This is a true story. Names and some locations have been changed to protect the innocent. I write this as much as a catharsis for myself as for the entertainment of those who may choose to read it. It is the story of an affair which occurred 20 years ago. It is about me, a 50 year old American, and a beautiful 35 year old very funny and beautiful British woman, Denise. We were both married at the time. She is a woman I will never forget. The story.
Chapter 1 -- The Conference
It was 1991 and I was Chair of the Organizing Committee for a large international technical conference that was to be held for one week in Washington, D.C. We hired a British conference production company to help us put on this major event to be attended by approximately 1,000 people from around the world. The company assigned Denise, who was based in London, to be the assistant project manager. She and I would work together, mostly by telephone and email with occasional trips by her to D.C. for the year prior to the meeting. As we got to know each other, it became apparent that we shared the same work ethic and sense of humor. We both used humor to deal with the stress, but stayed focused on the work at hand. At times, we'd find ourselves alone in an office somewhere, just laughing together so much it hurt. But a sense of mutual respect also developed over these months. She was very good at what she did; no nonsense, get things done now and I was her fairly demanding client.
The sexual tension began fairly early in the project, being exhibited through the humor, but as we were both married, we kept the relationship plutonic. I found myself thinking of her often and she later confessed the same for me. I never thought this would lead to anything nor did she, but it turns out we were both bad judges of the power of male/female attraction.
Nothing happened for months as we worked tirelessly on the details of the conference, but the tension continued to build. As I look back on it, I don't think either of us fully understood what was happening.
The time for the conference came and for several days prior to the attendees' arrivals we were buried with last minute details working late into the night at the luxury hotel where the meeting was to be held. As conference Chair, I was given a luxury suite on the top floor with a beautiful cityscape. The day just prior to the arrivals was long and stressful, but late that night we were satisfied that all was in order. As we headed to the elevators to go to our rooms and get some much needed rest, glances were exchanged with nervous banalities between us. Once in the elevator and the door closed, the dam broke! We could no longer deny the feelings and quickly wound up kissing and touching each other, tentatively at first, but quickly with passion and shortly thereafter we were in my suite.
As I closed the room door, we looked at each other as if to say, "What is happening? We're married!" Well, as I said, we didn't understand and therefore were helpless to control our passion. That may be a cop out to some, but you could have cut the sexual tension in that room with a knife and we were both emotionally helpless to stop the flood. At the time, both of our marriages were going through "issues" and there was a huge need for release of stress from the intense work over the past year and the need for closeness that was not then present in our respective lives.
