My Best Friend Married the Man I Once Cried Over

I will not pretend it didn't sting.

Chisom and I have been friends since JSS2. She was there the night Emeka broke my heart in 2019. She held me while I sobbed in her bathroom. She called him terrible things on my behalf.

When she told me they had been talking — "just talking, Ada, nothing serious" — I told her it was fine. And I meant it. He and I had been over for years. I had moved on. Truly.

But watching her walk down that aisle toward him last October — I felt something. Not jealousy exactly. More like a strange grief for the girl I used to be. The one who thought that man was her forever.

I cried at the wedding. Everyone assumed it was because I was happy for my friend.

I was. Both things were true at once.

Chisom is my sister. I danced at her reception until my feet hurt. I helped her bustle her dress. I gave a speech that made the whole room laugh and then cry.

And I am genuinely glad she is happy.

I just also needed to say, somewhere: it was a complicated day. And complicated days are allowed to be complicated.