@Gnomeshatecheese @EmmyNoether Is friendship devoid of intimacy though? How are you defining intimacy? People often describe their partner as being their best friend which makes me wonder if people often consider sexual enjoyment to be a prerequisite for a best friendship. Or if it’s simply more practical to get to know someone very well that you’re also having sex with because it’s an enjoyable activity but high risk in a way that keeping one designated person around for that is beneficial. So a side effect of keeping that person around is that this strong apparent friendship develops.