Charlie's behavior changed when I broke up with Mark. We were close before but since the break up he has become quite needy. He demands my company and huffs when I have to study or simply don't want to hang out with him. He makes constant comments on my behavior and asks personal questions that I am not comfortable to share with him. I feel very vulnerable with him knowing how much I care about him, he has said himself that he doesn't fully understand his own emotions.

I want to be friends but I need to have some space from him for now. I have ended a four year long relationship with the man I thought I'd be happy with for the rest of my life. Charlie confuses me, he makes me happy and yet it hurts to be around him, he reminds me that despite how generous, smart, adorable and wonderful Mark was, something wasn't right, I fell out of love with my closest and dearest friend. That no matter how much Charlie cares about me, no matter how passionate, intelligent, understanding and talented he thinks I am, it is not enough. There is something more that we both lack. I do not love him but I want him to look at me like the woman I am, not just another male friend. I feel diminished by his words. He may feel diminished by mine. I can not afford him the same privileges he affords me. I can not invest in him emotionally when a part of me doubts his motives, if part of him is allowing me to be so intimate with his emotions because he has no one else that cares for him so much. He does not behave this way with any of his male friends. Charlie opens up to no one, his previous girlfriends tell him he isn't human. The Charlie I see is completely different to the Charlie everyone else sees.

I do not hate him, I hate how he makes me feel. I hate that I have feelings for him but I accept that I do and that carrying on is the most rational thing to do. I can not accommodate his feelings at the cost of my own. That is not friendship. He has power over my emotions at the moment and that is not a healthy friendship. I don't want it to become bitter. I just need time.

I also hate whatever part of me it is that fell out of love with Mark. Living with both men and having them in such close proximity majority of the time is difficult.

As far as the signals he's giving off, I am not the only one that has questioned his intent. I am not hoping for them, I have always told myself that my attraction to him fogs my perception of his words and actions.

Charlies' neediness has pissed me off for years, long before I had any feelings for him. Our history is rich and much more complicated than you can possibly understand from a reddit post.