Friends with estranged ex while single.

I’ll try to keep this brief. I had a girlfriend five years ago and I’m a man. We were involved for just about a year and she was quite immature and manipulative and she broke my heart.

I dated her shortly before entering university during the pandemic. I went for years without speaking to her. I followed her on instagram a couple of years back, but we didn’t really interact much and I sense there was still some animosity.

I’ve been talking to her amicably and realised I most definitely love her since she has grown and matured as a person. However, she is 700 miles (or 1,100 km) away from me. That’s pretty fucking far. As a caveat, I was single for all of university, with a dating life that consisted of either dates that didn’t go anywhere or an embarrassing amount of one-night-stands (forgive me for being an extreme example of a Leo).

Since I started talking to her last week my sex drive is completely dead even though I’m surrounded by a lot of pretty girls on a daily basis in my town.

My question is: should I force myself to go back to dating and try my best to land a girlfriend even though I still have feelings for this person or should I not force things at all and “go with the flow”. Deep down I know the answer, but since I imagine this same story has happened quite a lot, I would like to ask this subreddit.

P.s.: I’m fresh out of university with no social life, though I’m open to going out, even if it’s with my mom or close relatives to bars and shows.