I Made A Mistake...with My Client

So I’ve been working as a personal trainer for about five years now. It’s mostly okay...a lot of my clients are really nice people, but it can get lonely at times when you’re not in a relationship and all your friends are settled down with kids or something. One client in particular started coming to me around six months ago; she was new here from another state, looking for an escape after a rough breakup...I don’t think I’ve ever felt more connected to someone just from working out together. She’s really into fitness, and we have similar goals, but she also deals with anxiety that sometimes gets in the way of her sticking to it. So our sessions got longer as time went on, just talking about everything...how my job affects me, how her past influences her choices now. She confided in me a lot; I felt like we were becoming close friends. But I kept my distance, strictly professional boundaries and all that... One night, she showed up late to our session because of an anxiety attack at home. We were alone, and the air between us felt charged, different from before...she seemed so vulnerable in a way she never had been. I didn’t want her to feel worse, but something snapped, I found myself leaning in too close while we were talking about how hard it was for her right then. Her eyes locked onto mine...it felt like there was an unspoken understanding passing between us... That moment passed quickly enough though, we went ahead and did our workout that night, but I couldn’t shake the feeling after. We didn’t talk about what happened directly, but over the next few sessions, it became clearer we were on a similar wavelength. Until one day...we just stopped trying to fight it. It felt wrong and right at once, professional line blurred beyond recovery... I’m not proud of this part of my story...but after that first time crossing that boundary, things got harder to walk back for both of us. I was caught up in wanting her comfort when she was struggling. She seemed to appreciate the connection we found outside our workouts too. But as much as I wanted it to be okay, I know it wasn’t right... So here’s my confession: As a personal trainer who knows better than anyone about professional ethics, I broke that code for someone else’s sake, letting feelings cloud my judgement and lead me into an affair with a client...