This was originally posted by lutz1964 on the community forum.
Thank you all for sharing such great stories. I have been a reader of the forum since December, but very rarely participate. I guess you can call me a peeping Tom, I look into your windows but I don't actually participate. I hope you enjoy my love story.
My love story starts almost 25 years ago. Around the age of 12 I realized that my mother and I had much more in common than anyone knew. My mother and father divorced when I was nine years old and my mother immediately started dating women. What a strange thing for a nine year old to experience. My mother wasn’t the perfect role model, not because she was gay, but because she didn’t have the best role models for parenting when she was growing up. All my friends had the perfect family, mom and dad, little house with the white picket fence. I had the house and fence, but Dad was out of the picture and Mom was experiencing a new life. I equated poor parenting on being gay and decided, at the ripe age of 12, that I would never live the gay lifestyle.
Fast forward to the age of 16. I started to date a very good male friend of mine. We were the perfect couple; both of us played sports, enjoyed hunting, fishing and the great outdoors. We were best friends!! What do best friends do, but get married. So we married and had two beautiful children.
I had long gotten over my Mom being a poor role model. I realized, early in my 20’s that my mom was just excited about being free and that she really wasn’t a poor role model. Matter of fact, I realized how strong and how much of a positive role model she actually was. During my 20 year marriage, I thought about the lifestyle that I was living, but never did I dream that one day I would find the women that I had always dreamed of.
It all started with a very little help wanted ad in a local newspaper. I wasn’t really looking to change jobs, I just wanted to see if I was still marketable. I went to the job fair, turned in my resume, and was asked to interview on the spot. After the first interview I was asked to stay for a second interview. Drum roll please……yes; my second interview was with the women I had always dreamed of. Remember, I’m still married, have never been in a gay relationship and wasn’t looking to change jobs.
Needless to say, I got the job, quickly turned in my resignation and immediately started working for “her”. What was interesting was that I was smitten from hello. We worked very closely for the first two years; however, no matter how many times I requested that we go out, just bike riding or to watch her play softball, she would blow me off. Not just a minor blow off, but would completely ignore my requests.
Eventually, she was transferred to another location, within the same company and she no longer blew me off. Remember, I’m still “happily” married. Our friendship blossomed; we took long bike rides and started an e-mail correspondence during the day; however we were still friends.
She eventually was asked to transfer to a project in Washington, DC for 6-8 weeks, just enough time to get the project back on course and then resume her normal duties. She advised her boss, that the 6-8 week time frame was impossible, but if she could borrow me from another project, it might be feasible.
Unfortunately, I was just involved in an accident and couldn’t drive; therefore I advised her that as much as I would love working for her again, I would have to pass. She volunteered to drive me back and forth to work, as long as necessary, just so that we could get the project back on track. If anyone knows anything about Baltimore to DC traffic, you know that normal commute time is anywhere from and hour to three hours depending on accidents or weather conditions.
Can you imagine how much talk time there was during the commute? Lots!!! The project was completed in 6 weeks; however, we were both asked to stay as the contract was up for bid. As the months rolled by, both of us, yes both of us, started having feelings. I was scared to tell her, even though she asked me upfront, that I was falling in love with her. My predicament was if I tell her, will she reciprocate or will I lose a very dear friend. I didn’t want to chance losing someone so close to me, so I denied all feelings. She wouldn’t tell me how she felt because she was my boss. This went against everything that she believed in.
Eventually, neither of us could deny what we were feeling, but I was married. We talked about me leaving my husband, the marriage was over for many years, but because of the children and the convenience we remained married. I eventually told my husband that I wanted a divorce.
As I was driving away from my house, I picked up the cell phone and called her. We had talked many times about me leaving my husband, but we had never gotten down to all the details if it actually happened. My question to her was, “If I leave my husband, where would you like me to live?” She immediately said, “Here with me.”
We have been together for five years now, will celebrate our fifth anniversary on the Mediterranean with Olivia and are very happy. Yes, we stopped working together shortly after we started living together. Life is good!!!