Despite having translation tools available, I decided to write in English instead of Spanish because I know this language at least at a "four minus" level and can verify the entire text with a translator. The thing is, while translating from Spanish to Ukrainian, I encountered an interesting wordplay. In our language, there is no direct term for "Placer culposo," but when I received the translation "guilty pleasure," I had to clarify the root of the term: whether it was "wine" or "guilt," as these words sound similar in Ukrainian. Once it became clear from the context that it was about guilt, I understood that the theme of the contest was "sinful pleasure" (a term we use more often in Ukraine), and Americans, as I learned today, tend to say "guilty pleasure."

My Greatest Sinful Pleasure and Its Consequences

When I was 25-26 years old, I had an affair with a married woman. She was very beautiful and was the first to show interest in me, so I couldn't withstand the temptation. At that time, I was selling various extractive sports supplements and had a great service—delivering products directly to customers' homes. One day, N. ordered a few weight loss supplements from me, and I delivered them to her house. It turned out that this young woman (she was 24) was well acquainted with my mother and had heard a lot about my "feats" (during those years, I was involved in weightlifting and often got into fights). So when I delivered the supplements, she confidently invited me into the kitchen to have coffee with her.

The first time, we just enjoyed coffee politely, but our conversation was very pleasant: I spent several hours with her before leaving. The same thing happened again the next time N. ordered sports supplements from me. But on the third occasion, when I was about to leave, she simply stood in front of the entrance door, locked it, and, hiding the key in her pocket, said, "I won't let you go..." N. was very beautiful, so I didn't need much persuasion: in that instant, I swept her into my arms and took her to the bed.

At first, I thought it was just a one-time sporadic incident and that everything would end soon, but in fact, our affair stretched on for several years. Eventually, N. even stopped taking the sports supplements she had bought from me because they were raising her blood pressure. Our romance was so intense that within a year, she lost 15 kg with me and weighed only 48 kg (though, at 171 cm tall, her optimal weight was around 55 kg, in my opinion). Whether it was our "exercise in bed" or the constant feeling of guilt and associated anxiety—or maybe a combination of both—I also lost a lot of weight. Because of that same feeling of guilt, we began to turn to alcohol more often, as the constant threat of our secret being revealed loomed over us, literally draining our souls. I repeatedly suggested that she divorce her husband and be honest with me, but she didn't want to make any drastic changes in her life; she just wanted fun and pleasant meetings.

Additionally, N. began to become more and more brazen. When she weighed 63 kg and had a little extra weight, she was very self-conscious and quite modest and kind. But after losing weight with me, going down to 53 kg and then to 48 kg, she became the complete opposite and completely lost her head. More and more often, she started making declarations like "I am a queen," and she began to make new friends, most of whom I wasn't thrilled about because they were drug addicts and women of easy virtue. One of those friends introduced N. to a group of drug addicts, where she started smoking marijuana regularly and tried to get me involved as well, pressuring me to get some weed for her. I, on the contrary, pressured her to break away from that bad company, and we started arguing a lot. A few times, I did bring her some "joints," but I stuffed them with sage, which has a scent quite similar to marijuana when smoked. Since she was drinking heavily on those dates, she didn't even notice the trick.

Eventually, in that bad company of drug addicts, N. was insulted (not raped, but there were attempts), and she complained about it to me instead of her husband. I went to sort things out and came alone. The guy who insulted N. brought a friend along. During the fight, that friend jumped me from the side and knocked me down. I already had a lot of experience and had encountered treachery many times, so I had left a small bag with nunchucks nearby in the shade of a house before the fight (it was night, but the moon shone brightly). When they started kicking me while I was lying down, I managed to break free and run to get the nunchucks. They were very powerful, rubber nunchucks with metal ends... I ran back with the nunchucks and started hitting both of those bastards, and now they were the ones fleeing. But after running away, they started throwing large stones and chunks of brick at me. One of those bricks hit me in the hip joint.

In that fight, I suffered a serious injury to my hip joint, and for about three weeks, I limped and could only sleep on one side. What surprised me the most was that after that fight, N. continued to hang out with that group of drug addicts. When I found out and asked her how she could keep going there after what happened, especially since I fought for her and got seriously injured... how could she continue being friends with my enemies? She replied, "X. is not my enemy."

After that, I broke up with her. However, I often remembered the words of Solomon, which I had ignored from the beginning: Solomon warned in several of his proverbs that those who associate with a harlot will inevitably face disgrace, loss, and violence. Although I never faced punishment from N.'s husband, karma caught up with me through my connection with her: the hip joint injury was very serious. Even though I stopped limping after about three weeks, I couldn't run or squat for several years! I couldn't train my legs at all; otherwise, I would start limping again. That was my penance for the guilty pleasure. And this is just a concise summary of a real story from my life.

✍ Bogdan Karasiov, Ukraine, September 30, 2ᛟ24.

The post includes a 10% beneficiary for @teamvenezuela

I invite to join the contest:

• @diodao
• @linux911
• @sergeyk

Topic start in @inspiracion 's blog: Concurso: Placer culposo.