Hi all. Hope to find some suggestions about how to deal with this thing.
There is a boy (well, I should say man, we aren't SO young now ) who I met some years ago when I went to uni in another town. I met him why traveling and he asked me out and I said yes, though I wasn't very sure to like him, but I didn't have much experience with boys and I didn't want to be rude or something similar, so I decided to try with a "friendly" date with him, just to know each other better. It didn't go well, also because he was too "pushy" with physical things, let's say...so I took the courage and told him I didn't want other dates. He didn't seem very happy with the outcome of course, but he accepted it and didn't contact me again.
NOW, I'm working in that same town and I happened to meet him again around. He didn't seem to remember me (or maybe yes and he didn't say, don't know...), but however, he still talked to me and then asked if I want to exchange phone numbers to know each other better. "Knowing" him a bit more, now I said that I prefer not to do it at the moment. We left in a friendly way, but with him saying that if we meet again we can take a coffee and know each other better and so on.
So, how could he deal with this? Honestly, I don't desire to hang out with him. Now I'm a little more confident than before (just a bit!) and so I'm not feeling "obliged" to give him my number in order not to offend him...but I still don't want to be "rude" if I can avoid it. If I meet him again, I don't know if it would be better to take that coffee and during that to say that I don't want anything more (so he can't say I didn't "give him the chance"), or if it's better to say I don't have time and to avoid it...what would you suggest?
Also, do you think it's wrong if I say I have a boyfriend in case he asks me, or if I somehow mentions it, though I'm actually single? I know it shouldn't be necessary, I should feel free to refuse him anyway without inventing that I have a boyfriend...but Knowing that he's insistent, maybe this could help. What do you think?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions