Why is she lying to this guy about being single?

[Anonymous]

My female friend keeps lying about being single to a guy she knows likes her. She is currently dating someone. This guy has asked her out and she always says she’s busy and at least once said she wasn’t interested in a romantic connection to this guy. She continues to let him hang around. My question is why is not just cutting this guy off. Does she have feelings for him or just using him or something else. I’ve told her to just cut the guy off he’s at best just a friend but not that of a close friend and she won’t.

She has feelings

She likes the extra attention

[MoniqueTLC]

Keeping the guy around is giving her extra validation, boosting her self-esteem with the attention from him. It's pretty selfish behaviour if she's currently dating someone else, and also not fair on the guys she's already with.

She's got to decide who she wants to be with instead of playing both of them. The guy should also take her flaky behaviour as confirmation to move on.

[anon1903]

Probably likes the extra attention. Probably unhappy with her current relationship. Yeah, she's at fault.