Author: Theodore Lee

Tonight my wife and I were looking through a “memory” folder her phone automatically created, mostly filled with photos of our family and kids.

For context, about five years ago my wife had what I’d describe as an emotional affair with a coworker. At the time I found a lot of messages and photos on her phone. She always insisted nothing physical happened, but some of the conversations were very detailed and clearly crossed boundaries.

While scrolling through the photo album tonight, two revealing photos of her from around that same time suddenly appeared. I had never seen those pictures before, and they definitely weren’t sent to me. They were date-stamped from five years ago. She quickly deleted them and said she didn’t remember taking them and that they must have been accidental.

I work in a creative field, and my partner works in tech and has a strong engineering background. Because of that, she tends to believe she understands anything remotely technical.

Recently, the heating system in the house she owns stopped working and started throwing error codes. She immediately wanted to open the unit herself and “see what was going on.” I wasn’t comfortable with that because these systems involve high voltage and refrigerant, and a mistake could mean serious damage or huge repair costs. So I called a professional technician to check it out.

My wife (31F) and I (46M) have been together six years and married for two. She used to talk to me constantly — sharing her day, her thoughts, everything. But she also wanted to talk a lot about problems in our relationship.

It often felt like every conversation was about what I was doing wrong. She said I spent too much time talking to my exes (we’re friends), that I prioritized work over her (it’s my career), and that I didn’t care enough about her. It felt like we were always having serious talks.

About a year ago, I told her I didn’t want to talk anymore. I was tired of hearing criticism and felt like I deserved a break since I provide everything we need. I told her if she didn’t like how I did things, she could leave and we’d divorce. She said she was trying to communicate because she felt unappreciated and thought I had one foot out the door, but I felt she was being unreasonable.

I have a huge crush on my wife’s cousin, Lauren, and it’s a terrible situation. I genuinely believe I have the greatest wife in the world, Maya — she’s an amazing woman, mother, and partner.

When I first met Maya, she approached me at a bar. We hit it off instantly. Later that night, her cousin and best friend Lauren showed up, and my jaw hit the floor. Lauren is unbelievably gorgeous. I wondered how things might’ve been different if I’d met Lauren first, but 10 years later I’d say life worked out. Maya and I got married and have a great little girl. The thought eventually faded — until recently.

My husband’s (33M) dad (60s) and his wife (60s) are visiting and my baby will be 17 months old when they’re here. They’ll stay at our house for a couple of weeks and a resort for another week. The resort is an hour away from our house.

They have never babysat for us before — not even for 10 minutes — but my stepmother-in-law is trying to convince us to stay at the resort for a night for our anniversary. I keep saying no because we’ve never been away for a night, but somehow she isn’t getting it.

My husband dances around things, so he says stuff like, “Ahhh we’ll see… probably not,” even though he’s a hard no too.