The marriage club

A few months after our wedding, my first experience of the marriage club occurred at a dinner party. The men had gone next door to catch the results of some dubiously important Grand Prix. They never did that when we were all single. I asked the other women at the table about their marriages. Still under the impression that married women never discussed their marriages and were smugly complacent I was stunned by the reaction.

The stories tumbled out, told with loyalty and love, but endless complaint. One woman complained she hadn't had sex for five months, another said they only did it to when they were on holiday, or her husband had lost weight and felt good about himself. Another described her husband's depression.