I guess it depends on your definition of cheating. For me, it doesn't qualify as cheating until the person actually has sex with someone. A person in Haley's situation I'd define as "curious/confused". She's seemingly never felt anything sexual for another woman before and Nikki, with her smoking hot bod, has clearly awakened something in her. So Haley's got these new feelings inside her and it's making her both curious to explore them and confused about how to deal with them.
I'm sure she wants to go all the way with Nikki, in which case she's at least entertaining the idea of cheating on him, but briefly sucking Nikki's tit and being used as a means for Nikki to get a threesome with her and the MC doesn't quite reach the level of cheating for me.
It's like when I found out the girlfriend of a friend of mine had kissed another guy. I confronted her about it and asked her why she did it and she told me that things weren't so good with her and my friend and that she kind of liked this other guy but still liked my friend too. She was confused about how she felt and that's why she kissed this other guy. So I told my friend that he needed to have a talk with her but didn't tell him about the kiss and I guess it worked because not only did they patch things up but they're married now and expecting their first child.
Sometimes a relationship hits a rocky patch and one or both of the people in the relationship will find someone who makes them feel better which causes them to start developing deeper feelings for them, and in other cases, like Haley's, someone can just enter your life who you have this unbelievable attraction towards. In the first example, the relationship can still be salvaged if there are reconcilable differences, like with my friend, before things go too far, and in the other example it's usually just pure lust that doesn't need to be satisfied if you can get a handle on it. But in either of these cases, I still wouldn't call it cheating until there is actually sex involved.
Thanks, I'm aware of the ways of the world, too
Not mimizing your context, but I feel it misses the point a bit.
That is, Haley was still cheating - she reached out with intent to have sex and was stopped by her target after making intimate physical contact with Nikki. Then, Haley was "caught" (purposefully, by Nikki's machinations) eating Nikki out at the gym, where she specifically stated that her expectation was the MC wouldn't be around while they engaged in horseplay. Her tongue was up the groove, so to speak. That's sex right there.
Regardless of whether one is "experimenting" due to mixed feelings or not, when you act outside the relationship towards intimacy with another person that's usually reserved for your partner - and, if your partner doesn't know/approve - it's technically cheating. People's hearts can wander and all, but when you act on those feelings (which could be via overwrought sex chat typically reserved for your intimate partner) then the cheating summit quickly comes into view.
All this "I didn't have
sex with that intern" stuff attempts to use technicalities for glossing over actual intent + action which went counter to one's implicit exclusivity agreement they had with another person.
So, what you are describing is the typical mode of how people decide to explain and/or excuse their behavior to themselves or their original partner, really. And it's perfectly fine to put context on one's actions, as that could help engender understanding when caught or they own up to things. But in the end, it's really up to the person on whom they are cheating to decide how serious the intent and/or actions might have been and if they should attempt to reconcile or call it a day.
In this case, the MC is a total whore and obviously was up for the notion of sex with Nikki being involved. So, it was all good!
I don't like any of the characters in this VN, but it's still entertaining on a certain level.
