I wouldn't consider someone who wasn't a "trusted friend" to be a "trusted love interest."
http://laddertheory.com/
XD HILARIOUS
And true, to a certain extent.
Guys and girls can maintain "just friendship" with each other under the right circumstances.
However, I think that it's important for women to have friends of their own gender as well,
overall the longstanding of those relationships tend to last longer. There will (usually) be no wife or girlfriend in the future who gets weirded out by the relationship (sometimes the guy's girlfriend can become another good friend, just not usually right away). There is also (usually) no weird sexual attraction thing to navigate around.
Don't get me wrong. Most of my friends are guys, of my
close friends the gender split it pretty much even. Of my
closest friends I have two best friends, one of which is a guy, and one is a girl.
The guy and I maintain our friendship through a mutual unspoken agreement that we will never have sex. Ever. Unless one should fall madly in love with the other (unlikely - we know each other too well. If it was going to happen, it would have happened). We were friends all throughout the end of middle school, through high school, and even after we went away to vastly different locals after high school. We still hang out and get ice cream when in town - the good stuff. Part of staying best friends is not getting drunk alone together - that just stirs up weird shit.
But he gets me, and I get him. We bug each other way too much in some ways to ever be together, but the friendship is solid.
HOWEVER - he has fallen in love with a lovely girl where he is in uni. He still considers me to be one of
his two best friends, but he is in love with this girl. This involves the very delicate dance of me
not getting too involved in that relationship other than as a supportive "go you!" role. I actually care whether or not this girl likes me. It looks like my friend might want to pop the question soon, and I'd still want to stay friends for life, but under the circumstances
this is ultimately up to her. Because ruining your best friend's love of a lifetime just because you decided to get pissy if she's unsure of you (heck, I'd be a bit on edge too) is pretty much the biggest way you could screw up in that area possible.
My things between my best female freind and I might be more complicated in conversation and on a day to day basis, but long-term it's simple: she'll be my bridesmaid and I'll be hers.
Most girls with
only guy friends will either marry one of them, or wind up lonely.