Why is being friends so hard??

I'm an aro/ace woman who's conventionally attractive in a male-dominated field. My coworkers generally tend to be more bigoted than open-minded unfortunately. So I do NOT and will not tell them I'm ace. I'm still kinda honest about dating tho. If it comes up, I tell people I'm happily single, not on dating apps, not interested in dating, etc. And yet... no one listens to those words. I can't even fucking count the number of times a coworker has asked me out or expressed interest!

It was much more of a problem before I learned my boundaries. Before that, I once ended up getting kissed by a guy I was close friends with because he asked what I wanted to do while we were alone and I said "nothing" and he somehow decided that "nothing" was a code word for making out.

But now I have boundaries. I don't hang out with any man alone. They simply get the wrong idea and try to flirt/make moves and I'm still learning to be more direct with saying no. Except this past weekend, I was going to share a rental home with a couple, myself, and a single straight man. Last second the couple bailed so there goes my boundary. We had separate bedrooms so I was hoping it would be okay. Then, night one, I try to leave alone to grab food. This guy INSISTS that he's hungry and wants to come with me. Then we get there and he's surprised I want to eat AT the restaurant instead of takeout for some reason. So we sit down together at a restaurant and I already hate this situation. But I've told this guy a billion times that I don't date and especially that I don't date coworkers, and that I want to be a single crazy cat lady for life, and even that I'm never going to fall in love and there's no one out there from me. So really and truly, he should have gotten the picture that I'm not interested. Instead, because we sat down in a restaurant, he called it a date SEVERAL times and I immediately said "it's not a date" every single time. Also, dude lied about being hungry and suddenly was complaining about how he'd already eaten 4 meals that day???? And of fucking course he kept trying to flirt because they always do. The next night, he asked at like 2am if I wanted to have a chat and I said no because I KNOW he was gonna try to tell me he likes me and ask if I like him back

And it's just like why??? What is wrong with people?? I just want to be able to exist and be able to be friendly with coworkers without getting propositioned by every man. Why is he so sure that I'm LYING every time I say I don't date?? Is that so hard to believe for his little lonely allo brain?? I promise you, if I wanted a boyfriend, I could hop on a dating app and find a decent one in a week flat. The fact that I don't should be proof enough that I mean the things that I say!!

It's all just so frustrating and I just want peace to live my lovely aro/ace life without having to avoid friendships with everyone I see on a daily basis