6 years on from this major event in my life and I am still burnt...

and Torn between loyalty and independence I've been with my fiancé for over 5 years now. Almost 2 years ago, we moved in together and in April, he proposed and I said yes. But there's another guy (isn't there always?) who's been my best friend since before I even met my current fiancé. I've always found him attractive, but never thought I had a chance; he's very flirty, so I took his advances as him just flirting, harmlessly and meaninglessly, until the next pretty girl walked in the room. Then, one night just a few months before my fiancé first asked me out, we kissed. He told me he'd wanted to for awhile, but I still passed it off as his hormones going nuts. With this in mind, I figured pursuing a relationship with him would end in disaster, and we'd lose our friendship, so we agreed to just stay friends. But things were awkward between us after that; for my part, he was pursuing a relationship with a girl I'd known since kindergarten, and neither liked nor trusted one bit. Yet we continued to flirt, even after I began going out with my fiancé. He'll, not just flirt - we played Grope Tag. Guess how you play that? In my fiance's car, even on his couch with him sleeping next to us. I figured nothing was ever coming of it anyway, so what did it matter? It was just us goofing around with each other. I never questioned my original assertion: I was just entertaining him until the Next Best Thing. Then, a few months ago, he asked me why we never dated. Recently, I answered him - he never asked out. The conversation that followed shook the foundations of what I'd originally based my current relationship on: I had no chance with him, so I went out with the guy I knew I had one with. And now my engagement is in the toilet, anyway; my fiance's proven himself to be nothing more than a large child sometimes, and expects me to give in to him. Yet I feel like I get nothing in return: the s** hasn't been as satisfying as it could be for awhile, and I feel like a housewife now because no matter how many times I ask/nag/yell at him that I will not pick up his socks, or his dishes, or wash the towels HE uses up, I just get a sigh or a groan of frustration. Sometimes, he does it begrudgingly, but I can feel the wall of our relationship cracking every time. Even better, when we moved in together, we moved an hour away from our hometown, family, and friends. He works graveyard shift at a gas station most nights, so I don't see him often. We're both miserable in this situation, and want to move back closer to home. For awhile, I've been telling myself when we move back, things will get easier. But is really our location that's ruining us, or just us? To top it all off, my fiancé LOVES to make plans for the future, which I'm cool with - to an extent. But now he keeps trying to rope me into situations I feel I have no say in. He wants to start a funeral home, but it has to family-owned in our state, so guess who would have to manage the place? He finds a house for sale, and immediately says I'll love it, we're checking it out this week. I could say this is because I'm a control freak, but really it's just because I'm more independent than he is. He was mostly raised by an overly-doting mother who spoiled the s*** out of him; I was raised in a broken family, so mostly raised myself. I've always found people who can't do things for themselves frustrating, but now that such a person is nearly the only one I have left, I feel like my *life* is for *him*. He would say otherwise - he doesn't care if I go out with friends, or am unexplainably absent from the house. But such things would've gotten him dumped right quick anyway; he never told me where he goes in life, so must I. I'm so confused. Do I abandon a relationship I've out so much work into, or just keep giving it all till I have nothing left? Do I take a chance with my best friend, 5 years later? I WANT to, so badly. He has a habit of turning me on, and (subconsciously?) I return the favor. It makes feel dirty, and guilty. Yet, I still have the same worry; am I just entertaining him, for now? Probably. But at this point, I don't care. I'd sleep with him the first moment we had alone, I confess, even if it led nowhere; I doubt it would ruin our friendship now; we've been too open with each other about everything else. I *know* it would ruin my relationship with my fiancé; his biggest fear is that I'll get bored of him. Now I have, but I can't stand to tell him and crush his spirit. I started to look to astrology, hoping to find something like, "Give things due time, and they'll work out". Instead, I find no good news for my relationship, but far too much enticement when I matched mine and my friend's signs. It was, in fact, quite scary, saying mine and my friend's love can go unacknowledged for years - which it was - but that mine and my fiance's relationship is based only illusions (his perfected illusion of me, no doubt; that I will always be there to take care of him, that I will never leave him, that I am capable of returning such deep emotions I find I cannot understand). I don't know what to do. I'm so confused. I want to go back in time and tell myself to just go for it, ask my friend out, it will be worth it. Instead, I took the cowardly path, and am paying for it dearly now.

By Anonymous on General,