HELP! What are your thoughts on progressing this friend to lovers situation?

All Things Writing
,
1

THE (CONDENSED) BACK STORY DUN DUN DUN…
Note: From S’s POV but story is heavily driven by B’s choices and motives

-B comes from a generation’s old family business in a small town but meets S in college. Instant friends who have secret feelings for the other.
-B makes a move and S misunderstands. Accidental rejection causing B to back off. B’s dad is diagnosed with terminal cancer and must go home.
-Years pass and S achieves her dream of being a big city author. Then her poor mental health and social pressure leads to her career flopping and she ends up moving to his small town for financial reasons.
-B never stopped loving her and S instantly realizes she still is into him
-Misunderstanding is revealed

THE PROBLEM
-S is struggling to not be awkward knowing he was into her/being very attracted to him and feels guilty for being a bad friend.
-B knows she returns his feelings but doesn’t want to trap her in his families obligations. He does not like knowing she feels uncomfortable and the strain on their friendship but I’m not sure how exactly he should react. Which makes most sense to you?

  • He pretends to be oblivious even if he hates that she feels guilty
  • He acknowledges but tells her it’s a bad idea to do anything about it
  • He tries to make her happy and calls it casual but is really hopelessly attached
0 voters
3 Likes
2

He… needs to do smth stupid. Like really stupid. Like so stupid it ends up fucking up the relationship anyway.

But also not SO stupid that he ruins it completely :rofl:

3 Likes
3

I’ve always loved the, “I can totally pretend I’m not hopelessly in love with this person and then fail miserably at pretending later down the line.” trope. :laughing:

3 Likes
4

I think you could do all 3 of them and not “ruin the story”, it’s just that they all have circumstances that constrict later behaviors.

2 Likes
5

Gah I know like it’s so hard to gage the appropriate level of stupid lol

6

For sure, it’s one of the bests.

1 Like
7

th best way to make a character do something appropriately stupid is to make them in denial about something. then they fuck up n so many beautiful ways… :joy:

2 Likes