How can I (26F) be friends with co-worker (35M) after knowing how they felt – should I even try?

Warning in advance for typos and possible incoherent sentences – this is a bit of a brain dump so bear with me… TL/DR at the bottom!

So I (26F) have this co-worker (35M) who I got along with quite well when I started at a new company a couple years ago. I really respected them and their work and started thinking of them as a good work friend. I say work friend since we didn’t do much outside of work other than occasional drinks and we both were in long term relationships so the intentions of the friendship seemed pretty clear.

One evening after having had drinks together they confessed that they have feelings more than just friendship and wanted to know if I felt the same. Selfishly I’ll admit I was flattered but then I felt so guilty that maybe I had lead them on and also felt guilty to even be having any kind of conversation like that when we both had partners we committed to (they ended up splitting recently but were together at the time). I tried to make it clear that I was happy with my boyfriend and didn’t want anything more between us beyond a friendship or professional relationship. He took it extremely well.

Fast forward some weeks and I still feel awkward and guilty and don’t know what to do. I thought it would be an okay idea for us to stay friends, making it clear that nothing more would happen beyond friendship and we could only stay friends if we treated each other as friends only (if that makes sense). The issue is I can’t help reading into things now, just wondering if everything he’s doing is in hopes of changing my mind but then I think to myself I’m probably just being self absorbed and he’s already over it. A part of me also wonders if I keep spending time with him and talking to him like a friend, knowing he had these past feelings, if it’s disloyal to my boyfriend and emotional cheating.

Honest thoughts, feelings, and advice would be extremely helpful as I am running circles in my mind!

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TL/DR: My (26F) work friend (35M) had romantic feelings for me, now I’m feeling guilty and unsure what to do about the friendship

1 comment
  1. What if your bf has a coworker who has confessed and still pinning for him, and they are still close friends, will you be ok?.

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