Having been through this myself I'd say - stay friends.

We'd been friends for a while, very close friends, able to talk about anything and everything for hours on end. For a while I wanted things to be more romantic and sexual but for ages she didn't. Last February things changed and we started sleeping together.

I know why she changed her mind and also why in August she ended things between us. Although we stayed friends for a while everyone felt wrong. By November we weren't talking anymore.