All Comments on 'A Good Friend'

Got rid of the cheating slut, and is marrying the conniving skank. Hell of a note, dude. Not awful, but I feel very sorry for the guy. Is he a total idiot? I'll give it a three.

Hopefully Jeri will be content with the results of her manipulations, and be a true loving wife forever. However, if she gets bored and strays, Adam won’t be fooled again.

Another good story from you. Thanks.

I enjoyed the attempted " Dangerous Aquaintences " ploys and manipulatulations' of the author where all main characters were trying to implement their personal manifestos with varying degrees of ethics and integrity. For this concept , Charles Bovary opted for brevity of two BFFs telling about , as opposed to " directly showing " , dicey/ libidinous exploits which made story just a bit bloodless and dry

This made for an entertaining read , but not an enthralling one. T&e author ke]t the short story clipped , lean and mean by only telling Adam' s entrepreneurial struggle in the abstract , as well as Melanie's flirtation and subsequent trysts. I respect that message was told in economical form , but did wish at various points along the journey to be indulged with pulse quickening events, not of fiscal nature.

Bottom Line: Liked the story overall and selfishly hope in the future that Charles Bovary takes more chances and challenges with his intriguing and potential laden marital cabals.

I thank the author for sharing.

Just non erotic shit about how much I hate my wife story..

I agree with kimi. Furthermore I think most of us had a fair idea where this was going from the moment Jeri switched from concerned friend to partner in crime.

Maybe lacking that extra spice,

that the first story had.

But very entertaining and

deserving top ratings, like

the first story.

Hat's off for your talents CB

and thanks for the story!

What a screwed woman Jeri is.

Watch out for that one Adam!

Evidently lsd was miffed your story did not allow him to stroke anything other than his already inflated ego

I thought exactly what @kimi1990 says...I really don't know which one is the worst character! If she was as conniving as a friend, how conniving would she be as a wife? However not a bad story...3*

How convenient that everything worked out for Adam and Melanie got fucked over because that's exactly how things go in real life. Why not have ha win the fuckjg lottery while you're at it and maybe become POTUS just for good measure.

Asshat. I should sue you for making a story so insanely stupid it drops your IQ.

"She bought into it a hundred percent back then, so she hardly has a right to complain now" - If she's going to complain she should speak up!

He can find time to meet Jeri for a drink, when was the last time he took Melanie out for a drink? Not justifying her affair, just sayin'.

While Jeri's plot was devious and mean, it wouldn't have worked if Melanie didn't want to cheat.

"You believe someone who's too much of a coward to even sign his name more than you trust your own wife." - I know it's part of the act, but nowhere did he say he BELIEVED it, he's just asking her about it.

"I wonder . . ." - What's he wondering? If the Professor put in a good word with the Judge? Of course he did!

"I did tell you not to delete your secret Gmail account" - I must have missed something. I saw where she told her to log off the account, I didn't see her telling Mel no to delete it.

"I thought you were my friend!" - LOL, she's got a lot of nerve complaining about disloyal friends! A disloyal friend is better than a cheating wife!

I have little concern for Jeri as a wife. She did what she did because she loved him and wanted him for her own and as I said earlier, all her conniving would have been for naught if Melanie didn't WANT to cheat.

Gets a 1

from a piece of shit to a bigger one...

ONE STAR.

I loved the twist and turns, but he likely ended up as bad or worse than he started out. Entirely possible this could actually happen though, so I give 3*. But MAN,,,, what a dumb-ass he is.

She is a skunk who creep into her friend's marriage! And thats your mindset to friendship??!! Pathetic!!!

This was fun. I would have liked to have gotten more of the personal journeys. Jumping, for example, right from confrontation and tears to court and money-grabbing deflated and undercut the sense that she cared at all about what she'd lost. Being in a hurry, as a writer, actually made the consequences "feel" less severe.

This was over complacated bull shit with a wet hot garbage ending. so just don't.

"..it turns out that employers are more interested in experience than academic credentials. Most of the jobs I was offered were trainee positions or internships."

Any employer will take the real world experience over "Academia" every time.

Besides that the tale was a fine read of "Be careful what you wish for" + twists and turns and I appreciate the posting.

5* from me.

Our boy, Adam, is in quite the pickle, though. I can't help wondering how he will be maneuvered next time. That Jeri is one Machiavellian manipulator. Entertainment is the name of the game, though, and I did get a kick out of it.

Western promo is up in EC! Coming soon to LW. Check out the list. LW authors representing!

Hahahahaha!!! Kudos to Jeri! Well done!

Cannot fully comprehend the Jeri bashing. She did her best to talk Melanie out of affair. She also told her numerous other females, including herself, would be after Adam if Melanie got caught. She made it clear she was tired of single life.

Jeri was also good friend of Adam and did not want him hurt. Mel insisted would only be for that one week so Jeri helped her in a way that would keep Adam from finding out and being hurt.

Melanie changed rules. She wanted to continue affair, plus keep Adam.

Jeri knew all cheaters get caught, and Adam would divorce Mel.

All Jeri did was make sure she was first in line.

Seems strange so many comments making Jeri out to be villian forgetting Mel was one looking to destroy marriage.

If Mel had decided one and done, Jeri would have done nothing.

Mel got what she wanted, she had no qualms about divorce until things did not work out post divorce.

Am wondering if all the Jeri bashers would have rather she allowed Adam to suffer alone. Did you want Mel to continue to violate marital bed, while Adam was busting butt working all those hours to establish career and pay the exorbitant price for Mel's education?

Then there was scorpio crack about Adam not taking wife out for drink but had one with Jeri.

Mel made it quite clear that she missed being single and running around as party girl. No comment on her part about doing anything with Adam.

If Jeri was so conniving, she would have let Adam in on Mel's spring break plans right from the start

Not the most in depth story but the dark twist was appealing to me.

I'm not a big fan of clueless men or women so my 5* rating says how much I enjoyed this bitch burning bitch tale.

I think I like Jeri?

But I can understand why she might've. Five stars!

Just love it when the college types who think they are so smart get tripped up from lack of common sense. Really stupid to create email account on her own computer with all those at college available to her. Even more stupid to not delete that account after second email. She had no further need for it so why keep it around.

When Jeri first aided Mel, I did not like her. I did suspect where author was headed though when she began warning Mel what she was risking.

Come end of story, I was in love with her!

Plot twist: Carl had HIV. Now they all do.

and making a prediction - I just read to the point where Adam met with Jeri for the first time and asked her about this mystery professor. I predict that Jeri is out to get Adam for herself. Now I'm going to finish the story and see if I'm correct or way off ;-)

pretty well foretold the plot. It was like a curve ball that didn't break. The only unknown was how complicated the author was going to make the plot, and it was quite complicated. How one woman could manipulate so many (Dumb) people is a mystery to me, but then, the same thing has happened to me... twice! Her plan required the couple to respond exactly as she thought, with no room for error. Fiction works that way. Thanks for the hard work!

The author was pretty transparent to where he was going with this story. Pretty good but too cold with Jeri's manipulations and Adam and Melanie's stupidity. All's fair in love and war but - I think Adam has not seen the last in this war!

He gets screwed with the other bitch. And doesn't even realize he was being used. Not a nice story. Jeri and Melanie both a shrews.

I thought the story was a relatively good one. Not an excellent one but a decently good one. But there's neither complexity nor suspense to it.

Two-thirds of the way through, I thought the AUTHOR was going to go for complexity; but he just allowed the bland, middle school-ish story to peter out & ended as expected, with the smarter but more dishonest & more scheming woman winning the guy, from the low IQ bitch who's too stupid for her own good...

I think the reason for the lack of complexity is that the author made Jeri too undeveloped... So, this is a somewhat positive assessment, where the author goes. That is, in his future stories, he could easily make both stories and characters more complex, more flushed out...

As is, Jeri showed up only very briefly, just to "help" her "good friend" (Melanie, the MBA with an IQ of no more than 85 to 90) ruin her marriage... and then, again, at the end only to poke her former "good friend's" eyes, when the dumb bitch was homeless living with her mother in Florida, working at entry level jobs.

Contrary to opinions of most readers on this story, I would assume, I'd say if I HAD to choose between Melanie & Jeri to spend the rest of my life with, it'd be with the stupid cheating bitch. Jeri is so much more scheming; and she's also more clever.

But it's Jeri DISHONESTY that bothers me the most.

I just don't like her at all, even though, again, she hardly showed up in the short story, except to end her friend's marriage (with upper middle school emailing schemes) and then to claim Melanie's ex at the very end, spitting in her former "good friend's" face or drink...

Given Adam's slow brain power, or, at the very least, his mild manner, Jeri's going to ruin his life no more than a few years down the road, when she meets up with faster guys, with more money... now that she's used to Adam's windfall from the sale of his company, one that Melanie the idiot really should have had some right to, if her IQ were higher...

When Melanie cheated on him, Adam was still young, so he's mostly pissed off. When Jeri's dishonesty and scheming ways finally ruin Adam, the guy's gonna be in this 50s or so... he's gonna be a really depressed and suicidal guy...

Again, Jeri COULD be the opposite of what she appears to be, here; but the AUTHOR hasn't done his job presenting that character to the audience. The Jeri who showed up briefly here & there in this short story, again, is DEFINITELY NOT a nice, or honest, or moral person.

BTW, warning your "good friend" that if she fools around, there's be plenty of women to take her husband away, from her, in no way endears Jeri to my heart.... especially when that was used deliberately as a clever, scheming REVERSE psychology to get Melanie to actually "live out" her "fantasies"... to ruin her marriage, so Jeri herself could get Melanie's husband.

But, again, it's not just the clever reverse psychology, is it? Jeri actually concocted, immediately, a few seemingly clever emailing schemes (from dumb Melanie's POV but hare-brained, from most of our views) for Melani to follow through, in order to have her affair, SO SHE COULD GO ON TO LOSE her husband for sure...

Again, if I HAD to choose one, between these two women, I'd choose the stupid bitch (Melanie, who may or may not be honest & who's easily manipulated) over the narcissist in Jeri whose higher IQ resides in the head of a very dishonest, untrustworthy, & scheming person...

The dialogue was awful. The premise was stupid and unbelievable. No one behaves this way.

Just bad. Period.

Fag cuck shit.

I think probably everyone who read this knew Jeri would end up with Adam from about the 3rd paragraph. It kind of killed the story for me because I knew the end all along. It was still a decent effort.

Jeri was a devious manipulator from the get-go, but her scheme worked only because both Adam and Melanie were dumber than dirt.

Melanie was a skank for sure, but I would be extremely wary of Jeri. With friends like her, who needs enemies.... ;-)

I don't like jeri. I think she's a manipulative bitch. The wife was a whore for sure---But this bitch is conniving. Neither of these bitches can be trusted. How would the moronic husband feel knowing not only did jeri know about his wife fantasy but she encouraged and helped make it a reality? Just so that she can swoop in and take her place. Not really someone you want as a mate. The story was kinda boring.

And why should that turn out bad for Jeri?

The wife indicated she had already decided to cheat, she just needed an opportunity. Jeri could easily argue that if it hadn't been Jeri, Melanie would have devised some other opportunity, sooner or later, with Carl or with some other hunk that stirred her clit. All Jeri did was facilitate the betrayal so that it happened immediately, before she and Adam had children, and before Adam had a much larger financial stake to lose. Melanie wanted an opportunity to shit on Adam and become Carl's slut. And Jeri wanted an opportunity to become a truly loyal loving faithful wife for a good man. Since Melanie was willing to risk throwing Adam away, why shouldn't Jeri put herself in the position of being available to pick the discarded Adam back up?

Jeri will of course point out that while the week in Florida was to be a one time fling, the sex with Carl was so incredible and superior to Adam that Melanie was searching for a way to allow her to keep cheating. Jeri simply took advantage of Melanie's stupidity and betrayal. The fact that Melanie ended up trying to form a relationship with Carl shows that she had no great love for Adam, and in fact she would have been very happy to end up with Carl if Carl had just stayed a decent guy. The video from their fuck fest would have shown Adam that he could never give Melanie what she wanted sexually, and how shallow and selfish she was. Odds are good that Melanie would have cheated on Carl too once she got bored with him and started roving for sexual trade-up number 2.

Jeri can point out that while she allowed Melanie to prove that she was unfit to be Adam's wife, that was no guarantee that Adam would fall in love with her. So while Jeri played a role in ridding Adam of a faithless shallow selfish whore, that did not guarantee that she would be taking Melanie's place. That, Jeri can remind Adam, was the result of his being free of a woman who proved she did not want or deserve him. So Adam could decide what Jeri's real role was in the failure of his marriage to Melanie. Was Jeri the instigator, or merely an opportunist? In the end, did Jeri's actions improve Adam's future, or make it worse? It could go either way, and that is what could make a sequel so interesting.

Thank you for initiating a really interesting plot idea.

There's no question that what Melanie did was despicable and every thing that happened to her subsequently was well deserved. However, Jeri was equally slimey. A real friend would have gone out of her way to dissuade Melanie not to cheat on her husband. She certainly set up Melanie to get caught and leave Adam available on the rebound. Adam was so caught up in his business that he couldn't imagine what was going on behind his back. I give him a pass, but I just know that he'll end up screwed with Jeri down the road. Someone as devious as she is will find it irresistable to screw with him again. The story still deserves a 4* although there really wan't anyone worth empathizing with. Just brings out the eternal verity that people will usually do whatever they can get away with and bedamned to everyone else.

You managed to write not only a clueless husband but two of the most amoral, selfish and calculatingly evil characters I'v read in quite a while. Was the wife meant to be a sociopath? She really lacked any basic decency and showed a complete lack of love or even respect for her husband. And if possible, the friend was even worse.

That said, I enjoyed it up to a point. And that was until the ending.

I was hoping you wouldn't do it, but nope, you did it. The most selfish, conniving bitch got her reward and stole the cast off husband.

Unfortunate. It feels like the poor bastard gets a long sentance for a crime he didn't commit. I dont usually stand shoulder to shoulder with the BTB crowed, but damn, if this story didn't NEED it.

All the same, thanks for the effort.

You can't steal something that's been cast off!

If it was a business game in their MBA I would say that Jeri won fair and square, and deserves her reward. But since the currency was a human being, I would feel very sorry for him! Since I was disgusted by all three main characters I feel that the author did a fine job!

I think you are off to a good start on your writing. I saw the end result coming at the girls first meeting. Interesting getting there and I was surprised by the judge's ruling. Nice touch.

Love it. Great work.

Figured Jeri out early on; still really enjoyed it. Ultimate burn.

Poor Adam for getting another lying wife, though I don't know why he didn't have any suspicions at all about Jeri, but of course he didn't have the information we readers do.

It still really annoys me that Jeri profited from her lies, Adam deserves better.

been exposed to the manipulations of females in every significant interaction in my life, I find I have some sympathy for Melanie...not much, but some.

Adam of course is a classic "ignorance is bliss" - as long as his new wife stays faithful - of course. Given her past actions, that seems unlikely.

I don't see it the same as some others. Jeri knew it was only a matter of time before Melanie cheated. She knew how hard it was to find a "good" man. The up side is that she probably made Adam a good wife because she knew the down side to cheating. I had the story figured out the minute she laid out the plan but it was still entertaining.

In my divorce, it wasn't a friend or even a neighbor who brought my wife's infidelity to my attention. It was her cousin. She didn't do it to start up a relationship with me. In fact, as soon as the divorce was final, the cousin moved halfway across the United States and I was reactivated by the military and sent overseas. The cousin told me she did it because she thought I was a good person and deserved to have a better marriage than the one I had, even if my ex-wife was her cousin.

What the hell? Temptation is one thing, and actually goading someone to go all the way while they have only a half-a-mind to do it is a fucking sin; the 'good friend' will be paid back with interest. Entertaining; but I didn't like it.

Loved the story. Not sure why anyone would get down on Jeri. Smart girl and great friend - To Adam. Not sure what commenters marriages are like but Melanie was already cheating. Blatant flirting with another man and fantasizing about an affair, you don’t call that cheating? In my mind, inserting the penis does NOT start the affair, the fantasies and dreaming do. The sex just consummated it. Yes Jeri is conniving. I bet she’s smart enough to connive to keep her man happy. Long term, every relationship is a gamble. I’d rather gamble with a woman who cares. Not loser like Melanie who’s just waiting for her first chance for strange.

If I tell you to go kill yourself and you do, not my fault man.

Jeri repeatedly warned Melanie against cheating. True she assisted Mel in deception but kept telling her it was mistake.

Melanie could have had week long fling and got away with it. But she chose not to stop. Melanie would have continued to cheat, been caught and divorced no matter what Jeri did after initial fling.

All Jeri did is pick up what wife threw away.

NO FAULT THERE!!

FACT...GOOD FOR HER!

This is the second time I read this and it is indeed a well constructed story. I still feel that the true villain in the piece is Jeri. When Melanie tells her of her infatuation with Carl, instead of coming up with that clever plan to allow Melanie a week with Carl a real friend would have just warned her against cheating on her husband and walked away. By coming up with the plan and the subsequent idea of how to continue her affair once the magic week was over, Jeri took advantage of a somewhat gullible and infatuated Melanie and became an active aggressor in seeking to steal Adam away from Melanie. A truly evil person. It also helps to have a truly naive man to manipulate. Beware of Greeks (or whoever) bearing gifts!

Melanie bought all her misery. Her self-centered view of her life caused her to

ask Jeri for a plan. No one held a gun to her head to make her give her pussy to another man. No one pushed her to go to Florida for a week's fuckcation. And she got greedy when she wouldn't stop the affair. So she bought her problems now has to deal with them.

This is my second reading and I must say it's well written with a decent plot. I really enjoyed reading something written by a literate person!

Was never a friend to Adam lied to him the whole time. Not a friend I'd like to know.

All she had to do was put her marriage first and she would be with Adam.

She knew what she had done . She knew where his wife was and said nothing. If I found out what she had done, I’d have no part of her. This man had slutty wives because he just wasn’t sharp.

While the players are different and the situation is also slightly different I've seen this happen at least twice. Once it was two female friends who were rather close. One secretly lusted for her best friends boyfriend and essentially set up a situation in which she was caught in a somewhat compromising position with another man. She wasn't cheating, ducking naive as hell but didn't have a dishonest bone in her body, rare for me to admit that but she was a good girl. But her friend had planted so much circumstantial 'evidence' and filled the boyfriend with so much doubt that he broke off the relationship. She was distraught and heart broken and her pleas fell on deaf ears. She eventually moved away. 5 months later after he got his head on straight who should swoop in and snatch him up but the manipulative best friend. They got engaged and got married and have 2 kids. Ole ex girlfriend wasn't invited. Hubby eventually pieced it together but by that point he was already in too deep with his new wife expecting their first child. So he decided to to stick with it and make it work. Especially after learned his ex had moved on.

Second situation involved two sisters. Sister A wanted Sister Bs boyfriend. So she lied point blank to her sisters face while she was fucking her boyfriend behind her back. When Sister B came to Sister A with her concerns about him possibly cheating on her sister A lied to her face and reassured her. She only got caught because she bragged she was banging her sisters boyfriend to a mutual friend in revenge for something her sister supposedly did when they were younger. Said friend pulled a Lindsey Shepard and recorded the conversation then gave it to sister B. Sister B went ballistic and beat her sister till she was black and blue and then disowned her. 10 years later, and despite numerous attempts by sister A to apologize and reconcile, she still doesn't want anything to do with her.

I've seen a lot of smaller things like this. Gossiping about a supposed friend behind said friends back, starting rumors to destroy a 'friends' reputation. Stealing money or a prized possession. Yeah the bullshit of the 'sisterhood' doesn't exist.

People like Jeri are narcissists, evil manipulators.

Conniving.

Pity Adam is clueless but there are real life Adams in this world...

Got rid of one lying, conniving bitch, about to marry another ? Sad ending.

one lying cheat to another potential money hungry lying cheat

author must be a willing cuck

1 star

Melanie cut her own throat. She just had to have her little fling, and then keep it going. It was only a.matter.of time. Jeri just helped a little and picked up the peices. Good story.

But you could see the end coming from a mile away. Liked the helpful professor, that was good!

What horrible women. Both of them. Nothing redeemable about either of them. Still a good story. 4*

- Jeri

errr whups

- Napoleon

Traded in one conniving manipulative bitch for another.

Where's chapter 2

Wow he never saw this coming . Two screws. And now he gets another dog

That his heroes are not very smart. The same here. Why would anybody want to replace a cheater with a manipulator?

Good story, yet the ending sucked as for Adam marrying another slimy bitch.

Guess some people never learn!

Think this story needs a sequel.

A guy should never forget that women are devious little creatures, and they always have the advantage over a man. This is a great story. Thanks!

Adam went from the frying pan right into the fire..... neither one of the women deserved a man like Adam..... will the truth come out? Will justice be served?

Women really are scary, aren't they?!

Every time I read one of these "no fault" stories it amazes me JUST HOW CORRUPT and EVIL U.S. divorce law is. Are there REALLY no honorable people in the legal profession, from scum lawyers to the judges and lawmakers who manage this foul system? How can a blatant breech of contract be "no fault" I only hope all women who use this tactic end up like "Melanie" Marriage IS A CONTRACT and how anyone can say a cheating spouse is at No Fault needs a look at Contracts 101... 1*

NO! I am not a victim of this 'evil' Married 45years to a woman, not a greedy slut!

After the final discussion between the "girlfriends," I was hoping that Melanie could alert Adam to Jeri's insidiousness. Then the story would have been about Adam escaping 2 deceitful manipulators. And about each of the 2 manipulators screwing the other. This would have left Adam to search for a trustworthy woman (which could have been: 1) left thus, 2) more story, or 3) a sequel).

Being clever, smart, and enterprising, sounds good. But using those attributes to rob banks makes it bad. Which is why I disagree with those who think that skilled, interesting storytelling (which this was) is good, even when it leads to a sad ending (as this appears to be for Adam). I come to Literotica for entertainment and enjoyment. Sad realism you can get from TV news and the newspaper. That is why I gave this story 2 stars. I have read two other stories by this author -- Stranger Brew and also Squire Wilson's Saga. I gave those two 5 stars.

Paul in Oklahoma

...to a worse one. great. *

It really pisses me off that Jeri ended up profiting from her machinations. It was obvious from the beginning that she was trying to ruin the marriage, so obvious at least either her friend or Adam should have caught it in hindsight.

I would certainly have expected Melanie to rat out Jeri right after, not 30 months later.

A terrible end, when a bitch like that gets a happy ending, made me strongly dislike this story.

The only good end would have been if Adam got a clue, and found a woman who wasn't a manipulative bitch.

Husband with very week personality, He is week and he is in a hand of scary woman!!

I'm surprised that anyone has sympathy for Melanie.

"It's just harmless flirting - it doesn't mean anything."

Like a few compliments, that kind of thing? Ah okay.

"Yesterday he asked me to go with him to Florida over spring break. If there was any way I could do it without Adam knowing, I'd probably accept."

Hold on a second! The flirting has progressed to such a point that this guy feels comfortable inviting a married woman to a fuckfest in Florida? And if she could do it without her husband finding out, she'd be on her back spreading her legs for Carl?

Melanie was a cheating slut just waiting for an opportunity to get some strange cock. It was only a matter of time before she started cheating on Adam. Jeri did him a huge favour getting his wife to reveal her true colours before they had children. After seeing how Melanie turned into a vicious cunt in the divorce, just immediately how badly he'd have been raped financially if they had a couple of kids to support.

whom is their good, true and loyal friend, TK U MLJ LV NV ps....always protect yourself. mlj

Adam will soon enough put two and two together and Jeri will get dumped.

The so called good friend is not my favorite person. She breaks up a marriage so she gets the guy. That's pretty cold, but looking at the comments i noticed that some of the female readers didn't agree that it was right, but understood why. Maybe the female brain is wired differently, that scary. I just hope her devious nature is used to help her family including Adam, or i would pity the fool. With friends like her who needs enemies.

He should at least research what Melanie has to say. He can't be that dense to not be able to put two and two together. Decent story but it was very easy to pick how this would end. Jeri is just as bad as Mel is.

A total bitch to orchestrate the marriage breakup. Adam is fucked in more ways than one.

This was a really great story, if you haven't check out the videos on YouTube about the lack of really good men after a certain age. Women are finding out that the really good men are taken after about age 27 or so. This is a very funny story of the rather extreme lengths that one women went to grab one, well done and too funny.

Fantasy cheating

Better get rid of her now then in future when kids involved

Jeri didn't give her fantasies

She did to herself

How many stories you read starts with fantasy and ends up bad

Jeri friend of both. She just advantage of cheating slut to get a good man

Better friend to him thank goodness

Great stor. For an idiot like Mel to get an MBA with honors makes you wonder how difficult it really is. Jeri is the smart one here.

Based on the comments, the story was really about Jeri. Is she a manipulative cunt or a woman who has a vision of finding and committing to a husband and family?

I have a feeling that Adam will find Jeri to be a fierce lioness willing to commit, support and defend her marriage because she's mature enough to appreciate the value of an honest, loving and dedicated man who will honor his marital commitments and provide for his family.

I sense in several comments that some male readers are intimidated by a strong female persona.

Jeri warned Mel right from the start that she was risking her marriage and Adam was a highly desirable man. Her plan would not have been beneficial to her if Melanie had stopped slutting around after her trip to Florida. If anything, Jeri was an enabler at that point and indeed Mel's "Good Friend" by providing a reasonable plan that Mel could use to betray her husband. But when Mel decided to continue cheating, Jeri knew that the marriage was doomed so she positioned herself to be the beneficiary of Mel's adultery. That's a smart woman. One who isn't likely to screw up a good marriage for a adolescent fantasy.

If we switched genders and Jeri became Gerry, I suspect most comments would be cheering him as the white knight of a betrayed wife.

OK, so Melanie was a lying, cheating, superficial asshole, but...

Jeri is just scary on a different level!

And no, Loejtc, it isn't because I am afraid of a strong female. I actually prefer to have a strong partner. What I am afraid of is a conniving, deceitful sociopath.

Ugh! Jeri gives me the shivers, and not in a good way.

Run, Adam! RUN!! You will never really know Jeri. Until it is too late.

Not sure about Jeri. She seemed to enable Mel the first time until Mel got too greedy, which is not cool if Jeri really did care for Adam.

However, there’s nothing wrong with playing the long game. Mel was obviously a slut cheating bomb waiting to detonate. Why not help it explode early and get on with it? At first I thought Jeri was at fault for not coming clean, especially when Mel’s email arrived, but what good would that do?

The fact that Adam had time for Jerry when he’d ignored Mel for so long might indicate that he wasn’t so happy either. Or, he made time because this was important, worthy of his time, and he didn’t find partying important after a seventy hour week, even if Mel did.

This appears to be a more old-fashioned type of relationship, where men and women competed and attempted to outmaneuver rivals for their affection, much more goal-oriented and less to do with our modern concept of marrying for love.

Did Jeri love Adam? I’m not sure, but she obviously wanted him, and Melanie, just as obviously, didn’t. He wasn’t rocking her world, so Mel would have been gone eventually. She didn’t value him, and turned out pretty conniving herself in the end.

Adam wasn’t stupid, just busy, and he ended up with a capable partner. Maybe Jeri could come clean in a few years after their relationship has a few years to get solid.

I Liked the ending a Lot .. Nicely done

That poor man just doesn’t have a clue, a sad sad tale of cheating and manipulation.

Adam would never have hooked up with Jeri! Everyone knows that a woman discusses everything with her best friend even cheating on her spouse. Usually their best friend gives the cheating friend help with cheating. The author made the mistake of not making Professor Avery a super smart babe around Adam’s age.

Like self immolation.

Jeri provided the fuel and matches, but Melanie lit the match on her own.

Fresh idea, well done.

☆☆☆☆☆

Again. Jeri played the dumb, cheating Mel like a cheap fiddle and picked up a very good, discarded husband. A great story about a smart idiot.

Nice. Scheming bitches win...

3 for this story.

I can't seem to get past the premise that the majority of the women involved in these stories are mentally challenged bimbos. There are almost 30,000 divorce stories on this website and I bet less than 10% have reasonably intelligent humans interacting in them. In each case one, the other, or both are wing nuts.

Should've used incognito mode.

Melanie was a bad wife, but Jerri scares me. She is a master manipulator. I wonder how long it will be before she decides to manipulate him to her advantage? An honest wife is far better.

Wow he buys into that two face ex friend Melanie . Going to marry her now he will really be screwed. Pretty bad ending

Outstanding! Thanks for writing! Gotta love Jeri for taking that opportunity to get what she wants. To those who say she stole her friends husband, she did give fair warning as she set up the dominoes.

He jumps out of the pot of boiling water into the frying pan of hot oil... good luck!