Whenever I make my rounds at the office I tend to stop and chat with people who are in / say hi. One guy and I discovered we were watching the same show so we chatted for a while about the show, and for the next few weeks whenever I did my rounds and passed by his desk we’d chat about the show and whatnot. I didn’t think anything of it because I chat with everyone.
Then he started coming down to my floor and stopping by my office to chat. The last two times he stopped by he said that we should really get lunch together one of these days. Now I’m not one to assume that anyone who asks for lunch is trying to get with me, but I could just tell by how he asked and how he followed up again that this was the goal. Add to that the fact that I happened to have run into him at a singles mixer in our area a while ago, so he knows I’m single and for that reason probably felt more emboldened to ask.
Now I have nothing against this guy, he’s very nice but I don’t see him that way and regardless I would never date someone I worked with. But obviously I want to handle things in a way that doesn’t create hurt feelings or awkwardness. I can’t lie and casually mention a fake boyfriend, because he knows I’m single. I gave kind of a noncommittal answer the first time he asked about lunch and hopes he wouldn’t follow up, but he did. I still have plausible deniability right now that I don’t pick up on the vibes he’s giving off. I’m thinking if he asks about lunch again I go but invite some of my other coworkers so it’s a platonic work lunch? Anytime I get lunch with a coworker at work a lot of others end up joining anyways so it would be very easy. But I still feel like he might not get the hint from that. How do I subtly indicate I don’t feel that way, but in a nice way?