I have a boyfriend but I might be falling for a friend. (A lot of detail might not be able to fit everything) How do I stop falling for the friend?

Anonymous
My boyfriend and I have been together for 4 1/2 years. Past 2 1/2 are long distance. I love him and I see him as my best friend so I don't see myself cheating or hurting him. However, I met a guy doing prereqs for nursing school and we were lab partners for 6 months. We hung out a few times and things were fine until the hang outs got awkward and I realized I liked him. I don't know if the guy ever liked me back, but I think he may have vaguely alluded to it when we went drinking together once. Anyway, he got a girlfriend and did not speak to me for almost a year. I would hang out with him and his girlfriend every once and a while and that was fine. Then another several months pass and he started inviting me over for game nights again. I was surprised to find that the girlfriend was not there. That night was fun and he finally seemed comfortable around me after over a yr. I ask where the girlfriend was and he said she was sick. I got invited to an expo with him and my boyfriend tagged along, once again girlfriend was nowhere to be found. After that he invited me to go see a play & suspected he might not be with his girlfriend anymore & had my suspicions confirmed. Nothing happened that night but we started to become better friends. Since then he has been encouraging me to talk to him more and has been inviting me to hang out with him a lot. I don't mind because I trust him, but recently my feelings for him started to come back. This last time I got very drunk at one of the hang outs and I remember him saying that "you don't have to be sorry, you are still beautiful and this doesn't change how I feel about you." I'm not trying to read into anything at this point but he seemed to say that a lot. My boyfriend and I have been fighting a lot recently so to hear someone say I was beautiful and a good person was really nice to hear. I remember him holding me at one point and telling me that I was being too hard on myself and that I shouldn't have to feel that way. I'm scared this amplified my feelings for him. How do I stop falling for him?
I have a boyfriend but I might be falling for a friend. (A lot of detail might not be able to fit everything) How do I stop falling for the friend?
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