Being in love with you best friend isn’t always something we choose to have happen. Love is a strange trickster sometimes, and it can take us by surprise when we least expect it. The emotions of friendship and love are very similar, so it’s easy for friendship to grow into love. Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell how your friend would take your new feelings, and whether or not your love would be welcomed.

It might be best to think things through before you let your friend know how you feel. Make sure that you really are in love, and that it’s not just a crush, otherwise you could be risking the friendship by making a hasty decision.

Once you are certain that it is love, then you have some thinking to do. Is your friend in a relationship? If so, you are in a much more difficult situation than if they are single; it’s probably not right to try and break your friend’s relationship up just so you can step in and pick up the pieces. If your friend is happy with their relationship, then you are best to just wait. If they stay together happily, then chances are your friend and you weren’t meant to be any more than friends after all.

If your friend is single though, then it is a completely different story. What sort of a friendship do you have? Are you always honest and open with each other? If so, you can probably just find a quiet moment to talk to your friend, and see how they respond. It is no good hiding how you feel, and if your friend really cares about you, then being honest won’t harm the friendship at all, even if your friend doesn’t feel the same way about you.

Let them know that you care about them on a “more than just friends” level, and see if they are cool with that. If that appeals to them, then you can start dating and such, just like a regular relationship. You shouldn’t be temped to rush anything just because you are friends though. You shouldn’t start deciding on baby names straight away for example. Let the relationship move to the next level naturally, that way you don’t have to worry about scaring anyone off by taking things too fast.

If they turn you down, then be willing to accept that. It’s possible that something might still happen in the distant future, but in the meantime you need respect your friend’s feelings on the matter, and let it go. Be nice about it, even if you are hugely disappointed. Keep the friendship alive, but don’t get too melancholy thinking about the love that never happened. It also wouldn’t hurt to find someone else you could have feelings for.

Love is a very unpredictable thing, but it’s always out there waiting for you, as long as you are willing to look for it.