angrily.

JPB

It was good, but not great.

"At age fifty-nine, Pat is a smoke-show. "

She was nearly four decades past her prime. It is physical impossible for an elderly woman to be a "smoke show".

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The trip back in time to the pre-nup was pointless... because he never enforced it. The only justification for that scene was if he then used the pre-nup to ruin her financially in the divorce. Why would he be paying her alimony? That certainly wasn't in the pre-nup.

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Also there was no explanation for why Pat started cheating. Was she already having an affair with the headmaster before signing the contract? Was it just him she was screwing?

What caused her to have zero respect for her husband? Arbitrarily deciding to go back to work when they'd been planning their retirement together was a huge betrayal.

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Some more details about Catalina would've been nice too. How old was she supposed to be exactly? Her mother was eighty-five, so she must have been at least 45, but no woman over 30 is going to be mistaken for a teenager.

Don't include a gun in a story if it has no further place in that story. Same with a pre-nup that was so excruciating spelled out, plus the growing equity resulting from the pre-nup. It just died.

Four stars.

JPB

What happened to the ptenup?

Good tale, thanks. But, um, Cat is a retired pediatrician, but the ex-wife thinks she’s a teenager? I can imagine being fit and wearing brightly colored clothes might take off 20 years, but 40?

One of the discordant things about LW stories like this one are the sudden, convenient pop-ups. The family is new and struggling. They have their second child. They've been putting off buying a larger house because of money. But then they swing it by cashing in a retirement plan "along with almost eight years of monthly profits from three small condominiums I'd bought as an investment". WHAT??? This family is not struggling. When they want to buy their second home on Long Island it turns out that they own a piece of the concession stand at Barkhamsted and 50% of the garbage collection business in Glastonbury. Not bad for a cop and a teacher.

Good story. Thank you.

Too many readers want a nicer main character who is more agreeable to the situation Chris is facing. He was a cop and knew how to evaluate the crap happening around him and then take the best action to stay alive. I liked the story and wonder how Pat's future went after her side tript in to self control ended.

I mostly liked it, but it definitely has some issues. After the big deal about the pre-nup and changing it to be more fair, it never comes up in the divorce? Cat is a retired pediatrician and a teenager? I did like the way he handled the marriage counselor, but for every good part like that there was always a fault to counter it.

It's comical to see one anon tell the other anon that their opinion is wrong, as if their own carries any additional weight. Obviously a self centered liberal.

A little btb would have been nice

Men's Room Blowjobs???

In college or not, what kind of females did this moron associate with?

The teachers I have known, and I have known many, have been much less likely to cheat than the even more numerous cops I have known.

Why didn't he enforce the prenup? More importantly, if he was willing to pay alimony, why didn't he divorce her when things first went south? Her taking the job without consulting him (let along the affair), his taking the cruise and the subsequent trip to Florida. They were no longer a couple by this point, why would they have stayed together?

Amazing story and a fun read. I'm don't agree with the comment about teachers being less likely to cheat.

I have to agree with some others about the prenup. You took a lot of time in the story to build it up as a key plot point and then it just disappeared. I get you pushing Chris' "cop persona" of being a controlled (mostly), analytical party in the breakdown of this decades long marriage, but I just can't make the leap he would not "punish" Pat by implementing the prenup. Still, great story! 4.8*

@Powersworder 59 isn't elderly, more like late middle age and yes women can still look amazing even in their 60's or 70's.

Haven't personally seen a lady in her 80's as hot so maybe that's the cut off point.

It seemed somewhat fragmented to me, with gaps that could have been bridged. The first, as has already been noted, was the extensive early argument about the pre-nup. Yes, I did see that it could have been used simply as a device to prepare the road for the unilateral decision Pat makes to go back to teaching without consultation with Chris, but if so, why the further elaboration about the inequity in the ownership of property? It created an expectation that the issues of a divorce settlement would be onerous for her, but it was ignored in the final event. The seemingly sudden departure from a long supposedly stable marriage was also abrupt and felt, if not contrived, then unlikely. Yes, people go off the rails, and if her retirement caused her to panic there should have been some signs of her discontent with her situation. Even that would not account for her adultery and deception. Good story and good writing, just some gaps that I felt needed to be bridged. Thanks.

@deepender.

Ugh... Righto, for the peanut gallery, or on this case, the one guy with a low IQ and a loud voice...

The guy was a cop... and an accountant.

I think the story set the precedent pretty well, that he was no fool, and being an accountant, especially according to the narrative, he was very cautious with his wealth.

Now for the Big Reveal, deep end...

It doesn't mean you are destitute, or incapable, to decide to wait on a big financial decision. It just means that you prefer caution, in preference to saying, "Look, Honey, by lumbering ourselves with a bigger mortgage, and throwing away our investments, we can get ourselves into an ugly, expensive, oversized McMansion and be just like the Jones's".

Oh, and by the way... a guy who tries using a little wisdom and clear thinking, who is also an accountant? That's a guy who is going to recognise a good investment property... not just a fad one, but one with a real high chance of return. You know what a guy like that does with his sound investment?

He intentionally keeps it away from his home mortgage, and reinvents it in another sound security. Thus... He ends up with a huge portfolio, and it will be waiting there for him to cash in when he wants to, if he wants to.

In your case, deep end... I assume your only dalliance in property involves paying the rent.

Well written but a tad weak around what events happened from when he first "talks" with Pat and finds out her plan to continue teaching, at least for another year. How did he discover her AP was her Boss? What did he actually do, given that there are certain HR requirements re Principal/Teacher relationships? We hear little about anything until 1 year later.

Imagine how much longer the story would have been if not for harddaysknight eliminating the nonessential fluff. Yeah

4 stars

Dare

I do enjoy a story that is well thought out and written in a logical manner. I enjoyed your “style” of writing. Thank you for sharing it.

Enjoyed the story but it screams for a second part, as there are several holes that need to be explained.

2nd part? Don't really see any downside for the cheating wife, and no real talk of finances in the divorce due to the prenup, which was a big deal in the beginning of the story. Really good story!

Good, not great, for the various weaknesses others have pointed out. Sad thing is it’s probably the best of all the entries in this symposium. Given the demonstrated talents of the authors and the promising subject, I was very much looking forward to reading these stories. But it’s been a depressing disappointment. None of the authors was at the top of his or her game. I don’t think it’s me, since I have had high praise for most of these writers in their previous efforts. Sigh.

I do not believe I have read your works before, but I have to say that I was impressed with this effort. Keep up the good work.