2 posts tagged “sex”

Previously on "The Reluctant Adulterer":  our intrepid hero, having for months nursed a sexualized crush on Astrid, the fiancée of one of his best friends, allowed himself to be seduced by another young woman, Devi.

I said I didn't feel guilty about Devi.  For the first thing, we haven't actually had intercourse, at least not yet.  For the second thing, if my wife wanted me to not sleep with other women, she would sleep with me herself.

So life was good, wife, kids, pretty mistress, no guilt -- for about 30 seconds.  Then I happened to run into Astrid.

Shouldn't I be relieved vis-a-vis Astrid?  After all, even wanting to lay your friend's girlfriend, let alone trying, is pretty low.  Now that I am seeing Devi, one might expect that my obsession with Astrid would recede -- and it has, a little -- and that I would feel good about that too.

But no, when I saw Astrid, I felt an intense pang of guilt.  I almost said it out loud: I've been unfaithful.  I'm making out with another woman when I'm supposed to have a creepy fixation on you.

Is everyone this much of a moron or is it just me?

I know, I know, I promised.  But it is difficult to tell the truth about the important stuff.

Night before last, I had sex.  And it may surprise some readers to know that it was with my wife.

Surprising to me, it wasn't the usual bi-monthly "I want to go to sleep, you've got five minutes" sex I've learned to dread.  It was real, Barry White-lyrics, headboard-denting, bed-slat-snapping "making love".  Tender, ecstatic.  Like it's supposed to be.  Like it used to be.

And then all yesterday, she was sweet to me in a way she never is.

This morning, we were taking care of some tax paperwork together and I let my hand drift along her spine.  She looks at me and asks, What?

Maybe we should go back to bed, I say.  She just looks at me like I've lost my mind.

Maybe I have.