Wife Goes on Weekend Date

"When I was young, my dad taught me that if you take an action against someone, you often have no control as to the person's reaction. I begged you not to go away for the weekend, but you called me 'childish' and left anyway. I've never felt so betrayed and disrespected in all of my life. If you would have called it off, when I begged you to, we could have gone to counseling and maybe repaired our marriage and figured out why you thought you needed your weekend tryst."

"Believe me, Lori, I've been down in the dumps some too, since Kelly left for college. But, unlike you, I didn't plan to have a weekend tryst with another woman and spring it on you at the last second like you did to me. The second you hopped in that Uber to take you to the resort to be with Richard, our marriage was over. You just didn't realize it."

Lori started sobbing as she crumbled to the floor. She crawled to my chair and hugged me around my lower legs. "Please, please Bill, don't leave me. I was stupid and I let Richard fill my head with lies. The sex with him was mediocre, at best. He isn't even in your league. Please, we can work on our marriage and be better than ever, please don't leave me!"

I picked my phone up off the table and turned off the recording. "Lori, I have a confession to make."

She raised her face up from my shins and looked at me, "what did you do? Did you see Sarah after I left? Its OK Bill," she excitedly said, "we both took a weekend off from our marriage, that makes us even, right?"

"Yes, I did spend the weekend with Sarah, but its more complicated than that."

"What do you mean?"

I explained how Sarah and I had become close and felt a strong connection after Jon's death even though we never crossed any lines or had an emotional or physical affair.

"I've hardly spoken to her over the past five years. We parted ways when we both realized we could be going down a dangerous path for my marriage. I was happily married and respected my marriage vows. Sarah also respected our marriage, she respected it far too much to ever do anything to come between us. But she did tell me to call her if my marital status ever changed, that's why I called her. You essentially threw our marriage in the garbage and never listened to my pleas to stop with your insane weekend plans. In the end, it turns out that Sarah respected our marriage more than you did."

"Oh my god, what have I done," Lori wailed as she gripped my lower legs tight and pressed her face into my shins once again. "I can't believe this is happening to me."

"That makes two of us," I replied.

"When Sarah and I got together this weekend, we found that our connection is even stronger now than it was when we parted and that we are truly soul mates." I could feel Lori shuddering as she kept her face buried in my shins.

"Sarah and I never would have gotten together, maybe never even spoken again, if you hadn't betrayed me this weekend. But you gave us the opportunity to be together, and now we never want to be apart again. I'll be filing for divorce next week. Given the circumstances, I'll be filing under 'irreconcilable differences' even though I could file under 'adultery'. I promise to be fair in the settlement and not try to leave you destitute as I try to remember the good times we spent together."

"I told Kelly that you spent the weekend with another man, and its only fair that we tell Erin the same thing. I'm happy to let them know that I'm now with Sarah, but I'll tell them that I only reacted to your betrayal. If you don't try to make me out to be the bad guy, then I assure you that the private detective's report, and photographs, won't see the light of day."

I think Lori knew fighting for me to stay married to her was a lost cause. We talked with Erin later that night after she returned. Erin was upset and asked if we could try marriage counseling. Without going into details, she knew her mom had screwed up. She also knew that I had reconnected with Sarah and that we were starting a relationship. She quickly realized that marriage counseling wasn't in the cards.

I stayed in the guest room for a few nights to make sure that Erin would be OK, then I moved into an extended stay hotel splitting my time between Sarah and Lori/Erin. Later that week, I presented Lori with the outline of a very fair settlement offer. Even though the settlement money from Jon's death was in trust for Sarah and Jacob, I knew that I could leave Lori the house and a decent amount for alimony and child support without any financial impact.

To Lori's credit, she never tried to make me out to be the bad guy or claim that I was the reason that we divorced. She'd try and tell people that we simply grew apart. Some knew that was bullshit, so as a last resort she'd tell them that she really screwed up and that my leaving was entirely justified.

-----o-----

Sarah and I married shortly after my divorce was final. The wedding was small, but beautiful and my bride was breathtaking. We only invited close family and friends. I was happy that both Kelly and Erin attended and appeared genuinely happy for us. I think they both realized that there was no way I could stay married to their mother after what she did and they just wanted me to be happy.

Sarah was in her mid-thirties but convinced me that my baby-making days weren't over. I had my vasectomy reversed and we proceeded to have two wonderful, healthy babies. First, we had Jon, named in Jon's memory, but we called him 'Jack.' Then, a year later, we had our little girl, Jacquelin, named after my mother. We called our little girl 'Jackie.' Jacob and I have developed a great father-son relationship. Looking back, he really needed a father in his life. I hope that Jon is up there somewhere looking down at Sarah and Jacob and that he is at peace knowing that they have found such happiness.

-----o-----

Today, it's been almost ten years since that fateful weekend. Sarah and I are as happy as two people have a right to be as we attended Kelly's wedding to her long-time boyfriend, Tom. Jackie was their flower girl and Jack did a great job as the ring-bearer. Jacob was in high school now and was a very handsome and athletic young man. He attended with his very pretty girlfriend.

I hadn't seen Lori in over six years. She looks alright, but can't hold a candle to Sarah. I think having two more kids made Sarah absolutely blossom. Lori had finally re-married to a man named Steven that she met at work. I met Steven at the rehearsal dinner and he seemed like a pretty good, all around nice guy. We had a private moment to chat and he mentioned that Lori told him what happened between us and blamed herself for our divorce, something I acknowledged with a quiet nod. I assured Steven that whatever silliness that had possessed Lori had been vanquished and that, for the most part, she was a wonderful wife and partner. He readily agreed.

I learned that Lori was on seriously thin-ice at work for a while, but they never fired her. She had some crappy assignments for a while, but eventually she showed her loyalty and hard-working nature, so she was eventually promoted to be an area manager, ironically the same job that Richard had before he was fired.

Sarah and I mingled with guests at the reception after the ceremony. We ate, danced, and had a great time. Kelly and Tom were jetting off to Hawaii in the morning for a honeymoon that Sarah and I had given them as a present, along with a sizable check to help them with the down-payment for a house that they wanted to buy.

Towards the end of the evening, I saw Lori approach Sarah and have a brief chat. Lori then came to me and asked me if we could have one dance together, she said that Sarah had said it was OK with her. I glanced at Sarah and she nodded her head. I took Lori in my arms and we danced to the slow music that was playing. It almost felt like old time. Neither of us said a word until the very end of the song when she stopped and looked up at me.

"Bill, I'm so sorry for what I did to us all those years ago. I'm glad I found Steven, but I never stopped loving you. Seeing you so happy with Sarah makes me feel happy for you, but also makes me hurt thinking about what might have been."

"Lori, for what it's worth, I forgive you and wish you and Steven nothing but happiness. I had a chance to talk with him earlier, and he really is a good guy. He and I have something in common... we both love you. You're right, Sarah and I are incredibly happy and in a strange way we have you to thank for bringing us together. Please forgive yourself and love Steven and your family with everything you have."

With that, I kissed Lori on top of her forehead, took her hand and walked her back to our table where Steven and Sarah were waiting for us, quietly watching the last dance between former lovers. I saw the beautiful smile on Sarah's face and thanked God for bringing her back into my life, even though it was in a most unusual way.

The End

BCF