I am NOT OP. The OP of this story is u/ThrowRA_SonataSpirit.
Trigger Warnings: >!Infidelity, Sexual Assault.!<
One of my (33F) best friends (31F) of 20 years made a move on my boyfriend (36M). How would you handle this?, Posted July 26th, 2026.
For some context, my best friend (I'll call her El) was recently cheated on by her long-term boyfriend. They had been living together, but since the lease was under her ex's name, she's the one who moved out. She asked if she could stay at my place while she figured things out. I live alone, and I'm rarely home because I spend most of the week at my boyfriend's place, so I told her she was welcome to stay.
I WFH three days a week and go into the office on Thursdays and Fridays. Since my boyfriend lives almost two hours from my work, I usually stay at my own place the night before my office days to make the commute easier. During those nights, I'd spend time with El and check in on how she was doing. One day she told me she was getting lonely staying there by herself and asked if I could spend the weekend with her. I really wanted to support her, but I also wanted to spend time with my boyfriend. So I suggested she come stay with us for the weekend instead. I asked my boyfriend first, and he had no problem with it.
Saturday morning, the three of us were relaxing at my boyfriend's house, binge-watching a TV show. I suddenly craved bubble tea and asked if they wanted to come with me. The shop was only a few minutes away. They were both comfortable on the couch and said they didn't feel like going out. My boyfriend suggested I just order delivery, but I wanted an excuse to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, so I went by myself. I was gone for maybe 30 minutes.
When I got back, my boyfriend was standing in the kitchen making coffee while still watching the show from there. El was nowhere to be seen. I asked where she was and jokingly asked why he was making coffee when I had just brought back bubble tea. He told me she had gone upstairs to the guest room. As I reached for my phone to call her down, he stopped me and said, "Before you do, I need to tell you something."
He explained that while I was gone, El noticed something on his shoulder, dust or lint, and brushed it off. He didn't think anything of it because it seemed harmless. Then, without warning, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, close enough that it was almost on his lips. He immediately pulled away and gently pushed her back, completely caught off guard. He said he didn't even know why, but he walked into the kitchen and started making coffee even though he didn't actually want one. I think he was just trying to process what had happened. According to him, El immediately apologized and said she didn't know what had come over her before going upstairs. It felt like someone had pulled the floor out from under me. I couldn't even think of a response.
I trust my boyfriend completely, In all our times together, he's never given me a reason to question his honesty, so I never questioned what he was telling me. I was devastated, not because of him, but because of my best friend. I honestly never imagined she would do something like this. Oddly enough, I wasn't even angry at first. I was just... confused. Why would she do something like this?.... After what had happened to her...
I told my boyfriend I was going upstairs to check on El. He asked me to go easy on her because she was already in a terrible emotional state after everything she'd been through. I knocked on the guest room door and tried to sound cheerful. "Bubble tea delivery for my best friend." Instead of answering, I heard sobbing. When I walked in, she was sitting on the bed crying. She looked completely broken.
Seeing her like that made it hard to stay angry. I still couldn't stop thinking about what she'd done, but I also couldn't ignore how devastated she looked. I decided not to confront her immediately. Instead, I comforted her. I told her everything would be okay and that her ex didn't deserve her. She cried even harder.
After a few moments, she admitted everything.... Without me saying a single word, she confessed exactly what my boyfriend had already told me. She said she didn't know what came over her. She wasn't thinking clearly. For a moment, she wasn't seeing my boyfriend as my boyfriend. In her words, she saw someone else and acted on impulse before reality hit her. I still don't fully understand what she meant by that.
She said she immediately realized what she'd done after my boyfriend pushed her away, and she was deeply ashamed and embarrassed. She kept apologizing.
My closest friend group consists of just four women, including El. I don't want to tell the other two yet because I don't want to damage El's reputation if this is something we can work through privately. So I'm looking for outside perspectives.
One last detail. Later that night, I remembered our living room camera... Even though I fully believed my boyfriend, I still watched the footage to see exactly what happened.
His story checks out.
Now I'm wondering... if I trusted him completely, why did I still feel the need to check the footage?
Does that mean I subconsciously doubted him, or was I just trying to process something that felt impossible to believe? I'm grieving the loss of trust in a 20-year friendship. Is this something you could ever forgive, or is this friendship over?
What would you do in my situation?
Relevant Comments:
u/ShiroLovesKeith:
>She's definitely going through a rough time, but you can't take care of her anymore. She did this the first and only moment she was left alone with your bf.
>This isn't just crossing a major boundary.
>If this was the other way around and it was one of your bf's friends doing this to you- putting his mouth on your face, close to the lips, without your consent... You'd consider it sexual assault, right? Or at the very least, sexual harassment. Well she did that to your boyfriend.
>Even if it was an impulse and you want to believe it wasn't malicious, she still needs to go somewhere else and you need to give this friendship a break.
u/echosiah:
>There is also the very real possibility she is the cheater and is lying about the circumstances of the breakup. Or there was mutual cheating, etc.
>Wouldn't believe anything she says, given her actions here.
OP:
>She has eye witness and screenshots of the conversation between her ex and his "co-worker".
u/Just_Some_Rolls (This comment has been downvoted):
>People here are so happy to throw away a 20yr friendship over a stupid mistake. I’d tell her I understood shes in a shit place, hash it out and if she’s truly repentant I’d wipe the slate clean (assuming boyfriend is also happy to do that). Don’t tell anyone it happened if that’s the route you decide to take, we’re flawed messy humans and shes not a monster for making one action if it is indeed the only once
OP:
>It is really out of character. She never crossed boundaries before. The only thing she cheats on are her diet and exercise sets lol. And when we play hide and seek when we were kids, she will go home and watch TV and we end up looking for her for a while before she comes out and thats about it. She never really showed interest in any of our partners. They are not even added to her social media when she created a private one (She deleted her main account when her last relationship had gotten serious). I dunno, I'm maybe really naive and stpd but....... I dunno it's a mess right now. Thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.
u/SkepticalFaceless:
>I'm going to add a take here that I haven't seen yet. Everyone else's comments are spot on. But there's one thing that sticks out in my mind.
>Why would she do this? The boyfriend knew the camera and footage would exist, so doing anything with her at that moment would be silly.
>I wonder, and I'm just thought-experimenting here, if he was giving subtle signals to her that made her do it, but in a plausibly deniable way. She didn't know the camera was there, so she made her move. He knew the camera was there, so did what he needed to do in the moment.
>Not to say the boyfriend didn't act correctly, or that you should be interrogating him - but everyone seems to not be analyzing the WHY she thought she could make a "random move" on the boyfriend and get away with it, and just tucking it away into her breakup.
>Not necessarily actionable, but something worth considering.
OP:
>Thank you for your input. His reaction was immediate, pushed her back, stood up and walked away. A knee jerk reaction is an instinctive reaction, not a staged performance. As to giving subtle signals, they were just sitting there watching and talking about the show on how King Joffrey deserves much more brutal d***h lol.
u/SkepticalFaceless:
>Yeah I'm not saying thats what it sounds like - its just my method of always considering every angle and eliminating them, especially the unexamined ones. If you entertain this POV for a few moments, and don't find anything that supports it, great. But I've seen cases where people consider the POV and then realize they were missing a bunch of signs due to their situation blindness. Always worth the exercise.
>It's the "hindsight is 20/20" phrase in action. Once you know the truth, all the little things pop up and are seemingly obvious in retrospect.
>If your friends hitting on him becomes a pattern, ask yourself what is the common denominator.
>That said, sounds like you have a keeper!
Op:
>I understand and I appreciate it. I take all opinions and perspective I can get to help me navigate on this one.
**UPDATE** One of my (33F) best friends (31F) of 20 years made a move on my boyfriend (36M). How would you handle this?, Posted August 8th, 2026.
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/relationship_advice/comments/1v6w7nw/one_of_my_33f_best_friends_31f_of_20_years_made_a/
For everyone who asked for an update.
First of all, thank you.
I genuinely appreciate all the advice you gave me. Some of you were absolutely ruthless LOL, but honestly, I think this naive heart of mine needed it. A lot of your comments gave me clarity, especially the ones about the camera and boundaries. They helped me see the situation more objectively and gave me the courage to make the decisions I needed to make.
After my conversation with El that Saturday morning, I went back downstairs to check on my boyfriend. He told me he was okay, and at the time I accepted that answer. Looking back, I also want to thank everyone who reminded me to "really" check on him and not just assume he was fine. In everything that happened, I unintentionally overlooked the fact that he had gone through something upsetting too.
That afternoon, I drove El back to my place. I wasn't about to let her commute while she was in such an emotional state. The drive was almost completely silent. She didn't start any conversations. At one point I asked her, what do you think would have happened if my boyfriend hadn't pushed you away? She quietly said she didn't know. Then she told me she hated that she'd put herself in that position and that she was sorry for causing all of this. That was the only real conversation we had. When we arrived at my place, I stopped the car before she got out and told her she needed to find somewhere else to stay. I told her that when I come back on Wednesday night, I will be needing the space. She simply nodded.
As she walked toward the house, she turned around and looked back at me. That moment broke my heart because I couldn't help thinking it might be the last time I'd ever see my best friend. I started tearing up, but I drove away before my emotions convinced me to take it all back.
Monday night, one of our friends noticed something was off and messaged our group chat to check on El. It probably wasn't surprising. El and I are usually the ones constantly blowing up the chat, and it had been unusually quiet since Saturday. After a little small talk (I was just lurking), El confessed everything. She told them exactly what she'd told me.
Friend 1 immediately left the group chat without saying a word, then she called me.
Friend 2 stayed. She tried to mediate and later messaged me privately. She said she's sorry for everything that had happened and said she needed to stay with El because Friend 1 had already made her position clear. I told Friend 2 that I thought staying with El was the right thing to do. I also asked her to keep an eye on El and encourage her to seek professional help. She promised she'd try her best to make it happen.
Fast forward to today. El and I still haven't spoken since that day, but Friend 2 has occasionally updated me. According to her, El has started seeing a therapist and has been in much better spirits lately. Friend 2 let her stay with her the day after she confessed everything. El has since found her own place and moved in yesterday.
Friend 1 still isn't speaking to El. She told me she won't consider reconciling with El until I've forgiven her, not because she wants to pressure me, but because she feels she can't move past what happened while I'm still hurting from it.
Honestly, though, that isn't what weighs on me. Whether Friend 1 forgives El is between them. What weighs on me is losing someone who had been my best friend for years.
I miss her every day......
But one piece of advice that really stuck with me was to pause the friendship instead of making permanent decisions while emotions are still fresh. That's what I'm doing. I'm giving us both time.
As for my boyfriend and me, we're doing okay. We've had a lot of honest conversations since everything happened, and I apologized for not fully realizing how much the situation affected him in the moment. He's been more understanding than I probably deserve, and I'm grateful every day that he chose to face this with me instead of letting it drive us apart.
Since El seems to be doing much better now, I'm also going to stop asking Friend 2 for updates. I think continuing to check on her from a distance isn't helping either of us move forward.
I know some people will probably be disappointed that I haven't ended the friendship completely. I understand why you think I should end it. I'm not asking you to agree with me. I'm simply not ready to make that decision.
For now, I'll continue with no contact for weeks, months, maybe even a year. I don't know what the future looks like yet, and I don't think I need to decide today. If, after enough time has passed, I feel ready to revisit the friendship, then I'll make that decision with a clearer head. If I don't, then I'll accept that too.
If there's one thing this experience taught me, it's that people can make terrible decisions without being terrible people. That doesn't make those decisions okay, and it doesn't mean there shouldn't be consequences. At the same time, loving someone doesn't mean protecting them from the consequences of what they've done. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do, for them and for yourself, is to step away. I also learned that good intentions don't replace healthy boundaries. I kept thinking that because I trusted both of them, everything would be fine. I know now that trust doesn't mean assuming everything will be fine. It also means having boundaries that protect the relationships and people you care about. As one commenter pointed out, I could have avoided putting everyone in that situation by simply spending that weekend at my place with El instead of bringing her to my boyfriend's house. That was a poor judgment call and I can't change that decision now, but I can learn from it.
Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to offer thoughtful, honest, and sometimes brutally truthful advice. It genuinely helped me more than you know.
I hope none of you ever have to experience something like this. And for those who have been through similar heartbreak, I truly hope you've found or will find the peace and healing you deserve.
Relevant Comments:
u/Wizards_and_Warriors:
>You dont need to end the friendship. Like I said in the first post I truly believe her head was fucked up and she made a genuine mistake. Everyone came clean right away and there was real 'i fucked up' energy.
>She is getting help and it didn't get out of hand, even though it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
>I really think you can forgive her and have your friend back IF your other half is OK with it. It's been overlooked but he is the real victim here and a stand up guy.
>Also your one friend is true ride or die.
OP:
>My boyfriend and I had a real, open conversation about this. He told me he’s okay with whatever I decide, but I want to be mindful not to overlook his feelings like I did before. If the time comes, I'll ask him how he feels again. If he still leaves it up to me, I'll decide. If he no longer feels good about revisiting the friendship, then that’s that.
>"Also your one friend is true ride or die." El was this until she did what she did.
u/Theunpolitical:
>Amazing how quickly El was able to find her own place!
>El is someone who has zero impulse control. I don't know how you'd ever be able to trust her again if, or when, you decide to rekindle the relationship. The trust has been broken, and that's incredibly difficult to rebuild. Right now, I think you're grieving the loss of a relationship that you invested your whole heart in and believed was built on trust. Unfortunately, once that foundation is gone, it's almost impossible to get it back to what it was.
>Best of luck to you no matter what you decide.
OP:
>Thank you, I appreciate you sharing your perspective. It makes sense why you'd think she found a place quickly, as I left out a few minor details like the fact that she was already staying with me and actively searching for her own place before things escalated. I was focusing on getting outside advice on the core situation so I didn't think those were necessary, but I appreciate your feedback regardless.
Reminder - I am not OP.