I posted an earlier version of this under another account. Now that I’m back, here’s an updated version.
So yeah, it’s been a rollercoaster. In 2018 I took a job overseas, in Milan. My wife and I moved out there and it grew on me more quickly than her. Other tensions were present as well, and we decided mutually to split up in early ‘20, it had been coming for a while and we both knew it wouldn’t survive lockdown.
During the same period, I became gym-buddies with a gorgeous, twenty-something, whip-smart (engineering degree!) tattoo-covered stripper with an absolutely obscene body—skinny waist, round ass, huge tits and (I later learned) a penchant for pairing denim jeans with translucent tops. She liked me because I was just about the only guy at the gym who wasn’t either leering at her or hitting on her. We started chatting one day and we hit it off. Of course, I never dreamed a goddess like her would see our friendship as anything more than platonic—I felt she saw me as a “safe” friend, and (being in my forties at the time) I probably reminded her of her dad. (I was right, but that was not the barrier I’d assumed it was.)