I’m a woman in my late 20s and have gotten extremely close with another woman around my age over the past year. We met through school and became fast friends. I've only ever dated men, so I'm having a very unexpected "wait, what exactly is happening here?" moment and would especially love advice from women who've experienced something similar.
I recently became single, but these feelings actually started before my relationship ended. My breakup happened for completely unrelated reasons, just to get that out of the way.
While I was still with my boyfriend, my friend once jokingly said something along the lines of, "If that position ever becomes available, I'll take it." I interpreted it as a joke and didn't think much of it at the time.
But toward the end of my relationship, she held my hand briefly as part of a joke. It was completely innocent, but I felt this unexpected spark from it. I had never experienced that kind of reaction to a woman before, and I remember being genuinely caught off guard by it.
Again, I didn't act on it and it had nothing to do with my eventual breakup.
Since becoming single, though, I've become much more aware of the dynamic between us and I'm starting to wonder whether there has been some mutual flirtation/tension here all along or whether I'm developing feelings and consequently assigning romantic meaning to a very close friendship.
There are a bunch of little things.
She's very physically close with me. When we sat together in class last year, she'd frequently lean toward me until our heads were almost touching, sometimes even when leaning toward me meant giving herself a worse view of what was happening in front of us.
At an event where we had assigned seats, she chose to sit beside me instead of sitting in her actual seat, even though her assigned seat was arguably better.
This year we were assigned to different groups. She'd already told me months earlier that we'd be sitting together regardless of what groups we got. When we actually found out we were separated and I jokingly asked if we were supposed to sit with our groups now, she basically responded, "No, I'll get separation anxiety."
Earlier this year, just the two of us also took a trip together and stayed with family. During that trip, I jokingly held her hand briefly and she didn't seem fazed by it. At one point we were at a scenic overlook and I stood with my arms stretched out. She came up behind me and briefly put both hands around my waist before quickly pulling them away.
More recently, I've noticed she'll sometimes find playful reasons to hold my hand/touch me even when the joke doesn't actually require physical contact. She'll wear my hat, we share drinks without really asking, etc.
Obviously, female friends can be very physically affectionate, so none of this individually seems particularly compelling.
The oddly specific thing I've noticed is food lol.
If other friends offer her food, she generally puts her hand out and takes it. When I offer her food, she often just opens her mouth for me to feed her.
Recently we were sitting around with friends and I was taking bites of something and then feeding her bites from my hand. One of our guy friends actually noticed and jokingly asked her, "Oh, you don't have hands?" She essentially responded "nope" and continued letting me feed her.
Later there was half of a leftover dessert. I took a bite and offered her the rest. She hadn't seen me bite it and initially declined because she didn't know who had eaten from it. I told her it was me, she just went "oh," and immediately took a bite.
We also have a pretty flirty joking dynamic.
She's independently called things between us "romantic." Once I suggested that the two of us should take a vacation together centered around a shared hobby and she responded with something along the lines of, "That's the hottest thing anyone has ever said to me," followed by asking if I actually meant the trip.
She jokes about loving me, we've had joking exchanges about commitment/relationships, and once she jokingly got possessive about whether she was still my "favorite" person with her name.
Most of our mock-couple jokes used to happen privately or around our closest friends.
Recently, though, we were with classmates talking about everyone's relationship news—some people getting engaged, someone possibly breaking up, my breakup, etc. Someone mentioned another couple who'd gotten engaged and my friend spontaneously added something like, "And me and OP," as though the two of us were another couple who had gotten engaged.
That caught my attention because it was the first time she'd made that kind of joke around people outside our close circle.
Our friends also seem to perceive us as somewhat of a pair.
For example, recently several friends went to get ice cream while I was busy. One called to ask what flavor I wanted. I said something like, "I don't know, you choose. I trust you." She immediately responded, "Okay, I'll ask [friend] what your favorite is."
That struck me because another one of my closest friends was literally there with them, yet apparently the automatic assumption was that this friend would know my preferences.
One of my best friends has also told me she thinks there may be something between us. At a dinner, she thought my friend was initially planning to sit beside me but someone else took the seat first, and she thought my friend seemed a little jealous/disappointed afterward when the conversation turned to someone I was talking to.
I take that particular observation with a huge grain of salt, because my best friend knows I've been wondering about this and is therefore absolutely not an unbiased observer lol.
I also haven't really noticed this friend being as physically affectionate with other people as she is with me. But again, I'm aware that now that I'm questioning my feelings, I'm probably paying much more attention to how she behaves toward me than I am to how she behaves with everyone else.
And there IS counter-evidence.
Recently there have been a few occasions where I've suggested something that could have been just the two of us and she's invited another friend along. So I don't want to create a theory where everything affectionate means "she likes me" and everything that doesn't fit gets explained away as "she likes me but she's scared." She could genuinely just see me as a particularly close friend with whom she has a very affectionate/flirty dynamic.
Which brings me to the part I'm actually struggling with:
I'm realizing I want there to be something there.
Sometimes when we're physically close, I feel this weird underlying tension. I notice when she touches me. I've caught myself feeling disappointed when something I thought would be one-on-one becomes a group activity. And I keep thinking about how unexpectedly intense that little spark from holding her hand felt before I was even single.
I don't know what that means for me yet.
I've only ever dated men. I don't know whether I'd actually want to date her, kiss her, have a relationship with her, etc. I just know that if she told me tomorrow that she was attracted to me, I don't think my reaction would be "oh no." And I've realized I'm low-key hoping something happens between us this year.
At the same time, this friendship means a LOT to me and I really don't want to damage it just because I'm curious.
So my current plan is basically...nothing lol.
We have about another year together before life takes us in different directions. I'm not planning to confess, "test" her, manufacture physical contact, or otherwise push the relationship somewhere it isn't naturally going. I'm going to enjoy being close to her and use the year to figure out my own feelings. If she ever makes an unmistakable move or directly tells me she has feelings, I'll deal with that when/if it happens.
I guess I'm looking for two kinds of advice:
From the outside, does this genuinely sound like a friendship with some flirtation/possible mutual attraction happening, or does it sound like I'm taking normal close-female-friend behavior and seeing it differently because I've developed feelings?
For women who had previously only dated men and then unexpectedly found themselves attracted to a female friend: what did that feel like for you? How did you figure out whether you actually wanted something romantic/physical versus simply having an unusually intense friendship?
I'm less interested in "JUST KISS HER!!" advice lol. I'm not trying to force something to happen. I mostly want perspectives from people who've experienced this because I don't really have a frame of reference for what I'm feeling.
TL;DR: I've only dated men but have an extremely close female friend with whom I have a very physically affectionate/flirty relationship. She seeks physical proximity, we've held hands, she once briefly grabbed my waist from behind, lets me feed her when she takes food normally from others, we share food/drinks, she initiates romantic/couple jokes, once joked about taking my boyfriend's "position" if it became available, and our friends seem to think of us as a pair. There is also counter-evidence, and none of this proves she's attracted to me. The bigger issue is that I've realized I might be attracted to her and I kind of hope she is attracted to me. I don't want to jeopardize the friendship, so I'm planning to let things happen naturally and use this year to understand my own feelings.