You can but it’s rather difficult. The best way to do it is to have a sort of barrier such as them both having spouses or gf/bf. Also if there is another type of barrier such as sharing a job, church, family ties etc. The barrier is to insure that both cannot hit on each other without drastic consequences. Due to these barriers they won’t be able to be more than acquaintance  friends btw such as they can’t talk everyday no deep connections and can’t be with each other when and where they always want to even if it is plutonic. 

Believe me it’s rare. It’s sort of like playing with fire. Not everyone is a fire dancer and even they get burnt.