I don't know where you got this idea from, but it can't be from listening to this short story.
Today a lot of people use 'affair' as meaning cheating.
But it used to just mean any activity, and a 'love affair' is just an event, or two people in love, with no cheating implied. Just the act of loving.
Now I wonder if 'affair' started getting used in reference to cheating because of loveless marriages, so any 'love' affair must imply cheating?
I don't know where you got this idea from, but it can't be from listening to this short story.