"We were friends before becoming coworkers, and now I have a crush on him!"

Crushing at Work from Cambridge, Massachusetts has a pretty interesting on-the-job romance dilemma, and she seeks out advice from Boston.com's Meredith Goldstein. The guy she's currently interested in has been her friend even before they started working in the same office. The problem, as she relates it, goes like this:

I figured out a couple of months into working together that he had a crush on me but I was dating someone else at the time. A few months later, my other relationship fizzled and I realized that not only did I think of this guy at work as a great friend, I returned his affections. Through the same mutual friends I found out that he knows that I return the crush feelings, but now he's "very hesitant about the work thing."

And the question, naturally, is should she go for it or not? I personally think office romances are risky and awkward enough as they are. If I had to give her advice, I'd tell her to just stick with things the way they currently are, and then wait for the time when she gets another job, which she plans on doing soon, to initiate things with the guy. The beginning of a relationship is challenging enough--what more balancing that with work and keeping things on the down-low in the workplace?