Ever Had A Female Friend Distance Themselves From You After Unrequited Feelings (x-post from r/askwomen)

Yeah, that happened to me once. Of course, I've developed romantic feelings for more than one good female friend over the years, but only time did one distance herself from me. Luckily, it was only temporarily. Still, our friendship took a big hit for some time. It has recovered, but it took a lot of time and effort.

This happened only last year. Me (28M at the time) was good friends with her (21F) for about a year when I fell for her. Of course, this happened gradually. At first, I didn't even want to admit to myself this was going on. She was already in a relationship, with a guy I was friendly with. (Even if she was not, I knew she wasn't interested in me that way anyhow.) I can honestly say I've never been more in love in my life. The connection we had was very strong, which made my feelings strong as well. Eventually, I told her about it when I was over at her place. She was very understanding about it and said it wouldn't change a thing between us. But after having slept a night on it, she said she felt a bit awkward about it and that it was better (for me as well) to not have contact for about a month. Not being able to speak to her for a month was very hard. I was used to talking with her almost daily.

After a month, we got in contact again, but it remained awkward at times because we knew we didn't want the same thing. Eventually, she broke up with her boyfriend and immediately got a lot of attention of other guys. This made me very jealous. I couldn't channel my jeaolousy very well even though I knew I had no right to 'claim' her. Eventually, this led to some serious fights. We didn't speak for about three months.

Beginning of this year, she contacted me again. She had heard I was not doing okay and wanted to comfort me. I was very happy to hear from her again; I though I'd lost her for good. I had told her my feelings for her was gone. Though now that we're in close contact again, I sometimes doubt if they're entirely gone. But I don't want to think about that too much, because I don't want to ruin the friendship again.

/r/AskMen Thread