I started dating the man my best friend had been in love with for two years.

…and for the first time, I started wondering if I had judged her too harshly.

A former classmate called me, and during our conversation, she said,

“Did you know she genuinely believed that guy was eventually going to ask for her phone number?”

I was stunned.

She told me that my friend had said to several classmates that the guy would sometimes look at her around campus and that she was convinced that, sooner or later, he would find the courage to approach her.

Maybe it had all been in her imagination.

Maybe she had misread a few glances.

But to her, the feelings were completely real.

That’s when I realized she hadn’t just lost a guy she liked.

Her greatest loss had been our friendship.

Even so, there’s one thing I still can’t say.

I don’t believe I stole anything from her.

Because no one can be “stolen” if there was never a relationship to begin with.

If he had been her ex-boyfriend, her fiancé, or even someone she had actually dated, the story would have been completely different.

But he didn’t even know how deeply she was in love with him.

He had never made her any promises.

He had never given her any reason to hope.

And the feelings between him and me developed naturally, without either of us planning for it.

Sometimes I think I could have talked to her before I agreed to be in a relationship with him.

Maybe it would have hurt her less.

Maybe it wouldn’t have.

But even today, I don’t believe it would have been right to walk away from a sincere relationship just because of a love that existed only in one person’s heart.

I’m sorry that I lost such a close friend.

But I’m not sorry that I built a relationship with a man who chose me.

Sometimes life puts you in situations where every choice hurts someone.

And just because a decision is painful doesn’t always mean it’s the wrong one.