All Comments on 'Looking Back - Karen's Story'

The narrator messed up but good. arkrebel did a pretty good job depicting the twisted morass that comprises women's self esteem issues. The story went self reviling and preachy at the end. To me , the narrator never really grew up and hopefully this is a learning point. Marriage went kaboom but no kids were mentioned. So it's sad but could have been so much worse. I hope the fictional characters learn their lesson.

Pretty good story. Little preachy for my taste but it explored reletively novel aforementioned subject of who we are on inside versus how the world treats us for our outer aesthetics. I thank the author for sharing.

I had to go back and skim the first one again , and I liked it the second time too.

In this installment , we get the wife's side of the story. I thought the author did a pretty good job of describing the wife's angst and explaining the genesis of her self esteem issues.

Self esteem seems to be a larger focus amongst young women than it is for young men , although I'm not saying that it doesn't hold a high priority there either. I know from my own experience that all adolescents go through some level of it.

I can , on some level , feel for her. But , like a drunken sailor (I used to be one, so I can say it) , she made some really bad choices. Sadly for her , she just couldn't quit while ahead.

As I commented on the first story , this is a very good representation of everyday real life struggles of couples. Sad but poignant story.

4*'s

Ye reap what ye sow. I guess a little therapy before she went off would have done a world of good. Instead she took the advice of a co-worker who led her down the wrong path. Destroyed her life.

Stupid.

Five Stars

This chapter in the looking back story was never planned. After several comments on the original mentioned that we should have heard more of her side I decided to give it a try.

The hard part is I never really like it when I try to write in a woman's voice. Being a guy I can write about guy stuff and it seems okay. Women are an enigma, I never know if what I've written is anywhere close to what may happen in their minds.

And to add to that fun I felt it needed to be finsihed fairly quickly since it was a continuation of the first story.

Thanks for the comments so far on this one. I do read these comments and those that make valid points I try to act on. Like the one about being a bit preachy... that has been mentioned on not just this one but all of my stuff. I'll need to try and work on that a bit.

"I fell in love. Or as least I was sure that's what I felt. Thinking about it now and writing it down I'm not sure" - She's got it right there! She obviously DIDN'T love him, she just loved the attention he was giving her,and once she could get it elsewhere, particularly from a younger,more attractive guy, bye-bye Doug!

When you get right down to it, SHE was acting just like those guys she ranted about, who would talk to her, but ignore her when the "hot" chick entered the room.

The other thing that gets me, not just in this story, is how the compliments from the husband are discounted compared to those from other guys - "Oh, you're just saying that because you're my husband," etc, etc!

"I wish we could have talked about and maybe shared that experience but maybe that would have been worse." - It might not have helped, but I doubt it would have been worse! Most guys fantasize about being with two hot chicks, but as long as he wasn't left out probably would have been cool with it. Hell, if he got a shot at Rachel maybe he would have been more open to you being with other guys.

"Besides the only person I'd actually fucked up till then was Rachel and isn't it every man's fantasy to see two women together?" Probably, as I said above, but you never gave him that chance,just did it behind his back!

"and it was just sex" - And there it is again, that stale old excuse. As Doug said in the original, how would SHE feel if he "just had sex" with another woman?

"I would have felt the same way after using a vibrator." - So why not just use a vibrator and not risk your marriage if the feeling was the same??

She talks about things being unplanned at the bar, but that doesn't explain ignoring his first text, and lying in response to the second! All she had to do was get up and leave, and things probably could have been fixed, maybe with the help of a counselor.

My dark side thinks that maybe she should have given herself a good slash, but that's really too harsh, better that she just has to live with guilt over what she threw away!

I didn't find it at all "preachy"!

I think she just realized what most of us realized when we read the first story.

Obviously written by a man from a man's viewpoint. Nevertheless it is good to see the "other side" of the story for a change.

2* for just writing something

Flawed people regretting the stupid things they have done is not what I really want to read but this was well written. 5 stars for quality but never a favorite because of topic.

I commented on the earlier part of this story that there are very few Loving Wives stories which explore the reasons why a wife may stray from the path of true fidelity. In this second part of Arkrebel's story he shows the wife taking advantage of increased opportunities now that she is sexually more attractive.

And, as he emphasises in his preface to both parts of the story, this is fiction. It's not an academic treatise on the reasons why she might succumb to those increased opportunities. But in real life, there has to be more than just opportunity. Lots of wives have opportunities that they don't take. WHY she did it is a crucial part of the equation.

Lue

Ps: I enjoyed both stories. Thanks, Arkrebel

Of course. You ask the same question in all your comments. The answer is simple. Selfishness. Those who are more concerned with scratching an itch than integrity or honoring faithful companions, such as yourself, have no personal integrity. They are consumed by selfishness. You continually preach your gospel of moral relativism, even though you obviously don't believe it, yourself. If you did, you wouldn't preach. Why would you? To convert someone to the truth? But your whole argument is that there is no truth. You don't even believe your own gospel. Please, justify your behavior to yourself any way you choose, stop boring the rest of us with inanity that you don't even believe

Her Point of view...Doesn't give us the reason why she felt the need to cheat and risk her marriage for a lousy fuck (her saying)...Vanity, Stupidity and a lot of Selfishness...3*

Gave it a 3 and am actually interested in these characters.

Hope you write more about them.

Her physical changes allowed her selfish vain ego to trump her integrity and self-respect. Makes you wonder if she would have gotten over the vanity and ego if she had been beautiful in adolescence. In a way she relived her adolescence with her flirting and cheating. She just got some of the steps in the growing up process out of order. A life shattering mistake.

I still think that, while its not the husband's fault, he gave her the time and opportunity to drift away from their marriage. Facial reconstruction, maybe, to correct or avoid dental problems. But a boob job? Any man who goes along with that idea is a fool, a sucker, a nincompoop. C'mon guys, who the fuck do you think she is getting sexier and bustier and more seductive for, you? Her husband? She's already got you, you dumb shits. She's reequipping herself for bigger game. She's going trophy hunting. And you bought her the bait.

Any man who let's his wife go without him out to bars, or go dancing, or do anything associated with attracting the attention of other men, is a clueless dumb ass, and he deserves whatever his wife decides to do with the "freedom" and "trust" he so blithely grants her. I feel really sorry for both of these characters. They are a good example of how compromising your principles, and being tolerant of destructive behavior, won't save a weak marriage. It just delays and magnifies the eventual breakup.

A very sad and well told tale.

I didn't feel sorry for her. She makes the mistakes and she pays a price. I guess when you throw both stories together we see the failure of another marriage. It happens everyday. Sort of depressing. They could have been anyone's neighbors. And they divorced with a whimper, not a bang. Not a particularly fun read.

For the read.

is i commend you good sir for not straying from the first ending and turning this into a RAAC. Its a breath of fresh air to read a story where the husband sticks to his convictions and doesn't allow paltry excuses to sway his mind.

I usually reserve one star if the story isn't hot enough to be considered erotic. But, this shows such emotion that I couldn't justify holding that back. *****

to the original tale. This story filled in some holes and closed the circle on this event.

nicely done

The one thing she left out was her total and absolute lack of love for her husband. She mentioned how much she enjoyed his love of her. What she did not mention was loving him. Love: to care about another's welfare, never to do anything to harm another's welfare. By the accounts of this and the preceding story, she never cared about him. It was a one sided relationship. Perhaps she was not capable of love? In my experience there are a lot of people how do to selfishness, cowardice and possibly mental disorder - are incapable of meaningful love for another person. She certainly fits the bill. That fact is why at the end of the story, he is better off without her emotionally draining presence. If he has gained wisdom from the experience he may be able to find a needle in a haystack and find that person who can reciprocate love. He may also turn to God, who is always capable of love if not human warmth. He may chose to share his love with others in non marital, non romantic, non-mating ways. In any case, what she didn't mention was that she was an emotional blackhole and utterly useless as a spouse.

I can see her needing to get her jaw fixed, but not a boob job. The very moment Karen asked for a boob job was the moment Doug should've realized that she didn't love him that much, if at all. He should've figured her getting prettier would do this. He needed to fight her on that and if she wouldn't relent, he should've threatened to leave her for good. That what I'd do. Maybe then it would've woken her up and prevented her downfall. On a side note, who likes fake tits anyway? They're all stiff and don't jiggle or bounce hardly. Plus, she can't feel them. I'd rather be with an A-cup breasted chick who can feel me licking them nips. God, give me a normal girl with a weak chin and small tits over a "that girl" any day of the fucking week. Actually, give me normies every time, period. Because hot women have too much competition after them.

"The hard part is I never really like it when I try to write in a woman's voice. Being a guy I can write about guy stuff and it seems okay. Women are an enigma, I never know if what I've written is anywhere close to what may happen in their minds."

i really liked the way she referred to her husband's mind as "the machine". thank you for this unexpected nugget. i really appreciate and look forward to your next work.

I absolutely loved your story. Not because the plot was orginal (that it isn't, it's an ugly ducking story after all), but because you were able to dig deep into both souls and come with a believable tale about both sides of cheating. It was obvious from the beginning that there were no way back for them. You did an amazing job and I am eagerly waiting to read more from you.

One of the comments below said "I'll have to think about this for awhile". There is no way to express how that seemingly simple statement felt to me. I can think of no better outcome of a story than for someone who has read it to actually spend more of their time thinking about it. Thanks for all that took the time to read my story.

managing different sounding voices is hard, and you do it here well!

keep the stories coming!

RA

Feel sorry for her? No fucking way! She threw away a guy who loved her figuring she could fuck around and he'd never find out. Wrongamundo! She cheated,a number of times,'til he did find out, and kicked the cunt to the curb. Too late for hear to realize that true love and fulfillment is based on commitment,trust,and bond,and not on a pretty face and big tits being flashed around a bar.

DIVORCE,and hope he finds a lady who appreciates his commitment,trust,and love.

By that I mean that had to be difficult to write and maintain the "femaleness" of the character. I think you nailed it. If anything this one may be better than the first. NIce work. Thanks,

and yet she still threw it all away for some piece of strange

well, she got what she had coming

the end of her world

now she gets to feel the torment of knowing that someday, the tongue she wants eating her pussy will belong to another woman, and the cock she want banging into her cervix will belong to that same woman

And imagine her pain when she realize that his moans of pleasure when he cums, will be for that woman's ears, and not hers

Imagine the anguish.

it would have been kinder to let Karen kill herself.

The wife's reaction and her shock to Doug surprising her at the bar / nightclub and her near hysteria at trying to track him down and well sort of apologizing .. simply does not work in this story.

It can not work because the wife's entire personality in the first portion of the story is based upon HER needs... HER wants... HER desires . There is nothing in this story or in part 1 (Doug's story) that shows ANY concern from the wife which about Doug.

Since she does not care ...or feel ..or even consider ANYTHING about what Doug thinks or likes or is going through ...why should she be upset when the marriage comes to an end?

It makes no sense and neither does the story and sending

That is what she is. No way she has this emotional reaction. Someone like her would go to her grave blaming her husband for her actions and for the divorce.

star cautionary tale. I was thinking well sure this is exactly what I figured from the first story but no, this needed to be told.

I think a more realistic ending to Karen would have been that she would regret her loss, maybe go wild for a bit of time eating up the attention she lost, and eventually found love again with another man. If you know how to love (she obviously did as she was in a loving marriage for 18 years) and you're attractive and have things going for you, you will fairly easily find love again. Especially, if you're a woman and men approach you all the time.

I'm a pretty intellectual man and self-controlled and even I once in a while have to let go. Karen had envy of those "it girls" and when she became an "it girl" she sort of had to experience through it. She could have stayed short of going too far for it to be a detriment to the marriage, but she didn't. He could have tried to understand what she was going through and helped her out a bit and maybe done things like taking her out of town, exposing her, had flirtations with other couples, etc. Gone a bit wild and let her experience being the "it girl" safely with him so that it could be in control and get it out of her system.

If someone hasn't experienced it, it can be a strong draw. I sort of blossomed around the time I turned 17 or 18, and by early college it seemed every girl my age up to 35 were throwing themselves at me. It's a great aphodisiac and feels awesome. I didn't want to have a long term relationship with any woman, because I wanted to experience every single one of them out there. I literally was dating 5 to 10 women at a time (when I say dating I mean hanging out, having sex, not really formally dating). I loved women and was nice to them and never lied to them, and I became just friends with the ones that I knew would want a relationship. Karen all of a sudden had that kind of attention, the problem was she was married and she never had the chance at that when she was single. It's powerful, like all of a sudden winning the lottery and going crazy spending. You have to get it out of your system. And then you balance out.

So the reality of this story would have been that Karen would have gone a bit wild after the divorce and going out and dating a lot. And then balanced out and found love again. She would have regretted losing her first husband as I believe she truly loved him and the relationship, but if you're attractive and have things going for you then others will be interested in you and there will be other good men out there eventually who will be interested in her and she would have another loving relationship again. She deserved that and so did her first husband.

The commenters calling her names and casting stones are just bitter men who were left behind, but unfortunately don't have shit going for them so they found love again. Yes, what she did was hurtful to her marriage and her husband, but she was a good and loving faithful wife for 18 years. She wasn't a bad person or an evil person. She succumbed to temptation, but even then it was managed to a degree. And she didn't mean to hurt her husband. She didn't go out of her way to hurt him. He did what he needed to do which was divorce her and move on. Which is totally cool, as it's most likely what I would have done. If this followed stats it would have been twice as likely that he would have found a younger woman when he hit middle age and left his wife for the younger model.

Please rewrite these stories?

Glad she came to realize just how ugly and shallow she really was. Gave up a loving marriage just to scratch an itch.

A great story about a cheating wife waking up too late. Great pair of stories.

Great cautionary tale, but Karen was a narcissistic attention whore... I find it hard to believe she'd turn into a reclusive shut-in.

I thought it interesting that they'd been married 18 years, but never had kids. Perhaps if they'd had a family to keep her occupied, she wouldn't have been so obsessed about her looks.

We always hear about the loss of trust and the lies cheaters tell. Here is a wife who has genuine regret, but she cannot overcome the destruction she has caused. She is no longer manipulative, but she cannot recover what she threw away.

I think this is very instructive and a good view of what cheating does.

As they say, “The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.”

Bravo. Well told. Good study of both parties.

5-stars

I have NO sympathy for the ugly ducklings turned swans, who show NO appreciation for the guys who loved them when they weren't swans. I can understand SOME attempts to live the life they missed, but when the guy who brought you out of that life, who supported you in becoming a swan makes known his feelings, forget love, simple gratitude should make you respect those feelings.

I'm certainly no expert on breast enlargement, but going from an A to a D seems extreme.

"Looking back I can see the whole thing coming apart" - If you have to look back to see how wrong it was, then there's no hope.

"isn't it every man's fantasy to see two women together?" - Maybe, but he wasn't seeing it. or even given the chance to see it."

"It was just sex." - Well, isn't that what cheating is?

Just asking.

Reading again. This is one of the best follow-up stories that I have seen in LW. Sbrooks103x and Just_Words put it perfectly.

Nice followup. Another 5 from us.

At what she was thinking as she descended. Of course the answer is because she could and was more selfish than in love.

its still self serving, but she at least can grasp some of what she put him thru

Nice follow up! 5 stars to match the first part.

One more time. Great story about waking up too late to stop a nightmare.

second read. Read it long ago.

I like it but somehow I don't think the ending fits her. I agree she would be upset she was caught and that he went straight for divorce but I also feel that she is still in awe of her new looks and combine that with her new girlfriend she somehow would get over it. I think she would feel that it is his loss not hers and in her mind think "he will be back". I also think that 6 months or later she will then realize that the party life and shallow meaningless sex is all she has and then reality will hit her as to what she lost. By then, her reputation is sealed and she may not find a new husband in that town.

Very good until the end. Women (or men) like her are extremely unlikely to blame themselves. Oh, she understands she was bad. She was wrong. But the same narcissism that allowed her to stray will allow her to convince herself that hubby overreacted. It really wasn't that bad. If he really loved her, he'd have forgiven her.

As the two stories make crystal clear, she craves lots of attention and validation. After a divorce, that neediness would only be elevated. She'd have turned to her friend Rachel for support. She'd have turned to more alcohol and more party time. She'd need to dull the pain. She'd have replaced hubby in her bed with other men attracted to her face and body. She might even marry one quickly. And then repeat the process.

Having painted a picture of a shallow narcissist, concluding the story with a woman who has become self-aware would require some very serious quality discussion. Psychologists tell us that narcissists almost never change. Probably because the psychological makeup makes it far too painful to do the self-examination honestly enough to begin the process of change.

Graded the first story a 4. This one got a 3. A more believable ending would have her unhappy, treating her pain with alcohol and shallow boytoys, and finding reasons to blame everyone but herself. If she had the money or a job with counseling benefits, she'd find a counselor who'd let her blame her parents for her shortcomings. Gotta blame somebody.

Knoxhard

Women are trained by society to be narcissists. The behavior is ingrained and not easily changed. The latest mantra now is that women need to assert their sexuality. This is code speak for stepping out if she wants to, a simple statement like “he cannot keep,up” entitles this. While women’s programs and organization to laud women now number in the high five figures, white men are taught now that they do not matter, and do not count. I agree this ending is unlikely, she would simply continue a self serving life, because so many men and women would enable her to do so.

I agree with Drgwng a few would come to feel like she does.

Human nature is evil no matter how people try to cling to principles. Society loath, pity and fear death(murder and suicide) but they condone lifetime of mental cruelty and suffering. Many expect love to be enough to accept when it's never enough to prevent. Pain and fear drive people better than love. Emphaty and goodness are curses of a lifetime, fortunatly there is less and less good in us. I believe in all spiritual books(you know the ones) it's a testament of the fight in the heart of man between good and evil. With modern society standards we all know witch side won.

Wow, top quality therapist there!

Drgwng, you're so correct it's almost a jailable offence nowadays. Your perspective on the narrative regarding the manufactured battle of the sexes is spot on. At it's core it all boils down to the destruction of the family unit and society as a whole. It all makes us easier to push around because so many are empty rudderless drones as a result.

Drgwng, thank you for your comment and understanding of the situation, it is spot on. Our society worships narcissists and narcissism. It extols the non existent virtues of the vapid as a means to destroy the truly meaningful and healthy. Feminism was never about equality it was always about destroying the family unit. Children secure in their values are not easily swayed to accept hypocritical platitudes as something to admire. Humanity got most things correct long before this version of the modern world decided it all needs to ne torn down.

Whiney bitch.

lol

It's a very good plot device to have the 'enhancements' become a thing she hates.

Well done.

For that to happen, the girl he fell in love with still had to be inside her. It becomes a sad thing for her when the original version of her is the person who attracted him enough to want to know her, marry her and love her. When the reality that the only thing her changes caused was to immerse herself in vanity... discarding love, companionship, friendship, discarding the one person who loved her for HERSELF, then those changes became a burden, greater than her previous life, feeling like a wallflower.

So I say the last paragraph of part one is not really right: there was a Massive BTB. She did it herself. She scorched her own earth.

The girl inside is still there, but is now hidden behind a mask.

She may as well be the elephant man.

She has lost herself, she will never find another who will love her for who she originally was inside... her true identity, because she now looks like the 'it' girl, where any of those girls would have had a totally different experience growing up.

Worst of all, she lost the one man who saw her for who she was, and loved her for it.

Probably one of the best BTB's I have ever read on here.

Plenty of men are narcissists also. Started with the Baby Boomer generation after they sold out in the 80s and 90s. I should know. My father had NPD. Freaking sucked. Pretty much all politicians (except Jimy Carter) are somewhere on the unhealthy side of the NPD spectrum. And then of course we have someone way out on the bleeding edge of.NOD about to get re-elected. Smdh. People nowadays, both men and women, are a sorry state of affairs.

I gave the story 5 stars for its telling.

In real life, I've never met the woman showing regret till years later.