‘MY AFFAIR IS HANGING IN THE BALANCE’

Iwas desperate for lockdown to be over, because I have waited for over two long months to see my mistress. I’m not unhappily married, but we haven’t had a sex life for several years. My wife doesn’t ask questions, we’re still good friends, and have a young daughter who I don’t want to leave. I met my lover, Anna (not her real name), at work before Christmas, and we started a mutually successful arrangement, where I’d “work late” a few times a week and go to her house, where we’d sleep together, have a drink and an interesting adult conversation. I meticulously compartmentalised my two lives, and until March, everything was going brilliantly.

Lockdown has been very tough. Anna has been looking after her vulnerable parents, and I’ve been working from home, so we haven’t been able to meet at all. We’ve texted and talked on the phone, and I know she’s equally desperate to see me. I’ve found myself missing her horribly. But while to some people my visits to her house might be immoral, I never expected them to become illegal. And we’re both in our 40s, so I can’t see us having a teenage bunk-up in her small, overlooked garden or behind a tree.

I don’t want to break the law, or risk spreading the virus, but I am desperate to spend time with Anna. Of course, I could just go and chat in her garden, but when lockdown began, we were still at the “ripping each other’s clothes off ” stage, and I don’t know if I’d have the willpower to resist.

Of course it’s my own fault. If it was all above board, we could live in the same house. As it is, my two separate lives have never felt so far apart.