Indecent Proposals

by Courtney Mroch | More from this Blogger

27 Apr 2008 05:50 AM

The other day Lyn wrote "Do People Really Go Looking for an Affair?" As we so often seem to manage, once again her and I are on the same wavelength. I was thinking along similar topics lines myself recently.

I had to take my car into the shop on Friday to get an oil change and have the engine shield fixed. (I think it's called an engine shield. It's on the underside of the car, and I've scraped it one too many times pulling too close to curbs. Oops!)

Anyway, while I was waiting I read the paper. I think it was a Dear Abby column that caught my eye --and then proceeded to appall me.

The reader asked Abby (for convenience sake I'll go with the theory that it was a Dear Abby column) whether she should sleep with a customer from the store where she worked. Apparently the customer had bought a winning lottery ticket in her store and had propositioned her. He knew she was married but had alluded to the fact that he'd make it worth her while.

The crazy thing was she was considering it. She likened her situation to the one in the movie "Indecent Proposal." Her and her husband were living with either her parents or his and were desperate for a place of their own. I guess she figured the lottery winning man was her ticket to that.

Abby's advice was quite sage as usual. She advised the woman to tell the customer that she was a clerk, not a prostitute, and to continue saving up for a house with her spouse rather than risk her marriage.

Duh! I wouldn't think anyone would need Abby to tell them that.

However, I guess in the face of temptation we all have our weak moments. As Lyn suggested in her article some people do go searching for affairs to satisfy other needs. (Be they ego, personal, or thrill seeking.)

But money can be very alluring --especially when you either don't have any, are short of it, or find yourself in some other credit crunch. If all you have to do is give them a little sugar in exchange for some bread, what's the harm?

And that's the danger of it all, isn't it? On the one hand it seems so simple and harmless, but we're people. We have feelings. Our spouse has feelings. Even the person extending the proposal has feelings. (Hopefully.)

At least one party is bound to get hurt in such an arrangement, if not more.

Yet some might argue, "But desperate times call for desperate measures..."

Perhaps. I just hope I never know desperation of that magnitude.

Question to Readers

Can you think of any kind of indecent proposal that might tempt you?

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Learn more about Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a wife, a proud pet parent, and a writer. She's been with her husband, high school sweetheart Wayne Pryor, over 20 years, married 11 of those. She's "mom" to Mr. Meow, a.k.

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