I sat sipping coffee on the patio of my suite in my favorite resort. I was watching some young lovers through their inadequately closed curtains. Their room was across from mine and from all I could see; they were very much in love. We had visited a time or two from our patios and when I would meet them "out and about". I remembered when my ex wife and I acted the way they were and wondered how our love could have withered and died. I wondered where we went wrong and hoped their marriage didn't follow the same path mine had.

As these thoughts ran through my mind I wondered once again how I could have been so blind as to not see what was happening to me. I again wondered if I could have stopped the failure of my marriage if I had paid more attention to the little signs-signs that were very, very plain in hindsight. It had been almost a year since my marriage of 35 years had ended and I still missed my ex wife. I didn't miss the hell she put me through but I had yet to find anyone to share the remainder of my life with and I was lonesome. I still wondered if I should have accepted her demands and stayed with her or if I had made the correct decision about the divorce.

Once again, I ran through the final few weeks of our marriage in my mind and remembered the key indicators of our developing problems that I had overlooked at the time. Sally had a bad habit of mimicking the actions, beliefs and attitudes of her coworkers and friends. I should have remembered that and tried to nip the problem in the bud. For some reason though I didn't remember how she was. For some reason when we talked about her friends I didn't think of what could be coming.

Her best friend at work and Sally are about the same age. Sally came home one-day sort of laughing. She couldn't wait to tell me of a conversation she and Bonnie had that day. They were both going through the change of life and had begun talking about that. She said Bonnie had informed her she told her husband that she just wasn't interested in sex any longer and they were done with it. She supposedly told him they were old enough it shouldn't be that important to them and he needed to focus on other enjoyable things. For some reason, he had accepted it.

I do remember Sally's shocked look when I told her Bonnie was lucky she still had a place to live. I said, "No real man would put up with crap like that unless he was getting some on the side already." I also told her she had better not try it with me. Sally got very angry and told me as a woman's body changed that was a very natural thing and men should just live with out as much pussy. We moved on to other topics and I forgot this conversation. Looking back though, as best as I recall, that was the day our sex life and marriage began to sour.

From time to time I would try for a piece and not even get a response. Sally would just curl up in a ball and use her legs and hands to block access to her cunt and breasts. Occasionally, she would do this and just snarl "NO". I noticed she tried extremely hard to not even come to bed until I was asleep. We went from sex 4-6 times a week to maybe once a week in a period of about 6 months. As this was occurring, she began to go out after work more and more with Bonnie.

At first, Sally would only stay late maybe once a week and it was only an hour or so. As time went on, she began to go out with Bonnie two or three times a week and it would be several hours before she got home. Finally, she began to meet Bonnie Saturday nights from time to time. I was never allowed to go or know where they were and if I was awake when she got home I could never see her nude any more and was prevented from touching her in any way.

Another tip off should have been the fact that every night she was late getting home she went straight from her car to the shower. Sally had never done this before but would wait until just before bed so she would be nice and clean for when we made love. I did ask about it and got what I then thought was a good reason for her showers. She said she didn't want to sit around the house smelling like their office and/or the smoke from the places she and Bonnie went after work. I shook my head and wondered again how I could have been so blind-yes, even so stupid!

The tip off came one Saturday morning. I decided to go to town and just loaf instead of following my usual routine. Sally had been out late Friday night and when that happened she was really hell to live with if I woke her up doing my normal activities. I was in my favorite coffee shop when, of all people, John (Bonnies' husband) walked in.

When John saw me, he hesitated, opened his mouth to say something, then didn't, he just started to walk on by. I pushed a chair out and said "Good morning John. I'm alone here and if you're not meeting anyone, why don't you just sit here? Been a while since we talked anyway. How are things going?"

John again glanced at me, hesitated once again and sat down. We sipped our coffee and visited about current events and nonsense for a while then settled into companionable silence. All at once I saw John eyeballing a really cute young twenty something gal.

I laughed and said "Hey boy. You better not let Bonnie catch you drooling over that stuff!"

John looked at me and asked why I thought what she thought should bother him any longer? I stammered a moment and said, "Well, Sally led me to believe she doesn't like her husband checking out the ladies."

John looked at me in shock and said, "She never did but now that we are divorced I can look and touch all I want don't you think?"

"Oh, hell, I'm sorry John," I said. "I didn't know you got divorced. Is that why you hesitated when you saw me? Hell, I don't care if you're still married to Sally's friend or not. In fact, even though I am sorry as hell you had to divorce, I damn sure wouldn't have put up with the crap Sally told me Bonnie tried to put you through either."

John looked at me, started to say something, then closed his mouth and muttered "Oh, what the hell."

He then looked back up at me and said, "What do you mean by that? You sit there and act like you don't have a bit of anger about what Sally is doing to you and tell me you wouldn't have put up with Bonnie doing it?"

Well, by now I was getting confused. I said, "Well John, I have to admit I am pissed as hell about having my sex cut by at least 75% but at least I still get some. I have to admit I am starting to think I need to force more out of her but I damn sure wouldn't have put up with just getting cut off. There are ways the effects of menopause can be lessened. If I have to live with her, support her and see her running around the house all the time I intend to get laid from time to time. I can see why you wouldn't put up with that crap."

"What the hell are you talking about?" John asked.

I told him what Sally had told me about Bonnie and John's conversation several months back and he laughed. "Damn Boy. I begin to see things. But that still doesn't explain why you keep the cheating bitch instead of dumping her like I did Bonnie. And why you let Sally get by with it."

All at once I felt a deep fear and my stomach clenched. I felt the acid from the coffee begin to work on my gut. I guess my face showed my shock. John's eyes opened farther and he almost whispered "Oh, my GOD. You don't know do you?"

I asked "Know what?" Even though I was sure what was coming. The pieces had already begun to fall into place.

John told me his sex life had began to fall off and Bonnie was later and later getting home, she would go shopping weekends or out with the girls just like Sally was supposedly doing. She had tried to tell him her "lack of interest" was menopausal like Sally had told me so he went along with the reduction in sex for a while. He began to wonder though when some of his friends would mention seeing Bonnie dancing in the bars rather than just sitting and talking to her friends. He had been told she and the women she was with would allow men to get very "hands on" and would sometimes leave with them for a while. He had some friends that were real ladies men and, since Bonnie didn't know them he asked if they would help him check her out. It turned out nearly every night Bonnie was out she had sex with someone. His friends took pictures, sat at tables near Bonnie and recorded conversations. To make a long story short, he kicked her out and divorced. It cost him but she made enough he didn't have to pay alimony.