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Dear Reid,

So I am one of those girls who has all guy friends and hardly any friends that are girls. One problem with is i have no ability to tell if a boy is flirting with me because he actually likes me or if he just wants to be friends. I always get this part wrong but there is this boy and I really can’t tell.

He is a coach for this baseball team and I am a nanny, so we are always at their games. The first time I met him was at the boys’ camp, and from then on when he sees me at the games he always stops to tease me and say something. But then when my boys started going to the camp I would sit watching from a distance he would always come over (out of his way in a sense) and talk to me, or ask me why I wasn’t somewhere. He also started to joke around with the boys I watched.

I haven’t really had a real conversation with him except the day before my birthday but the moments we see each other are moments that are hard to really get more then two words in but to the point (sorry) the other night was my birthday and me and the boys I watch were at his game and he turned to me and mouthed “Happy birthday,” but then only talked my boys for the rest of the night and kinda ingored me. So is he ignoring me to try to get me to like him more or is he playing hard to get? I just want to know if he likes me or is there something that I can do?

Thank you,

Baseball Confused

I know how you feel. First, let’s get one thing cleared up: this guy likes you in a “more than friends” kind of way, without a doubt. So, in all likelihood, do the vast majority of the other guy friends you hang out with, but they’re all in an impossible situation.

It sounds to me like you’re one of those girls who confuses and confounds the hell out of guys. You’ve got a talent for flirting with them and getting them interested in you, but then you never give them the opening they need to take the next step. Thus, you have all kinds of guy friends hanging around all the time, but no boyfriend.

There’s a big misconception out there that guys always have to “make the first move.” In reality, guys NEVER make the first move. Guys simply react to the circumstances they have in front of them. If you want this guy to ask you out, give him an opening. If you want him to kiss you, linger in one of those long pauses to set him up. It’s a biological, deeply ingrained ritual we follow here. If you’re waiting for some magic movie moment when the guy spontaneously sweeps you off your feet, it’s not going to happen. You have to fall into his arms first, then and only then will he carry you off into the sunset.

I’ll leave you with one closing thought. If you think a guy might be flirting with you—even if it’s just a slight feeling or a hunch—he almost definitely is. Guys, on the whole, are not good at the whole romancing thing. We need a little encouragement, even if it’s just those subtle non-verbal cues. You have to do your part to move things along, or you’ll spend the rest of your life as just one of the guys.

Dear Reid,

I recently started hanging out with this new guy I met, and I really like him—just not in “that way.” I know that he wants something more, but I just want to be friends.

I’ve often heard guys say that men and women can’t be friends, because there will always be sexual tension. I’m not wild about hanging out with someone who constantly wants to get in my pants, but I would be happy to hang out with this guy as long as we don’t cross the line.

Is it possible for a guy to be friends with a girl? And how can I be sure that I make it clear to him that friends is all we are?

—Jane Don’t

I know how you feel. Or, perhaps more importantly, I know how he feels. But before we get into what that is, it’s important that we establish a key difference between women and men. For a woman, a “friend” is a person she hangs out with but doesn’t have sex with. For a man, a “friend” is a guy. So, while the boundary between “friend” and “boyfriend” is fairly simple from the woman’s perspective—sex—it’s much more complex and confusing from the guy’s perspective.

As we’ve discussed ad naseum before, men are simple creatures. As such, we are very easily confused. Therefore, while a male-female friendship can certainly go on for years without incident, and there is only one key rule guiding the friendship in the woman’s mind (“Don’t have sex”), there are many more ground rules a woman must observe in that situation to avoid confusing her guy friends.

An excellent article on this very subject recently appeared on This Is By Us, a collaborative blog with a clever URL. For the sake of simplicity, I will paraphrase the most salient of those ground rules here:

1. No hugging or kissing for greetings or salutations. Hugging is only allowed for personal tragedies or blessed events when the emotional significance of the situation blocks out the knowledge that your boobs are pressing against him. Kissing means sex. Always.
2. No sleepovers. Men think of all women who sleep in bed with them as potential sex partners. He spends much of his free time trying to coax women into that bed, so if you get in there, he can’t help but think you want some.
3. No seat sharing. When girls sit on a guy’s lap or next to him in a one-person seat, the proximity is arousing. A possible exception is fitting an extra person in a car that is filled to capacity. While he’ll suffer any indignity not to be the designated driver, it might not be the seat belt poking you.
4. Try to avoid incidental contact. I can’t outlaw this since there are times when the brush of a leg or a sleeve is purely accidental, but try to be careful. You can take steps to not put your arm in his while walking or lay against him on a couch or other things like that. Those things lead to thoughts about sex.
5. As the man said, you never give another man’s woman a foot massage. In fact, absolutely no neck/foot/back rubs or massages of any kind are allowed in a platonic friendship. That’s a lot of foreplay to waste on someone who doesn’t want the main event.
6. No passing judgment on any girl that he dates. Good or bad, it’s the guy friends’ job to belittle and pick apart girlfriends. If a woman does this, it means she wants the guy for herself. So you think she is trashy and dumb? Well, you could have dated him but you just wanted to be friends.
7. No judgments on any of his behavior. This could lead him to think you care a little too much about his well being. No telling him to stop smoking, drinking, or using women. If he is truly being an asshole in some situation, however, feel free to clue him in—that’s what friends do.
8. No asking for man favors such as furniture moving, yard work, or car trouble help. Men don’t like to waste displays of extreme masculinity on women who have decided not to sleep with them. In a pinch you can bribe him to do man chores with beer.
9. No flirting. So if you laugh at his jokes, they better be funny jokes. There is nothing that says “I want you” more than laughing at jokes that aren’t funny.
10. No being attracted to him. He is going to be as attractive as possible in pursuit of other women, so this one may be difficult. In fact, don’t even tell him that he looks good, as that will torment him for days wondering if you’ve changed your mind about him.
11. No confiding in him about boys. While you may not be able to grasp the difference, he is not your girl friend; He is your reluctant man friend who officially hates all men that you date now or in the future. Asking for hypothetical guy advice is okay; just don’t slam him with details about particular guys you are sleeping with.
12. No dating any guy who treats you badly, disrespects or neglects you in any way—that’s just a slap in your friend’s face. He must truly adore you in order to suppress all those natural man urges for your friendship, so at least respect him enough to date someone who respects you as much as he does.
13. You have to let him know immediately if you want to be more than friends. He’s only doing this to respect your wishes. If you ever want more—and he hasn’t moved on to someone else—rest assured that he will too.

Some of these rules may sound harsh, but they are imperative in order to keep the situation clear in the mind of an easily-confused man. As long as these rules are observed, he will not constantly think about getting into your pants, and you should enjoy a comfortable, uncomplicated friendship.

Please note that these rules only apply in a situation where there was initial, obvious attraction on the part of the guy. Almost all rules are moot if he never wanted you in the first place, or if you are already romantically attached to one of his guy friends. In either of those situations, you are essentially a guy to him, so be understanding of this fact if he calls you “gay” for offering him a hug or a neck massage.

Thanks again to moreanonymous from This Is By Us for first putting these ground rules into words.