In the past month, I’ve gotten so many versions of this question that I decided to paraphrase it – using my favorite word  – and jump right to the answer.

Dear Dr. Darcy:

I recently ran into my friend’s ex boyfriend and I definitely felt something between us. Now he’s texting me wanting to hang out.

I would never do it without asking my friend if it’s ok first. Is there a way to do it and not have it be awkward? I 100% have a crush on him.

Q:

Dear Dr. Darcy,
My boyfriend broke up with me recently and I’m having a super hard time with it. I’ve never experienced pain like this in my life. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, and I can barely function at work. I honestly feel like I’m losing my mind. I’m not a kid, I’m 29, and I’ve had breakups before, but I’ve never felt such pain. It’s causing me to act in ways that I’m not proud of. After we broke up, he unfriended me, but because I can’t tolerate not knowing what’s going on in his life, I set up a fake FB account with a hot girl’s profile picture, and I sent him a friend request and he accepted it. So now I can see him flirting with other girls and he’s actually flirting with my fake account. But I can’t stop. Do you think I’m crazy? What should I do?

A:

Deep breath. Here’s what I want you to do…