Do you have a male best friend, and what challenges do you encounter with that relationship?

Yes. He’s like a brother to me, but 100000x better than my actual brother. The challenges come from other people. There was one point where he had some feelings for me, but he understood and respected that I didn’t reciprocate, and we are past that now. So yeah, the only challenges are from others.

“Men and women can’t just be friends”. Yes, we can. We have been since primary school. We are going to continue to be just friends. This one gets to me so much.

“He’s such a nice guy. You should marry him”. No, I shouldn’t. We don’t love each other that way. Even in a far away hypothetical world, if we did: he wants to have children and I don’t, and also I don’t want to get married.

“Has he ever made a move on you?” No. “Is he attracted to you?” No. “Is he gay?” No. He’s just actually genuinely my best friend. Ffs.

“His family loves you”. Yeah, they do. It does actually make me feel a little awkward at times because they compliment be so much. My parents love him too, though. That means nothing for my friendship with him. That’s to do with other people.

“You spend a lot of time together...” Yeah, because we are best friends. I spend a lot of time with my other best friend, who is a woman. I don’t have any feelings for her. And no one ever questions that.

And people ask him if I’m his girlfriend, then when he says no, they come back with things like, “She’s hot. Are you okay if I ask her out?” He always gives me a heads up/sends screenshots with this, since I usually don’t know the guys and he knows I’m going to be really irritated. Sorry, why do you need his approval to do that? And do you think I’ll say yes to you now?

/r/AskWomen Thread