Is my lesbian friend in love with me or is this a very affectionate friendship?
I am a straight woman but fell in love with my lesbian friend over a year ago. Both of us are in long term relationships, and I couldn't possibly imagine her feeling that way about me - she is a butch looking lesbian, I'm a very ordinary looking/acting straight woman - so initially I felt embarrassed and mortified about my feelings and tried to talk myself out of it. However, right around the time I fell in love with her, our friendship really took off, with suddenly a lot more emailing each other and affectionate comments from her like "I miss being around you." Each time she made a comment like that I'd feel completely undone, but then tell myself she is just very expressive and affectionate and this must be how really affectionate, expressive friends talk to each other, and I am just uncool to think it means any more than that. Over the past year we email each other so much that apparently her partner thinks we are having an affair. Sometimes we email or text 15 times in a day, and she has emailed/texted me in the middle of the night more than once. Sometimes I feel that she does love me but doesn't know what to do about the situation. Other times I feel that I am just foolish and should try to get over this. She texted me at 10pm one night to say her girlfriend was away. This lead to her inviting me over for dinner while her girlfriend was away. Nothing happened except some very long hugs on parting at midnight. The next morning she texted me at 9am. We've been out with mutual friends until 3 in the morning and then she's texted me at 1 the next afternoon. We are not teenagers - I'm in my late 30s. I just want to know - to her is this just an affectionate friendship with a straight friend?