A friend is worried. Something she always thought of as a platonic relationship is turning out to be otherwise. As for us, we saw it coming, but she was confident that the non-romantic feelings were mutual. Naïve, even.

This brings us to the age old question: Can boys and girls be just friends?

They can. And they can't. See, it's highly contextual. Two people of the opposite sex can be the best of friends with no romantic feeling whatsoever, and in a snap it can completely flip. Feelings are developed, but kept to themselves because of the existing friendship-dynamics. If the feelings are mutual, then I would say, it's fine. If not, then it gets messy.

My friend is slowly starting to believe that the feelings he has are a bit beyond "friendship" and things might be a wee bit more complicated. Best route to take (assuming you want the friendship to survive) is to have a sit-down. Not a mafia style one with bodyguards behind you, but have a sit down, eat a biscuit or two, have a cuppa tea (or coffee, or juice, or water) and talk things through. Set your limits, and stick to them. Both of you. Because where you don't want to end up is: Being friends with benefits. If you don't know what I'm talking about, skip this. And don't even try to find out. This can be a feel really good state where it can be a lot of fun, but most often short-lived. Things get complicated, one person falls in love, and then the above scenario is repeated.

And then there is the line of thinking that romance does not exist, and it's all a race for reproduction and creating the supreme human being. People looking for the best-looking, nicest, richest people who drive the nicest cars, are simply trying to carry forward the genes (and the fat cheque books) for the future generations. Darwin would be proud of this reasoning.

Romance is a messy thing, yes? To quote Kelly Clarkson, "It doesn't care how fast you fall, and you can't refuse the call. See you've got no say at all" - when it comes to matters of the heart. And relationships are nice, yet complicated things.