Perhaps it’s different where I live, but when one of my friends asked me out, I just told him that I unfortunately wasn’t interested in him, but I still wanted to be friends. We stayed close friends, and I actually introduced him to one of my other friends. They hit it off and are still together seven(ish) years later :)

They live in a different state right now, but we still have yearly get-togethers. I miss them and hope they can move here soon :)