What could possibly go wrong...?

A friend with benefits... what a seemingly simple, yet deviously complex animal. It always starts off so idealistically--I have an itch and I'd like someone to scratch it. I've always had certain rules in place with regard to these situations, to ensure things stay the way they are supposed to be: casual, drama-free and emotionless. For example, and these are just guidelines of course, choose someone you like, but with whom you can't really picture being in an actual relationship with. Also, put some walls up--don't discuss your feelings or do anything that makes you feel vulnerable. What I seem to have overlooked however, is:

a.) For every rule, there is an exception.

b.) Rules-as a rule-were made to be broken.

Because of this, it's become clear to me that all fwb situations have an expiration date. It can vary, depending on exactly how much time is being spent horizontally, but the reality is if you like someone enough to continue banging them for an extended period, chances are there is a connection there, or at the very least, a mutual attraction and trust. This is where it gets tricky... when you spend enough time entwined with someone else's body, you're going to begin feeling something (unless you are a sociopath or just completely jaded and dead inside). It's at this point, the expiration date begins looming. Once feelings are put on the table, I think you have two choices. You can either decide to tear down your remaining walls and see where things go, or you can call off the entire operation. I don't like these options, logical or not.

My most recent experience with this began innocently enough. We both had our walls firmly in place, in fact, we didn't even kiss for the first 2 months. When I asked him what his deal was (since I really enjoy kissing) he said it was a really personal thing for him. 'Okay Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman', I thought, but I couldn't begrudge his point since we were both pretty set on staying detached. However, as time went on (can you guess where this is going?), we eventually did kiss, which led to holding each other afterwards, which led to more kissing, which led to out and out spooning and before I knew it, I found myself seeing this boy as more than just the occasional itch-scratcher. Intimacy is such a slippery slope.