Polyamory, open marriage, swinging, whatever you call it.

It's a world that, much like a good gym after the holidays,

can find itself periodically packed with newcomers.

The crowds, ebb and flow in moments of cultural reckoning,

which is why it makes sense that in the aftermath of pandemic quarantines,

declining interest in marriage and fading taboos around the wider expression

of gender and sexual identities, the conversation around open relationships is back.

This iteration was kicked off by a well-timed memoir.

I see him sitting at the bar in jeans and a button down.

When he smiles and waves, the tension drains from my body and is replaced by something else.

Something strong and unmistakable.

Desire.

This is author Molly Roden Winter, narrating the audio book titled More.

Her stories of her decade-long experience in an open marriage basically went viral.

We have a place on 16th Street. What about you and your husband?

Girlfriend. Husband.

I pause. Of course he knows I'm married. I never tried to hide it.

But hearing him say the word husband has brought Stu into the bar with us. And he has a girlfriend.

Why does this information matter so much to me?

Maybe he assumes we're both cheating.

You know, I should have mentioned that cultural ideas about what constitutes infidelity, they're

also in flux, in an era when digital connections easily compete with physical ones.

...