Sister Finally Approves Brother’s Fiancée, Only to Learn Her Best Friend Thought She Was ‘Supposed’ to Be His

A woman asked Reddit for advice after a heated argument with her best friend erupted over her younger brother’s engagement. What started as shared skepticism about the relationship has now turned into a conflict that could damage their friendship, she wrote.

“I’m going to call my brother Jake, because it feels like a little brother’s name,” the original poster (OP) explained. Jake, she said, was just 21 when he got engaged—news that stunned their entire family.

According to the post, Jake met his fiancée, Layla, at college through a student group. “They hadn’t even dated,” the OP wrote, saying Jake simply decided they were meant to be together.

The OP admitted she was rattled from the start. “If that story sounds crazy, imagine how I felt hearing it for the first time,” she recalled.

Jake and Layla planned to stay engaged until after graduation, which only intensified her doubts. “I resolved to do whatever I could to help Jake shake whatever madness he was suffering from,” she wrote.

Meeting Layla didn’t ease her concerns. “I thought she was weird and off-putting and didn’t understand why my brother would want to marry her,” she said.

Her best friend, Carrie, felt similarly—and the two bonded over it. “She was my coconspirator in my resolution to end my brother’s engagement,” the OP admitted. Carrie’s reaction carried extra weight, the OP added, because Carrie and Jake had been close for years. “We all always used to say that they would eventually get together,” she wrote.

For a long time, both women stayed convinced Layla wasn’t right for Jake. “She was as confident as I was that Layla was no good for Jake,” the OP said of Carrie.

But over time, the OP’s view shifted. After two years of watching the relationship, she began to see a different side of it. “She and my brother have more in common than I initially realized,” she wrote, adding that she no longer hoped they would split. “She makes him happy, and he makes her happy.”

Carrie, however, didn’t budge. “Carrie still thinks Jake and Layla need to break up,” the OP wrote—even though the wedding was already planned. With the ceremony set for June, the OP felt the situation was no longer theoretical. “It’s happening. Money has already been spent,” she wrote.

The conflict boiled over when Carrie confronted her for backing off. “Carrie chastised me today for not doing anything about the Layla situation,” the OP recalled. Carrie argued that she and the OP had always agreed Layla wasn’t right for Jake.

The OP tried to talk her down. “It’s been two years, and obviously they are better suited for each other than we initially realized,” she told Carrie.

She also pointed out that Carrie had never pursued Jake romantically. “I said she had her chance to date my brother if that’s what she wanted, but she didn’t take it,” she wrote.

Carrie responded with emotion and nostalgia. “She said we had always planned to be sisters,” the OP recalled. In Carrie’s view, the engagement had ruined the future she expected. “Jake wasn’t supposed to get engaged,” Carrie insisted, arguing the timing was wrong.

The argument escalated when the OP challenged Carrie’s logic. “If Carrie loved Jake she would have wanted to be with him immediately,” she said. Carrie took offense and pushed back, claiming Jake and Layla’s relationship was unhealthy. “She also said that their relationship is toxic and rooted in antiquated gender roles,” the OP wrote.

Frustrated, the OP snapped. “I got mad and told her to grow up,” she admitted.

Afterward, she felt guilty. “I feel terrible. Carrie is my dear friend,” she wrote, acknowledging that Carrie’s objections echoed her own feelings from two years earlier. “Everything she said is what I also said two years ago,” she reflected, wondering whether she’d been unfair.

In the comments, some readers highlighted what they saw as a key missing piece: “Did anyone ever ask Jake if he wanted to date Carrie?” one commenter asked.

The OP replied that they hadn’t. “No, we never did,” she said, admitting they’d assumed Jake felt the same way because he often helped Carrie out. But looking back, she realized that wasn’t proof of romantic interest. “He’s like that with everyone. He’s a helpful guy,” she wrote.

She also said Layla appears to match Jake in the ways that matter most to him. “Layla seems like a doer and giver like Jake, and maybe that’s why he picked her,” she concluded.