My boyfriend Chris was a kind and honourable man. We had been together for five years, and he always treated me as though I was someone really special. I felt so safe and secure with him that I was sure we would be together forever.

So it came as a huge shock when he suggested one night that I should seduce his best friend.

Chris and his mate Richard had known each other since high school. While Chris was confident, outgoing, and could talk to anyone with disarming ease, Richard was as quiet as a mouse — the shyest person I'd ever met. Though he'd been around for as long as I'd known Chris, I never felt like I actually knew him.

His aloofness could be quite off-putting, so it wasn't any wonder he hadn't had a girlfriend in a while. He could barely even talk to me!

Chris constantly worried about his friend, and was forever trying to set him up on a series of dates, but most of the time Richard wouldn't even turn up. One night, after a few drinks, Chris made the startling revelation that Richard had once been sweet on me. I nearly fell over! But his next words almost made me choke.

"I think you should seduce Richard," Chris said seriously. "Not because I want anything to happen, of course. But I think it would help him to know what it feels like when someone he's attracted to could possibly like him back."

I flat-out refused at first. I couldn't believe that Chris would even want another guy looking at me — even if nothing was going to happen. But he seemed to be so genuinely concerned about his friend that gradually he and his plan won me over.

We decided to throw a dinner party, invite Richard, and have Chris be called away to a fake work emergency at the last moment. Then I could engage in some seductive small talk, batter my eyelids a few times, and make Richard feel special.

The night of the dinner party arrived. Wearing a low cut red dress and killer heels, I at least looked the part. Richard arrived, and Chris took his false phone call, leaving quickly to go to the "hospital" — he was really going down to the pub to watch a game of football for a few hours!

And then, as I smiled warmly at Richard over the candlelit table, a funny thing happened. Richard relaxed. In fact, he didn't just relax, he completely opened up. I realised that this was the first time Richard and I had ever been alone. He told me that he'd always loved me, but that seeing me and Chris together made him so anxious he could barely stand it. And that's why he'd never had a serious relationship in all the time that I'd known him.

As we talked, I realised that Richard wasn't everything that he seemed. He wasn't, apparently, so shy when I wasn't around, and he did lots of great things within the community, like tutoring refugees in English. For someone who I had thought had absolutely no personality, it suddenly became clear that Richard was a really sweet and special guy, with a lot of great qualities.

And I'd had a lot to drink.

So when Richard leaned over to kiss me, I couldn't help but kiss him back. Richard had liked me, idolised me, for five years! That can make a girl feel pretty amazing, and it was like Chris didn't even exist.

Before I knew it, things had moved into the bedroom, and Richard and I made love on the bed I shared with my wonderful boyfriend Chris. That thought didn't even cross my mind, though, until it was far too late to undo.

Richard's first thought after our moment of passion was Chris. He couldn't believe he had betrayed his best friend. If it's possible, I think he was even more devastated than I was, and he quickly left, after making me promise that I wouldn't tell Chris.

My boyfriend arrived home an hour later, excited to see how it was going. Knowing that Richard would never want to repeat our betrayal, I knew that I could lose everything. With a heavy heart, I told Chris that Richard had freaked out over my seduction and left. Disappointed, Chris agreed that we should probably never mention the night to Richard again. So many secrets and lies.

I felt sick for a long time, and deliberately avoided Richard for months, not feeling safe until he moved interstate later that year.

Chris and I recently got engaged. Richard will be coming to our engagement party later this year, although I'm constantly hoping that something will come up so he won't make it. I'm constantly in a swinging state of guilt over what I did, and anger that Chris put me in the position. But, above all, I'm terrified that the man I love will find out that I slept with his best mate because I was asked to seduce him.


All names in this story have been changed.

Picture: Getty Images. Posed by model.

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