It all started the day I caught Michael masturbating.
Actually, it was worse than that. You see, I actually watched my husband at it for over a minute before he spotted me. It was a Saturday morning. I'd been to the local garden centre to buy plants, and he thought I was still out shopping.
I took my purchases into our back garden and saw the curtains of his ground floor den were open. He normally used to close them because, apparently, the sunlight made it hard for him to see his computer screen while he was working. But that fateful morning, because I was out, he hadn't bothered to close them.
So, I didn't just walk in on him. I actually watched this ridiculous sight of my 51yr old husband with his pants down round his ankles, the lower buttons of his shirt undone, his fist frantically jerking his penis up and down, his red face glued to the screen, eyes bugging and mouth drooling.
Suddenly he turned and saw me staring at him through the glass.
Then I had to watch this even more ludicrous sight of him simultaneously trying to adjust his clothes, rearrange his facial features and pretend he was working, all while his erection bobbed in his lap like a flag of surrender. He forced a fake smile and gave me a weak wave.
We both knew this was the final straw.
Anyway, that turning point took place in 2015, over seven and a half years ago. Now, as I lie back on our bed on a glorious Saturday morning, not unlike the sunny weather that momentous day, his forehead framed between my pale thighs, his eyes gazing up at me, his tongue burrowing into my hairy bush, I can happily reflect on how that 'last straw' actually saved our marriage.
I only discovered oral sex - as in cunnilingus - after I began dominating Michael. Never once had he taken the initiative and suggested or offered it to me. Instead, in the early years of our marriage, he would try to get me to perform orally on him, as in fellatio. He never even proposed a quid pro quo.
But then he also used to pester me to wax my vagina. He even intimated I should get a so-called boob job and, latterly, nagged me to wear some trashy lingerie that he'd wasted our money on. As we got older, he told me I should exercise more, eat less, use more makeup, blah, blah, blah. In short, he always put himself first and attempted to act all dominant with me.
Of course, as it turned out, this machismo was all a front.
Michael and I got married when I was only 20 and he was 25. We had both our darling girls within three years. Make no mistake, we were both very much in love. Michael is a fundamentally decent man. But, over the next couple of decades we 'fell out of love'. However, unlike many of our friends, we stayed together while they mostly divorced, separated or had affairs.
Whereas the passion in our marriage may have diminished but the affection still lingered. We rubbed along together while our children grew up. We both had careers and enjoyed a reasonable lifestyle. I'm a regular churchgoer while Michael played golf at weekends, so we also gave each other a bit of personal space.
Then, one Saturday, I discovered that Michael was having an affair. Well, not an affair, a so-called one-night-stand after a drunken office party the evening before. He swore it was a terrible mistake that had never happened before and it would never happen again. Obviously, I believe in the sanctity of marriage vows and 'forsaking all others'. But to me divorce is even worse than infidelity, especially when you both have a family together. So I forgave him. I'm more of a 'turn the other cheek' Christian than an 'eye for eye' avenger. But I told Michael in no uncertain terms that he'd had his one and only chance.
There's something else too. Something hard for me to put into words. Right from the moment we met, I'd always been aware that Michael was considered more physically attractive than me. He was 5 years older, more worldly, more outgoing, more popular. He was the proverbial tall, darkhaired and handsome young man with what appeared to be a good career ahead of him. Whereas I was short, pale and well ... relatively ordinary.
I'm also religious, reserved, and I'd never had another boyfriend. After our girls were born, I admit, I'd put on a bit of weight and never really shed it. I'm not interested in fashion or clothes. Deep down, could I really blame my husband for allowing his eye to wander? I've always been honest with myself.
Anyway, about a year after his lapse, our younger daughter left home for college and so we became empty-nesters. Then Michael lost his managerial job and spent six months unemployed. Our finances became rather stressful. He eventually found a 'commission only' sales job working from home. Working in his den. He did make some sales but his income was up and down. We increasingly had to rely on my regular salary.
Perhaps this background helps explain my furious reaction to catching my husband of 25 years masturbating himself when he'd said he couldn't help me at the garden centre because he needed to work. As far as I was concerned, he was being unfaithful, again. We hadn't made love for weeks. He preferred his computer screen and right hand to our marital bed and my soft body. His guilty smile and embarrassed wave sealed his fate. It was the final straw.