When 22-year-old Erin moved into her first home, she never expected her closest friend would be the quiet, 47-year-old man raking leaves next door

NEED TO KNOW

A runaway dog led to an unexpected first conversation between neighbors
She was 22 and starting fresh — he was older, private and hard to read
What followed was a friendship no one saw coming

Brad was the quiet man next door. Erin was the 22-year-old with a runaway dog, a loud laugh and a gut feeling that the man raking leaves across the lawn was about to become one of the most important people in her life.

“I moved in when I turned 22 — I got the house and I got a dog at that time,” Erin tells PEOPLE. “Brad kind of intimidated me a little bit, just because, you know how, like, some people, you can't really, like, pick up on their energy… and his yard was always well kept.”

That initial discomfort didn’t last long. When her dog bolted from the house and Brad jumped in to help corral the chaos, Erin realized she may have just met a real friend.

“It was really embarrassing, but he helped me get my dog, and then that's the first interaction that we had,” she says. “And I was like, okay, he can be kind of cool.”

Soon after, Erin and another neighbor invited Brad to join them for a drink out back — but he declined. “Finally, that instance, I was like, okay, Brad, do you hate us? And do you think we're ugly? Is that why you won't hang out with us?” Erin recalls with a laugh.

Brad remembers those early days just as vividly. “Yeah, I was forced to go over quite a bit, which was fine. I mean, I had a good time,” he says.

The moment their friendship locked in, though, involved a casual garage pop-in and a bowl of comfort food. “His garage is open, and he hangs out in his garage sometimes, and I was hanging out with my girlfriend… I just ran into his garage,” Erin says. “10 minutes later, I come back outside with, like, a bowl of Hamburger Helper he gave me, and I was just so happy with my Hamburger Helper.”

Despite a 21-year age difference — Erin is now 26, and Brad is 47 — their bond formed quickly and deeply. “Every time I talk about it, it's just weird, like, I talk to people — what'd you do this weekend? Oh, I hung out with my neighbors… and if I tell them they're 26, 'Oh Brad,’ ” Brad says. “I was like, I'm old enough to be your dad.”

Erin never saw it as strange. “Nothing about it was odd,” she says. “I think just because there's so much age between all three of us [neighbor friends], it was natural.”

Brad agrees and says it’s about who Erin is. “I don't think she's your typical 26-year-old… I feel like she's got an old soul, yeah, and it's very mature,” he says. “And got a good head on her.”

They’ve become sounding boards for each other through jobs, dating and personal struggles. “We’re both each other's therapists kind of thing,” Erin says. “One time he called… and I was like, Brad, have you considered talking to someone about this specific person? And he was like, ‘Well, I'm talking to you, aren't I?’ ”

Brad says their relationship grew more meaningful when Erin began reaching out regularly. “I'd get a phone call, ‘What are you doing?’ ” he says. “One time I was in the bathroom, and she was like, ‘Are you in the bathroom?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm cleaning.’ ”

Their day-to-day connection includes the deeply mundane and the hilariously impulsive. “That was another random call one night,” Brad says about the time Erin asked him to help dye her hair. “She's like, ‘Will you help me dye my hair?’ I'm like, ‘Oh my God.’ ”

Erin says that came during a tough time. “I went through a breakup that was really, really hard… and I really leaned into Brad to just talk me through,” she says. “Brad, will you dye my hair? I can't reach back there.”

Erin knew what people might think, so she talked to her dad about it. “He said he’s met him, we’ve all hung out… and he said, ‘No, actually, the opposite — that he couldn’t be more grateful that I have someone like him that’s like next to me, because it’s like having a dad,’ ” she recalls.

That trust has extended to every area of her life. “There’s so many things I’ve never experienced that I don’t even know to look at,” she says. “And so he’d be like, hey, you’ve got to clean that out, or hey, it’s probably time to mow.”

When Erin created the now-viral TikTok video showing Brad doing everything from cleaning her door to helping her through a cry session, she added a playful caption: “POV: the new neighbor is a 22 y/o girl who bullied you into being her friend.” But, as she explains, “I didn’t actually bully him — I was joking about that.”

Brad wasn’t exactly clued in at first. “First of all, I didn’t know about the TikTok,” he says. “She’s like, ‘I did a TikTok — I gotta show you,’ and I’m like, ‘What the f---, Erin?’ ”

As the views racked up, so did the comments — both kind and skeptical. “Those ones really stood out for me,” Erin says of the criticisms. “But this one didn’t [hurt my feelings] because I’m so confident in my friendship with him.”

She says that instead of feeling defensive, she felt something else. “It more so made me have more of a soft heart to those people,” Erin explains. “That just means that they’ve never been able to experience a friendship like that.”

There have been moments when others misunderstood the relationship. “I do think I have to defend our friendship fairly often if there’s someone new involved,” Erin says. “My ex-boyfriend at that time, whenever he knew I was starting to really have a friendship with him, he questioned it.”

But Erin remains grounded in what she knows to be true. “I know where my heart is,” she says. “I know where his heart is.”

Brad echoes that clarity. “She’s a very pretty girl… but I just don’t think going that route would be smart at all,” he says. “She’s closer in age to my older son than she is to me.”

Despite the attention, Brad prefers to stay out of the spotlight. “I don’t know, I don’t like being in the spotlight,” he admits. “I’d rather just be low-key.”

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Still, he’s touched — quietly — by the response. “I think that he really appreciates, you know, that people are valuing his character, but he won’t admit it,” Erin says. “Sometimes I’ll get a message, and he’s like, ‘How many views are we at?’ ”

Looking back, both say the friendship has enriched their lives in ways they didn’t expect. “I don’t know, I feel like she’s kind of a friend slash daughter to me,” Brad says. “I don’t know — kind of thing.”

And their advice to others hoping to find a Brad or an Erin? “Be bold, be outgoing, and I think, be yourself — your people will find you,” Erin says. “Those that aren’t meant to be won’t be around.”

Brad keeps it simple. “Just be yourself,” he says. “It was fun just going out and hanging out."