Note: This is purely fiction, and it is my first attempt. Constructive criticism
Nobody expects to have an affair when they get married. Your wedding day is a day of happiness, joy and seemingly endless love. Seeing your bride walk down the isle with nothing but love on her face, hearing the minister say the words, "I now pronounce you husband and wife", the feel of your first kiss with your wife; all make for a magical day. When you finish exchanging the "I do"s you start walking down a path that you both expect to be a long and happy one. Melissa and I were no different. This was the first day of the rest of our lives and we were deeply in love.
She doesn't have a porn-star body now, and she didn't then, but her dress hugged her in all the right places in all the right ways. The wedding night was not our first time, but I can say without a doubt, it was the best sex of my life. We took our time and relished every moment of passion. The following morning, we got up and (only just) managed to catch our flight to Cuba. It wasn't a glamorous resort, but it was all inclusive and we spent most of our time in our room anyway.
After the honeymoon, we had enough money to purchase a house. It wasn't huge, but it was nice and exactly what we wanted. Kids started showing up 9 or 10 months later and before we knew it, we were living the picture perfect life, and we were happy. After we had 3 kids, Melissa decided to go back to work. I supported her 110%. She never wanted to be a stay at home mother and having a second income would start to open doors for ourselves, but more importantly, our kids. We knew things were going to get busy, but every night we promised each other that we would always take time for our relationship and for each other. And it even worked for a while.
Our sex life was of course not what it was in the beginning, that is to be expected. But as the months and years went by, spending time alone with me, even to just talk, let alone have sex. There are only 24 hours in the day, and while she never once neglected our kids in any way, but any spare time she had was spent out with her friends, playing on her computer, or talking on the phone. It was lonely, but I threw myself into my work, my hobbies and on the rare occasion that she made the time, a little pillow talk or a quick hand job.
Once or twice I tried to talk to her about it, but she would just brush it off. Her friends, her phone, her computer became needs, and I was just getting on her nerves. So I left it alone. After all, is this not the inevitable outcome to a marriage? I had my 2.5 kids, a dog, and even a picket fence around the yard. We weren't rich, but neither us nor our kids wanted for anything. I've never had a huge circle of friends, but I had my kids, I had my shop and no one was really worried about where I was or what I was doing. Happiness is a choice, and I decided to be happy. There is more to life than sex...isn't there?
As the years went by, our kids grew up and by the time they were pre-teens and teenagers, they were barely ever home, and when they were, they had little to no interest in spending a lot of time with their father. As this happened, I spent more and more time at work. It was a nice time, I had friends, a social life, and people to talk to again. You can't spend that much time at work without it being noticed and I started to quickly move up through the company. When I got the regional sales manager position, it meant that I was going to be spending a lot of time away from home, and that suited me just fine. I had a very healthy social life in my office, and this would mean spending more time on the road (in hotel bars if I am being honest) with the people who cared about me the most.
It was mid-fall when I went on my my first business trip, we were away from the office for a week. During the first 3 days of that week, I worked more than I had in the previous 3 weeks. We must have spent 40 of the first 48 hours working, catching 20 – 30 minute catnaps in between meetings. It was rough, but in the end we closed the deal, and were able to enjoy the rest of our time in Fairbanks. I had spent hours and hours, days and day of time with these 3 people and we still liked each other and were still having fun. We still had 2 days out here and we were going to enjoy it. On the first night, Frank and Bill decided to go bar hoping to see how many drinks they could buy for pretty girls. This left Vanessa and I alone in the hotel bar. It was a small, inviting space. Wood panelling with a long bar, and and intimate booths along the side. There might have been 25 people in the bar, and while we could hear the white noise of conversations going on around us, it was not so loud that we couldn't easily chat. As these nights often do, it got more and more intimate as the time went by. We weren't drunk by any stretch of the imagination, we work together after all, but we were feeling pretty open with each other. Around midnight there were only about 10 people left in the bar.
"I feel like we are becoming very close friends, can I ask you something?" Something about the way she asked that, and the alcohol probably helped, I really noticed how she looked. She was wearing a tight green dress, low cut, but still appropriate. Contrasting her dress, her bright blue eyes felt like they were boring into my soul. I noticed my eyes travelling down her face to her full, red lips. Looking further down, I noticed for the first time that while she is thin, but still has great curves. I saw her full, natural chest, trying to pop out of her dress. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the soft light of the room. For the first time, I noticed the fresh, sweet scent of her perfume. Noticing for the first time that I had lost control of my eyes, I simply replied, "Sure."
"You rant and rave about Melissa. She is an amazing wife, and you clearly love her very much. But you are never home and you never see her, is everything OK with you guys? Has anything changed?"
My heart skipped a beat. It was in the moment that I noticed how attracted I was to Vanessa.
I am a married man!
Composing myself as best I could, "No, nothing has changed recently, and I do love my wife, but ever since she went back to work 8 years ago, she has spent most of her spare time with her girl friends at work, talking on the phone, or playing computer games. We still love each other, but the passion and intimacy hasn't been there for a long time. On occasion we get an hour or so to talk before going to bed, and with the kids growing up and spending more time with their friends, that doesn't leave a lot of reason for me to be home. No one there to miss me, you know what I mean?"
She looked at me sceptically. I felt naked before her gaze, like she knew my every intimate thoughts and feelings just by looking into my eyes.
"Are you happy Mike?"
"Of course I am, what more could a man want. I have a beautiful wife and 3 smart kids who are going places and will take care of me when I am old." What more could I say.
I am a married man!
"When was the last time you and her had a real conversation. I don't mean logistics of running a household, but a real deep and intimate conversation for the sake of connecting?" I could tell she was concerned about me, but at the same time, there was a hunger in her eyes.
I thought about her question, with a seriousness that only a long night with Captain Morgan can bring about. When WAS the last time her and I had a deep conversation? That lead to thinking about our wedding and honeymoon, and how good things used to be between us.
Where did I go wrong? Why won't my own wife talk me, let alone touch me?
I have no idea how long I was day dreaming about things that were not meant to be, but I heard her clear the throat. When I came back to reality, her hand was on mine, and she was clearly concerned. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"...you're crying..."
"I'm fine, it's just late and I have clearly drank too much. I'm sorry, but I think I should go back to my room." I didn't know what else to say. It is hard talking to a beautiful woman about a dry marriage. It is inappropriate.