On the fence about asking out a girl who a friend likes

There is a girl I know who hangs out with our little group occasionally. She has started hanging out with us a little more and has started being pretty flirty with me. I'm not the best at reading girls, and I started thinking she probably liked me. A few other friends have also noticed and told me that. The problem is that one of my friends has liked her for a while but never gotten the guts to ask her out. I'd like to ask her out some time, but I don't know if it's right to do that to one of my friends. What are your thoughts?

Meh, I ran into the same situation.

What I did, was completely analyze the situation, and then I backed away. My friend liked this girl much longer, and rather than stab a friendship, I turned the other way. I actually told him, and told him I was not going to pursue this girl because I saw how interested he was... and well, yea, that was that. They did start dating, and have been a cute happy couple since. *shrugs*

Its up to you. Would your friend take offense? Knowing your friend likes this girl makes it more complicated, it means that you are overlooking the fact that he has feelings for this girl for your own desires... which isn't a bad thing, it just is what it is.

If you do decide to ask her out, maybe you should let your friend know. I kinda view it a dick move if a friend knowingly jumps in the middle of someones attempts.

He hasn't really made any attempts. He's been sitting around for a while. She got back together with her ex a while back, so he started obsessing about another girl and said that she likes me anyway. I was trying to talk him up into asking her out on a date or something after she broke up with her ex again (for good this time), but he has been too shy to do it. I feel bad because when she's around she kind of flirts with me, and I don't know if I should flirt back or just give her the cold shoulder in the hopes that he'll finally get enough courage to at least talk to her. Anyway, I'm on the fence about whether I should flirt back and maybe ask her out on a date or something or try to ignore her when she flirts with me.

How important is this friend to you? Asking this girl out could be like plunging a knife into his chest and twisting. Does that bother you?

He's a pretty good friend of mine. Before he just moved on to being crazy about another girl, so I'm not really sure how he'd handle it. I'm still going to give him some time to see if he will finally go up and talk to her, but I thought I'd ask for your opinions, too.

If your friend knows your intentions then I wouldn't consider it foul play... so just go with it.