i was in your situation once we had feelings for each other never went out , which i can never understand why. When we used to be closer ,we were together all the time then things got different less of us seeing each other and from time to time he'd continue to be all flirty with me eventho he always denys it . After dealing with that for about 3 years and being nothing but sad out of this i told myself id get over him, yea didnt happen i cared too much to stop.
Now that we rarely see each other at all anymore like maybe once a month (which is pathedic considering he was a good friend of mine) ive become completly emotionless towards everything , things that used to make me sad are just gone , i feel like im not even human anymore and im just going thru the days like nothing. I feel so empty but ik eventually ill break down , anyways you can convince yourself not to talk to him but it'll be mad hard specially if hes one that tends to randomly talk to you when he feels that needs someone at the moment and if hes a sweet talker (my weakness) like you id be happy to hear his voice or have any form of communication then id be sad and hurt the next. I guess all u can do really is just take a break from him or continue to be friends with him maybe he'll see that he needs you just as much as u need him.