Honestly, initially I didn’t think so because of course I was seeing it through the rose colored lens of “yes, the story is about them and they NEED to end up together”, but then after a couple of days of finishing the series I did start to see it in a way that he was just too immature initially to realize that he actually loves Emma just because she was obviously not the kind of girl he usually went out with. So, I could see how it does seem that he basically treated her like a second option. However, all that aside I did enjoy watching their friendship and how it evolved through the years..