Is it disrespectful to have more than one close friend?

Love is: “That affinity for another person from which total recovery is never wholly possible.”
So the lingering proves that your Love was real, and true, and if you could ever let it totally Go – then it was never the real thing. But it was, wasn’t it. So you have no choice in the matter. Where to go from here ? Use it! You are capable of the very real thing. And your next step might be, say, one day (not quite yet perhaps) but Love again. And if your Love is truly returned, then your next partner should readily understand that you will always carry a part of your true love for that other person. Carrying a part of your heart for another person does not mean you are being in anyway unfaithful or deceitful toward your next partner. What is it like ? It is like loving your first very favourtie Puppy Dog who has now passed. Sure, you will have another Puppy Dog and love that new Puppy Dog to bits!! But loving the new Puppy does not change the love you had for the first Puppy. Conflict ? None.
You are so VERY lucky to have experienced true Love. Most of us believe but actually, never get where you have been.
I envy you.

You are welcome. It is also something of a bereavement, losing the focus for your love is very similar and certainly no less painful than grieving. You are in fact grieving, for the Love which has been lost. And like the bereavement of a loved one you will never entirely get over it. Indeed, you should not. It doesn’t actually get better with time – rather you get better at it. At managing it. I hope in due course you will find a small compartment in your heart where you can keep this lost love and visit it – whenever the time is right for you. And don’t worry about those inevitable days when the ruddy thing escapes and takes you by surprise. You will find you get better at putting it back in its small rightful ‘box’ and eventually, get a lock on the lid.
Good Luck. 