So many different thoughts on this thread, it's interesting as most of these would seem to come from experiences people have had, it is possible for people to be taken for a ride and it is also possible for love to blossom from a friendship, at the end of it all the only two people who can decide are the two above.

As long as they both have their eyes wide open, as far as that is possible. When we go into any relationship be it from a telephone conversation, meeting in a pub, club etc we can only go by our own instincts, we have to make that choice having taken everything possible there is to know, none of us knows everything about a person, not even when we have married them. Also this is two way, neither know what the other is like, either could be possessive, predatory, and many other things and of course people can get hurt and in many cased do.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is it a gamble, life is a gamble, going out every day is a gamble, meeting that boyfriend for the first time is a gamble, so why not take the gamble but with the knowledge of life.