'I had sex with my married cousin after a night out drinking - I feel so guilty'

A woman has been left feeling sick to her stomach after admitting she slept with her married cousin after a night out drinking. The 27-year-old claims to have woken up in bed next to her cousin, James, after spending the evening drinking and country dancing with him.

In a Reddit post, she explained how she only met her cousin four times when she was a child due to moving around a lot for her dad's military job. But when she finished college, she ended up getting a job in the same state as James, with her auntie suggesting he and his wife, Anne, show her around the area.

She said: "I'd never met James's wife before. Anne and I immediately got along. She's beautiful both inside and out, and we have the same sarcastic sense of humor. If she wasn't married and I was into girls, I'd marry her. After dinner, we went and had drinks, and they insisted I stay at their house instead of driving home late at night."

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This started a pattern with her meeting up with James and Anne every couple of weeks for food and drinks after work. She said: "Anne has some kind of back damage from her youth (she was thrown from a horse into a wooden fence), so when she wasn't feeling well, we'd either stay home with her or sometimes James and I would go out on our own.

"While they always said it was no trouble, I didn't feel right constantly crashing at their place, so sometimes I would drive home or get a hotel if I'd had too much to drink. My company gets a corporate rate at a certain chain and I can use it whenever I like."

However, one day she received a text from James explaining how he was going to be late home from work so to just head over to his house as Anne was home. She said: "When I got there, Anne was propped up in her recliner with a heat pad on her back. She was having a bad day. I admit I was really disappointed because we were supposed to go to this club and James had promised to teach me to dance. I told her I'd just go ahead and go home, but she said no and James and I should go out.

"So he got home and she verbally pushed us out the door. We went to the club, danced, drank a little, then he got tired of me stepping on his feet and we went to a nearby wine place and drank and talked. By the time the place closed, neither of us was in any shape to drive.

"I was drunk, really drunk. We both were. I remember us arguing, because he told me I was coming home and I told him I'd already paid for a hotel (I'd stayed at their place a lot lately). I got an Uber and we were going to share. We got to my hotel and he said he'd see me to my room because at that point I wasn't walking straight. We were being goofy, singing and stuff.

"I threw a shoe at him in my room, missed by a mile, and he fell out of his chair laughing. We were that level drunk. At some point I passed out." The following morning, she woke up with a "massive headache" and realised James was asleep next to her, making her wonder what happened just hours earlier.

She said: "Initially, I didn't really remember much, but when you wake up naked next to a person and you're sore in certain places, you know what happened. I snuck out of bed, gathered my clothes, then went in the bathroom and got dressed. And I cried. A lot. I was sick a couple times. I guess I woke James up, because I heard knocking at the door, James saying he's sorry and will I please come out so we can talk.

"I came out a sniveling smelly crying mess. I asked him if we had sex and he nodded. I told him i was sorry and I was a terrible person and kept rambling. He wet me a rag to wipe my face and started talking. He said he was sorry too, and he was taking responsibility because he was older and should have known better than to get so drunk."

James said he would tell Anne the truth - and apologise on her behalf too. She added: "I don't know what happened between James and Anne, but Sunday I got a long text from Anne. It was kinder than I feel I deserve. She said she would like to speak to me about what happened but not right away. She doesn't want me to contact her or James for a while. She did say she wouldn't tell anyone. I texted her back and told her I understood, how sorry I was, and I wouldn't contact either of them till she said so.

"I've started to remember a bit of what happened, and we definitely had sex. I feel sick and horribly guilty. I don't know if it's weird that I feel worse about the married part than the cousin part. I almost want to up and move across the country to hide from this." Wanting to know how to best handle this situation, the woman has taken to social media to ask users for their advice.

One user said: "Go no contact with them. The damage is done from both your ends. Poor girl I feel bad for her. She trusted you both." Another user added: "I’m sorry but you don’t deserve Anne in your life after this. You hurt a good woman with your actions. Drop the liquor get some therapy and learn from this Alabama experience." A third user said: "If i were you, I'd never touch a drop of alcohol again for as long as I live. There's really no way to come back from 'cousin ----er' drunk."