Angry

Anger wells up inside you as you slam your phone down onto the table, cracking the screen. The display goes dark, but you can still see the picture in your mind; her beautiful body bouncing up and down on his dick, grinding it deeper inside her. The image of Suzy in your mind cries out in sheer ecstasy as her old college boyfriend fills her pussy with his seed, claiming it for himself. The scene infuriates you, but you can't make it stop.

"Why would she do this?!" you hear yourself saying out loud.

"Well... probably for the same reasons we do what we just did in the shower," Shauna says. You turn to glare at her, but you can see from the concern in her eyes that she didn't say that to hurt you. "Look," she says raising her hands disarmingly, "I understand how you feel. Truly, I do. You're hurt. You're angry. You're scared of losing her, but you don't know if you even want to look at her again after what she's done. It feels like no one else could possibly understand, but I know."

"How could you know?" you ask, not wanting to admit to yourself that everything she just said is exactly how you're feeling.

She sighs, sits down next to you, and places a hand gently on top of your clenched fist. "About six years ago, I caught Mike having an affair. I was so angry! I wanted to throw him out of the house, call him every hurtful name in the book, and divorce his cheating ass and never see him again. But you know what? I didn't do any of those things."

"Why not?" you ask as your rage begins to abate.

"A few reasons. One, and most importantly, because I still love him. That never changed no matter how angry I got. Two, I didn't want to put our kids through that. They didn't do anything to deserve getting hurt by my anger and his stupidity. And three, because I was having an affair too," she admitted.

"Well, I guess that makes... what?" You were not expecting that last point.

"Come on now, are you really surprised after what we've been doing behind Suzy's back all this time? My point is I couldn't stay mad at my husband for cheating on me without also being mad at myself for being a hypocrite. So, do you know what I told Mike?"

"What did you tell him?" you ask, genuinely wondering how she confronted him about it.

"Nothing," she lets the word hang in the air for a moment.

"Nothing?" you ask, confused.

"Nothing," she says again. "I pretended I never found out about any of it, and you know what? After a while, I stopped being angry at him, at least most the time."

"But... how?" This didn't seem right. You had expected her to say something about honesty, communication, and maybe some couples counseling. All your life you've been told that you can't make a problem go away just by ignoring it, but it seems like that's exactly what Shauna is saying.

"How did I stop being angry? Simple! I just kept cheating on him. I'm pretty sure he still cheats on me too, but I don't go looking for evidence anymore. I just get even. There have been a few times where he almost certainly caught me too, but he's never confronted me about it. It's become our not-so-secret secret we pretend to keep from each other."

"But... how does that even work?" you ask, struggling to wrap your head around that whole situation.

"It works pretty well for us. We're both happy with our unspoken arrangement, and we both still love each other very much. To be honest, it wasn't really much of a change from before. I still get jealous a hell and even still have small flashes of anger at times, but I've learned how to channel those feelings into my affairs. Why do you think our shower quickies get so steamy?" she explains with a wink. "Look, I'm not saying what works for me and Mike will work for you and Suzy, but I know you two have a great relationship and love each other deeply. Don't let your anger and jealousy destroy your marriage. Besides," she leans in and whispers in your ear, "I don't want to have to choose between my workout buddy and my after-workout fuckbuddy. So, Dave, what are you going to do?"