Flirt With Another Man

The problem: Last week during a party, I drank too much (I'm not a drinker and accepted drinks I shouldn't have), and when my husband left to talk to some people, I became overly friendly with a guy I'd only met that day. I touched his face and danced with him in an inappropriate way. My husband was furious, and I'm sickened by my behavior. How could I do something like this? And what can I say to my husband? I've decided, obviously, that I shouldn't drink and have pledged to him and to myself that I won't do that again. I'm so afraid I'll lose the one man I have loved completely
How could you do something like this? It's one of the great rhetorical questions of all time. You can blame the drinks, but another nondrinker who'd had the same amount of alcohol as you did might have acted very differently. If you want to know more clearly how this happened, consider therapy. There are several schools of thought about why we do what we do when we're blotto, but the key here is to forgive yourself for what looks to be a onetime slipup and move on.

As for what to say to your husband, it sounds like you've already sincerely apologized, so just allow time to pass and show him that you're a woman of your word. Here you are, month in and month out, at wedding receptions and neighborhood block parties, not drinking and not flirting. In time, you'll show him that what happened was indeed a fluke.