I Never Planned To Have An Affair

Bryan and Gina, a real couple,will make you reconsider everything you think you know about relationships.

- Oliver Broudy

Everyone wants to be happy. For most of us, this means eventually settling into a long-term relationship with a smart, sexy partner who for some reason laughs at our jokes. The problem is, relationships rarely work out as originally envisioned. Trouble comes. Your resolve is tested, your character tried, your sweet nature pushed to its absolute limit.

In his 14 years of marriage Bryan has seen enough trouble to wreck a lesser man many times over and he still somehow emerged stronger, wiser and happier than ever before. His story is improbable.Seemingly impossible.

But it is nonetheless true. And with that truth comes an opportunity: to gaze into the depths of a marriage bound for complete destruction and discover the secret of how it was rebuilt. 

They were married in a church – white wedding, string quartet, 250 guests. He was barely out of uni, working at a tech company, and on fire with ambition. She was his sweetheart, a cool-eyed beauty in the mould of Garbo or Bacall, with a wry sense of humour and an unbeatable bluffat the poker table. They seemed meant for each other. Bryan and Gina. Gina and Bryan.

Three years later he was a manager at a large tech firm – basically convincing partnering software companies to play nice with each other. From the outside, everything looked great: six-figure salary, big house, two cars and then a newborn son. The Dream, basically. And then . . .

"You never wake up and say, 'Hey, I'm going to have an affair today,'" Bryan says. Life, he's learned, is sneaky. And temptation is everywhere. Mostly it remains at a distance, winking from the TV screen or slinking by on the side of a bus, but every now and then it swerves close. Maybe the temptation is at work. Maybe at a party. Increasingly, says Rick Reynolds, founder and president of AffairRecovery.com, it's on the Internet.