They talk a lot over the weeks that follow…making certain nothing ever happens “in front of the children”  or anyone else for that matter. He punishes himself by trying too hard to understand.

“What’s it like, with him?”. “How does he make you feel?” “I want to understand why he’s better than me?” “What can I do to change how you feel?”

She seems entranced, almost bewitched or overcome by a kind of insanity. Her behaviour seems to transcend all his understanding of faithfulness and what he thought was their shared faith

Sometimes, as they talk, she backs him into a corner, from which he can find no logical escape. He lashes out in a torrent of pent-up anger, frustration and incomprehension. She cowers, more certain than ever that her behaviour is justified

Afterwards he just feels worse. How could he be so clumsy? That certainly wasn’t the way to keep the marriage alive, to repair the damage done unknowingly in the past.

The longer things go on, the more it seems to happen…