How to go from good friends to dating

Ashley: The second time around, after he’d lived in Seattle, he just showed up on my doorstep and kissed me. Also, it really doesn’t say much for platonic friendship if you can only be friends with people you aren’t attracted to.

Kelly: The person I want to hang out with most is right next to me when I wake up.

When he showed up in Indiana the last time, I was terrified to try and date ANYBODY for real.

But it quickly felt natural and right after all that talking and sharing.

Also, if your friend doesn’t share those feelings, don’t be angry with them. I would have liked it to be more then, but it wasn’t, so we became friends. Brice: I always harbored a greater appreciation and respect for Maggie than “just a friend.”Maggie: The best year of my life. The company had just gone through some big milestones and I was totally fried. The moment we saw each other – we hadn’t seen each other in a while – it was on. Of being alive.’ It was real life, better than I could have imagined.

(So far.)Brice: We could say we’ve been together for a year, but we could also say we’ve not been apart for eight or nine or 10 in many ways. Pretty much out of the blue, he said, ‘Look, I need to get out of town. It just made total sense, and was a complete surprise at the same time.

Ashley: No matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I’m with Kel, we can turn it into a good time.

We don’t just like each other, we also like A LOT of the same stuff.

Plus, he’s fun to talk to about anything because he’s animated, opinionated and hilarious.

When we broke up nine months later, all the usual post-breakup awkwardness and bitterness were multiplied tenfold by the fact that we were forced to hang out whenever our families got together, which was often.

On the flip side, when we rekindled the flame after college, our friendship and the friendship between our families became one of the best parts about our more-than-friendship.

Dating a friend is widely recognized to be a pursuit fraught with potential complications.

If it works out, great — but if it doesn’t, well, there’s a good chance the friendship won’t survive unscathed.