I fell in love with a close friend, but she's married. It's not a sexual attraction: I really love her. I think about her all the time, so much that sometimes I can't sleep. I've been in love a few times, but never like this. I'm almost going mad.
She hinted she's not happy with her husband, and I tried to jokingly flirt with her just to see how she'd react, but I felt like she was uncomfortable, and she made it clear she's not interested, so I stopped. However, she hinted she kinda likes another man who is flirting with her for real, so even if she were to divorce, I'd still have zero chances.
This situation is making me feel anxious and lost, and I don't know what to do. I figured out these are my options:
1. Pretend I'm not in love and continue being her friend. I've been doing this for a long time and it's making me suffer.
2. Gradually cut her out of my life by letting her go as a friend (stop texting her, try to avoid meeting her, etc). This would be extremely hard for me because I really like our friendship, and I feel like I'd be lost without her.
3. Tell her we can't be friends anymore because I love her, and immediately cut contact. Also extremely hard.
4. Tell her the truth, but I'm sure that would ruin our friendship, so it's basically like option 2 or 3. Please note that even if she said she loves me back (100% not happening), I wouldn't want her to have an affair with me. If she was single or she divorced, yes, but no affairs. A relationship that started with cheating would probably end with cheating as well.
5. Ghost/ignore her without saying anything. I'm not the kind of guy to do that and I think she deserves an explanation.
So, what do you think would be the best thing for me to do? Any other ideas? How would you address this situation?
