I learned this lesson despite my best efforts. I'm a bit of a sap and will get attached to a woman I date, to my detriment. In two instances I did not: one was a woman where after a couple of weeks I asked if she wanted to go exclusive and she said "I don't know" and I said "sure". We definitely became exclusive after that but every time people asked us if we were dating I would immediately say "nope" and the subject would be dropped. Barely messaged her except to ask if she wanted to grab food or come hang out. Finally met her parents after about a year and a half to watch the Super Bowl at their place and after that, I let her know that I was kinda fond of her and wouldn't mind becoming official. A month later she "got a new job" in a faraway town and left.

Instance two was a woman whom I met through a friend and I could sort of tell there was a mutual attraction, but I had just lost a shit ton of weight at the time and was still a bit cloistered in my interactions. Still I ended up cold DMing her to hang out one night and she said sure and treated us hanging out like two buddies shooting the shit. On the way to my car I turned to speak to her and she leaned in to kiss me so I went with it. She left my city for work a couple of months later too but that wasn't a surprise, but I kept things at a tempered level with her and every time she came back into town she would have a couch made ready at my place though she never slept in it. That finally ended when she questioned my aloofness one visit and I just shrugged and said "you know how I am".

Juxtaposed with my last girlfriend, where I hugged her a bit too long before she left for work to her saying "gosh, you must really like me". A little while after that she called out another man's name while we were having sex.

Some men learn these truths later than others, but its imperative that men learn these truths.