I curtsied. “June Cleaver at your service! Dinner is almost ready. Go get comfortable.”
We had a nice time at dinner, just enjoying the food and talking about light things. Then I fixed us drinks and we sat on his couch to talk.
“Alex, thank you again for this weekend. It was wonderful, but I’m really screwed up. I told you that my husband was having an affair and was leaving me, but it turns out that I was wrong. My neighbor saw him going into my house with a young woman and drew the wrong conclusion. She’s a terrible gossip! Now she saw me with you, so I can just imagine what she’s telling the neighbors now. I don’t know if Bill will even take me back after what we did. What do you think? I really want to hear a man’s insight.”
Alex sighed. “There must have been more to it than that. Why don’t you tell me the story from the beginning.”
Over the course of a few drinks, I told him the whole story. I told him how we had been married for five years and at the beginning everything seemed exciting and different. But as time went on, we got into a routine. “Wednesday, we eat spaghetti, Thursday meatloaf, Friday we would go out to a restaurant. We watched the same TV shows every week. Tuesday nights, there was nothing on we liked, so we would watch a movie on Netflix or maybe go out to a movie. Occasionally he would buy me flowers, but they were always carnations, because he knew they were my favorite. We made love three times a week. It was very familiar and comfortable – he always knew what I liked and would satisfy me, but it was all the same, you know.
“Now that I look back, I see how ridiculous my feelings were. Sex wasn’t boring, it had been refined over time. When we first got together, the sex would be varied with different positions. But eventually we settled into doing those things that we liked the most. Our life wasn’t routine, it was comfortable. Like an old pair of shoes that have molded to your feet so well that you don’t even feel that they’re there. And isn’t that better than new shoes that are always pinching in a new place?
“I complained to my assistant that my marriage had gotten boring, so she and Bill planned a big surprise. Bill was going to take me to Paris! Bill is terrible at keeping secrets, and I could tell he was hiding something. Friday, they went to my house to pack our suitcases and my neighbor saw them. When I got home, she told me that Bill had spent an hour in my bedroom with a woman. Then Bill came home, and he told me he had skipped lunch because he was working on a project. I knew he was lying. At the restaurant, I confronted him. I told him I knew he was hiding something from me. I was already convinced he was having an affair; when he started talking about making changes, I just lost it. Well, you know the rest.”
Alex took a sip of his drink and looked off into space. He said, “This weekend, we resolved to not talk about ourselves or anything serious. But now that you’re opening up to me, I need to do the same. Beth, I’ve always been a womanizer. There have been many women in my bed. Married, single – it was all the same to me. I destroyed a couple of marriages, damaged others and hurt a lot of people. I was all about me.
“Then, a few years ago, I seduced a beautiful married woman. Kathy was smart, witty, loving and sensual. She and I only had sex on two separate occasions, but the last time was truly magical for me. We shared four hours of intense, passionate lovemaking. I couldn’t get her out of my mind, no matter how many more women I bedded. I wanted to see her again, but I had no way of contacting her without arousing suspicion. I did manage some time alone with her, about three months later, but she rebuffed all my advances. It turned out that her husband had found out. She was trying to save her marriage, but wasn’t sure if she could. She told me that I had to start thinking of other people and try to find someone I could care for. I didn’t listen and continued my philandering. Last month my tomcatting ended up costing me my best friend. It came within a few minutes of costing him his marriage, too.
“I realized that Kathy was right. I’m thirty-three years old, and I need to find someone to share my life with. I swore off seduction and casual affairs.
“When you crashed into me Friday night, I intended to take you to your home. But you explained to me that you didn’t want to go home and face your husband; that your husband was having an affair and was leaving you. I could see firsthand how much damage an affair can cause. I resolved to take care of you. When I took you home, I really meant for you to sleep in the guest room and have some time to yourself to decide what to do. Well, you know how that turned out.”
He looked so forlorn that I moved closer and took his hand. “Alex, you gave me just what I needed. I don’t know what would have happened if you had just dropped me off at a motel like I asked. I might have gone to a bar, started drinking and then gotten into real trouble. Instead, you made me feel desirable again. You turned what could have been a weekend of abject misery into one of the more pleasant times I’ve ever had. If it ends up destroying my marriage, it’s all my fault. Or maybe nobody’s fault. But certainly not yours.”
“Well, you helped me too. You may not believe it, but I’ve never enjoyed so much time with a woman. I could just relax since I wasn’t actively trying to seduce you. It made me appreciate what it would be like to be married. To be with someone all the time; someone with whom I could be comfortable doing anything or nothing. I think I would like that.”
“Thank you, Alex. I know I’m not in your league, but…”
“Hold it right there! I admit I’ve had some spectacular beauties in my bed, but there were none I wanted to spend my life with. Supermodels aren’t necessarily better lovers, or more fun to be with. When the lights go out, beauty disappears, and it will fade over time anyway. When making love, what matters is how much of yourself you are willing to give. You were terrific! This weekend opened my eyes to how wonderful a life with someone like you could be. You’re beautiful enough for anyone, believe me!”
My eyes teared up. “Thank you, Alex. You’re sweet.”
“Listen here. You need to work on saving your marriage. You have something special with Bill and I don’t want you to lose that. I don’t know if I’m the best person to give you advice on that. I do know that some husbands who found out went nuclear, divorced their wives, and had nothing further to do with them. Others managed to hold it together, after a long struggle, but I don’t know if their marriage ever returned to what it was before. But I must admit I don’t know what happened to most of them.
“But if you do break up, I want you to give me a chance. Maybe we have something real.
“For tonight what do you want to do? You can go home, or to a motel, or you can stay here with me in the guest room. You’ll have to tell Bill the truth about our having had sex over the weekend, but you can tell him that we had no more sex after you found out that he wasn’t leaving you. Hey, married people usually sleep together without having sex. We can even try that. I’ve never actually done that before.”