The Love Affair: Ch. 1

Updated: February 4, 2021

The Love Affair

By Nandy Ekle

Christine fluffed up the couch pillow with a sigh. Another year, another Super Bowl. She often wondered what she would do as a widow. Right now she knew exactly what she would do, and it would not involve any sort of sports. She smiled.
She loved Bryan to the ends of the earth, but she resented that she had to share him with football, basketball, baseball, NASCAR, wrestling, boxing, and every other contest out there, including the Olympics every two years. He didn’t watch things like figure skating or gymnastics. Oh, no. He watched the races and the weight lifting, anything showing a big strong he-man. Except volleyball. He liked watching the women’s volleyball teams—she rolled her eyes at the thought of the bikini-type uniforms they wore.
Well, she understood all that when she married him. In fact, he had proposed to her in the bleachers during halftime at a hockey game. The teams were in their huddles while the Zamboni cleaned the blood off the ice. He took a swig of beer, looked her in the eyes and said, “Hey, you wanna’ get married?” She had been so stunned that all she could do was move her head up and down. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, then the horn blew and the teams had taken their places back on the ice.
That was 26 years ago. They had raised two children, eaten a lot of hot dogs and popcorn, and watched a lot of games together. During the first ten years she tried desperately to enjoy the games with him. She studied up on rules, locations, and teams. She even made predictions about which team would win. True, she was usually wrong and he was usually right, but at least they could have conversations about something other than money or kids.
Now, another sixteen years later, the kids were grown and gone and Christine’s feeble interest in Bryan’s sports had completely rotted away. In fact, resentment toward all forms of sports grew in its place. The games had come between them after all and she had lost his attention forever.
So for the past couple of years, she allowed her own obsession to take over on Super Bowl Sundays.
As she arranged the sandwich plate and the chip bowl she thought of her little indulgence. Every year on Super Bowl Sunday she had a date with another lover. She never considered it wrong because for one thing, she and Bryan both got what they wanted. It had to be okay, right? For another thing, Bryan, well aware of her tryst, never said a word about it. In fact, he encouraged it. As long as she didn’t interfere with his game, he didn’t care what she did. His neglect had pushed her to look elsewhere.

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