In Love With Ex-Boyfriend's Best Friend

[bunnylover]

Some background:

I went out with my now ex-boyfriend for almost three years and we broke up about half a year ago because we had been having issues and I realized they were big enough issues that I would never be able to marry him.

He had a group of four best friends. He backstabbed one of them (let's call him Eric), by basically telling other people that he was a terrible person. Eric no longer sees my ex-boyfriend as a friend, but will put up with him because they are both still in the same group of best friends.

 

Now for the real issue:

Since breaking up with my ex-boyfriend, I have become very close with Eric. We seem to have so much in common, and he seems so perfect for me right now. I've fallen in love with him, and he tells me that he feels the same. I feel so happy when I'm with him, and even though I hate myself for this (something I told myself I would never do), we have become friends with benefits. I can't help but hope for something more with him, but he confuses me so much sometimes that I can't bring myself to tell him this. He will be very close to me, but then all of a sudden, he'll become distant. I finally asked him yesterday why exactly it was that he spent time with me or kept me around. He told me that it was because he loves spending time with me and because he is happy when he is around me and because he loves me. However, he also said that he will become distant at times because he knows that he can never fully be with me. It's not because of my ex-boyfriend that he won't actually date me, but because of his other two best friends. They've all agreed that I am off limits to any of them because of the "guy code". If Eric were to date me, he would lose his group of friends. I don't want that, but is it really fair? What if we would actually be perfect for one another? I'm probably being extremely naive, but is it really fair for his friends to stand in the way of things because one of them was my ex-boyfriend? I just don't know what to do. I've tried so hard to get over Eric, but I can't bring myself to do it. Is there even a possibility that we will ever be together? Or is this just a lost cause, and should I just force myself to move on?