Ok,

So I've been friends with this girl for about a year. I met her through my now ex-girlfriend. They're friends, and it was established while I was with my ex that her friend would never hook up with me. Well, I was intensely attracted to her friend the day I met her. We'll call her Jess. Jess and I got along REALLY well. We were born in the same place and all we did while she was around was talk. My girlfriend got extremely jealous about it. Anyways, long story short, I don't even talk to my ex anymore, yet I still see Jess every single day. Jess still talks to my ex, and I'm scared that if I make a move and get shot down, she'll tell my ex and I won't be sleeping with either of them ever. I want nothing more than to hook up with this girl, but I don't know how to go about it. She doesn't have a boyfriend and hasn't for a while.

We're friends and hang out and smoke weed and watch movies, but we sit on opposite ends of the couch. We hug when she leaves, but that's about it. I can see in her eyes and her body language that she's attracted to me, yet if I say she looks nice or anything she stares at her feet and whispers thank you.

If I didn't really need some help with this one, I wouldn't be coming here to you guys.

Would greatly appreciate some advice.

Thanks.

Something else to note is she has a history of abuse. I don't know how that's affected her self-esteem. She portrays confidence and insecurity at the same time. I've noticed that girls who have this issue tend to go for abusive relationships. I just really don't know how aggressive I should be. It's a tough situation for sure