Me [22 F] with my SO [26 M] of 7 years, feeling guilty after flirting with someone else. [XXL]

Sorry, I'm not too sure what you mean when you say to analyze myself.

So you say that you're upset about yourself because you continued talking to someone you found attractive, admitted to said person that you found him attractive and for painting your relationship in a negative light? Now think about if these things are really that bad:

  • Talking to someone you find attractive? I don't think this is wrong at all. Should you just never ever talk to attractive people again? This isn't a solution. One can find other people attractive and still interact with them in an appropriate/friendly way.

  • Telling another person you find them attractive? This isn't that bad either (depending on the context). Of course, your statement à la "I like you but I have a bf" was a bit clumsy but giving others a compliment/telling them that they look nice, wear a certain shirt well etc.? Rather normal.

  • Painting your relationship in a negative light? This would probably bother me the most. But here again, you realised immediately that you've made a mistake and corrected yourself.

As for ulterior motives, I feel as if I did have one. I was flirty with him because I honestly wanted to see if I can make someone be interested in me, specifically someone who I would never have imagined.

Don't be so hard on yourself. There are lots of attractive people out there and most people don't consider flirting (e.g. smiling, giving others a compliment) as cheating. It's really not that bad. It's normal to feel great if you get attention from other people.

Overall I think you're angry with yourself because you can't say "no" and put your foot down if you feel uncomfortable.

/r/relationships Thread Parent