Is your husband not supposed to be your best friend?

Image: www.thebolde.com 

 

That was the question someone asked and one which elicited a lot of mirth from the small group of women sitting in the corner of a restaurant. I was in the group and watched the bewildered face of the young woman who’d asked the question. She didn’t understand why her very normal question was considered amusing.

The conversation had begun with the story of a woman who’d been caught cheating on her husband.

According to the storyteller, when the cheating woman was caught, she claimed she strayed because she was emotionally unfulfilled in her marriage. She said she felt like a mere flatmate to a husband who spent more time hanging out with his friends and doing his own thing than spending any time with her. They were emotionally disconnected as he was totally uninterested in her life and whatever was happening in it; and the only time they shared anything was when they had sex or discussed their children. Apparently, some guy from her past came back into her life and she made the cardinal mistake of allowing him engage her in texting, lengthy emails about their lives and phone calls. It graduated to visits at the office, occasional lunches and soon, she was neck deep in an affair with this guy.

As you could imagine, we were all engrossed in the story of this illicit love affair. So when this person, a single woman, asked her question, it was not out of place …except that for some reason, many of the women in the group found it amusing. I asked what was funny about the question and no one wanted to volunteer answers. So as to why they laughed … well, your guess is as good as mine.