I could certainly use some advice. I'm not in a relationship, but I recently realized I have feelings for a friend of mine. Like, pretty strong feelings. Which never happens to me. On top of that, friends of mine have been telling me he seems interested in me.

So I get bold (and drunk) enough to ask him about it. We talk, and it turns out he returns those feelings and is very interested in me. But, he got out of a super long term relationship 7 months ago and doesn't feel ready to start dating yet. He ended the relationship, and he says he's over the girl, but there are residual issues he's working on and he says it wouldn't be wise to start a relationship right now. He has no idea how long it will take to feel ready, and while he's afraid I'll start dating someone else, he understands I have my own life and he can't control what happens.

So here I am, full of all these feelings, both incredibly happy that he returns them and immensely sad that the timing isn't right. Since these feelings are so rare for me and he's in many ways 100% perfect for me (rare, actually that combination has never happened before), part of me wants to 'wait around'. The other part of me knows I'm not getting any younger (I'm almost 27), and knows that it's not a sure thing, and wants to at least try dating other people. I feel like I'm going crazy and I don't know what to do. For the first time in my life I'm even considering something casual (to blow off steam/distract me). We are continuing to hang out as friends in group situations. What do?