We're Just Friends. No, Really

I'm a healthy, reasonably fit, ok looking, heterosexual man. Most of my close friends are women. Most of them have never been my lovers. Is that really so unusual?  Can men and women be close friends without having sex?

One of my closest friends lives several hundred miles away and visited me this week. I introduced her to several local peeps at my neighborhood hangout and a common question was 'where did you meet?'  The answer raised eyebrows every time. We met online. No, not on a dating site but through this blog and her blog.

Oh sure, they said or implied.  A 'blog'. Wink wink.

And you visit each other and just hang out? Wine, music, photography, laughter and that's all? No, uhh, you know?

No. Really.

You mean there's never been any attraction?  I didn't say that. But we decided early on that this would be a platonic friendship. We don't have sex, we don't make out, we don't hold hands walking down the street. We've never done any of that. We do have a 'say anything' friendship; we've helped each other through various difficult times in the seven years we've known each other and we are both in great emotional places in our lives right now, in large part because of the mutual support of our friendship.

Everyone should be so lucky to have friendships like ours. Just friends. Really. Meant to be.