Turning someone down...what do you do?

[Ilove8Trax]

I was just curious to hear any stories that involved turning a person down for a date or whatever. For example, some guy or girl approaches you and asks for your phone number or date, but you are not interested. What do you do? Sometimes i feel like i am just too nice and feel bad making something up even when i am not interested and know i will not answer the phone if they call. Any experiences out there?

 

[katerkat]

If it were pretty much a stranger, I'd give a fake phone number. I did this to an intern at a company I was temping for. If it were someone I just plain didn't like...I used a dumb excuse so he'd get the point. I once told a guy I couldn't go out because Scott Wolf was on Saturday Night Live! If you'd rather be polite...I'd go with the "gee, I already have plans" every time he asks until he gets the point.

Now I just wave the wedding band hand! (And yes, I've been asked on dates despite having the rings! What is the world coming to?)

 

[Keli]

I think soft hearted, easy going girls have a harder time with this than no nonsense types of folks. I know what my daughter's solution is though. Basically unless there is something terrible about the person that weirds her out she usually says yes to one date even if she's not attracted to the guy. She seems to find it much easier to say "You know, I'm not really interested in hooking up or anything but if you just want to hang out as friends that would be really cool" after they've went out once and then she just treats them like she treats all her friends. It seems to work really well for her and she rarely walks away feeling like she's just hurt someone's feelings. But since Ashli tends to date guys for long stretches her most common response is usually "I'm sorry, I've got a boyfriend".