What's your worst Nice Guy™ story?

I'm a "guy". I'm "nice". I have a friend. She's a woman. I have some romantic interest in her. I haven't explicitly told her that. She's really actually my genuine friend, and that wouldn't change if she told me that there was no way we'd ever be together. She probably has some inkling that I'm attracted to her. I'm pretty sure she's somewhat attracted to me. She's had the same boyfriend for longer than I've known her (which is a pretty long time), and I don't really wanna go screwing that up if that's what's "meant to be" for them. I never do anything to sabotage or discourage what they have, and that's why I've never made my feelings known.

Our relationship isn't one-sided - we both reach out to each other, but I do sense some distance from her side, and I feel like it can only be one of 2 things: Either she's maintaining distance because she senses mutual attraction and doesn't want to be tempted to end a decade-long relationship, or she perceives me as a Nice Guy™ and doesn't believe that I actually genuinely care for her as a friend and is only being nice to me out of pity.

It seems that besides not resenting other people for choosing how to live their own lives, the way to avoid the "™" after the "nice guy" is to be open about your feelings, otherwise you risk looking manipulative. But is that really the way to go here? I don't want to go making a mess out of a decent situation. And it's not like I'm convinced she's "the one", I really like her as a person and think she's cute. If something could happen romantically, I'd be interested to see where it goes, but if not, I'm happy to have her in my life anyway. Also, if everything explodes, we still have to see each other at work every day... So yeah, what do?

/r/AskReddit Thread