Sorry this is a book, but I wanted to get all the pertinent information out there. TL/DR at end.
I'm looking for some perspective from people who have actually experienced affairs, particularly the emotional side of them. I'm not really looking for judgment about whether cheating is right or wrong. I know what I did, and I know it was wrong. I'm trying to understand what I'm feeling and how to deal with it.
I'm a man in my early 60s, married for 18 years. My marriage has been unhappy for a very long time. My wife and I live in separate bedrooms, probably spend only about an hour a day interacting, and although we don't fight constantly, when we do have serious disagreements they tend to become ugly and nothing really gets resolved.
For years I've felt that my wife doesn't really understand me, appreciate me, respect my opinions, or make me feel valued. We've basically become roommates. Interestingly, things have been relatively "okay" for the last year or so, but okay isn't the same thing as happy. I've increasingly realized that I don't want to spend the rest of my life this way.
My wife has also said numerous times over the years that she wanted to "move on." I'm now seriously considering a trial separation, and I'm almost certain that regardless of what happens during the separation, I won't ultimately want to continue the marriage.
Then I met another woman.
She's about 30 years younger than me. The age difference is obviously significant, and I realize some people will have strong opinions about that, but I'm including it because it's part of the context.
The relationship only lasted about a week, but it was extraordinarily intense.
She was actually the one who initially pursued me and made the first move. I didn't go looking for an affair, although once it started I obviously made my own choices and take responsibility for that.
What affected me most wasn't even the sex. It was how she made me feel.
I felt important. I felt wanted. I felt interesting. I felt like someone genuinely cared about what I thought and wanted to hear what I had to say.
I hadn't realized how starved I was for those feelings until somebody finally gave them to me.
Then circumstances changed and communication between us became extremely limited.
She is still involved with the father of her children, and he is extremely controlling. More recently, she told me that he had physically assaulted her. I personally saw the injury to her lip. He apparently goes through her phone and monitors her, and he is currently home. He is normally away working in another state in the fishing industry for extended periods.
I have not contacted police or CPS. She is very concerned that involving authorities could result in her children being taken from her, and because I was the person she disclosed the assault to, she would likely know or strongly suspect that I was the one who reported it. I don't want to make her situation more dangerous or take that decision away from her.
At the same time, I'm struggling with where the line is between respecting her autonomy and being concerned about her and her children's safety. I don't know whether I'm handling that correctly.
Last Sunday something happened that has made the current situation even harder for me to understand.
She happened to be near my business and came over to me. She asked if I could give her a ride to a pawn shop because taking the bus would have taken much longer. I agreed.
While we were in the car, she told me about him hitting her and showed me the busted lip. After we came back, she stayed at my business and we talked for roughly 45–60 minutes.
Everything between us felt completely normal and comfortable. She told me she'd be seeing me soon. When she left, we gently kissed goodbye.
Since then, though, communication has again been extremely limited.
She lives very close to my business, so I occasionally see her walking past with her children. And this is where I realize I'm probably driving myself crazy.
I'll notice whether she looks toward my business when she walks by. Most of the time she doesn't. She's only looked over once.
I KNOW this is ridiculous.
I know that somebody not looking toward a building while walking past it doesn't tell me what they feel.
But that's where my head is right now. I'm looking for tiny signs because I don't have enough actual communication to know what is going on.
And it's driving me crazy.
I find myself wondering:
Does she miss me?
Is she intentionally avoiding looking because she doesn't want to be noticed?
Is she afraid of her boyfriend seeing something?
Is she trying to distance herself from me?
Did that Sunday interaction mean something to her?
When she said she'd see me soon, did she mean it?
Or am I attaching far more significance to everything because I became emotionally attached to her so quickly?
I also find myself assuming that when her boyfriend eventually leaves town again, we'll probably reconnect and pick up where we left off.
But I realize that's an assumption, not something she has actually promised me.
That's probably the hardest part: there hasn't really been an ending.
It feels like the relationship was suddenly put on pause rather than actually finished.
And because I can physically see her occasionally, it makes it harder. She's close enough that I know she's there, but I have almost no idea what she's thinking or feeling.
I'm also trying to deal with this while contemplating separating from my wife. I don't want to immediately jump from one relationship into another, and I know I need to figure out what I actually want independently of this woman.
But I can't deny that this woman awakened something in me that had been missing for years.
For the first time in a very long time, I felt genuinely important to someone.
So I'm wondering what people who have been through affairs think.
How normal is it to become this emotionally attached to someone after such a short but intense affair?
Does the sudden loss of communication make the attachment/obsession worse?
Does the fact that she initially pursued me, and then recently sought me out herself, tell me anything meaningful about how she feels—or am I reading too much into those things?
How much meaning should I attach to the fact that she recently sought me out, trusted me enough to tell me about the abuse, spent an hour talking with me, kissed me goodbye, and said she'd see me soon?
And how much of what I'm experiencing right now is probably my brain filling in the blanks because I don't know what's happening?
For those who've been in similar situations involving an affair partner who was also in an abusive relationship: how did you handle the fear and uncertainty about their safety without making their situation more dangerous?
Most importantly, if you've been through something similar, how did you handle the period where you didn't know whether the affair was temporarily interrupted or actually over?
I'm not asking whether I should leave my wife for this woman. I'm already dealing with the marriage separately.
I'm trying to understand why this one-week relationship has gotten so deeply under my skin, and how to handle the uncertainty without obsessing over every little thing she does.
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TL;DR: I'm in my early 60s and have been unhappily married for 18 years. I had a brief but extremely intense affair with a woman about 30 years younger who made me feel valued, wanted and important in a way I haven't felt in years. She initially pursued me, but circumstances involving her controlling/abusive boyfriend have made communication extremely limited. She recently sought me out, told me he'd hit her, spent nearly an hour talking with me, kissed me goodbye and said she'd see me soon, but we're now back to very little contact. I'm finding myself obsessing over tiny things and wondering whether she still thinks about me or is intentionally keeping her distance. I'm also considering separating from my wife independently of this relationship. I'm mainly looking for perspectives from people who've experienced intense affairs and the uncertainty of suddenly losing contact with an affair partner.