Dealing with people in love with you

[Brittany]

In my experience, gentle honesty is the best approach. If you suddenly disappear, it will be very hurtful, and they will likely assume they did something wrong to offend you. If you simply lead them on, you are not being honest with them or yourself and again, you will likely encounter hurt feelings when the truth inevitably comes out. Honesty balanced with kindness and tact will still likely glean some degree of hurt, but it makes your long-term relationship with this person much easier. To think the situation can be resolved with no pain to either party is delusional, but the discomfort can be minimized with transparency, at least in my experience, and I have been on both the giving and receiving ends of these kinds of relationships.