In an opposite-sex friendship, special attention needs to paid to being honest and open because the potential for romance can create a subtext for this relationship. Castleman calls this honesty speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love grows out of the freedom felt in a secure relationship. So friends who trust each other can be honest with each other. But very often when dating begins before a friendship, emotional entanglements often happen between two people who cannot untie them.
Feelings go assumed and unidentified.
A relationship is out of sync when behavior within the relationship does not match the commitments needed to sustain the relationship. Premarital emotional intercourse. Emotional fornication is relationally manipulative, because it uses the other person for personal gratification. This can also happen when a friendship becomes a dating relationship, but was never examined or defined. Only honest relationships can serve and satisfy both people, so we need to say what we mean, and mean what we say.