All Comments on 'The Aftermath'

The whole story is slanted to show how weak the husband is, his lack of character. What about her lack of character. She sleeps with someone and then she winds up the hero?

Well written, I just don't agree with the content.

Of course the cheating slut luedon was okay with this 'female' point of view, you basically wrote her life I'd guess. 1* as usual.

You approached this wanting to write from a woman's point of view. I guess in the end I'm not surprised that the woman's point of view turned out to be that, it's the man's fault in the end.

It ended up being HIS failure to accept her crime. It ended up being HIS inability to accept HER failure of fidelity!

First it was her inability to accept her own failure and her own guilt so she had to unload it onto her innocent partner. Now it's his fault because he has trouble accepting it.

What the hell did she expect? She says HE has the character flaw because he couldn't come to grips with HER infidelity. Guess what toots, infidelity can be so devastating it permanently damages someone. Characteristics that were not present before can be created because of the emotional trauma caused by it.

YOU caused the damage and it is suddenly his fault? Figures.

Author, since you wanted to write this from a woman's point of view, do you think you were successful in thinking like a woman?

I don't agree with her point of view after the fact, but nevertheless I think you put the argument together very compellingly.

I just finished a novel in which one of the protagonists was killed, destroying the "Hollywood ending". I was disappointed and sad within the literary context of the story, but it certainly didn't diminish the quality of the prose and the construction of the plot. In fact, in retrospect, I'm now quite sure the death in the story made it stronger.

Nicely done, and deeply thoughtful. I'll think about this story for a while. Thank you for sharing talent.

But he's right. Forgiveness and reconciliation take a lot of time and hard work on the part of both partners. Therapists say it takes about four years for a marriage to be as good as it can get after a betrayal. And that's if both spouses seriously want to stay married and work to mprove the relationship. Most cheaters aren't up to the difficult job.

He should have left right away and let her work at winning him back if that was what she wanted. Expecting him to forgive her under a deadline was a guarantee of failure, and her inability or unwillingness to provide him with the information he felt he needed was a guarantee that trust could never be rebuilt.

It is, however, a very believable look at the delusional thinking of a cheater. So I give the story a four for that reason.

for the creampie slurper.

I'm giving you 5 stars for one of the most realistic stories I have ever read on this site. I don't like your protagonist much, but find this very true to life. You said you wanted to write from a female perspective, but this could be from a cheaters perspective for either gender. I'm sorry, get over it, you're not going fast enough so later. That really shows the great love for the spouse they supposedly had.

I have read this story on some of the real life infidelity forums many times. I don't know if you read on those sites, but a lot of the authors on here would benefit from it greatly.

I think it was a cheat to make her infidelity inexplicable. Women usually know why they do things, and are not generally incoherently impulsive. She should have been able to explain it, certainly by self-reflection after the fact. If she didn't know why she did it, how would she know she wouldn't do it again? She certainly knew it was wrong then, "naughty" as she called it, and that didn't stop her, it was one of the attractions of the act. By making it inexplicable, you made it so that the husband just had to accept a naked infidelity, and that is not really possible.

She should have explained the whole affair in complete honesty and in the detail he asked for so he could get his head wrapped around what happened, regardless of what she thought he should know. That part read false to me and seemed like more manipulation on her part, but nothing you point out as a flaw.

So, she refused and held that infidelity as a private experience for her alone, which was what it was before she told, so why tell it if she wasn't really willing to tell him? Who wants to know just the fact that their spouse cheated? It would eat at you and wear on your mind until you knew everything. This failure to understand human psychology on her part (and ultimately your part) really stretched my ability to believe in the story or sympathize with the woman. She just wanted him to forgive her for something he really didn't know anything about. Forgive her for generically cheating on him.

He wasn't being stubborn, she was by steadfastly refusing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and deciding as the wrongful party what the wronged party had a right to know. Cheaters don't get to decide how much of the truth they will tell unless they are just going to walk away. And they certainly don't get to do that and take the high moral ground.

A very flawed character beyond her act of cheating, and ultimately not satisfying because we should be in tune with the protagonist and her choices but her choices were wrong and self-defeating. You made me feel sorry for the man and that wasn't what you were trying to do. She wronged him twice and then blamed him for the failure of their marriage because he wasn't willing to fight for it, apparently she was only willing to fight so far for it.

I did give this 4* for being well-written and thought-provoking. It would have been better for her to realize her own responsibility for the marriage failing beyond her act of infidelity. Only the truth, the whole truth, would have saved their relationship. Her accepting the dissolution of her marriage with no regrets as if she discovered his character flaws without pulling the log out of her own eye was deeply unsatisfying.

Nice piece of writing. I enjoyed this, though I agree with other commenters that dealing with this sort of trauma takes time.

She said she saw (negative) traits in her husband that she didn't know were there. Well, maybe they weren't there, before. She said 'hidden insecurity'. She doesn't stop to think that maybe it wasn't hidden . . . maybe it simply didn't exist until her actions created it. A broken heart can lead one to actually CHANGE in significant ways. Bad traits that did not exist before may (usually temporarily) present themselves, and good traits may disappear for a while.

If she truly loved him and was remorseful, she's got to commit a good two years to letting him get rid of the new, negative traits that she provoked, and more time even to getting things back to normal. Her impatience with his not coming around within a year pretty much tells us that even if she can't admit it to herself, she didn't really like or respect him. Her 'Oh no, it's too late' attitude when he finally starts to get it together after a year, and offers her the gift of possible reconciliation, speaks volumes about her lack of character.

There were three bad decisions . . . not two. She made the first, fully cognizant of her actions. He made a second, but under extreme duress while reacting to trauma, which is somewhat understandable and forgivable. She then makes a third, to be stubborn, impatient, and refuse a chance at getting the family back together ,. . . rationalizing to herself that he's the one being stubborn.

We just have to hope the daughter does not grow up to be like the mother.

Despite saying that she would do anything to save the marriage, she failed the first test, when he wanted details of her indidelity. One of the most important things a cheater must do is provide the spouse with all the information about the affair that they want to know, as the first step to reconciliation. You cannot judge what your spouse wants, as she did, if you want your marriage. Unfortunately, the person who has demonstrated poor impulse control, the cheater, is the one who has to have infinite patience with their spouse, usually answering the same questions, over and over. If she had seen a therapist by herself, she might have been told this.

Even if she had given him any details, she probably would have been like most cheaters, who continue to lie about or minimize what occurred, dooming the relationship they say they want. How can their partner learn to trust again if they are still being lied to or the effects of the cheating minimized? Cheaters have no idea of the human wreckage their infidelity will create, when it is revealed.

From the questions he asked, he believed he knew exactly why she cheated. And every evasive answer she gave only served to reinforce his belief that she was likely to do it again.

This is a completely authentic story about events we can all believe might happen. It is appropriately told from the woman's viewpoint because she emerges as the stronger and more clear-sighted character. She made a serious mistake, she owned it and she identified the only way forward. He, on the other hand, doomed the marriage from the minute he asked for details of her betrayal. What sort of wimp wants details, for fucks sake? Just because he is the injured party doesn't mean we have to go into bat for him and unlike most of your readers you don't fall into that trap. Instead you draw out the character flaws which would eventually have emerged even if she had not been unfaithful. She had the insight to see this and the guts to lance the boil to the benefit of both of them.

Of course, the child always suffers and the wife must bear the greater burden for that and do what she can to mitigate the suffering.

To bad shes a slut

What a self-centered bitch. From the beginning it's always been about I, I, I & what I want. She says that they wanted children, yet she had her tubes tied after one child & probably in secrecy. She never elaborates on how the unexpected child affected her husband. Just that it messed up her plans. She says that she had a healthy sex life, which is another lie to herself. A healthy sex life with her husband is at least 3 times a week. Maybe she was getting it somewhere else, which is why she had her tubes tied.

Excessive alcohol intake has been the downfall of many marriages. If a woman is going to drink alcoholic drinks without her husband, she should drink at her home. A buzzed woman is sending a message that says that I am vulnerable and you can take me. As this woman did. Finally, she should've taken the initiative and sought counseling by herself, first. She is totally responsible for the downfall of her marriage.

He was looking for the magic "aha" moment in which he understands the reason why she cheated and the ways in which she thought her lover was a better man than him. And of course, being a man, his first guesses were that maybe he had a bigger dick, was a better lover, etc. Her evading his questions was probably interpreted by him as "all of the above."

I'm normally a sucker for a good RACC story, I have to say that behaviour of the wife in this story is beyond my comprehension. So the husband doesn't behave in the way she had hoped and she thinks it shows character flaws. No actually it reflects the behaviour of a man whose confidence and self belief has been shattered by the actions of a woman he loved and trusted implicitly. All she's doing imo is attempting to deflect responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage onto him rather than her actions being responsible.

I have to say Joe that I normally I like your stories but not one of your best. Thanks for posting though, certainly got me going this morning!!

Adversity does reveal character. Unfortunately, she created the adversity. She put her husband through hell, and then pretended not to understand why he was hurting. Why couldn't he accept she fucked another man and suck it up and forgive her? That revealed a lot about her character. Other than having a kid with her, he was better off without her. On another note, neither had enough character to do the right thing by their daughter. He could have stayed and played her game. "Do what you want and make the spouse live with it". There was no way she could expect to have the same marriage after she broke her vows - not even close to being logical!

Because somewhere in her, she should know. People actually know why they do things. They may not want to confront that reason, but it is there. And as the author, you should know. It should be part of the back story you write for the character. The reason that I bring this up is that you have written a character who does not make sense, and therefore, doesn't seem real. On the one hand she seems intelligent and articulate. However, her actions and thoughts suggest a woman who is spectacularly stupid, completely lacking in any self awareness, or any sense of the true consequences of her actions. She cheats in a way that she knows is not the norm for women, but she doesn't know why, and she doesn't even question that in any serious way. Then, she tells her husband, not for his sake, but because she can't carry the guilt. Except, then she fails to respond in any meaningful way to her husband's natural response to her unnecessary confession. In fact, when her husband demands answers to the fundamental questions, she doesn't even want to answer. And when husband doesn't want to go to therapy, why doesn't she go herself? It's like she doesn't want to know why she did it. Except that is the one thing the husband would want to know to be able to re-establish the relationship. Then when husband can't start to trust her again based only on her unsupported say so, she blames him? She can't live with a man who can't trust unconditionally a person who has proven to be untrustworthy? She thinks her marriage was destroyed by two wrong decisions, hers and her husbands. However the obvious truth is that it was her three wrong decisions that destroyed the marriage. She cheated, she confessed for her own selfish reasons, and then she refused to do anything to convince her husband that it wouldn't happen again other than say that it wouldn't. And she doesn't regret telling her husband about the cheating, even though it cost her her marriage? Because it revealed her husband's character? What comes across is a woman who is absolutely obtuse. Who not only has no idea why she does things, but who sees the terrible consequences of what she does and still doesn't ask herself why. Her attitude is, "I dumped all this pain on you, now it's your responsibility to forgive me without me doing anything to earn that forgiveness or repair the damage." She's selfish, stupid and obtuse. Except that she's also smart and articulate and has a responsible job, and feels really guilty for cheating because she knows that it's wrong. But if she feels so guilty, then why does she not try to figure out why she did what she did? So why doesn't she know that it's wrong to dump that on her husband? Why doesn't she know that it's wrong and unrealistic to destroy trust and then just expect that her husband regain it without her help? What, she's so guilty that she has to tell her husband, but also so guilty that she can't face her own reasons for her actions? And at the same time, so lacking in self awareness and moral awareness that she can't see the obvious result of that? No match.

This would be acceptable if you had laid some foundation for her character, but you haven't. To this reader it looks like lazy writing. Like many, if not most, writers on this site, you began with a concept: a marriage destroyed by a one night stand. Then you moved your characters around to get that result. So, if you ever thought about why this woman does anything that she does in this story (other than being a stupid, selfish bitch), that doesn't come through. That is why this story totally fails. Your chosen outcome has moved your characters. In good stories, character moves plot. You need to go deeper.

Ok , so she says she's sorry , I didn't feel that . She was embarrassed , but not really sorry , IMO.

Your first so called BTB story actually was very good at showing raw passion and true genuine feelings . This simply didn't give me the same payoff. That raw , gut churning , makes you ponder feeling just wasn't in this one . But I will give you props for going outside of your comfort zone and writing from a female perspective.

Absolutely nothing in the story supports her action. And Brian made no decision that cost them the family. His inability to accept her actions and her lack of understanding was not a bad decision on his part. It was the result of her selfish action.

Making bad decisions leads to our learning and increased wisdom, but being human means also means accepting the responsibility for our actions and the accompanying consequences. Its too bad that she never thought about her daughter and her husband when she did what she did.

I liked the story but the conclusions you draw for your characters are not always up to date.

First of all in my opinion the two foundations of a good relationship (=marriage) are trust and love.

Bye her side-step with her co-worker the wife was responsible for the destruction of the marriage. So the trust is out of the window, or one foundation breaks and the whole building collapses and you have to rebuild it from the bottom up, if you want to. You are back to the start of your first date with your wife, the person you thought you knew. This takes a lot of time and work on both sides and the husband was not ready for it.

In the area of the world I live in, you always have joint custody, even after a divorce. And yes a divorce always means a financial loss for all sides, because you have two appartements and two households, but if the parents of a child can talk with each other, no one is forced to reduce working hours. Normally it's the other way around.

So in my opinion the beginning of the last paragraph needs a little correction: The wife destroyed the marriage through her adultery and the husband destroyed the process of rebuilding the relationship between the spouses.

Okay. She got drunk and fucked the man she was with, who was not her husband. She didn't get pregnant and she didn't get any nasty disease. And she knew it was wrong and she felt bad about it.

What should she do?

She should resolve not to do it, put it behind her, and KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT!

Precisely what did she achieve by telling her husband?

Well she ruined his life, her life and their children's lives.

Congratulations!!!!!!

It takes 2 to 5 years for full reconciliation to happen yet she was expecting forgiveness within 2 to 3 days. Even a year was too soon for the wounds she created to heal. She had regret but not remorse. Remorse is understanding the hurt she has caused and helping in every way for her husband to heal. It is not using her infidelity and betrayal to seek out character flaws in her husband. She needed, for example, to tell him the full truth of her night with her lover. She had no right to deny him that. She was protecting herself not him by refusing to reveal it. She did well to confess but that was flawed thinking and wrong

She states she would have been forgiving if it had happened the other way round. That is just pompous arrogance from a cheater mentality. How would she know before experiencing the betrayal.

I really think you need to research the whole subject of the recovery from infidelity before making so many sweeping statements. Somehow she betrayed him but it was his fault the marriage failed. Again cheater thinking.

I am pro reconciliation but she didn't really try did she? Be honest. Please try again after doing the research.

The face of truth. Keep soul searching; this is closer to reality than most of the femdom crap written on here.

Yep the author nailed the female perpective in the last paragraph-Attach the consequences of your actions to someone else.

She goes on and on about ''flaws'' in her husband's character. But as for her own she will only say she made a foolish mistake. Did she ever get therapy to find the flaws in her character that led to that destructive decision.

Futhermore, the only reason she told her husband was she couldn't deal with the guilt. She keeps her mouth shut the marriage survives. She can get counseling to help deal with guilt.

Her smirky way of thinking about how great the sex was confirms husband's fears that she will do it again

Her decision to not let husband return does reveal her true character though not in the light she thinks it does.

Selfish, manipulative and spitefully unremorseful

"an awful person, a rotten cheating bitch, A whore, A slut, Whatever vile words you have to describe me" Yup! That about sums her up!

She's not worth fighting for.

Dump the cheating Ho and find an honest women that can keep her legs closed.

Typical bitch tries to put blame on the hapless hubby!

Blame the victim! Deplorable Ho!

Torvald and Nora redux. I respected the multiple dualities and complications that swingerjoe jam-packed in this drama while detesting both of the main characters. Basically Ashley is all tpo symptomatic of " The Modern Woman " aka an infuriating self-titled cunt. She was treating Brian " like a king" post-adultery ...according to her claim. But only fucking him once a week hardly buttresses that declaration.

If this couple had been doing any less - they'd have been King Kong and Fay Wray. Brian has his issues . No doubt. He was an acceptable spouse until SHE cheated , got away with it , but then couldn't live with guilt and confesses . BOOM goes grenade. The onus is on him to get over it .

Ashley asserts in story opening - she'd do anything to make things right ...anything but take Brian back after he asks to return as story closes. It's infuriating all around . No hugging, no heroes as author intended. My personal theory is Brian was a clod or at least Ashley thought so .This was her way of blowing up the marriage. Ashley's a double-talking jive b-i-t-c-h that wanted o-u-t of nuptials and crafted a stress test which Brian the hapless chump failed.

The story was well crafted if you admire Ibsen. It possibly needed an erotic scene or failed carnal scene that reflected the damage done . The tryst with Russell ? Maybe - I'd be interested why Swingerjoe rarely or never records the cheating scenes of straying spouses .

Ohio excels at that facet . He'll piss off average reader and yet ....the cheating scene is hot. The anons get all riled up , excoriate him in comment and then they read another of his stories the next day .

Strangers waiting. Streetlight people searching up and down the boulevard. It just goes on and on warbles Steve Perry as Brian cuts another child support check. But he's a veritable lottery winner next to Tony Soprano who got headshot by guy in member's only jacket.

Hmmmm how about "When Brian Met Meadow " for a sequel ?

I thank Swingerjoe for sharing

To tell her husband-despite the destruction

Most likely she long before had stopped questioning her decision to cheat

If you were meaning to write a story where a cheating wife manages to convince herself that she was not responsible for the devastion she caused

YOU SUCCEEDED

In Wifey's own words, "I'll do whatever it takes to regain your trust." Except, apparently, give him the time to get over it on his schedule rather than hers. When he does get to that point, she blows him off. He didn't get over it quickly enough, therefore he obviously doesn't care enough about their marriage. Doesn't matter how often she tries to shirk the responsibility, SHE is the one who betrayed the marriage and SHE was the one who decided he didn't forgive quickly enough. The tags for this story include "no brain-dead wife." Sorry, it's either a brain-dead wife or a brain-dead author.

Did you notice how SHE shifted the blame onto him? It became HIS fault that he didn't want to fight for the marriage! What a selfish conniving woman. Thinking she was a martyr.

A good story but the wife killed the marriage not by having sex with someone else BUT by her narcissus attitute and expectation.

Sadly I rated it 1

So it was all the husbands fault, like a Dr Phill episode.

First, I know it was needed for the cheating, but why fly to California? Russell lives there? No, he was staying at the same hotel. So of he has to travel anyway, why not come to her city so that she doesn't have to?

She blames him for the divorce!

Forgetting that it was HER cheating that caused the problem, she had time, I don't recall how long, but it was at LEAST days, if not weeks, to come to terms with what she did, and she couldn't live with the guilt, so dumps it on him.

She refuses to answer his questions. SHE decides that they don't matter! Who is she to decide what he needs to know to "get past this?" She should have answered every single one of his questions in whatever detail HE needed.

Her "willingness to fight" didn't extend to giving him the information that he needed. Her "honesty" compelled her to dump on him, but not to truthfully answer his questions.

Then, when he wants to start over, she decided that she couldn't live with HIS character flaws! So HE was supposed to accept her "one moment of weakness," but she couldn't accept HIS imperfection!

The ultimate hubris? She STILL thinks her decision to tell him was the right one! "Let's see...live with my guilt, or risk destroying the family? Tough call!"

in the end, he will be better off without her. the ruined marriage was not his fault, it was hers. sounded like she did blame him for her fuck up.

you don't cheat on someone you love, honor and respect.

so the fault was hers and hers alone.

What a fucking cunt...

The tag - no brain dead wife - isn't quite right. She may not have been pull-the-plug "brain dead" - but she was definitely acting that way.

By not allowing him closure - the answering of his questions, and not allowing him the same time to come to terms with it that she had - she is definitely showing not only selfishness but stupidity.

All in all it's not only her fault that she cheated, but ultimately her fault the marriage failed because she wouldn't allow him to completely process her crime. And she is completely delusional to her total faults.

2/5

Good story. Don't forget guys that what we were reading is her version of the story. Whatever the reason, she cheated and decided later to reveal the truth. Deep down she did it because she could and maybe for an instant she wanted or needed it. It was sex and sex lead to orgasms and sex gives pleasure, so she enjoyed it and afterwards she was guilty.

He, as expected, was destroyed by the news and lost his trust in her. She felt he was insecure and not willing to fight for the marriage. He wanted to understand first what was wrong with the marriage or him that made her cheat. It may have been nothing wrong, it just happened because she could, but everything is about perception of an event. She wanted forgiveness and to move on. He couldn't then. The author decided the marriage was doomed. The rest is the reader's conclusion. The moral; cheating can be fun, and naughty, and exciting, but the consequences of it long lasting or nefarious for a marriage.

Her betrayal caused the change in her husband. She emasculated him. She had no right to put tine limits on her healing.

Marriage is 50/50 Her fucking another man for kicks is 100% on her. She destroyed the marriage. She never tried to help him heal. It takes 2-5 years to heal from cheating not 2-5 months. Since he would not follow her time line she let him go.

The failure at reconciliation is 200% on her too. She is a cunt.

I gave full marks, because this is very realistic. While SJ may be convoluted, he can write some powerful stories when he gets his wife's mouth off of another mans cock

What a sad piece of rationalisation on the part of the wife.

She has managed to lay the blame for the demise of her marriage 50% on the unfortunate husband.

What a supremely selfish character she is, first cheating ... knowing fully what she was doing, secondly confessing ... because SHE couldn't live with the guilt, and thirdly blaming the poor husband ... for not being able to live with an untrustworthy partner.

I do believe you did a good job at writing from a female point of view and that is likely why it won't be a popular story here. Many men will identify directly with the husband and his thoughts and be upset that the wife had a great deal of difficulty understanding or empathizing with her husband's reaction to her honesty. I think if anyone was being stubborn it was her and her inability to deal with his reaction and how directly it opposed it was to her expectations. Again, that is a biased based upon my male interpretation. I do believe that her cold and calculating response to his inability to deal with her "honesty" (since she chose how much information to share and withhold I reserve judgement on the fullness of that honesty) is a telling reason for her ability to cheat in the first place. She likely would not want to explore the true depth, or lack there of, for her husband. I do not envy her next long term relationship. Good job with your original goal, probably too good for a high rating in the long run.

I think she should have seen a counselor before saying anything, she might have been able to put it in the past

As a woman, I find the wife of this story to be completely egomaniacal. She is so self involved that she cannot see the damage she has done. Her husband reacts to her affair in a very real way, questioning what he didn't do that led to this situation. Both men and women react this way. For the wife to be so unemotional when talking about her husband and her reactions to his response to he infidelity, shows how warped her thinking truly is. He is much better off without her, and I worry how the daughter will turnout.

"We have sex maybe once a week" - ?????

I know most or all of these are repeats, but just to summarize -

She cheats

She can't handle the guilt after WEEKS of thinking about it, so dumps it on her husband.

She won't answer his questions, because she doesn't think that they are important.

She doesn't realize that his insecurity and feelings of inadequacy are the DIRECT result of her cheating, then uses that to refuse his attempt to reconcile.

But HE shares in the failure of the marriage?

This is truly written from the woman's point of view!

But, such nonsense. My dear author, whatever you were on when you wrote this. I feel like laughing! !

Pretty good story,swingerjoe.

I liked how you highlight her double failure .

She cheated , without giving her husband a reason. That is a major problem for Brian. All he could focus on was himself, where did he fail. He never did anything wrong. Without realizing it his inability to find anything wrong with his behavior during their marriage leads to a loss of confidence in himself. He cannot accept that she is an oathbreaker. She is the only one with major character flaws.

With the excuse of tiredness, a little alcohol, and she will sleep with another man. She fails for the first time. Then after several weeks of separation she fails again. Decided allowing Brian to resolve his issues with her cheating, made more difficult without any excuse or reason,, takes him too much time. Like in a business he took to much time. Maybe she allows only one week for every year they were married, lol❗

Thank you swingerjoe, you promised more and you delivered🎭, ha.

AMerryman

When people ask what a cheater thinks, I'll send them directly to this story.

I feel you did an excellent job of showing the thought process of a cheater. Also, you did well with the woman's perspective.

Thank you for writing.

And not a very good one. You should never try to write from a woman's perspective again. Really though, you should never try to write from a man's perspective either. Just stick to making asshole comments, that seems to be what you're best at.

Not well written and not well though out. The tags were the best part. 2*

About two flawed people. I actually agree with the narrator that sharing the gory details would have been a mistake--but she needed to explain that by telling him in no uncertain terms that the sex wasn't better and she preferred him as a lover. His bruised ego needed at least that much.

She's lying, perhaps to herself, when she says time and again that she was willing to do whatever it took to heal things. Not one statement or action in this story reveals any care or thought about how he felt, or what she was willing to do to make amends and help HIM heal from the wounds SHE inflicted. It was all ultimatum designed to help HER move on. "You need to forgive me NOW, no matter what I've done or failed to do to fix it." Selfish and self-centered.

And in the end, she's a hypocrite. She expected immediate forgiveness for a cruel act, but wouldn't give him a chance to fix his own, I would say smaller, mistakes. And yes, he made mistakes. Not before her crime, but after. Understandable for a man in pain with a partner who seemed only concerned with herself. They were both to blame, but it certainly wasn't 50/50.

Pretty insightful as to how a repentant cheater actually views and responds to all the behaviors we usually see male protagonists engage in on LW (although the stalemate you describe usually lasts months, and can go for years, before someone takes action and moves out or files).

In her husband's eyes, her refusal to disclose the details of her tryst compounded the felony. Partial truth-telling isn't a way to build trust and make amends.

Counseling would have helped, of course. A counselor could have helped the wife understand not only her husband's underlying insecurity, but his frustrated need to make sense of an earth-shattering situation. "I don't know and the details don't matter" isn't sufficient for any apology, much less one of adultery. He may have been trying to hurt her - and himself - with his insistence on the details, but that's where a counselor can work with both spouses to build communication on what does matter - building understanding and trust, if possible.

. . . why some of the people who read the Loving Wives category do; sometimes it just seems that they do to get pissed off.

This is <i>fiction!</i> If it's going to piss you off, quit reading it!

This is getting boring and repetitious. Maybe someday you'll write a story that has one decent person in it. Who wants to read stories about people with the personality of toads?

very real , no hidden cams , no 14 " cock , no-one tied to a chair,no song lyrics,Yes she fucked up 2 times once fucking a guy on a biz. trip 2ed telling hubby to ease her guilt...howd that work out...we all cheer stories where the "hero"confesses some dalliance or another then the wife goes ape shit and tries to punish our "hero" for life until he can't take it anymore and runs off to pipeline work in Alaska,,we love that but we hate it that the wife pulled the plug in this story..yep she fucked up.he ended it..again very real....stlcris

This story is well written, like most of your stories. I didn't really like the story, because I didn't like the characters, but I will say that the story feels real. I think both the husband and wife lacked empathy for one another. Also I think, as shown in the story, that the adultery was a symptom of a bigger issue. How can they both profess love, and both not be able to do anything to move past this? It's obvious that they had bigger issues that were never noticed.

Anyway, the story was thought provoking if nothing else. Keep writing.

I would have scored this lower, but it was well written. I gave 4 Stars. I read this catagory because I like reading kinky, sexy, slutty anguish with a lot of pain and termoil. But, "The Aftermath" is a small funnel of indifference spewing from a mediocre example of an "Any Wife" type character. The comment that the "Wife" still loves the husband "unconditionally" at the end of the story was just over the top. I started laughing at the end due to the sheer lack of concern for either of the main characters.

If she loved him unconditionally, she would have taken him back and tried to salvage the marriage. She was the cheat after all how dare she turn it around and make him the bad guy! It didn't take long for her love to have conditions.

Cardboard characters, stilted dialogue, odd blame games, twisted justifications for stupidity and emasculation of the pathetic loser of a husband by the pathetic loser of a wife. Nothing to like here. Two stars is generous. I can't imagine who thinks this is well written.

Ok. Typical of a woman blaming the husband for the Wreck of their marriage. What's missing is her actual attempts to do any sort of damage control, like going to see a therapist herself to find out why she did this. This was good but could have been much better written.

Sorry

1) Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment. I knew this story would probably elicit many opinions, and you didn't disappoint.

2) To the repeated question of why she didn't seek therapy alone, it was mentioned several times that Brian didn't want her to talk to ANYONE about what she did. If she went out on her own against his wishes it would have been yet another violation of trust.

3) Yes, these are two severely flawed characters. Stories about perfect people behaving perfectly generally don't interest me (although my last story fit that description more than most.)

4) This story is called "The Aftermath" for a reason. All of the action occurs after the fact. Everyone -- EVERYONE -- does something foolish that we later regret. When that happens, you cannot roll back time and get a "do-over." You have to deal with it. Life is nothing more than a series of decisions. That's what this story is about.

5) I wrote this story from the cheating wife's POV because all too often we never see that POV in this section. We see too many wives who cheat simply because they're amoral beasts who can't control their hormones. Often, we never even get an explanation for why she cheated. It's assumed it's because she's a woman, and women are inherently dishonest sluts. But here we have a wife who can't even explain to herself why she cheated. She knows it was wrong, and she "throws herself on the mercy of the court," so to speak. So the question becomes not "why?" but "now what?"

6) Yes, she could have (and probably should have) kept her secret to herself. But then, that wouldn't make for much of a story, would it? In fact, I almost considered writing a prequel to Getting Even, which would have been that story. Knowing how that story ends, however, strips away any dramatic impact.

7) I considered having her provide Brian with all the details he wanted. There are only two directions from there, however: a) he leaves her because he can't stand knowing the truth, or b) he gets off on the details and becomes a "willing cuck." If you want to read that story, check out Forsaking All Others.

8) I generally stick to writing what I know, but I stepped outside of my comfort zone on this one. I had to do some research on why people divorce. Oddly enough I discovered that one of the main reasons women give for leaving their husbands is that they grew impatient over their husbands inability to get past infidelity. It sucks, but (apparently) it's real life.

9) As always, I thank all of the anonies who took the time to scroll to the end of my story, click that one-star, and leave a vague, nonspecific comment that clearly indicates that they didn't read the story. I really don't know why you waste your time like that, but whatever makes you happy!

10) Finally, I reached a Lit milestone today that I'm very proud of, and I thank all of those readers who made that possible. It makes me feel as if my efforts here haven't been a complete waste of time.

Congratulations on figuring it out that this is fiction. I never would have realized that without your deep insight!

That doesn't mean that we can't express anger and frustration at the characters' words and deeds!

Nothing original or clever in the writing. Standard cheating wife making excuses, husband unwilling/unable to forgive her. Lost in his own insecurities. Neither character had any depth or any real emotion to them. He basically gave up when he couldn't reconcile her actions in his own head and refused help. She gave up when her guilt finally caught up with her and she realized she had ruined their family for a few hours of sex. This was neither interesting or fun to read. The writing was unemotional, uninspired and just plain boring. This is a common thread that permeates Swingerjoe's stories. Not good. Not good at all.

1 star

and this story proves it

And yet you continue reading his stories!

The wife committed the act which broke the marriage. The person who does that - regardless if it's a husband or wife -- in the marriage is the person who has to GOT to be open and honest in an attempted to rebuild trust on some level.

The fact that the wife REFUSED to go into the details and would not explain what happened and why ....told a husband that she was NOT fighting for the marriage .

The KEY point is that because she committed the egregious act ... the fact that the wife did not see why she HAD to be open and HAD to be honest is why the trust could not be rebuilt and why the marriage died.

Since the wife Clains to not know why it happened or won't go into the details about why it happened and how it appears to the husband that the wife is still covering something up.

This leads the husbands to conclude that it's his fault. The only way to get around that perception is for the wife to open up completely and to examine why is she cheated that one time.

Without that information the other spouse --regardless of the spouses sex --is going to think that it's their fault in some capacity. Whether they think that consciously or unconsciously ....without any actual additional information... the other spouse is going to be convinced that THEY have donme something wrong.

Sounds right about wives ending marriages because husbands have trouble getting over WIVES' INFIDELITIES

Females typically expect males to just ''get over it'' but females by genetics have long unforgiving memories.

Husband should have spent the year apart getting close to daughter and even closer to wife's replacement.

The wife's claim not to know why she cheated is an hilarious lie. The her thoughts leading up to her night of betrayal lay it all out.

She was out of town and would not get caught

She loved the attention

She cheated because she wanted to have sex outside her marriage

ya done and went and cranked ALL theses crazzy fuckers up.and I love ya for it.5 from me

Harry!!! I see you're still an old asshole!

But she is a fucking cunt.

I do not agree that Brian owned any of the demise of their marriage.

She destroyed it with her slimy crotch monster and her self righteous and less than contrite attitude afterwards.

Her children are suffering because of the cesspool between her legs and the Swiss cheese she is using for a brain.

When my wife told me, my reaction was similar yet different. No, I could no longer trust her, but more importantly she became 'dirty' to me. I literally couldn't touch her. She wasn't a virgin before we married, but they was all erased with our vows. Once those were broken she was no longer mine or 'clean'. Kind of tough to explain.

We cohabited for 4 years. 4 years for the kids to graduated and leave home. In that time I took a spare room telling the kids my snoring was keeping their mother awake. During those years I did not touch her, did not have sex with her or anyone and spoke to her only when needed.

It was not more than 2 months after our last child left for college than she came home late one night, barely disheveled. She might have had a spotlight shining on her, with a billboard saying 'I've just been fucked.' When she saw I was still up and I recognized her condition, she broke down in tears and ran for her room.

I filed for divorce the next day. Of course she tried to talk to me, but I couldn't do it any longer. The kids were devastated, my wife was crushed. She fought it, tried to force us to counseling and literally dropped to her knees and begged me.

I guess the worst part for my ex-wife, according to the kids, was I found love again. Within three months after the formal end of our marriage, I was head over heels in love with a beautiful woman who returned the affection. She worked in my department and we'd known each other for years. When she lost her husband in Iraq I, along with the entire staff, helped all we could. He was gone for 3 years at the end of my marriage, I asked her out and she agreed. We quickly fell for the other.

Taking the cheating wife's point of view, you actually succeeded in making her a sympathetic character. She made her one mistake, and she paid. She could have kept paying and kept it secret, redoubling her efforts to be a faithful and loving wife. She could have gone to counseling for her own paranoia before inflicting the pain on her husband. The way I see it. She had the pain of her guilt. She sought to alleviate it by confessing but caused her husband great pain and anxiety, thereby redoubling her own guilt, pain and anxiety. Your conclusion is sad and likely.

When I go to the LW submission page everyday to see the new stories, I scan for author names. Several I like, Just Plain Bob, Imhapless, Vandemonium, BlackRandl, StangStar06, carvohi, DG Hear, curious2c are just some. Your name also belongs on this list. I always enjoy your stories. I like the cheating wife, husband suspicious, husband finds out, conflict, ending in either BTB or RAAC. Your story here was refreshing in that it was written from the wife's POV. All cheating is wrong, divorce is tragic but sometimes necessary, reconciliation should be the ultimate goal but many times is not attained. I would have like to have had more on the end to finish out what happened with the divorce and the family.

5 *'s and FS status.

Pack a bag and get out. Not "our marriage is over" getting out, but "I need some time alone to think about this" getting out.

Get some counseling. Not the couples kind, where everyone gangs up on you and tries to explain away her cheating and why he should "get over it," but individual counseling to help him accept that this was something she did and not the result of a failure on his part. He needed to get over his newly-created insecurities, and the person who created them was not the person to help him do that.

Only then could couples counseling be of any help, and then only if they got a counselor who would impress upon Ashley how essential it was that she answer all of his questions. Because anything she refused to tell him, his imagination would fill in, and what he imagined would probably be worse.

but still, this was a good, plausible story.

A cocksucker could've written this

Damn you Joe, it’s all your fault. I sat down with every intention of working on my next LW story—until I saw your latest. Like Ashley, I don’t know why I opened LW or why I read your story—well that’s a lie—I read it because I always enjoy your writing. Anyway, after reading the story I just had to read what the folks thought, so here we are; it’s ninety minutes later, with not one word added to my story, but I can say, “I feel I’ve learned a lot.”

The first thing I’ve learned is: there are a lot of readers who wouldn’t know a good story if one kicked them in the balls. I define a good story, not as one you agree with, but as one that moves you. Many on this site can’t understand that if a story made them mad enough to write some of the crap they write, the author has moved them—makes no difference if they got pissed off, or if they got to the end wishing there was a hundred more pages—it’s all the same, they identified with the story, which was our goal. FLASH FOLKS! IF A STORY IS REALLY A ROTTEN STORY, YOU WILL EITHER PUT IT DOWN PART WAY THROUGH, OR YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO READ SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE—no ifs, and or buts. Who but a dummy would read what they hate?

You just made one mistake—you should have added a “Moral of this Story” statement right up front. It should have read “WHAT HAPPENS ON THE ROAD, STAYS ON THE ROAD!”

There is no reason for Ashley to confess to Brian, ‘down that road be monsters.’ Sure, she was bothered, sure she had to confess to somebody, and in fact she needed to confess to the right one. That ‘right one’ is God. (All you skeptics can take a deep breath and consider that, or continue on your road secure in the knowledge that wisdom will come to you, even if it is too late. A good long talk with God, and if she still needed it, maybe then professional help would be in order.

As to the question of telling Brian the juicy details, that’s a ‘depends’ question. No doubt about it, telling Brian would have destroyed him; this is proven by his reaction to the news in the first place. Maybe after he was completely destroyed, they could have rebuilt love, but it’s doubtful. Ashley doesn’t take into account man’s fragile ego. Every one of us would have asked the question, “why?” and either an answer or no answer would have haunted us for years—but most of us, if we really loved our family, would get over it.

Ashley, by expecting Brian to accept the given, also displayed her womanhood. I have to go by study here, since I’m male, but while men entering into infidelity think with the head of their cocks, women think with their hearts. Yes, it was only fleeting, a one night stand, but in the space of those few hours, Ashley was in ‘love’, not the love she felt for Brian, but to her it was not something cheap. It was wonderful, it felt wonderful, she got off on it and she couldn’t really, not down deep, see why anyone would object.

Regret and self-flagellation only came in the ‘not so warm afterglow—the time when the “MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE?” moment hit. By the time she got back home and beat herself up enough, she had convinced herself Brian would just have to live with it. (She did this despite of the fact she couldn’t live with it.)

To all who may find themselves in this situation, I suggest two rules to live by: First rule—What happens on the road stays on the road. If you must talk to someone, talk to God, He knows about it anyway so you won’t shock Him. Second rule—refer to first rule. Or as my ole Pappy used to say, “Now don’t go fucking things up any worse.”

Joe sent me the draft first version of the story to get my opinion whether he had succeeded in writing from a female viewpoint. I suggested a few very minor changes to language (I think a 'lady' might be a bit more restrained in her language) but no major changes to the way the wife character saw the situation.

However, Joe's original end to the story had a more apocalyptic and legalistic 'Aftermath' and I agreed with him that it wasn't very satisfactory. Joe re-wrote the ending to this one where the marital relationship just fizzled out irretrievably. I think it's a preferable ending and more realistic.

I really do wonder about this male vs female viewpoint question raised by Joe. After reading this final version of the story, I could imagine it written with the roles reversed and with hardly any other changes to the language or situations described. It's a story about two married people, one of whom cheated and the other felt cheated upon.

It may be that the Anonymous commenter several comments back (Pretty Good) who outlined his reaction to his wife's adultery gave a possible difference. He said "she became dirty to me". Does a wife who wanders become 'dirtier' than a husband?

A friend of mine told her husband that he could put it wherever he liked but she wanted it dipped in boiling water when he brought it back home. I'm not sure there is a female equivalent to that cleansing process.

Lue

file as the insights into the female were fantastic.

The first rule of one off infidelity for the woman is to NEVER tell the husband-listen to most counselor's and they will tell you that. Live with the guilt, it gets less over time like all strong feelings.

Her second mistake was to spare him the details-men need the details, we need to know what it possibly was that caused our spouse to step out.

What is lost in a lot of these tales when looking for the reason why, is that we are basically animals with high reasoning capabilities. The reasoning capabilities do not always win out over the biochemistry. Stuff happens, and can lead to scenarios like in the story. Our grandparents advice is pooh pooed as stuffy and not relevant, but there was a time married people did not interact one on one with the opposite sex. It is the same principle that applies to alcoholics, they shouldn't hang out in bars, with the people they used to drink with, or in whatever other social situations typically triggered them to drink. It is the same reason Boyscouts require two adult leaders to be present in a scout's presence, or one leader/one parent, etc. Never one on one away from the group. Never one on one travel.

I see many incidents of bad decision making with adult male basketball coaches transporting minor females to AAU tourney's, nature takes over, and leads to ruined marriages, devastation for the children, etc. Has happened VERY publically where I live at least twice(made the papers, TV, etc).

Good job Joe.

It was not the husbands fault that the marriage failed it was a lonely wife that was bored staying at home raising a child until she could back out of the house and she never admitted that to herself. It was her fault to admit the adultery and then refuse to tell him the total truth (like she was hiding the "great details"). All she could think about was how to restore her happiness by having her husband "get over it and move on". Sorry bitch but you can't hide the details and expect your husband to forgive and forget - it doesn't work that way. The fact that the husband wanted to reconcile but now she decided that she has been "punished enough" and now she wants him to just pay while she goes out and plays again (after all it was great exciting sex). This sounds like it was written by a cuck not a remorseful wife it's a crappy story - thanks but I don't enjoy it or believe it as written. One star because they don't have negative ratings.

Joe describes a complex interaction between two people. Many years ago I saw a husband and wife interpersonal perception questionnaire that asked each partner questions about a lot of characteristics. There were four parts to each question:

How I see myself.

How I see my partner.

What I think my partner thinks about how I see myself.

What I think my partner thinks I think about how he/she sees himself/herself.

Just imagine this couple filling out the questionnaire. What a mismatch.

Lue

She said she saw that he didn't have the ability to forgive and that he didn't fight for his family. Where was her fight when Don Juan kissed her? Where was her fight for her family? I'm sure over a 9 year marriage she has done some thing he has forgiven her for. And fucking someone else isn't like accidentally erasing the DVR. It's a big one. That whole ending just comes off as a way for her to share the blame. To alleviate some of her guilt for ruining their marriage and family.

She tells Brian that she is willing to ANYTHING it takes to put their marriage back together (i.e., give up passwords, carry a GPS, etc.), but she refuses to give him any of the information he's asking for. By all counts, she is the culprit for the destruction of their marriage. On the front end and on the back. And by her attitude, it's something she will do again in the future.

Because the thinking of a cheating husband who thinks his wife should forgive him and "move on" to "save their marriage" is probably equally delusional, just with different flavors of WTF.

And those of us who haven't been cheaters will probably always find the cheater mindset to be self-centered, devoid of conscience and totally f'd up.

Sorry...The end had a wrong statement by her: "Our once-happy family was destroyed by two bad decisions"...She thinking like that was what made the marriage impossible to save! There was only one "bad decision"! Hers. She selfishly cheated...he just didn't understood why she did it loving him so much...2*

Her love wasn't to unconditional or the whore wouldn't have spread her legs.

He is a devastated man whose wife cheated on him and he can't understand why, and she's a cheating bitch who fucked up and then wants to blame her husband for his "not to her liking" reaction. He is better off w/out her, for sure. She will always have to onus of her failure as a wife.

she cheats and he's to blame for a bad decision. NOPE, terrible story

I liked the humanity of your characters. How you show the anguish of decisions made without consciousness of the consequences can obliterate all that is positive. I am tired also of all these paragons on moral virtue who think this one commandment is the only one taken from the mount. These folks are so blinded by possession and inadequacy they have no solutions for humans fucking up. Sorry to put this on your comment section since they will not take it in only rail at me messing up your feedback.

I am also surprised that she didn't tell his that she was intertaining at the moment and had to get back to her date for the evening. I see nothing here that says that she attempted to make contact or conversation with him. Did he get to see his child or did she also keep her away from him. She also now knows that she can continue to do this to any husband or male that she chooses. I feel the story is not over and needs at least a one page chapter to let us know what her life is after she divorces him and if he has found any happiness or closure to this part of his life. We will see what happens. 4* and thanks for the story and keep writing please

Because it is not a terrible story, it is a sad story and one that is true to life.

I've never seen so many assholes that get their panties in a wad unless it's a BTB scorched earth story. Excellent well written story.

That's what she revealed in this story. '' Once a cheater, always a cheater '', was never more apparent than in this story.I question if the love she claimed to have for him ever existed. Great writing, Great work, and saddly, all TOO real.

sluts stick together

I've also had to lean on Lue for insight when I wrote a story through the eyes of a woman. I commend you for taking that step to ensure a believable protagonist. One of your biggest strengths is your character development. You don't typically go for the wooden, one-dimensional characters whose only purpose is to push the story in a pre-determined direction. You allow the story to flow through them with realistic reactions. Even if I have never been in the situations that your characters find themselves in, I can still picture the scenes playing out in real life.

Nicely done.

A woman says the words "forsaking all others" and signs a contract. So if she spreads her legs for another man, the marriage has as much hope of survival as when the Titanic hit the iceberg. She was the one trying to 'rearrange the deckchairs' after the betrayal.

This question has been asked a few times, so I figured I'd give my insight into the answer.

I thought our narrator stated it clearly enough here: "Was I supposed to tell the truth? Or was I supposed to lie? If I lied, he would see straight through me, and my entire purpose for "coming clean" would be rendered irrelevant. If I told the truth, it would destroy him."

Given how Brian had interenalized her actions instead of directing the blame at her (where it belonged, and which is how she expected him to react), telling him the truth would have completely devastated him. If he ever reached a point where he blamed her more than himself, then maybe he could accept the truth, but that didn't happen.

Not giving him all the juicy details was an act of mercy and compassion. It was the first unselfish decision she made in this story. Her ultimate unselfish decision was not to reconcile with him, knowing that he would never be happy with her.

I understand why so many readers here missed this crucial point, but I'm frankly shocked that some of the female readers missed it! My goal of writing from a female's perspective may have fallen short.

And, Lady Anonymous, quite a few marriages survive adultery when committed by one or both partners.

In this story, could the marriage have survived had Ashley found a better way to explain to Brian what she had done and how guilty and ashamed she felt? Could it have survived if Brian had not been so insecure and had tried to understand what Ashley was trying to tell him?

Lue

If you think "it was his fault" either you didn't read the story or you didn't get it.

Swinger Joe wrote this..... "Given how Brian had interenalized her actions instead of directing the blame at her (where it belonged, and which is how she expected him to react), telling him the truth would have completely devastated him'

It's hard to believe that swinger Joe is this obtuse. The reason why Brian internalised it is because she did not open up. And explain what happened. Swinging Joe has it exactly as backwards.

Blaming his internalization because of the lights actions is directly blaming the victim.

First, I have to say it's an honor to have you return to the comments section of this story more than once.

But aside from that, I like to think that I have more insight into my characters than anyone else because...well, I created them.

As much as it would comfort you to believe that Ashley was to blame for Brian's insecurity, that isn't how I created these characters. Maybe in some other story, the husband doesn't have abandonment issues, doesn't question his ability to satisfy his wife in bed, and doesn't believe that she would leave him for no other reason than sex. That isn't Brian. That isn't this story.

Brian is a flawed character who owns deep-seated issues. Ashley is a flawed character who committed the worst-possible marital sin. This story is about how they deal with their flaws, and how they grow as people. Both characters eventually come to realize what is truly important in life.

Wow, she even got to the point where she can blame her husband for the end of their marriage. In the end she was right, he will be better off without her. And she will be better off with a timid clueless submissive husband who she can bamboozle after she cheats again.

The absolution for her adultery requires several acts: confession, contrition, penance, and restitution. She only partially confessed, withholding details that would reveal the depth and enthusiasm of her cheating, which apparently was huge. Her contrition was phony and self serving. In a rare flash of honesty, she admits she confessed to relieve the burden of her guilt, not to debase herself and seek forgiveness. She actually comes off as kind of grudgingly remorseful, but not willing to empathize with the pain and destruction she has caused. The only "penance" she offers is to let her husband go out and replicate her sin. She wants to make them even by encouraging her husband to lower himself into her gutter. She refuses the penance of living with his scorn, disrespect, and mistrust, even though she prompted and validated his negative thoughts toward her. And forget about restitution. She's too busy conjuring up excuses and justifications to make him look equally to blame for the failure of their marriage. She made a selfish choice that she should have known might destroy her marriage. She should now wait for as long as it takes for her husband to decide what his final response will be.

I agree that the marriage was probably doomed anyway, but she should have given her husband the final say, let him make the final determination, make him file for the divorce. That would prove that she was worthy of absolution, even if the husband proved inadequate to rise to what would be an heroic level of forgiveness and self-sacrifice. She expected him to accept that she was only human, but she could not find that same acceptance for the man she betrayed. She cheated him out of his marriage, then cheated him out of his reconciliation. Talk about character being revealed. He is truly better off without this self-serving egocentric bitch. Good riddance.

A well written and very thought provoking story. Thank you.