Have posted this in here and in Chat as I know Chat gets more traffic 
I had a really interesting (well, I thought so) chat with a workmate today about one of her and her husband's closest male friends. Apparently she and the male friend have both openly admitted that they could quite easily and happily have got together at some point in their lives, always had chemistry, got on very well etc. I didn't get the impression that anything untoward had ever happened, nor that it would (I know she is, in general, happily married with children and has been for a good 20 years) but what I found interesting was:
a) Her husband is fully aware of both parties' feelings and isn't fussed in the slightest. To me, this says that he is a very understanding partner and the marriage has a lot of trust there.
b) She is quite happy to be friends with this male, knowing that nothing will ever happen whilst having to have these feelings/attraction that just is well, there.
We talked at length about it and I know she would never leave her husband for him but there was a little bit of sadness in a sense of what might have been, almost a nostalgia in what she was saying.
I suppose I am mainly interested in how I would feel in her shoes. I have someone in my life that is with someone, nothing will ever happen etc but he has drunkenly told me that had he been single he would definitely have wanted to be with me and I do feel the same (I am single). He is a workmate too and is leaving and as much as I'll miss him, I am almost relieved that I won't have to listen to talks of his homelife so much and his partner as, it does make me a bit jealous.
I just wondered how, if any of you have a similar person in your life that fits this role, you deal with it? Is it a positive thing to have found such a connection with someone and something to enjoy, or does it make you miserable and frustrated, or something in between?