<human>: Me and her have been friends for 5/6 years, we went to school together for a year but I mainly got to know her from my now ex-girlfriend, whom she used to be best friends with in high school/right after. I never really had any romantic interest in her before.

Me and my ex had a really hard breakup, I took it the worst and she definitely knows all the details of it, and tried as best she could to help be a friend and empathize with me (She's never dated anyone, so she doesn't really have any personal experience with it). My ex went off to study and moved to another town, whereas I remained in town and in constant contact with our group of friends. 

Anyways. Me and her have always been very flirty (When I was younger I was just stupid and didn't realise) and our group, as well as ourselves have made constant jokes about the two of us and dating. For the longest time I laughed them off, but now not so much. I think I do like her, and would normally just ask her out. But I don't know what the response will be. I'm afraid that if I ask, and she says no and that she doesn't have the same feelings or the desire to start a relationship it's gonna put a big awkward rift in our group of friends and between the two of us. 

The big problem with that is the constant joking about it. She's mentioned before that our friend "thinks we're dating" and I proceeded to further joke about it saying "Well if they say so I guess so" and while she's never responded in a "Haha they think we're dating, like that'd every happen, right?" I just don't know how to read the situation.

Can you summarize the given text in a few sentences?
<bot>: I like a very close friend of mine but don't know whether to ask her out, in fear of making things incredibly awkward between us if the answer is no, and I haven't read things properly.