A Weird Interlude Becomes Bliss

I sat Melissa down in the living room again. "Melissa, I'm sorry to have to say this, because you have many, many fine qualities; but even before your cheating revelation I realized that I didn't love you as much as when we got married, when I should have loved you more. I realized that I didn't have the love for you that Charlene had for Jimmy. I realized that as more time passed we would grow apart, not together. I think that if you're honest with yourself you'll realize that your feelings mirror mine. I intend to file for divorce next week on irreconcilable differences, and will try to make it as amicable as possible."

Melissa sat stoically. After a long pause she snickered "Do you want me to beg to stay married?"

"No," I calmly replied. "I want you to accept it and move on as quickly as possible. I don't harbor you ill will, and I'm not divorcing you because of your sexual encounter with John Peters."

Her next question was startling. "Can we still live together and have sex until the divorce is final?"

"We can for a month. At that time the project I've been supervising will be finished, I'll be leaving this area and moving a thousand miles away."

That seemed to take her by surprise. "You're not going back to your home town?"

"No - there's nothing for me there; I'm moving to the Southeast, and have a supervisor's job preliminarily lined up." That statement was true - but only because Charlene was moving there too.

******************

Perhaps the most surprising of all, my sex life with Melissa was as good as it ever was until my move, and she told her father in no uncertain terms to butt out of the divorce. We ended our marriage as amicably as possible. Of course it helped immensely that she made more money than I did so there would be no alimony from me to her and I wasn't asking for any, and that I sold her my equity in our house for what was likely only 2/3rds of what it was really worth. If I'm honest I guess that I did that to salve my conscience for not admitting my adultery to her.

I did get that job in the Southeast - and there was even a small pay raise associated with it. Charlene did move in with me, and impossibly the sex, love, and my feelings of protectiveness seemed to be enhanced almost weekly. Charlene worked at a bank in our new area until my divorce was final and she and I married. We started the serious job of making babies about a month after our honeymoon, and she quit working for good when she was seven months pregnant. Now, six years later, we have three kids and I have more love, more feelings of self-worth, and better sex than at any other time in my life.

I sometimes feel bad that my best friend's death was what resulted in the epitome of enduring happiness for me; but then I think back on what Charlene told me the first day that I arrived at her house after Jimmy's death. "Jimmy said that you'd take good care of me!"