The Friend Zone

Josh Copeland moves from South Dakota to California to join the fire station to which his best friend, Brandon, is currently assigned. Josh comes from a big family and has four sisters, so he is observant and empathetic and immediately notices the subtle clues about Kristen’s undisclosed health condition. When she admits that someone recently tried to break into her house, he shows his protective side and decides to spend the nights at her house to watch out for her.

Josh is also competent, flexible, and patient. He proves himself capable as both an emergency responder and as a carpenter, and he and Kristen develop a closer connection when he starts building stairs for her tiny dog business. Kristen can tell that he is strong, dependable, and caring, and she is impressed when he even wins the affection of her dog, Stuntman Mike, who doesn’t like many people.

Throughout the novel, Josh is respectful of Kristen’s boundaries, even when her decisions obstruct their path to a deeper relationship. Josh understands that while she is dating Tyler, having any kind of relationship with her is not possible, and even after she and Tyler break up, he respects her desire to limit their relationship to a “friends with benefits” situation.

Josh is close to his family and someday wants to have a big family of his own, but when he finally learns that Kristen may not be able to have children, he is willing to reconceptualize how they might create a family through different means. When he was dating Celeste, his desire to have children conflicted with his girlfriend’s resistance to the idea and ultimately ended their relationship. Now, however, he is willing to be flexible as long as he can have a romantic relationship with Kristen.

Sloan Monroe has been Kristen’s best friend since high school and is also her foil in terms of personality traits. Sloan is ladylike, demure, and idealistic, and she is also a sensitive artist. Knowing this, Kristen loves to say vulgar things to shock Sloan and play pranks on her. While Kristen immediately puts up boundaries to resist her attraction to Josh, Sloan is innately romantic and believes that Kristen and Josh are meant for each other. She also intuits that Tyler is not a good match for Kristen. She envisions herself, Brandon, Kristen, and Josh spending the rest of their adult lives together and raising families alongside each other.

Sloan is deeply nurturing, and in some ways, her support fills the void that Kristen’s cold and disapproving mother has left in the protagonist’s life. She helps Kristen to deal with her medical condition and listens compassionately to her worries and fears. Sloan first met Brandon when she rushed Kristen to the ER years ago; at the time, Kristen was so dangerously anemic that she had passed out. Though Sloan does not always agree with Kristen’s approach to relationships, she listens and gives her the space she needs to make her own decisions.

When Brandon succumbs to his injuries following a deadly motorcycle accident, Sloan is plunged into grief and laments the fact that Brandon was taken from her before the two could even get married. During this crisis, Kristen has the opportunity to support her friend, just as Sloan has always supported her. Seeing Sloan’s devastation also helps Kristen to realize that she needs to pursue happiness with Josh while she is still lucky enough to have him in her life. Sloan’s grief forces Kristen to realize that she should seize the present moment rather than worrying about the hypothetical problems of the future.

Brandon is Josh’s best friend; they met when they were in the Marines together. Josh would never have met Kristen without Brandon’s influence, as Josh only moves to California to work at the same fire station that Brandon does. Brandon chooses Josh to be the best man in his wedding, and his own demeanor with his friends and fiancée proves that he is stable, loyal, and supportive. He believes that Josh and Kristen will have chemistry, and when Josh is confused about where he stands with Kristen, Brandon encourages him not to give up on her. Brandon knows Kristen fairly well and also has access to more personal information about her via Sloan.

Brandon serves as a role model, given that he and Sloan provide both Josh and Kristen with a positive example of a healthy relationship. When Josh grows confused and frustrated by Kristen’s boundaries, he easily ignores the bad advice that Shawn, a fellow fireman, often gives him, and he instead depends on Brandon to provide more reasonable pointers on how to treat women respectfully and gently. When Brandon is killed in a drunk driving accident, the loss is devastating to everyone. His death forces Kristen and Josh to confront their feelings and decide to risk building a relationship with each other because they realize how short and fragile life can be.

Tyler, an active-duty Marine, is Kristen’s long-distance boyfriend at the beginning of the novel. Due to his military responsibilities, they have never been together in person for more than a few days or weeks at a time. Because Kristen is so independent and is keenly aware that she cannot have children, her marginal relationship with Tyler suits her because he is not interested in raising a family. However, Sloan believes that Tyler does not fit in with Kristen’s life and friends; she suggests that Kristen is “settling” by choosing Tyler over Josh.

Tyler acts as a foil to Josh. They are both handsome men, but Tyler’s style is more refined. He prefers sophisticated food and drink and more elevated cultural events, like theater, while Josh is happy with pizza and beer and enjoys going hunting and watching TV and movies at home. Notably, Tyler is mildly disgusted by the natural process of menstruation and avoids sleeping with Kristen during her period; by contrast, Josh is extremely comfortable discussing the matter and being physically close to Kristen during her period. Given that Kristen’s mother—who acts as one of the novel’s key antagonists—prefers Tyler, it is clear that Josh is a far better partner for Kristen. Even though Kristen believes that Tyler is an emotionally safer option, she doesn’t love him as deeply as she loves Josh. She only clings to her relationship with Tyler because she knows that he would not be disappointed in her inability to have children. Midway through the novel, Tyler calls Kristen to tell her that he has changed his mind about coming home and will be reenlisting instead. With this obstacle out of the way, Kristen must confront all the other reasons why she is afraid to form a deeper relationship with Josh.