in all honesty OP, im taking the side of the guy on this one because i have been in exactly this position before. me and this girlwere best friendswe could talk for absolutely hours and hours about the most random of stuff. she used to give me advice about girls (even to the point she used to look out for me, as in if a girl was the right person for me) and i used to help her out with anything and everythng, even stuff she didnt tell her girl mates. she was such a great person, had such an amazing personality (or so i thought) and was quite beautiful as well, i started liking her. at first i thought it was a harmless 'crush' phase but as weeks and months went by i started to realise i actually loved her. thing is she he kept dropping me hints that she might be interested, stuff like ' if i dont find another guy, me and you were going out' or 'your the only decent guy i know, im gonna end up getting or marrying you', now i knew these were said in a joke context but i always thought there was some truth in them. also she was very upset with her bf at the time who was a illeterate ba****d who used to mess her about and she said i will finish him soon and stuff. thing is she she kept messing me about for a while sometimes saying we got a special FRIENDSHIP while othertimes hinting she likes me. i couldnt take this anymore, even though she was the only girl i had truly loved in my life so far she was playing with my feelings so after that i just started to ignore her.
so basically said, i definitely side with the guy on this (no offense to you OP)