SISTER-IN-LAW CAME ON TO ME

Dear Coleen

My wife has invited her brother and his wife to stay with us over Christmas.

I’m not happy about it, but I can’t say anything because it’ll cause a potentially explosive situation. The problem is, my sister-in-law came on to me at a boozy party a couple of months back. I told her “no way”, but I did kiss her – well, she kissed me and I didn’t pull away immediately.

I’m very surprised she’s agreed to stay with us because it’s going to be awkward.

Have you any advice on how I can get through this?

Coleen says

I wouldn’t assume your sisterin-law has an agenda. She might be thinking, “I don’t know how to get out of this without it looking weird!” I imagine she doesn’t want to blow her marriage out of the water either and she might be really embarrassed about the way she behaved.

Now it’s been some time since that boozy night, her attitude might me, “Let’s get on with it, be as normal as possible and pretend nothing happened!”

I think if you did tell your wife what happened, then things could quickly escalate and it could really ruin all your relationships.

I’m not condoning what happened, but I think it’s a case of it being something and nothing, and booze had a part to play.

So don’t make it awkward and ensure you’re not in a situation where it could happen again – ie, go easy on the festive tipples.