Guys who were interested romantically in your best (female) friend but feelings were unreciprocated, what are some things you wish said friend would've done/said in the aftermath of it? How did you manage to stay best friends with them?

For context, this was years ago back when I was a basement dwelling, early to mid 20's virgin. Hardly dated at all, not much of a social life outside of drinking buddies, and spent wayyyyy too much time on /b/. Met a girl at a summer job pedaling around pedicabs, became really good friends with her, and then fell for her something fierce. Feelings weren't reciprocated (tried more times than I'd like to admit, really makes me cringe thinking about it), so I finally took a break to sort myself out.

It's funny, in that time hanging with her I adopted a lot of the lifestyle she was into, which has really since defined a good bit of who I am today. Running, hiking, backpacking, cooking better meals to entertain folk. I inadvertently wound up getting myself into pretty decent shape, the habits kinda continued after we stopped hanging out. Next thing I know I've got this new sense of self confidence budding, I'm moving out of the folks, I'm dating around, and rejection isn't all that big a deal anymore.

We ended up reconnecting like nothing had happened and she's a core part of the group of best friends that I have now. In hindsight, I'm really glad we didn't become a thing, she's a much better friend than a potential relationship (nothing against her, I can see now, very clearly, that we simply aren't compatible that way).

/r/AskMen Thread