Warning: This article contains spoilers. Lots of them.

Tell me. Would you stay with a lying, cheating husband? Would you live with a man who uproots you from the big city to a small Midwestern town, uses your inheritance to fund his business, then considers trading you in for a younger, sexier woman? Would you manipulate a pregnancy with this guy, then pretend to the world that the two of you have the perfect life, the perfect romance, the perfect relationship?

You would if you were Amy Dunne, the twisted wife who goes missing in the new David Fincher movie Gone Girl, based on the bestseller by Gillian Flynn. But wait, you wouldn’t let him off the hook so easy. Not right away. First, you’d plan an elaborate revenge that involves faking your own death and turning your husband into the most hated man in America. But in the end, because you are so twisted, you’d have a change of heart and find a way to keep him by your side, on your terms, for better or worse. … //READ MORE

Last week, I was enjoying a rare afternoon off at home when the phone rang. It was a cold call.

“Hello, am I speaking to Mrs. T-? This is David from Dodgy Computer Services Inc. How are you today?”

Like most people, I’m not a fan of sales calls. Especially when they’re from individuals who might be trying to hack into my PC. But what annoyed me most wasn’t the call itself. It was the way the salesman had addressed me.

I picked up the phone and said, “That’s not me!,” as I often do when callers have the audacity to assume I share my husband’s last name. “Are you telling me my husband is married—to SOMEONE ELSE? Called Mrs. T-? Who lives HERE? Where is she? … //READ MORE

There I was completely naked, face down, hands tied behind my back in a strange man’s bed, having some of the most amazing sex of my life.

Let’s be clear: I’m not just any woman on the prowl. I’m a mother of two, living in a conservative East Coast town. I have a successful career—and a husband with whom I’m deeply in love and in lust. I just happen to like sex with others as well.

And I’m not alone. In his seminal 2013 book What Do Women Want?, Daniel Bergner has my back. “Flagging sex drive is not just an inevitability for women—it is specifically the result of long-term monogamy [and] can be entirely overridden by the appearance of a new sexual partner.” He shatters the myth that men are hornier, citing a study in which women’s lady parts were measured for blood flow as they watched a broad range of porn. And they got off on all of it—even on the footage of apes having sex. … //READ MORE

It had been one of those days that left me physically and emotionally drained. Bone-tired and preparing dinner, I looked over at my girls, 3 and 5, who were parked in front of the TV. It was a welcome respite after they’d spent the previous hour hounding me for more snacks and arguing with each other. My husband, Chris, was stuck in traffic and running late, so I started on the kids’ dinner first.

After the girls ate, I noticed something brown on my shirtsleeve. Had I given either one of them chocolate today? My 3-year-old had needed help wiping when she went earlier. Hmmm…Push that thought aside. When Chris finally walked through the door, he looked exhausted. He’d just spent the past three days working a trade show, where he’d been standing for hours at a time, talking endlessly to customers and taking clients out for late dinners, only to face emails and paperwork when he returned to his hotel room.

For the rest of the evening, we went through the motions of eating, clearing plates, bathing the girls, getting them into their pajamas and helping them brush their teeth. By the time we read them bedtime stories and put out the lights, sleep sounded like a divine idea to both of us too. It’s hard to remember that only a few short years ago, at that time of night we’d probably be hitting the sheets for more interesting reasons than the need for shut-eye. … //READ MORE

The fleeting fling can be such a lovely experience. It’s especially more delicious when it happens in the middle of a dry spell, after a recent break-up, or just during a time when you are craving some attention from the opposite sex. After all, what woman doesn’t want to feel wanted and sexy? But what if this sexual company happens to be your ex—the husband, boyfriend or partner you thought you’d left behind forever? Is it ever a good call to give an old relationship—especially one you once slammed a door on—another spin (or two, or three)?

There could be many reasons why having an affair with an ex might seem appealing. We’ve all seen It’s Complicated, the romantic comedy where ex-spouses Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin end up back under the sheets together some 10 years after their divorce. That liaison had hysterical and, well, complicated results, suggesting that there’s more for ex-lovers to consider than their renewed sexual attraction for one another.

Here’s where you need to be brutally honest with yourself and make a responsible decision about whether or not to risk “going back there.” … //READ MORE

What do most of us think about, when we think about love? No, not a Raymond Carver short story, however intriguing were his musings on relationships. I think when most of us think about love, and all the entrapments of that fickle emotion, clichés pop into our heads. When we’re young, we envision passionate kisses, dizzying emotions, even the uneasiness of unrequited desire. With maturity comes wisdom, and our slightly-more-advanced selves can accept that even the most frenzied romantic love, if nourished with enough affection and shared purpose, has the capacity to ripen into a secure and long-lasting partnership.

If we’re lucky, we retain some of the passion that ignited our union in the first place. If we’re really lucky, the arrival of children teaches us that love requires equal parts patience, self-sacrifice and surrender. And if we’re really, really lucky … //READ MORE