the following has been written from all my past experiences..so they have been true for me..but i guess it varies with everyone else, but what the heck :p

just now as i was doing the laundry
and i just thought about this and decided the topic for my post tonight

you know what's harder than asking a girl out?
..it's getting her answer

you never know what she's gonna say..it's either a 'yes' or something else..something else almost always being 'no' in the end..
e.g. 'maybe', 'we'll see', 'i'm not sure', 'i'm not well', 'i'm not up for it', 'i might have plans', 'i'll get back to you'..and countless similar words and phrases that they can come up with in a split second..girls are really good at that- i know, cos..i know :p

well whether or not her excuses are true, the fact that she gave you an excuse not to go out with you ultimately meant that she doesn't want to go out with you anyway..so you say 'what if they're really not free?' well did they suggest another date instead? if the answer is 'no', then you never had a chance when you first asked her and you should consider giving up- no wait you should give up..but again it's not that easy if you really liked her and thought things would get somewhere, but then i'm not here to address that problem :p

i mean if she really wanted to go out with you, but really cant (her excuses are valid, she's not lying :p) then she will suggest another day..unless she's playing hard to get..then..i have no idea..haha

if the girl suggests another date instead, then she's giving you a chance to take her out..if she cancels her current plans to go out with you instead, she shows an interest in you, and that's good..it should be safe to continue pursuing her if the outing goes well..provided you want to..

and finally, if you're still unsure whether or not a girl will go out with you when you ask her out, you have to analyse her response..if you didn't even mention any details (e.g the date, time and venue), and she gives an uncertain reply (i'm not sure, we'll see) or an outright 'No' then you know for sure she's not interested..really..she wouldn't go out with you even if you ask her out everyday for the whole of next week..and the week after..unless you change the situation (make her fall for you etc..but i'm no master in that haha)..if you've provided the details and she gives an uncertain reply, you might have a chance, but again, it's probably a 'no' because- they never get back to you about it, unless you ask them again (which then they will then give you a certain 'no')*

in my opinion- girls should just give a straight-forward 'no'..it's not about 'hurting a guy less' if you give him an obscure answer, it's saving the guy the trouble of trying to figure out what she means so that he can make plans to go out with his other friends instead :p

* thanks to master chung sin for the info!