Depending on how you approach this person( to become involved or to be friends) most guys will only offer to get the number as a friend when they have been denied it as a love interest. If the number is still given to you as "friend" then you can make this a person a work in progress by being the anti-boy,girlfriend. What that means is you wait in the background and create mistrust in that relationship from the sidelines. By listening to all of this persons troubles and fears you are building your case as the better choice for that person. The trouble with that strategy is that it can blow up in your face because there is no guarantee that this person will ultimately make the switch. Which brings me back to the "Can't we just be friends " line because if you are the second option your vunlerable to getting that line, without the real reason being exposed because you made it seem like that is all you wanted from the beginning.
The most female friends a guy should have is maybe 2 to 3 close female friends( that you call to get a womans opinion on certain things and situations) thats it. Then its safe to say about a good 5 to 8 associate female friends is acceptable but only to call on ocasion to meet up and hangout( either because they are hot or they have hot friends) and might be a potential hook-up. The only guys with excessive amounts of female friends are metro/homo-sexuals because they are more feminine than most guys.
I guess what bothers me the most about those words are that people almost never really mean it. They hide behind it so they can avoid giving you the real reason. Whether the other person respects you as a person could come into play as well and could determine if you get an honest response. It's always good to hear the truth when it comes to conversations involving realtionships and fallouts because than you can get closure and move on. Even if it was'nt that serious to begin with.
C