I have listened to your advice. Yesterday I confronted Charlie.<\/p>\n
I figured we needed a quiet evening when we could sit down together, but there was always something that kept me late at work. It’s tax season, so Charlie, too, is putting in long hours. I worked Saturday, then we went to a performance at our daughter’s school. Charlie worked Sunday.<\/p>\n
Since I was leaving Monday morning on a business trip, I promised myself we’d talk Sunday night. But he didn’t come home, and he didn’t come home, and he didn’t come home, and I couldn’t reach him. Finally I went to bed at midnight. The alarm woke me at 5 am, and also woke Charlie, who must have come to bed while I slept. Here’s our conversation, as best as my blurry mind can recall it:<\/p>\n
Me (trying to keep the reproach from my voice): “I couldn’t reach you last night.”<\/p>\n
Charlie: \u201cI know. I’m sorry. I went over to work on the books at Crenshaw & Co., then my cell died.”<\/p>\n
Me: “That\u2019s what you\u2019ve been up doing these past nights?\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie (sighing): \u201cYeah it\u2019s a mess. They have an appointment with the IRS Thursday. If I don\u2019t make some kind of sense out of it in the next couple of days they\u2019re screwed… And I seem to have developed a little internet addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me (heart pounding): \u201cHow do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie: \u201cJust surfing around, this and that. Poker. Chats. You know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cChats?\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie: \u201cOh, you know, CPA forums, Veterans groups. This and that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me (Glancing at the clock because my taxi to the airport was coming in half an hour): \u201cAnyone in particular?\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie (Gazing at the ceiling): \u201cNo. I mean there\u2019s a guy I found from college. Bill Budson. But otherwise, no. Why?\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cYou said an addiction. That sounds serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie: \u201cNot like an addiction<\/em> addiction. I just lose track of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Me: “Are you sure you’re not…”<\/p>\n Charlie: “What?”<\/p>\n Me: “Seeing someone.”<\/p>\n Charlie: “Darling, what are you talking about?”<\/p>\n Me: “So you’re not having any kind of, you know, affair or anything.”<\/p>\n Charlie: “Of course not! \u00a0Where on earth did you get that impression?”<\/p>\n Me: “Just, I don’t know, so many late nights. But I guess it’s just the Crenshaw deadline.”<\/p>\n Charlie: “That’s all. \u00a0What time\u2019s your plane?\u201d<\/p>\n And the next thing I knew, I was dressing, cramming down a bowl of Cheerios, trying to convince myself the question was settled. But somehow I feel like it’s not.<\/p>\n Some people have suggested marriage counseling, but everything else has been fine between me and Charlie. And it would take a while to find someone we both felt comfortable talking to.<\/p>\n In the meantime, what do I do next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have listened to your advice. I am struggling to confront my husband.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,14,23,25,10,22],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrienne","tag-fidelity","tag-group-marriage","tag-infidelity","tag-internet-affair","tag-polyamory","tag-polyamory-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lairdharrison.com\/fallenlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}