intimacy

My mom has a friend who happens to be a guy, they're really good friends. They work at the same place and have known each other for years. He's a really nice guy, I like him a lot...the total opposite of my mother, quiet, mellow, rational. So he comes over every day, and has been coming over every day for about six years now. My mom cooks for him, he does stuff around the house for her, and they have a nice compansionship.But in MY family, you can't have anything without a little controversy. We pretend to be all nonchalant about it, but it's obviously just a front as we spend hours analyzing this relationship and most of that analysis revolves around whether or not mom and this person are more than friends?I say no, they're just friends. They're two lonely people who enjoy each other's company and both get something out of it, he gets a hot home cooked meal and she gets her gutters cleaned (no matter what chore I pick, it just sounds like innuendo, dammit). My sister and sister-in-law think I'm deluded and even worse, prudish. But I really don't think I'm in some "but ewwwww, that's my mommy you're talking about" state of mind, where I can't possibly imagine my parent as a sexual being. I just don't see that level of intimacy two people share, where you can look at them and say, "Yup, they're screwing."But my point here is this, can two people of the opposite sex NEVER be friends without people thinking that sex somehow fits into the equation? And not just two straight people because even when it's a gay/straight friendship, inevitably somebody thinks that the straight is trying to flip the gay. Hell, can two gay or lesbian people be good friends without the question of whether or not they're fucking ever coming up? Do all relationships with the potential for sexual intimacy have to be realized in order for them to be understood? Or am I really just a prude who can't think of people I care about doing the dirty dirty?