Anonymous wrote:Yes, but under certain circumstances. I had a male friend that I was close with before I met my husband. There was never anything, nor has there ever been anything, physical between us. DH knows him and is friends with him too. I am good friends with my male friends wife. This works.
I have another married male friend that I am close with, but we only see each other with other people around. We text occasionally and if my DH were to see the texts, there would be no issue. However, with this male friend, I believe there is physical attraction with both parties. That said, we both know that anything beyond a friendship wouldn't work bc our friendship is more like a sibling relationship. Not sure if that makes sense, but basically, neither of us would ever put ourselves in a situation that would create temptation. DH knows him as well.
I've been both of your friends to different people.
I have a female friend whom I liked way back in high school, but after all these years we really are like siblings. I get along with her husband and her family. We go on day trips alone to NYC or Philly together and argue like siblings the whole time. The thought of anything sexual with her makes me feel uncomfortable as if I were thinking about a relative. That NEVER happens when I think of any of my other female friends, which brings me to the second friend you described.
I also have friends with whom I could tell there was mutual attraction but we respected my/our marriage(s) and our friendship enough to not acknowledge it or put ourselves in situations that could cause any deeper feelings to develop. We most certainly didn't go on a day trip together or allow an emotional affair to develop by talking about our relationship woes.
The interesting thing is that after I got divorced I ended up sleeping with almost all of them. They weren't all mutual friends, but they were aware that I'd slept with ___ or ____ since I got divorced. They didn't seem to care. Some were just sex. Others wanted to see where a relationship might lead. Only one explicitly stated that she'd been harboring feelings since I was married. The rest swear that it never crossed their minds until we both found ourselves single.