I know I may be chastised for a lot of this, which is fine. I’m going to continue either way so I’d like to do it right. Advice on the situation is appreciated.

I recently got out of a 5 year long relationship, and an old flame of mine has entered the picture again. She and I go back nearly a decade. We were sort of each other’s first love—at least she would call me that—although we never had a proper relationship. On and off over the years we would reconnect and hook up, and at one point shortly after my long term gf and I broke up for a few months we had sex. It was mid and neither of us were ready to get serious so we kind of stopped talking and I got back together with my gf.

Since I broke up w my gf a second time, this girl and I have reconnected again. Problem is, I’m a 10 hour drive away from her now and won’t be able to see her for a couple months. There’s a lot of attraction between us, and we both romanticize each other as the one that got away—not very RP of me, I know. I think there is a lot of potential for something between us if we weren’t so far apart, but we are. That should be that, and I know I should let that go. It is what it is. But a part of me is kind of stuck on the idea of something with this girl and I’d like to maintain the attraction between us so that if in the future we are in the same city the situation is ripe. At the same time, I don’t want to just become her long distance buddy that she talks to on the phone about her problems and nothing more. I want to talk to her and am kind of struggling with a bit of obsession, but I resist that. I’m just a bit of a romantic and she/our history has me in a grip.

How can I maintain/build with this girl at a distance without falling into a friendzone? Is there a way to stay relevant without becoming stale?

Thanks