[nature\\\'s_hated]

Oh yes, also when I was studying for my undergraduate degree aged 18 to 21 I had a very similar infatuation for another girl who I spent a lot of time alone with in my first year. I failed to get anywhere with her, despite her liking me in some way, becasue of this lack of physical confidence - I never made a move on her, and a few times early on I think she expecting me to. Instead I sent flowers and a card or something like that, like a lovestruck wimp making an offering to an unreachable goddess. Women prefer it if you grab them and kiss them, I bet.

She got a boyfriend pretty soon anyway, and I didn't see much of her. I remember the last time we met, a couple of years later when I was 21 years old (and just before I met the girl in the original post and repeated the cycle) I asked her if she'd ever go out with me, and she said, nicely but with conviction, "No." That was that - I never saw her again. Happy as we were spending time together, and as well as we got on, we both knew there was nowhere left for it to go.

I never had this conversation with the girl who came after, which is why it has dragged on so long.