HATE PAL FANCYING MY BROTHER

Dear Coleen

I have a friend I met at a fitness class we both attend every week. Her kids are a similar age to mine, so we often get together for coffee and play dates, and we get along really well.

Once, when she was at my house, my brother called in to drop something off and, since then, she keeps asking about him.

It’s obvious she fancies him and her eyes lit up when I said he was divorced. She’s a single parent herself and hasn’t had a relationship in a while.

Every time we get together now, all she wants to talk about is him. Am I being miserable for getting annoyed about it? My brother is a real catch – successful and good-looking – and I suppose I get irritated because it’s always been a bit of a thing with my friends.

How should I deal with it? Surely, if they did get together it would feel too close to home.

Coleen says I think the problem could be ending up as piggy in the middle if they did get together and then things went wrong and they broke up. But as long as you made it clear to both of them that you don’t want to get involved in any disputes, then I don’t see why it’s such a big deal.

It might actually be really nice – you like her, so why are you so against her dating your brother? Be honest, would you be a little jealous of him stealing your friend and her stealing your brother?

You don’t even know if he’s interested, but why not just drop into conversation that you have a single friend if he’d like to meet her.

He’s a grown man – why not let him decide for himself if he likes her or not? You might be worrying over nothing.