What to do when a friend you aren't interested in asks you out casually?

[stooges]

This is a question I've had ever since I was introduced to the world of dating, and I still haven't figured out the answer.

Say you have a friendly acquaintance of the attractive sex (being a straight girl, I'll make it a "he".) He's very nice and you have things in common and you enjoy talking to him, but you aren't romantically interested in him at all. From the way he acts, though, it's become pretty apparent that he's into you, but he's said nothing straightforward about it. He's just made it clear through his demeanor, or maybe somebody else told you he liked you. Either way, you know you have a friend with a crush on you that you cannot return.

Then he finally asks you out. But again, not in a straightforward, "I am interested in you, let's go out on a date" kind of thing. More of just a casual, "Hey, there's this cool restaurant/movie/venue, wanna go together sometime?" It's innocent enough but still done in a way where you pick up on the 'date' aspect of it.

This is where I get stuck. What is the proper thing to do in this situation? You can't just say the cop-out "Oh I'm busy" because there's no set day. But you don't wanna go into a whole spiel of "We can hang out but I'm not looking for a relationship/I only see you as a friend/whatever" because that's awkwardly presumptuous to say when he didn't even bring up romance in the first place (I've tried this method and trust me, it's extremely awkward.) But if you say yes, it runs the risk of unfairly stringing him along and having a really uncomfortable one-sided date.

I'm in this situation currently. For one thing I am worried about the awkwardness of the hangout should I say yes (I don't know him well, plus I'm just a really awkward person in general, I don't know how to deal with dates and dating protocol lol. much less rejection on either end). For another, I've also sort of started seeing a different guy very recently, and while it's not at all a relationship and we haven't discussed anything yet, I don't wanna make it seem to him like I'm going around on dates with a bunch of other dudes because I'm really only interested in him.

Have any of you guys been in this general situation, and what did you do? I'd love to know your experiences, because I've never known the answer to this question. How, in the face of covert-yet-clear hints, do you make it clear you only want to be friends without making it weird?

[searock]

Yeah I know what you mean, it happened to me some times. If you are in a relationship, just say "sure, is it ok if my boyfriend comes along?" just to make sure they know you are off limits. If you are single, ask him if some friends in common can tag along with you. Tell him like "Sounds fun, who's coming?" so he will be forced to say "Er, I was thinking just us two" so that it will be more obvious that he's asking you out on a date. At that point, say "Why don't we ask Jack Mary and Sue if they come along?", he should get it... if he still doesn't get it, tell him jokingly, "Well don't you think it would be awkward if it was just the two of us? It would be like a date LOL", at that point if he is REALLY naive and *still* doesn't get it, it will not be presumptuous of you to tell him explicitly that you aren't interested in dating him.