Member-only story
Relationships/Creative Nonfiction/LGBTQ
Sometimes Love Hurts
Is an affair a deal-breaker if you can’t find what you want at home?
Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead.
— Adele
I drove my best friend, Bruce, home after my husband, Doug, and I had eaten dinner with him. When he opened the door to get out of my Camry, I shivered as premature winter-cold rushed in. But the brisk temperature outside stung less than my frigid relationship with Doug.
As Bruce stepped out of the car, I said to him, “I don’t know what’s up. Something’s really wrong between Doug and me right now.”
For a moment, Bruce sat there half in and half out of the car, considering how to respond to my comment. Then he stepped back into the car and closed the door against the cold. He deliberated for several moments before he responded.
“Do you think he could be seeing someone else?”
“Oh, no!” I said dismissively. “Doug made it very clear the first night we met that he was monogamous, very monogamous.” He emphasized very to make it clear that monogamy was absolute. It was a question I thought I’d never be asked.
