All Comments on 'The End of the Affair'

A man who wants sex every day marries 3 women who each want sex around twice a week. This is a happy family.

A woman who wants sex around twice a week marries 3 men who each want sex every day. This is mass murder.

A woman who has a really good husband will share him with her best friend and feel that their love is increased.

A man with a really good wife will beat the shit out of his best friends for even thinking about her.

All of human history, and cultures shows that it only works one way. In fact, it works REALLY well, especially for the children. One father and multiple mothers has been shown in several studies to be the best possible household for raising children.

Everything old is new again, except the current generation insists on corrupting what works, and perverting the way!

ZK

Just another trailer park white trash special

Fiction,fiction, fiction,…

More like polyigrnorous. Four (or more) couples? The definition of Armageddon! You KNOW at some point all the wives will PMS…AT THE SAME TIME! Followed by a radioactive cloud over the state of No’ Karlyna.

No, monogamy is a safety mechanism preventing such runaway ball and chain reactions…thank God

Good story. A 20 out a 5. You know what’d be good right now? A cannabis Moon Pie! Relax the mind and munchies at the same time. Next…story…

This is a pretty well written story. The only thing I have any kind of an issue with is that the situation isn’t common at all, in my world. I mostly feel a disconnect because I can’t fathom the combination of emotions that go along with the lifestyle. I understand love and betrayal, but I’m not wired at all to want to experience more than one partner at a time. I have no opinion on the lifestyle one way or another, other than it’s not for me.

While monogamous marriages have a a high ~50% divorce rate (40% for first, 60% for second, 70% for third), non-monogamous marriages (polyamory, swingers, snappers, open, etc) have a 92% divorce rate (some studies suggest even higher). Pair bonding may not be for everyone but it is a strong impulse. There are other hurdles than just societal acceptance to poly relationships.

A sad commentary on the destruction of a thousands year old way of life, male/female family units, that produced so much good for humanity. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky.

The story was different, poly relationships fail more than succeed. Open relationships fail more than monogamous ones by over 90%. The story was good until two things happened. First Clare was cheating even after the husband joined the poly group just for her. Then he just allows her back into his life after they split up? Cheaters rarely change but by allowing to let his ex hang around was going too far. If they had kids together it would be understandable but with having none? No way. Second when he catches Bob cheating and Jake doesn't tell Amber? He supposedly cared about her so much but said nothing? I would certainly think if someone cared about me they would tell me if my partner was a cheater. You lost points on both these reasons from me.

Enjoyable story. If that lifestyle works for those people then why condemn it? They aren't hurting anyone and it's all consensual. Not my cup of tea but it's not something to be judged over in my opinion. Another good story from an excellent writer. Thanks BardnotBard

Enjoyable story. I can relate to the MC. And personally don't think polyamorous relationships will become mainstream. Accepted and a legal option, sure. In the same way that relationships between same-gendered people is legal in a lot of countries now. But I do honestly believe people are monogamous at heart and the one on one relationship will remain the standard for a long, long time to come. // A whole different discussion, one that you kind of hinted at here, is where is the line between polyamory and swinging or a commune? 4 people? 5 people? more?

I loved the story, and the way it was told. I couldn't put the mouse down until I finished it, then I had to pick up the key board and put in my comment. It's good that he and Amber did get together, as they were both moving in the same direction (wanting a monogamist relationship). He set out to live a life well lived, and got what he wanted in the end. I will say this one didn't bring any tears, although there weren't any real sad parts in it like some of your other stories. Thank You for sharing it with us, it's really good. I gave it 5 stars.

“Stranger in a Strange Land” & “The Moon Is a Hard Mistress” by Heinlen were sci-fi explorations of the polyamorous lifestyle. However, no one can make another individual happy if they aren’t.

Creative. The New fangled think that polyamory will replace monogamy any time soon is a bit naive. The analogy to same sex marriage is not accurate when digging deeper. Those people are still pair bonding. Claire was not much of a character in the story. She did not deny cheating before he joined the group lifestyle to appease her. And she clearly got strange with another guy who she later married then divorced. She was less of a character and more of a caricature of a tortured sex addict who blows up any relationship she is in until she got counseling and therapy and found Polly. Her sexuality, despite being bi, was probably more centered with same sex. But with all the flipping beds and partners and spending so little time with her husband she barely devoted any time to a stable relationship. Time is one thing we can never get back. With those rotations, ignoring her extracurricular sport f$cking, she was spending less than 10 days a month with her husband. With the schedule originally planned would have been 8 out of 30 days. No way to maintain a relationship let alone the non sexual parts and intimacy. The polyamory lifestyle is not my cup of tea. But larger polygamous groups are like highlynconnected graphs with more nodes and more edges. Those edges can fray and break with the dilution of time and attention and wear down with trials and tribulations of life. The network is now more diverse but easier to corrupt. One of those edges sours or becomes imbalanced. Without a stable pair bond or small tight knit throuple or quad, the while network is at risk of failure. One edge fails, and stresses the rest of the network. Eventually the graph collapses or fragments onto smaller graphs. Not to mention the dynamic of outside forces and stressor and new partners trying to join. One bad apple can push the whole network into crisis. You might feel a monogamous relationship is old school. But the is a reason. Tens of thousands of years of pair bidding built into out DNA via evolution and civilization. Polygamy as all but died on the vine.m as a failed experiment. I assume more polyamory in the future as people find it more permissive to experiment. But experimentation doesn't mean investment in thr marriage and the pair bond, so the link weakens while other strengthen. Imbalancing the network thr bugger the network the more exotic the eayd it can fall apart and rhe more strain to keep it in a good state. Unfortunately at best a meta stable one, but usually unstable on longer time frame. People cannot actively give time and of themselves to many people at the same time without dilution of attention, intimacy, sex, friendship and love. Ofncourse a pair bind can be weak and the marriage goes to divorce. But if the pair bondnis strong, maintained vigilantly and nurtured and then tempered in the fires of life, the resultant bond is far more durable and stronger than anything likely to survive in a polhamory network of higher size and complexity. It is a combination of human nature and mathematics. Unfortunately that doesn't stop practitioners of the new wave lifestyle to claim then monogamous types are obsolete or soon will be.

Polyamory seems like having multiple friends with benefits. Having been monogamous all my life. Seems like the next step would be threesomes and then group sex. Too complicated for me!

A good story, the life style wouldn't be for me . I was married once (for 20 years) but while I've had girlfriends but have lived alone since. I'm still friends with my ex, she helped me out quite a bit with my illnesses. Thank you Q - 5 STARS.

somewhere east of Omaha

The multiple wives/polyamory thing has never worked except in some primitive cultures ( like Native American and Mormon , yes I said it ). Threesomes always seem to implode and leave three onesomes.

Polyamory will never find its way into the mainstream, that's an ignorant and asinine thought.

"She must have been physic, because it was another girl, Jessica, ...."??

'physic - medicinal drug'!

Should that have been 'psychic'??

Sorry Q but only 3 stars as I would never be in swingers group . My first wife and i were asked to join and I asked them to leave . My 2 best friends backed me up Smith and Wesson in .45 cal

I can't get over how this guy basically allowed Amber and Belle to be tortured for years by Bob because he covered for his cheating. I just don't get it. Honestly, it almost reads like he allowed for their shitty situation to continue as long as it did just so that he could keep having Amber and Belle rely on him without having to make any sort of commitment to Amber other than "friends".

Open marriages/ENM/Polyamory have marriage/relationship failure rate of 92%. I was involved in the lifestyle for the better part of a decade, and I can tell you that that statistic is not overblown or exaggerated. I've witnessed it destroy more than a handful of marriages and relationships.

I loved it and gave it 5 stars. It was a well told, well written story. I enjoyed it, although it's not the kind of life style choice for me. It does give a look into that life style though, along with it's own pitfalls, and consequences of choices. Thank you for sharing it with us.