I knew it the moment she told me about your first date that I was starting to lose her. You had already started to find your way through the intricate maze that is her heart, and just like she’d said, this one was different. You were (and are) the goofy to her earnest, the unruly to her structure, and just the right amount of different to have the makings of her perfect man. You started dating my best friend, and in a blink, months had turned to years, and I’m finding pictures of that perfect princess-cut diamond ring staring back at me in our iMessage stream. That ever-guarded heart that had kept my secrets under lock and key, cried with me on my front porch, and sang with me in my kitchen while we ate brownies and lime ice cream; that heart had been stolen by you, and, while stealing is a crime, not even I am condemning you here. You broke the line of jerks that had come before you, and I knew that, because of you, I would never have to worry about getting those tear-filled 3 a.m. phone calls ever again.

Yes, sir, you have surely done what none before you have been capable of doing. However, you still need to remember that you are the lucky one here. You’re the one who gets to wake up in the morning and know that you have one of the greatest people in the world lying right next to you (trust me on this one). You’re the one who gets to listen to her jam to '90s alternative music while she’s baking pizza in the kitchen, and you are the one who gets to laugh for hours with her over her third-degree sunburns and never-ending territorial battles with your cat. You’re the man who gets to spend the rest of your life with the best person I’ve ever known, so don’t you dare (not even for like, two seconds) forget how lucky you truly are.

We were never the girls who dreamed of the perfect wedding. We were too busy making plans for the trouble that we were going to get ourselves into that weekend, or scheming all the crazy adventures we would go on that next summer. I don’t think either of us ever anticipated that we would be where we are right now, in this time where her last name is changing, along with the person who is first in line on her list of “best friends” (well, for her). However, I knew that this day would creep up on us eventually, and now that it’s here, I must admit that I’m glad you are the person who’s stealing my person away from me. That’s who she is. She’s my person. Growing up, her house was my house, her mom was my mom, and even now, the struggles that she experiences are my struggles too. I love her. She has always been the better half of me, but now you are her better half, and while the loss is incredibly hard for me, you are the one who swooped in and stole my best friend’s heart, and the happiness and warmth that she feels in her heart for you is equally felt in mine.