So I appreciate your responses and I'm not necessarily just plugging my ears and trying to hear what I want to hear. To me, she could have said "I don't think this is going to work out." She didn't say this. She could have said "I think we should just be friends." She didn't actually say that either. She say "I'd like to hang out as friends." Assuming she means this, she's saying she actually wants to make the effort to hang out more. To me, that's unusual and makes me think about what more there might possibly be going on here.

OK, so I'm also not intending to make generalizations. I'm actually kind of trying to do the opposite of that. Instead, I'm trying to imagine what this one unique woman might be thinking.

What I mean is that because all women are different, isn't it reasonable to think that this one maybe, actually, just wants to slow down and see what could happen? I mean, I hung out with her. I know how the dates went. And I personally feel like it's possible that the problem in this case is possibly not the typical "let's just be friends." Specifically, I'm wondering if she is maybe a bit guarded for some reason related to her past. Like she's been hurt before and doesn't want to be hurt again and doesn't want to rush into something. And so she wants to take a relationship slowly.

And she also doesn't want to lead me on. She maybe wants to be able to get to know me, consider if she could be with me, but not have the pressure of feeling like she's in a dating situation.

And, I mean, she's 37. So why does she want to make friendships with guys? Why wouldn't she want to move right on to the next guy and leave me behind if she had no interest in me?