Sublime punishment

Readers may already be aware of my unapologetic preferences for married men, especially during times when I'm feeling emotionally unavailable, and not knowing where I'll be in a year. Like now.

Two months ago, I re-activated the infamous Ashley Madison app. After about a week of visiting the site, I saw no one interesting and forgot about my active profile. But a week later, I received a message from someone named Reed outside my area; someone 200 miles away.

It turned out that Reed visited my area on business one week out of each month, and was looking for someone like me. He was literate, tall, built like a linebacker, former military (now physicist), wore glasses and had all of his hair, which had already turned a beautiful shade of silver. He was 11 years younger than I.

My years of waiting to meet shared chemistry post-Cub* finally ended. After our eventual meeting and dinner, the situation escalated quickly. It was very much to our mutual satisfaction. Reed had noticed my one online photo with featured me fully-dressed, but wearing a small but noticeable pair of leather cuffs. He had brought his own, related "supplies" just in case.

He not only shared my unorthodox interests; he understood the psychological background. In other words, he understood that if a woman has a taste for submissiveness, it doesn't follow that she has low self-esteem, an unhappy childhood, or anything along that line. He never suggested anything along that line; instead, he eventually admitted he was fascinated by me, and considered me highly intelligent.

The one hiccup in this setup shouldn't be problematic to me, but in some ways, it is. Seems that Reed is married to a woman who is also a "top" and is fine with our relationship. He admitted that she liked hearing his descriptions of our evenings together, and would like to eventually meet me (I demurred).

Sometimes I think I would manage better if I were The Other Woman.

* See The Usual Suspects.