Consequences (Of Defensive Adultery)

FROM THE PUBLISHER: Twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth did not plan to break up his marriage when she had an affair with her law school professor. But she did. Fifteen years later, she’s still coming to terms with the consequences of her youthful infatuation: trying to love a stepdaughter who hates her, financially and emotionally supporting an ex-wife who will never forgive the betrayal, and enduring the relentless overtures of a sister-in-law who’s determined to be her best friend. As her sister-in-law plunges into a reckless affair and her stepdaughter aggressively explores her sexuality, Elizabeth finds herself forced to reconsider her definition of love, commitment, and responsibility—a process that finally releases her from the shackles of her past mistakes and shows her the way to her own happily-ever-after.

TEASER
“What’s that?”
—This? Nothing. A photograph.

He looks at the photograph, and demands a story I don’t want to tell.

“Isn’t this what all women want? A lover who as passionately interested in the quotidian details of their boring, dysfunctional lives as in their desirable bodies?”

No. Not me. Or do I? I start to talk. I tell him about… about all of them. And, inadvertently, me. Things I’ve never put into words for anyone before…

“That’s the game you and I are playing. Do you not know that? I am looking for the key. You’re trying not to give it to me. But you want to play, and so you keep on talking, and so eventually, you will.”

I’m careful not to say too much. I am not going to take my sociopathic lover of the moment into the tragedy of my life.

“Why not? Tragedy is erotic. The things that make you laugh don’t arouse, lover. Check yourself.”

Really? I’m doing this? Why?

“Because you want to. Because you’re compelled. Does it matter? Just talk.”

So. I do.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Photograph
Pink Panties
Hard To Open
Enter The Adulterer
The Woman In Red
The Whore Who Wore Turquoise
Careless
Revenge Sex
Renaming Destiny
Dreaming Of Silence
Baby Oil
Sperm Donor
Always The Woman’s Fault
C--- In A Boardroom
Blackmail
Magic Carpet Ride
Condoms In A Suitcase
Coming Out
Pretty Boy
Promiscuous Polyamory
Educating Philistines
F---ing Artists
Guilt In A Tea Cup
Labels
Coercion
Ungrateful
Duplicate
Secrets In A Velvet Bag
Bittersweet Coffee
Words On The Screen
Addictions
Enabler
Foolish Cougar
No More
Crash
Suffering For Art
Playing Cupid
Emasculation
Ritual
Muse
Christmas Day
Cast-Offs
Violation
Again With The Confession
Fettered, Free
Absolution
Threshold
An Unsatisfactory Ending