Auntie SparkNotes: The Dangers of Secret Sonnet-Leaving

Auntie Sparknotes,
Around Valentine's Day, I sent an anonymous poem to my crush, who is a good friend of mine. It's now been more than two weeks, so how do I know if my crush liked the poem? And if she did, should I tell her I like her? I think I have it narrowed down to three choices if my crush actually likes me:
1. Tell her (I'm extremely nervous about this one because of the endless possibilities that might happen, but it's my best bet.)
2. Don't tell her and wait.
3. Write her a letter saying the poem was mine and wait for her reaction.

So, what do I do, Auntie Sparknotes?

Um. Is there an Option 4, in which you travel back in time and just tell your crush how you feel rather than creating this tangled, messy web of unspoken whatsis?
No?
Well, okay. Let's work with what we've got.

Before diving in, though, Auntie would like to use this as Exhibit A for why—when you've already worked up the nerve to do something as extreme as writing your crush secret poetry—you might as well yank those Confidence Pants another half-inch higher and put your lusty guts to use in a way that actually serves your best interests. Anonymous notes can be romantic, but giving that poem to your friend didn't leave you any better off or provide you with the info you needed to make an educated move; instead, you just managed to add more fuel to the torturous fire of OMG DOES SHE LIKE ME?! Not that this knowledge does you any good now, of course, but please consider it in the event that you ever have another urge to play Secret Shakespeare.

That said, now is the time for action: your "Don't tell and wait" option is officially off the table, which leaves you with the choice to either tell her, or... tell her. Yes, it'll be scary. Yes, it'll take balls. (Brass ones!) On the other hand, there is this—and get ready, because Auntie SparkNotes is about to blow your mind:

Chances are, she already knows.

Because let's face it, by the time your crush has progressed to secret poetry levels, your feelings have probably become apparent in other ways as well. It's a rare person who can harbor a crush that intense on a good friend—someone they see often, someone who knows them well—without ever letting it show. Not to mention that if your crush were still a total secret, you'd probably already know whether or not your friend liked the letter, right? Because on Valentine's Day, she would have been like, "Dude, look at this! Someone sent me a poem!" The fact that she didn't mention it probably means she knows, or at least suspects, that it came from you.

None of this means that you shouldn't tell her how you feel. Allowing this crush to go unconfessed is just going to turn you into a bundle of nerves, and while airing your feelings might weird-ify your relationship for a little while, so will sweating through week after week of hanging out as "just friends" while you yearn for something more. That isn't just torturous, but it's also disingenuous; your friendship can't go on like this when there's a big, poetry-writing elephant in the room.

So sit down with your crush and say, "Hey, you know how you got that poem on Valentine's Day? Well, it was from me." Whether she returns your feelings or not, you'll be free of the Agony of Not Knowing—and you'll free up your relationship to become the best, most honest version of whatever it's meant to be, whether that's a friendship or something more. (I'll keep my fingers crossed for "more.")

Oh, and do it in person. After all this anxiety, you deserve to get some immediate feedback.

Leave your feedback for our letter-writer in the comments! And to get advice from Auntie, email her at advice@sparknotes.com.