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From the little I see online, it's as likely to be "couple are dating for a few years but not living together, woman is sure this is a relationship and maybe leading to marriage, guy just thinks of it as 'yeah I'm seeing someone but we're not, like, boyfriend and girlfriend or anything'".
Reminds me of the joke, "it takes a woman to fake an orgasm, but it takes a man to fake an entire relationship."
Men will often complain that being a good person and a gentleman doesn't earn them any points or favors with the ladies, despite being raised with the understanding that good and ethical conduct correlates with your interpersonal and professional success in different spheres of life. It's a shocking revelation to most of them when they learn that not only is that not true, all too often, the exact 'opposite' of that was true. The Halo effect is a real thing. Innate physical attraction and social sophistication that comes off as authentic will color all aspects of another person's interpretation of your external behavior independently of the content of your actions. Confidence for example 'enhances' attraction. It doesn't 'create' it. Thinking the opposite is true is just the intangible equivalent of mentally putting lipstick on a pig, and people can see that in your outward expressions and behavior. Confidence won't bring you attractiveness or sophistication if you don't have it from the get go, and acting confident in the absence of that doesn't make someone confident. You simply look like a pompous moron lacking self-awareness.
"Someone once asked who I was to a colleague of mine upon seeing I was going to be doing a upcoming presentation and he said he's like Tony Stark without the fortune or the suit, and the guy replied isn’t Tony Stark without the fortune or the suit, just some asshole?" - Scott Aaronson
Women on the other hand don't understand that sex isn't some kind of vending machine where you give it to a man and a relationship is expected to fall out of that. Women have sex for many more different reasons than men do, but the only valid one to be concerned with is where there's some kind of mutual attraction between both parties, otherwise it's a letdown when women give it away, only for them not to have gotten out of the act what they were trying to manipulate their partner into doing by giving it away in the first place. Mutual attraction on the other hand, satisfies both parties. If it's one-sided it's going to be dysfunctional in all likelihood. A woman who plays hard to get is hard to want. If they don’t reciprocate a similar level of interest that you do, then they’re not interested. Yes means yes. No means no. “Maybe,” is also no. Don’t keep trying if she doesn’t show interest, or excitement or enthusiasm for you; and you’re not a backup plan for her to keep you confused and waiting in the wings to see if it works out with the other man she’s talking to.
You don’t pique a man’s interest by playing games and introducing challenges to his life, his life is hard enough. You show your interest by being forward, removing obstacles and making his life easier. Most women in my experience have absolutely no idea how to attract and keep a man. They do the exact opposite of what they should be doing by 180 degrees.
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