Friend suspects I like him a lot...

A close male friend of mine has begun to suspect that I have romantic feelings for him. The thing is, I have had a crush on him for years but have never been able to express this because of fear. If he rejects me, I worry about the awkwardness of facing him in the future. It may mean losing a friend. He recently met me for dinner and asked me directly if I liked him, and I just mumbled something about how I have always liked all my friends and can’t imagine my life without them. He didn’t react to that, but I wonder if he will assume I have no interest or can’t be honest with him. Either way, it causes some harm to our friendship, and I don’t know what to do. What should I say to him?
This is a close friend and one of the prerequisites of being a good friend is to possess the ability to listen and have a conversation about anything, even if it is difficult. Yes, there may be some awkwardness if he doesn’t reciprocate your feelings, but it is only by acknowledging them and expressing yourself that you will be able to find a path forward, irrespective of his reaction. Try being honest about how you feel, as well as the fear that has prevented you from saying something, explaining why you don’t want to harm this friendship. If he wants you in his life, he won’t jeopardise that. Give him time to process what you are saying, and he may look at this from a different perspective. You don’t know what he will say unless you tell him what’s on your mind.

Should I even try to make a long-distance relationship work if I know it’s going to be difficult?
The difficulty of managing any relationship depends upon how much the people involved want to make it work. Try finding an answer to that first. If you want to be with each other, everything else is about logistics.