Hey fellas. Curious to hear about people’s opinions on this.

So before anything I want to clarify, this is NOT asking about “escaping the friendzone” - the situation where 1 person admits feelings and wants to escalate and the other person says no but continues the friendship.

I’m more interested in hearing about what you have seen / experienced with the “friends to lovers” arc.

When I was in school and college it was common to see friends become lovers. In adult life, how often do friends become lovers?

I feel like as an adult I mainly see people meet via dating apps or being set up by their mutual friends and from there it either escalates or it ends. But I don’t see much of person A and person B deciding to become romantic after years of platonic (tho maybe flirty) friendship.

What has been your experience and what have you witnessed?

My take, is that a friendzone is usually a male who wants to date a woman and the woman wants the attention but isn’t interested in a physical relationship. But I can imagine and have seen / experienced situations where both people have mutual feelings and it takes a drunken night or some external pressure from friends for something to escalate. Personally I’ve hooked up with a decent amount of my friends and even after we’ve stayed close. I’ve also been friendzoned, as we all have I’m sure.

I haven’t experienced a friendship becoming a relationship though. And I am asking because I’m planning to make a move on a long time friend who I think is mutually interested in me.