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Developing a crush on your best friend can put you in a tricky situation. You enjoy spending time together, you've seen each other at your best and your worst, and you already share a history together. When romantic feelings spring up, your friendship is bound to make them feel more intense.

Should you confess your feelings and try to take your friendship in a different direction? Maybe. But before you do, it's important to consider the situation.

Be careful to examine your own feelings. What prompted your new feelings? Are you getting over a breakup? Has it been awhile since you've met anyone new? If you're feeling insecure about your own love life, you want to be sure that isn't coloring your feelings.

When you do decide to act on your feelings, the most important advice is not to jump into bed right away. You may feel like all your time together as friends makes it all right for your dating relationship to move at high speed. But your friendship is actually the best reason to take the physical relationship slower.

It doesn't matter how close you are or how many relationships you have helped each other through. No friendship is the same as dating. Romantic relationships are more than friendships with sex. And sex will make it that much harder to salvage the friendship if the romance doesn't work out.

Lovers relate to each other differently than they do with their friends. As strong as your feelings may be, you really don't know how a romantic relationship would work out until you try. What if you start dating and you find that your best friend suddenly seems like a different person? Taking it slow, gives you both a chance to explore the new relationship gradually.

Friendship can be a strong base for romance, but if the feelings aren't mutual, your confession of love may strain the friendship. Whether you can stay friends after confessing your feelings will depend a lot on how you handle the rejection. Are you prepared to understand that your best friend doesn't share your romantic feelings? Will you still be interested in staying friends?

If the feelings aren't mutual, it may help to remember that you aren't losing anything. Confessing romantic feelings opens up the possibility of a dating relationship, but it doesn't guarantee one. If your best friend doesn't have the same ideas, then you still have the friendship. And it isn't "only friendship". This is still the best friend who has been an important part of your life and that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Learn more about this author, Susan Quilty.
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