Hero & Heroine: "Let's Just Be Friends"?

 "Let's just be friends."

Good Lord. Those four words can send you into a tailspin, crushing your world and causing you to crash land while your heart breaks. It signifies the other person doesn't feel the same "need, want, desire" for you as you do for him or her.

Relationships are so stressing, especially if one person is more committed to it than the other. If one seeks "more" than the other is willing to give, the "just friends" words will end whatever hope for a future the dreamer has.

Sometimes romance books have the hero and heroine begin as friends...and sometimes they're not exactly enemies but end up on opposite sides of arguments. The ones that are friends, seem to fight the attraction pulling them closer together, as if they need to avoid that giant step to a more committed relationship.

When I met my then 24-year-old husband-to-be, he had a 6-year plan of what he would do, where he would be, and told me he wouldn't get married until he was 30. I said, "Fine." I figured we'd date...but I'd already made up my mind he was "the one" for me.

Being "just friends" didn't work out as he'd planned. Five months later, we got married and will celebrate our 40th anniversary this year.

In 4 of my books ("Second Sight Dating" and "Anything You Can Do" by Marianne Stephens, and "Sexy Games" and "Strip Poker for Two" by April Ash) the hero and heroine start out as friends/business associates. Both agree to keep it that way, although neither can resist the other's charm and allure. Passion takes over, lust enters their worlds, and love makes them more than "just friends".

When it's meant to happen, the hero and heroine are fated to fall in love. They can still "be friends", but on a much more interesting and sexy level!


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Photos: Flickr: Tiago Riberio, Juliana Continho, and bobafred's photostreams.