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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Philippa Perry

Why do I keep falling in love with totally unavailable people?

Posed by model Rear View Of Man Working From Home On Computer In Home Office Stretching At Desk
‘I’ve fallen in love with a married straight guy 10 years my junior and I can’t stop the intensity of my feelings for him – it’s agony.’ Photograph: Daisy-Daisy/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The question I’m at my wit’s end. I’m a 50-year-old gay man and I’m in a happy, long-term relationship. But I’ve fallen in love with a married straight guy 10 years my junior. He’s a new colleague at work. We get on well and have struck up a companionable working relationship, but my feelings for him have become deeper – and it’s agony.

I’m not an idiot. He’s married with young children and I know nothing is going to happen. I don’t think I’d even want it to, but I just can’t stop the intensity of my feelings for him. He’s a kind, thoughtful man, which somehow makes it worse. I couldn’t bear it if he found out I was secretly harbouring lustful or amorous feelings for him.

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