Love your writing style. But if this story is true you may be the dumbest human being alive. But please keep it up.

Seems like you and Anna had Jim's life until you decided that working long hours, making more money, moving to a bigger house, and having less of a social life was a problem that led to banging Claire.

From your first story:
"We'd been together almost 3 years, living together for one before the wedding. A year later we had a daughter, I got a promotion at work so my wife took voluntary redundancy from her job to become a full-time stay at home mother. We were able to sell our house at a nice profit and move to a bigger property in a nice area, life was great. I was working long hours (up to 70 hours some weeks and often with no days off), so my social life suffered as I spent most of my time working and sleeping and tried to spend the rest of it with my family. Gradually the work began to take its toll on me, I became moody and aggressive both in my job and at home, and my wife and I began to argue a lot. I'd return home late at night, my wife would expect me to take over from her with looking after the baby and I'd complain that I hadn't sat down all day/week. I'd go to work the next day (after an interrupted night's sleep), and become more and more irritated by the constant calls to my mobile (I was assistant regional manager for a retail operation, basically it involved running a shop whilst also handling the day to day problems of 20 other branches). I soon realised that despite having a nice home, nice car, good job, beautiful family... I wasn't happy. Worse, I felt utterly trapped as I could see no way out of it."

I realise a lot of my actions and decisions seem quite stupid. I'm not sure how clear it is yet, but my mental health was gradually deteriorating as my self esteem eroded throughout the events of this story.

Yeah, I actually comment on this later in the story when I realise I've absolutely no idea what I want or what will make me happy.

Always a dissapointment when last post is from LO and it's not a next installement

Crackin read.

Feels weird when you allude to heading into the "city" though

The man is online, so I'm hoping for another part!

This thread is great. As many have already said I love your way with words....so easy to read and most importantly very entertaining

Oh man, I have no idea what this is but it sounds pretty damn good, and maybe it can help me get off super life tilt. Can I just read what's in the thread or do I need to PM for the old pieces or something?

2 different stories, so you are fine w just readin this thread for story being told currently

More! More? More...

I needed a holiday. Work was getting me down, for every new client I won there was an old one reducing or cancelling orders and the healthy bonuses of last year were a distant memory. It wasn't just me, the whole office was struggling and the managing director had been visiting frequently to offer feedback, which mostly consisted of him standing next to some poor sap while they stuttered their way through a sales call, then roundly berating them in front of everyone. Despite my poor client retention, I was still by some way the most successful salesman in the branch so the MD never singled me out, but his presence had an adverse effect on morale and the atmosphere was miserable.

Joanne complained that I was losing my sense of fun. She couldn't wait to send me off to Prague, it was exactly what I needed. We didn't go out much (mostly because I was broke, but I'd definitely lost a lot of enthusiasm for social activity) and when we had any time alone together I'd spend a good portion of it buried in my laptop. What Joanne didn't realise was that I'd slipped back into my habit of constantly analysing everything: Every conversation, every thought, every interaction. I was unhappy again, and I was trying to figure out what was causing me to feel this way and what I could do to change it. Having no money was obviously a huge factor, my income/expense ratio was still far from optimal and it was about to get a whole lot worse as I had nobody lined up to replace the tenants who'd soon be vacating one of my houses. I was working hard but seeing no benefit, the arbitrary nature of the company bonus scheme had become a major gripe as despite winning more business than anyone else I was missing out on the rewards due to events outside my control. One of my client companies was a car manufacturer, they'd lost a key contract and had to let hundreds of my temporary staff go so any business I pulled in was just plugging the holes left by that.

It wasn't just about money though. My ex-wife Anna had split with her latest partner and was struggling to cope with running her own business and caring for our daughter. We'd become good friends and it upset me to see her so unhappy, especially since all her problems could be traced back to what I'd done to her years ago. Even though we'd eventually agreed to go our separate ways, I was still haunted by guilt. But right now there was more to it than that: The idea that Anna would be happy if we'd stayed together led me to wonder if the same could be said for me. For the first time since we split up, I was faced with the possibility that Anna had been The One all along. I'd wanted freedom, but single life had made me feel lonely. I wanted excitement, but I couldn't handle Joanne's wildest extremes. I'd walked out on a life in suburbia with a salaried job, detached house and two point four children, and yet here I was now living with Joanne and her kids whilst working myself into the ground for no reward. What had actually changed? If anything I had less security now, as I could never safely assume that Joanne wouldn't dive into bed with a stranger at the next opportunity. I no longer lived with my daughter, I just saw her at weekends and for a few hours after school some days. Anna, the girl I'd fallen in love with at first sight ten years ago, was now alone and I was living with a woman who, despite all the excitement and passion, I couldn't honestly say I was in love with.

I was lying alone in the bedroom, thinking all this. My mind was spinning with thoughts and images, and suddenly I pictured Joanne's frantic appearance at my office the day after she'd sent me a text message that was intended for Joe. I could see the look of crazed desperation in her eyes as she stood at the front desk, and I had a moment of clarity. I contrasted this image with that of Anna standing over me, clutching my mobile phone as I lay in the bath. I'd witnessed the moment Anna's entire world fell apart as she saw my reaction and realised I was actually having an affair. The multitude of emotions she'd gone through in that moment, from shock to despair but most noticeably utter terror, were the ultimate proof of how Anna had felt about me. Joanne would never react like that. Nobody else would ever react like that. You only react like that if you're completely heartbroken and have just lost the love of your life. Joanne was passionate and desperate, but she wasn't in love with me. Nobody had ever, or would ever love me like Anna.

I drifted off to sleep. When Joanne came home from work she woke me up and told me she thought she might be pregnant.

*Gulp*

*gasp*

nice cliffhanger!

Awesome instalment LO. Can't wait for the next one!