<human>: Provide a brief overview of the text.

A friend and I are crushing on each other pretty hard and it's obvious to everyone involved. Our mutual friends have called me out on it, and I'm pretty sure have to him as well. We haven't talked about it yet, but we're going to need to pretty soon. We've been friends for several years but both of us were in LTRs and never got close until we were both single. He is ridiculously awesome.

This whole thing is kind of dumb. Usually when I like someone I just ask them out and see what happens from there. Unfortunately due to some boring life circumstances that I won't go into, acting on this attraction is out of the question for both of us. It's just not gonna happen. 

I'd like to be an adult about this and clear the air, but I'm a little shy and kind of awkward in general, and could really use some advice on how to open up the conversation. Ideally I'd like to do this in a way that preserves our friendship as much as possible.

I'm thinking about saying something like "Hey [Joe], so this is kind of awkward, but we're both single now and we've never really approached the subject. Unless I'm completely misreading things, I think there's something going on with us in terms of mutual attraction, and I want to talk about it before it gets weird. I really like you and under normal circumstances I'd just ask you out, but [boring life stuff] means that can't happen. We should probably cool it with the one-on-one hangouts for a while, but I'm happy to spend time with you in a group. What do you think?"

That sound good to you guys? Any suggestions on how to handle this?
<bot>: Mutual crush that can't be acted upon. Trying to figure out how to get up the courage to bring up the subject, clear the air, and get out with my dignity and friendship intact.