For more than 17 years, this 40-year-old man has been close with his 39-year-old female best friend.
They live exceptionally far apart from one another, but the physical distance has never impacted their friendship.
She has always been his closest and most treasured friend throughout all the years they have known one another.
She ended up getting married, and so did he, but then they both went through divorces. He got divorced five years ago after his wife cheated on him. His best friend's divorce is quite recent, and it's taken a terrible toll on her and her three teenage children.
His best friend's ex-husband was an awful person, and his best friend never had it easy because of that.
When his best friend's divorce was complete, he went to stay with her for a little bit to help her try to unwind all of her stress.
They had a wonderful time, and then, when he had to return home, she confessed that she's in love with him.
"Under normal circumstances, I'd be very happy about this. However, I'm in the Military," he explained.
"Part of the conditions of her divorce is she has to stay in her home state because of custody of her children and her alimony. I tried to tell her that due to my job I don't get to pick where I live, or even when I would be home. She wasn't hearing any of it."

After he got home, his work started to get quite busy, so he hasn't had much time to devote to chatting with his best friend.
Yesterday evening, he made the time to actually talk to her, and he once again started with being in the military means he doesn't get to decide where he lives.
For some parts of his job, he isn't able to tell his loved ones what he's doing or where he's going. He would have to lie to her about all of that, even if they could be together.
"I also told her that there's always a very real chance I could go out sometime and never come home," he said.
"She might not ever get to know what happened if this were to occur. My stance on all this is she deserves to be with someone who can be there with her and be honest with her. After all she's endured, she deserves that."
She pushed back by saying she wouldn't mind having to even go a year or two without seeing him, since she would get to spend some kind of time with him eventually.
She also promised she wouldn't care about not being allowed details on his whereabouts or assignments.
He then reminded her that he wouldn't be able to do the best job to provide for her and her children, but she maintained she just does not want to feel lonely; money doesn't matter to her.
His best friend said he's the only man she trusts and they have been through so much together, and now that they are both divorced, it's like they have another shot at a relationship.
Once more, his best friend outlined that she's in love with him. She was sobbing hard, which just made him feel like trash.
While he cares for his best friend and does love her back, he can't be with her because of his job and that won't change for him.
Also, he's concerned that her kids won't take kindly to their dating. Even if they could manage to be in a relationship, they would not be able to live together since she can't leave her state, and he would hate that.
They finally ended their phone call with his best friend saying that it's on him to choose. So he's wondering if he should take a big risk and try to start a relationship with her despite the challenges they would have to overcome.
"I think she is so insistent on the relationship because of how bad things were for her, and she needs to feel safe with someone, so she's latching on to me," he continued.
"I feel honored by that, but I know the way my life is, and it will be that way for quite some time. Her and I trying to be together isn't fair to her."
"I have a bad feeling that I'm about to lose my best friend. During my lowest points, I was able to lean on her, and she helped pull me out of some really dark places. I don't want to lose her friendship, but from the sounds of things, it's a romantic relationship or nothing."
What do you think he should do?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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