Requital

oh well

Personally, I wasn't put off by the lengthof the story. This man went through the process and it worked for him. Personally I would have left her at the Christmas party. I would never have tolerated that bullshit. But then, it wasn't my story. One thing about the majority of these stories is that even when the adultry is so over the top, ( which in this story, it was not) as soon as the papers are served , the sluttiest, nastiest most hateful cheating slut, becomes remorseful, and only concerned with saving her marriage. Guys, get real. Any bitch who goes down to the hood and pulls 15 man gang bangs, is not going to be worried about her marriage. Please don't insult us by having her poor husband taking the piece of shit back. Please, just pull the lever and flush it. Obviously, I am a burn the bitch kind of guy, but in this story her disrespect at the Christmas party was worse than the handjobs. I can accept their reunion at the end.But, once again, I probably would have been gone after the Christmas party.

Stop Light

Nice try with the stop light analogy, but it's a far cry from going through a stop light in the middle of nowhere and cheating on your husband.

And, BTW, you can explain away the vulnerability to outside flattery, even the fear(?) of sharing the miscarriage with the husband. But the blatant disrespect at the Christmas party, and blaming the husband for embarrassing HER?!

That wasn't an unthinking indiscretion, that was an expression of non-love, if not hatred, and makes her determination to save the marriage inconsistent.

Just a lengthy tale to sugar coat a cheating slut.

And turn the husband into a wimp.

KarenE nailed it

Miscarriages do not cause infidelity, selfishness does.

Tsk Tsk Tsk

Another wave of readers that just don't know what the hell they are talking about. Actually, they sound a little insecure themselves. Hitting a little too close to home, eh? Excellent story, well balanced and completely plausible. Behaviorally speaking.

Agreed

The Christmas party would be enough. And does he really know how many men she had been with? Did she really miscarry? She played him and got away with more than what we read. The polygraph only covered what she did with Raffe.

Originality

Too often each genre on this site seems to have its own "carved in stone" conventions that render stories unduly repetitive. LW stories involving adultery by a wife evidently requires that the aggrieved husband reject the woman he has loved who sinks into a deserved depravity while hubby finds a new woman who gives him better sex than he has ever had before. I applaud you envisioning a story where sincere contrition and forgiveness can still save a loving marriage despite the pain caused by adultery.

Loved it

I think the thing so many critics fail to get about this story, and reconciliation stories in general, is the end picture it paints of a happy marriage. Yes, there are too many reconciliation stories where the husband simply takes back the wife when she says she is sorry. This is far from that. Their marriage changed and became what a successful marriage ought to be. There is no excuse for adultery, but there are contributing factors. Their marriage had deteriorated prior to her cheating. Sometimes it is simply a bad person that leads to an affair. Mostly, it is the result of a bad marriage. Open communication, willingness to explore in the bedroom, a strong commitment to working through problems. I love the fact that you took us on this long journey of constructing a healthy marriage. It was a process. It took time to grow. It had its ups and downs. Great marriages don't simply result from two people falling in love and saying I do. They have to work hard to build a strong foundation. It is unfortunate that so much bad had to happen in order for them to learn that lesson, but in no way is this guy a wimp. And in no way is this woman a whore. They are real people, in love, struggling with real problems. The fact that they worked through those problems is a beautiful thing. And it could only be done with both giving 100% effort. Would he have been justified in leaving? Yes. I would have left and not looked back. I just think a marriage that short (especially one that had been deteriorating since year one) is not worth saving. Don't get me wrong. I have a high view of marriage. However, it was a bit hard for me to accept how desperate she was to save the marriage after having invested so little in it. However, that is not the point of this story. I see this as a lesson in what a successful marriage should be like. Thank you.

This was my second time reading through this story. Five stars all the way. I was a little surprised at how the husband glossed over the fact that the wife proved her love by having sex with him when she thought he had AIDS. In the end, the counselor internally muses about this fact, but the husband never allows it to impress him. It should have. That was a significant element in making the case for reconciliation. Additionally, not sure why some people are downplaying the miscarriage as a factor in her affair. That was a huge revelation. Some woman seem to shrug something like that off fairly easily. For others, it leads to depression and severe emotional problems. Any time an author can take the reader from wanting to crucify the wife to cheering for her forgiveness, it is brilliant. Masterful.

as soon as

If I was working for a company and the executives told me that I must go to counseling to reconcile with a cheating or disrespectful wife my resume would be out to every other company in the business.
As my father taught me: "The best time to find a job is when you already have one."

The Christmas party was enough disrespect to end the marriage, a wife or a husband should not take side against their spouse.
An insult to either is an insult to both.

Loved it

another stunning story.
i just adore the depth of emotions the author manages to convey in his writing.
Has me totaly submerged into the story as if i was living it with the characters he has created. . .
thoroughly enjoyable.

something else i only realised recently about this authors work,
& its not something that is always pleasant to experience.
its as if these storys invite us , sometimes demand us to take a closer look at our sense of " self " , who we are , why we are . why we do the things we do .

& that leads me to look at negative comments in another light .

its a story , its a pce of fiction , its wonderfully written , beautifully sculpted , a work of art in many ways . enjoy it for what it is .

xxxhugsxxx


Open Eyes & an Open Mind

ty for writing this , ty for sharing this .

page after page after page

of psychobabble.
It felt like being in the counseling sessions with them, trying to figure out their problems. So much of the story was devoted to a running diary of the many months they sat with the Psychologist it began to just drone on. Eventually I came to the conclusion I just didn't care whether they worked them out or not.

good story

kind of stretched a bit but good

Just too Unrealistic!

> 1 star only because there is no way to give 0.<
1. Disrespect from a spouse in conjunction with that spouse supporting the antagonist in public should never be tolerated!
2. Lying to your spouse is the ultimate disrespect!
3.Cheating on your spouse goes so far beyond disrespect that the word becoming meaningless.
4. Once a cheat ALWAYS a cheat, in truth "The leopard never changes their spots" !
5. If a company makes a condition for advancement that requires a personal change of the magnitude required of Curtis, time to find another job A.S.A.P. !!!
6. Lydias' manipulation of Curtis was both offensive and disturbing and Curtis acceptance of it just depressing for any mature man.

Disapointed

I wanted better and did not get it, you write well but I ended up not liking anybody in your story.

A bit long, really

Your story is quite well told, but the detail in it is almost excruciatingly long. I think you could have managed about half the word count to tell the story. The discussions with parents were fine, if a bit protracted.
HP

Interesting but disappointing

The story is way too long for the ground it covers and the psychobabble is wearing. It seems to me that ultimately Steve was manipulated into "being happy" by the counsellor. Like there was a bonus involved for the therapist if they got back together. Furthermore the blackmail on the part of his employers was maddening and he apparently got discount legal representation at a premium price. The "professionals" in the tale disappointed me the most.

That said the writing was good but too long. The story didn't move along fast enough for my taste. Others will have completely different opinions which are just as valid as mine.

Finally, I could not have written the story or even conceived the story so I have no standing to criticize. Kudos to you for doing both.

Disappointing

Some time not long after Steve started going to the marriage councilor he became a character I didn't much like anymore. I lost respect for him and rapidly lost interest making the story drag from that point on. When he later had sex with his wife's sister I lost what little respect I had left and ended up hating the story.

If Steve had been a real life friend he'd have rapidly moved from friend to acquaintance by allowing himself to be manipulated into getting back together with his wife.

Pretty hard to like Steve

Steve was just so incredibly unlikable. Starting with emailing everyone at work the "have you seen this couple?".

That just made him look like a petty and vindictive whiny child and it didn't get better from there. If he's done with her, he's done with her. He looks pathetic by doing that.

And did he really have to show the parents literally the most graphic part of the movies with Kim? If he told them what was in it and then said "the proof is on this tape" does he really think they wouldn't believe him?

It's also really disingenuous to believe that he's truly worried about her welfare when he just finished fucking her for two weeks. It's like he had to wait to get his rocks off before he could become disappointed and disgusted.

All these things and more point to Steve as being of truly weak character.

And the scene where Lydia has weird sex conversations with Barbra? Creepy.

All I'm all, you have a lot of talent as a pure scribe. .......that is, yiur sentence flow very nicely and it reads well. But you need to out a lot more work I to your character development.

Steve was just an insufferable idiot. And Barb was so drastically different at the beginning of the story and the end that she was really two completely different people.

I liked it.

I think what Steve did with Kim's tapes or the e-mails might have come quite naturally to somebody in his position and going through anger/depression of that sort. There is a very thin line between love and hate and the former can turn into the latter with uncontrollable vehemence. I came to this story looking for nasty punishment sex or some such but I really did get caught up in all the drama and finished it in one go.

hurr a durr

good lord the husband is an idiot, first he should of waited until they started having sex to film them in the car and the whole thing with the sister REALLY?

Anon bitches

Boy, didn't take long for the man hating anon bitches to start spewing their vitriol about the husband. Girls, he was the one cheated on. I admit he was kind of stupid. He should have dumped your cum dump sister the first time when she cheated and then started treating him like shit. Not telling him about being pregnant or the miscarriage. Sounds like it wasn't his baby at all, he never could account for boyfriend number 4. I think that's where he came in. None of this stuff was an oversight on her part. All was planned and carried out with total disregard for the husband. Must have been a wimp or she was a psychopath. None of it is forgivable or in any way pardonable. As for the therapist, again, I think it must be in the water they drink, but anytime I read one of these stories about counseling I get a twitch. I gotta call "bullshit" on this. And how in the world could he trust any of the people in her family, diseased tree for sure. Then to fall for the company line that he had to go to therapy with the cum dump. Again, bullshit.

I stayed with the story hoping that he would come to his senses, but like the therapy sessions it just never made any sense. Too bad, could have been three good stories in that length. 2 stars, didn't hate it but didn't like it much either. Kept hoping for a better resolution.

Five isn't enough!

This is a perfect ten, if ever I saw one! Great job!

Boring!

I hope you get paid by the word. Three pages of substance and fifteen pages of meaningless drivel. I admit I skipped through most of it. One star.

Requited

I liked the story, the characters and how they grew over the course of the tale. Barbara was at first immature and thoughtlessly selfish, but awakened to her stupidity and sought to grow. Steve was resolute and often stoic but open minded and flawed differently.
Thanks for the entertaining read!

Re-Reading

I don't know why she wants to "save" this marriage.

Her TOTAL disrespect at the Christmas party, even though the big boss supported Steve, made me wonder why she said "No" when he asked her if she wanted a divorce.

Finished Re-Read

Okay, I will GRUDGINGLY accept the excuses/reasons given for her infidelities.

What I STILL have a big problem with is her blatant disrespect with Jimmy, even when Jimmy's uncle made it quite clear that Jimmy was out of line, and that Steve was quite correct.

For her to not only not apologize to him, but to blast HIM, would have been the end for me.

Did a re-read myself on this

story. I didn't much like it past the middle. Again, I don't like it when a writer tries to sell manipulation as love and just trying to reconcile. This stupid woman and her freakishly manipulative grandmother are spooky in their single minded belief that they know what is best for the poor guy. You started him out as a confident and resourceful man but evidently you wanted reconciliation so much that it took you just 18 pages to completely emasculate him and have him on his knees. As for the excuses that have been bandied about in the comments here, there are none for the type of treatment he received from his wife or her family, more like the Manson family it seems. He worried through the whole tale about the lack of respect that he was shown and then he dumps his self-respect because all of the sudden in the last pages he is a wimp and a weakling. Too bad, I tried to read it again and when I realized which story it was I quit. So sad, I had just read a couple of your other ones and thoroughly enjoyed them. No macho posturing, no BTB just no reconciliation at the cost of the man's self-respect.

LIKED THE STORY

I LIKED THE STORY I HAVE READ IT BEFORE IN MY FAVORITES. THE THING IS IS JUST A LITTLE TO LONG. BARBARA CHEATED HE CAUGHT HER SHE DID NOT REALLY REALISE THAT SHE WOULD HURT HER HUSBAND{GET CAUGHT} BUT SHE DID. NONY IS THE ONE STABLE FACTOR THAT GOT THEM BACK TOGETHER. STORY TO LONG COUNSLOR TO LONG.

RON TEXAS COWBOYRIDECC@YAHOO.COM

I think annony has gone over the falls

he's screaming and carrying on like the twerp he is. Why don't you just kill yourself annony!! I gave it a 5!!!! Fuck you!

since dear annony went nutsl!!

I have to read this now and then vote a 5!!!

Do not forget

@Dear cuck story fans one of the best BTB stories was written by Longhorn_07 "Fool Me Once".

Only a 5?!

Great story; I too give it a 5

She had to learn to deal

with a confident husband who knew where he wanted to go and how to get there. WTF?! So he wanted to be a cum-slurping wimp of a cuckold and have a cheating slut as a wife? Wow, seems to me there are easier ways to get to that situation.

I'm With Poppy7

I just re-read this story, and there's a lot of really good stuff in it. However I can't get over the manipulation. Good ol' Nony is something of witch, and I'm not at all sure that the outcome is a good one for either Barb or Steve.

The scene where Steve's told that he has to get counseling or lose his job strikes me a just wrong. Given his character, I think he would have been more likely to regretfully tell his employer that he really liked working there, but when they decide to get into his personal life he can't continue. I suspect that his resignation wouldn't have been accepted and good ol' Nony's scheme would have come to light, resulting in a very different sequence of events. A reconciliation may still have been possible, but it would have happened honestly.

accept or not

He updates his resume.
He sends his resume out to many companies, mentioning that he is currently employed.
Employers are somewhat discreet when "poaching" employees from other companies.
He accepts the best offer (he is very good at this job)
He gives his two week notice.
He starts working for his new employer.

Whether they accept his resignation or not does not matter.

But no, he had to be weak, in this as well as taking the disrespectful selfish immature woman/child back.

Interesting

If you like a well written story with more twists and turns, and up and down hills than you can count, then this story is for you.

Counceling

I feel like I just went through marriage counseling and my marriage is fine.

I don't get it?

They have no power over him to force him into counciling. He had a resume out and probably good job offers. He would have taken one and been gone. I just don't see him sticking around and getting railroaded the way he did. Even for fiction it simply made no sense. He's gone.

Ugh i hate when what starts as a good story ends up a waste of time. I'm not a rabid btb fan, and i'm not a against reconciliation stories, when it's something like a heat of the moment one time thing, or blackmail or something. The wife in this story had years of a pattern of cheating behavior, and right from the start she was lying her ass off to everyone and trying to blame it on her irrational husband. Not to mention that bitch of a grandmother. I know she's fictional, but i wish she had a miserable remainder of her life. There's no believable way a self respecting man would reconcile with a lying cheating woman, who cheated at least 3 times, and with a family that would use their influence to attack him through his career to get what they want. I wouldn't sue the grandma, i'd sue the company and see about the old lady having an accident somewhere, old bones and all that. You never know when she might fall and not be able to get up, and she probably doesn't have life alert.

Steve was depressed enough to consider suicide and felt like he had lost everything.
It's easy to see why he didn't want to lose his job.

Started as an interesting story but ...

just went to be a story of how to break a man's willpower and subdue to grandma's wishes. This guy was stripped out of his balls by the author, exactly when he needed the most. Company imposed counseling? bullshit! He just needed to leave the state, and tell everyone to kiss his ass!

1 star for castrating the victim!

Such a promising beginning

Such a wimpy end

This story is

much too long to have such a dissatisfying ending. Crap.

This story is

Wonderful.

Charter Member of Cucks Are Us!

Title says it all. Steve effectively sucked the cum of the Sluts lovers right out of her cheating cunt. Maybe not physically but in every important way a man can measure himself a man. He allowed himself to be browbeaten, cajoled and manipulated into taking the Slut back. Failed story, failed ending, totally failed writer.

I tried

I really did try to read this one all the way through, but in the end, I barely made it past page 10. It's just one long winded excuse for bad behavior, for cheating, for disrespect. It's a full on slap in the face of any woman that has suffered through the personal torture of a miscarriage, to use that as an excuse for being a cheating fuck!
It's the usual garbage, excusing cheating, or any bad behavior for that matter, using the tired old 'Marriage counseling' in order to say "It's everybody else's fault that I have no morals, or restraint. I can do what I want, because the counsellor I PAID says it's not my fault!"
That's all 'therapy' is. An expensive and drawn out abdication of responsibility. Just like everything else in this day and age; It's not my fault!

Some Thoughts!

Didn't mind the length of story. His angst went on way too long and he did nothing wrong.
1) Her lying and disrespect started when they first became committed to each other with her ex-boyfriend. I said it in other comments, when a person lies and disrespects before marriage, she will do it after the marriage. He would have been a lot happier if he had dumped her then...for good.
2) The sex was terrible since the honeymoon??? They were married for some twenty years (I think). Why didn't he ever say anything. She started taking him for granted real early in their marriage...again no respect for him.
3) Not telling him about the miscarriage shows how much she respected and loved him. No excuses for this.
4) Christmas party with Jimmy-boy. Speaks for itself in her respect for him. Then getting angry at him after the party even though everyone else knew that Jimmy-boy was an ass. (This would have ended it for me.)
5) Why didn't she want a divorce when he asked after the Christmas party. She didn't love or respect him. She was comfortable with him and liked his paychecks.
6) Her third strike with Rafe. Again all the lying and disrespect. She did not love her husband. Also she was cheating with this guy, only her husband being in the park stopped it this time, she did not stop it herself and it would have continued.
7) No need to go to counseling, he should have quit his job and moved on if counseling was a requirement....all it did was make him feel worse.
8) Reconciliation....NO WAY. She was not worth it.
I'm sure I missed some things but what I listed was way too much for them to get back together. She has a history of lying, disrespect and cheating, she will do it again once she gets over this. Thank you for an interesting story even though I don't agree with the ending.

This could have easily lost about 3 pages and still gotten the message across.

Brilliant!

A magnificent story - I can't understand those who nit pick over each individual element of the narrative.

It must all be taken as a whole as an insight into a troubled marriage.

Absolutely top notch.