Moving ahead while avoiding the mistakes of the past.
This story is a continuation of the stories
Second Chance -- Parts 1 & 2
and
The Rest of the Story
all by Wutmytvben. However, if you don't want to go through all of those stories, this story will stand alone if you keep this information in mind:
Al and Amy are husband and wife whose marriage was pretty sexless until the eighteenth year as Amy saw her daughter, Dory, mature and become an attractive young woman. When Amy discovered she could still be attractive and enjoyed it with her husband Al, they fantasized about having sex with others, eventually acting out their fantasies. It caused real trouble when Amy, on her own, went to visit a former lover in Florida. After a couple of months Amy realized that she had made a big mistake and tried coming home. By then Al and Dory had gone on with their lives, Al having begun a relationship with Eve, a neighbor. That is where this story begins. If you haven't read the first three parts to this story I suggest that you do. They are much more interesting than this summary paragraph. No one in the story is under 18 years of age. All sex is consensual.
Amy here. When I came home after I had left Al and Dory so that I could go to Florida to spend time with T.R., I was so eager to get home that I had only thought that when I got home, Al and Dory would be glad to see me and that life would finally return to normal -- the way it had been before I left.
So I was a little puzzled when no one answered the phone when I called, no one returned the messages I left on the answering machine and no one replied to my text messages when I tried to contact them telling them I was coming home. I had hoped someone would be there to pick me up from the airport. Instead I had to take a taxi.
Then, when I entered the house through the back door into the kitchen, there was Dory, beginning to make supper. Instead of a cheerful, "Mom!! You're back! So glad to see you," accompanied by a big hug and stuff like that, Dory greeted me by asking, "What are you doing here?"
When I told her I was home and offered to make supper, she ran off to her room telling me to make sure I made enough for Eve, but on the other hand that she, Dory, would probably not be eating with us -- that she had just lost her appetite.
I walked through the house to the front door, unlocked it and went out to the front walk where I had left my luggage after it was unloaded from the taxi. As I brought it into the house, it struck me that Al and Dory had not spent their time pining away over my absence. They had moved on with their lives. My coming home was an intrusion.
At first I was angry, but hauling that luggage gave me time to think and to physically work some of that anger out of my system. They had every right to go on with their lives. It would have been unhealthy, from a mental health standpoint, if they would not have gone on with their lives. I had left them with the impression I would just be gone for the weekend. Then I called to tell them I was going to be staying longer. They really had no idea when or even if I was coming back. I had not treated them well.
That is what I was thinking as I stood in the kitchen fixing supper when Al came home. His attitude confirmed my thinking. He didn't tell me he was glad to see me. He did not welcome me home. He was expecting Dory to fix supper and to sit down and eat it with Dory and Eve, I guess. I wasn't part of those plans at all, and my being there was an intrusion into his life as he had restructured it.
At the supper table I tried expressing my disappointment at not being received with a warm welcome and open arms, but dissolved into tears and Al changed the subject. Later that night I went for a walk with Al and he told me what I had figured out for myself while carrying in the luggage: I was really, at this point, and intruder. Furthermore I had really hurt both Al and Dory by the way I left them.
I was beginning to understand what I had done to Al and Dory and I apologized. But I realized that I had two choices. I could acknowledge that what I had done had hurt Al and Dory and that they had begun to go on with their lives without me. I could, therefore, make a gracious retreat and bow out of their lives completely, trying to make a new life for myself. That was one choice. I did not like that choice. I wanted to be family again.
The alternative choice was to not only speak my words of apology, but also to try to show by everything I did that I appreciated Al and Dory more than ever and that I wanted to be accepted once again to be a mother to Dory and wife to Al. I would have to earn their acceptance.
I believe that actions speak louder than words. So when Al said that he had not begun divorce proceedings against me, I was pleased with that. When he said I could sleep in the master bedroom, I was delighted. When he said that he would not be sleeping with me I took it as being a fair consequence of my own behavior in leaving Al. When he said he was sleeping with Eve -- well, her being there at the supper table kind of prepared me for that. That was another consequence of my own behavior.
I held on to the hope that because he had not filed for divorce the door was not closed on us ever getting back together again. I tried to show that I was accepting of the consequences of my behavior by not only accepting those consequences without complaint but also by showing some good will on my part by offering to cook supper for all of us including Eve every night of the week except for Friday when I would have to work late.
I also tried to show Al that I accepted the consequences of my behavior by having myself tested for STD's and by not dressing seductively in front of him after he had expressed that he would not be having a sexual relationship with me. I reverted back to the way I dressed during those years when I was refusing to have sex with him, but still loved him in every other way because I knew he was my husband who loved me and cared for our daughter. I tried to show him in every way I could think of, that I still loved him and that I loved him more than ever. At the same time, I did not try to flirt with him. I tried hard not to express affection for him in sexual ways. I never, ever, tried to interfere with the relationship he had developed with Eve.
By Christmas already things had begun to warm up. The four of us spent a nice Christmas day with the exchange of presents and a festive dinner at Eve's house. Sometime during that day there was even a four-way hug between us with Eve on Al's right side, Dory on his left between Al and myself.
The holidays left me feeling good enough that I decided to go ahead with the other cosmetic surgery I wanted to have done ever since I had my tits done and had experienced how successful that surgery had been. I had butt implants. Both Dory and Eve told me that I didn't need them, but I wanted them. I wanted an ass that called attention to itself. So I got the surgery done with the biggest implants the surgeon was willing to put in. I would have to buy new jeans. My yoga pants, booty shorts and stretch skirts would just have to stretch a little more.
After the first of the year I took a medical leave of absence and had the surgery done by a surgeon with a good reputation. I followed doctor's orders religiously and recovered according to schedule. I returned to work in February. When I returned to work and people asked me how I was feeling I told them I was doing well. When I had returned to work after my time in Florida, I did not wear my yoga pants and stretch pencil skirts to work. I went back to wearing the loose fitting slacks that most of the women wore. Now those clothes hid my surgery from some people, I'm sure. But others who had been seeing me every day probably could guess that I had gotten my ass done. If they asked me what my surgery was for I just told them, "Female stuff."
On average, Eve worked one or two nights a week. Sometimes on those nights Al and I would have some alone time to talk. It was during February or March that Al was over at our house that we were watching some show on the History channel about Mormons in early years where men had multiple wives. When it was done, I expressed some surprise that in one family that was portrayed, the husband had two wives and seemed to love them both equally. As a result there seemed to be no jealousy or conflict between the wives. In fact, they were very supportive of one another.
It was then that Al observed that it maybe was like having more than one child. If parents have two or three children, they do not have to take love away from the first child in order to be able to love the second child. People seem to be wired to be able to love more than one person. Then he put his arm over my shoulder, pulled me to himself and kissed me on the top of my head.
I didn't know what he meant by those actions and I was afraid to ask. But from then on I began to think that if I was willing to accept Eve as an equal, and she was willing to accept me, maybe Al was signaling that he could love us both -- completely. I could live with that.
That meant that I had to cultivate the friendship I had with Eve. I do not say that in a conniving way. My friendship with Eve began with my initiative after she had moved into the neighborhood. I had approached her, introduced myself and Dory and offered my husband's helping hands in time of an emergency.