She

She relented. She retreated. Somewhere, sometime along the line she realized she was falling in love. And that was something she couldn't do. She had a husband and three children. The affair had been motivated by revenge. Her husband had cheated. Probably more than once. But moving on with no developed, marketable skills, with three children, with the dream of social standing and the thought of being a single mother were too much. So she strayed.

The problem was she strayed with the wrong man. He was nothing like her dream man. He wasn't forceful. He was gentle. He wasn't beautiful. He was over the hill. But he listened to her. He encouraged her to be herself. He told her she was beautiful. He paid attention to her needs. And she fell. For over a year them met whenever they could. Sometimes in hotels, sometimes at his place, almost 200 miles from her home. He romanced her. He brought her flowers and wine and music. He made love to her, and unlike her husband, his focus was entirely on her.

But when she realized that she wanted more, when she realized that she was in love, she had to stop. The disparity between her daily life and her affair became a problem. But how to end an affair? How to tell this man she could'nt see him anymore? She tried a few times. She stopped calling. She stopped answering his calls. But he reacted the way he should have. He let her go. He respected the fact that she needed to stop. What she didn't expect was that she wanted him to pursue her. She wanted him to keep calling, and eventually she would reach out. And he would let her back in. But almost immediately she would realize she had made a mistake and would run away again.

The third time she shut him out he decided that he had to be the strong one. He had to be the one end it once and for all. And so he did.

But he misses her.