Mike and I had been married for about 10 years when we met a
family who lived down the street from us. We hit it off right
away with the couple -- John and Linda -- and they had children around the same age as ours. Soon, we were doing everything together: taking the kids to the fair, going to the movies, shopping, and so on. A few months after we met, John announced that he would be traveling to Alaska to go hunting for a few weeks. Immediately following John's announcement, Mike said that his company was sending him to work on a pipeline in Idaho. I knew that Linda and I would be lonely without our husbands and I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity for us girls to spend some time together. But a few days after Mike and John left, Linda said that she was going to visit her mother. She asked me to take care of her children while she was gone and I said that I would be happy to; after all, the children enjoyed spending time together.

I babysat for an extended period of time (a couple of weeks)
until John came home. My husband returned immediately after
John did and my woman's intuition told me that something was up. I was right. I soon discovered that Mike never went to Idaho and that Linda was not at her mother's house. Mike had in fact been staying with Linda in her home the entire time.

The two of them eventually got married, moved away and had
a couple of more kids. Two weeks after they left town, John
(Linda's jilted ex-husband) asked me out on a date. John and
I have now been married for 17 years and we are true soul
mates. Everyone comments on the amazing connection between us and many of our friends ask us for marriage advice. John adopted my children and all of our kids are extremely close. As for Linda, I hear that she is soon to be moving on to husband number five.

-- Patty, WA

(c) 2000, John Gray Inc. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate

(You can contact John Gray at AskJohnGray@MarsVenus.com. All
questions answered are kept anonymous and are paraphrased.)