I don't know if anyone would ever quite be able to put their finger on it. My YF just took to me from day 1 and it wasn't long before he was blithely facing down friends who would screw their faces up with a 'why are you talking to this geezer?' expression. An elegant but quite socially maladroit filipina teengirl sat with us one day in the mall and worked me over with questions about who I was and what the nature of my relationship with the boy was - at the end, he was so furious at her for having a go at me that he never spoke to her again.

He's at the peak of his 14 yo declaration-of-independence (but keep feeding me) phase and I may be a good sounding board separate from his parents, but his parents and I get along like a house on fire too. So much so that I immediately reassured him that I considered him to be my primary friend in the family. He instructed his folks not to come with us on some occasions because I was his friend and they weren't allowed to steal me. Lol. We are all having fun with this conspiracy - the parents and I sneak our friendly chats in when he's not around.

Some of the neighbors began to think the boy must be gay, but that all ended when one of the more talkative ones caught him in passionate smooch with a girlfriend in the back alley one day.

I think it's just God-given love and I don't question it.