It's ambigous to me too in and of itself. The way I read, Cups of course are feeligns and the 3's refer back to The Empress. To make a long story short, for me, the 3 of Cups means the person has caring and nurturing feelings for the other person. Those feelings COULD be part of romantic feelings, but they also COULD be purely friendship. For me, the number and suit would not be enough but just a starting point. THEN I would look at the card image to tell me the rest, to tell me which it is.
Babs