I feel like this question will still be asked 2000 years in the future haha. I also think way more women than men probably would say this is possible.
I do believe it's possible, yes, because I have had some good female friends who I just never really considered asking out, and I highly doubt they ever had romantic feelings for me either. I think what made it easier though is that I didn't often hang out with them one-on-one. We were always hanging out in groups. I think if a guy and a girl hang out frequently on a one-on-one basis, it's going to become difficult to stay just friends. It's almost inevitable that at least one of them is going to develop feelings for the other, and once that happens, the friendship will never quite be the same (for better or for worse). That's just because the nature of relationships is that they never go stagnant--you are either growing closer or you are growing farther apart. A man and woman can only grow so close together before they reach a crossroads where they have to decide where things are going to go. They can either continue to grow closer, which inevitably is going to mean becoming more than friends, or they decide to be "just friends" in which case there is probably going to be some regression in the friendship.
I'm not saying this is true for every single person ever, but I'd confidently say it's the case for like 99% of people haha.
