I have a friend that I am interested in and I want to take it further, however, a friend that has known her for longer says I am pushing her away by how I act, (generally being nice, and helping her with whatever she needs, neg's and complimenting her, asking how she is etc...). He has suggested I back off and take it back to a friendship state and wait for a while before trying again, I accept I may have come across too strong initially.

So my question is:

Is there a way to take it back to friendship, and somehow discreetly encourage her to be interested in me, and if so how should I go about it?

any advice would be a great help!

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Life is for living, so I ain't giving up!

I don't know your exact situation, so this may be a shitty response. If that's the case, then, umm, sorry.

It's possible to make the conversion from friend to girlfriend, but it isn't easy, and, most of the time, it isn't worth it. As for your scenario, I'd let it go. When a girl moves from passive-aggressively resisting your advances to recruiting "guy friends" and/or relatives to deal with you, it's a sign that she's become a lost cause. I'd ditch her, and move on to someone else.