By Likegoodwinecopyrighted January 2011
Your votes and constructive comments are appreciated as they will help me grow.
Thanks to grogers for his very, very patient editing
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I am still surprised by the way people talk to each other; they speak the same language, but don't really understand each other. Or worse, they misunderstand each other. My love life seemed to be a string of such communication failures.
Take for instance my first marriage. Helen and I had something special going. After three years of marriage, and four years living together we were a couple set for life. That is, until the day I opened my big mouth.
We were having drinks with some friends at a little neighborhood pub only a few blocks from our apartment. We were discussing marriage, exclusivity and what it meant for us. It was a topic Helen and I had discussed many times. I know that she would have been willing to be in an open marriage, but I was not cut from that cloth.
Our friends also seemed to share Helen's point of view, so I felt a bit cornered by them and my stance began to be a bit more defensive than a friendly discussion warranted.
"We discussed that before, Helen and I, and my opinion hasn't changed. There's no fucking around in a happy marriage."
"But what if it means nothing to have sex with somebody else? Not love, just sex?" asked Marites, a cute but annoying, small, gorgeous, Latino woman. The kind I could fuck without love but with mucho gusto!
"It might mean nothing to you, but what about your spouse?" I answered. "If it is important to him, it should be to you, or you are really not made for each other."
"And what about having sex, discreet sex, fulfilling sex, that makes your marriage even better? Many people I know have had a surge in their relationship when they had an affair, sex on the side." Marites husband, Mark, asked.
"That's worse!" I almost yelled. All my friends and Helen were taken aback by my outburst.
"Honesty is a pillar of marriage. If you can't be honest, it is time to opt out and move on. If you don't, what do you have left? A cheating and lying spouse! That's what you have left. I'll say one thing: if you need to fuck around, get the fuck out of my sight!" I said vehemently.
That explosion of emotions had two different results.
First, it stopped the conversation around the table. We all left the place within minutes and went back home.
Second, two days later, all of Helen's belongings were gone and her wedding ring was sitting on the kitchen table on top of a small note.
"Dear Peter,
"You are right! Better to be honest with each other. I met somebody else, and before I sleep with him, it is better that I 'Get the fuck out of here'.
"I wish you a good life because you are a good man -- just not my kind of man.
"Helen"