I had sort of the same situation with Ferret, Clark.
He tells our story better because he was more "with it" than I was at the time. What I mean to say is that I was tottally overloaded with being a mother of two toddlers, I worked nights, I wasn't getting any support from my then current husband, and a major case of depression.
I've known Steve (Ferret) since '94 and we met at a comic book/gaming store in Norfolk, VA called Campaign HQ. It was a quiet time for the store as I put my books on the miniatures table he was sitting at. I couldn't help but stare at him, he looked so familiar and for some reason I couldn't figure out he felt like home (Hawaii) to me. Finally he looks up at me and asked me why I was staring at him. ACK! One of the few times in my whole life where I swear I had a full body blush going on! LOL So here I am, feeding my son his bottle and stammering like a giddy school girl. All I could blurt out is, "Are you part Filipino?" Gods, I felt like I really needed the ground to open up under me RIGHT NOW! I think I surprised him and he said yes. I let it go at that and went back to being embarrassed.
It wasn't until we met again at a mutual friend's house for a LARP Vampire game and I brought along some local snax my mom had sent me in a care package that we really became friends. I knew I had a friend for life when I opened up a bag of li hing mui and Steve says, "Holy $h!t! Is that what I think it is?!" Now I have been told by some of my mainland friends that li hing mui looks like small dog turds and that it's taste is something so indescribable they couldn't even finish their sample so imagine my surprise when he goes on to say, "I haven't had that stuff in years! Can I have one please?" Then he goes on to tell me that he had lived in Hawaii for many years before his dad retired from the Navy.
Skip a few years and Steve and I are still friends. He knows all the guys I've slept with in our group and he was seeing my downward spiral gather momentum. There wasn't much he could do but he tried to help when he was able. He had to leave for a deployment around Thanksgiving of '96 and during that time we had moved to a town house on the border of Chesapeake and Va. Beach and I lost touch with him. I missed him and I thought about him a lot but . . . .
OK the truth is I wasn't email or computer savvy in anyway and I couldn't figure out how to send email . . . and I lost his ship's address in the move so it wasn't until he hunted me down and showed up on my front door step just to see me and my boys. Just me and my boys! No body else, not my husband, not my house mate but me! All I could think was WOW! How freaking cool is that?!
That was in May of '97 it wasn't until a month later we became something more than friends. I felt the same way you do, Clark, I felt like I was Frucking up a perfectly good friendship and changing it forever when we ended up in bed together. And yet it was like everything was so new, so exciting. Touching was like warm silk and electricity! Hel he wanted my kiss and no-one had wanted that from me for years!
Have you ever felt as if you were drowning and you've passed the part of struggling and are just waiting for the peace of death? And then all of a sudden there is light and you can breathe easy again? Being saved, being cared for. It was scary in so many ways. I wasn't looking for another lover and I sure wasn't ready for what Steve gave to me so whole heartedly.
It took a short separation for me to realize I truly do love him. I kept wanting to turn around and talk to him or touch him while he visiting his folks in CT. I couldn't stop talking about him and I still haven't.
I tell you all of this because, if it's meant to happen then it will. It took Steve and I years to be together and unlike the fairy tails that end with "happily ever after" it isn't that easy. Truth, honesty and conversations is the best way to keep a friendship and a marriage together. OK yes for us it's lots of sex and I agree what's the point of sex if you can't feel?
Sorry this was so long but hey it's another way for me to tell Steve I love him more each day!