friends without benefits

a relationship in which two friends are practically dating but there are no s-xual benefits.
“i took her to earth last night—after we had dinner with her parents. and prom’s next week.”
“…did you hook up?”
“no…we’re like friends without benefits.”
see “just friends”
we are good friends, not gonna sleep together, but want to still be friends as in being friends without benefits.
literally, as a reversal of the common expression “friends with benefits” this could mean any platonic friendship–but there are already plenty of words for that most-common of relationships. friends without benefits describes a particular type of a situation where you’ve outgrown or are tired of a friend but through some force of habit (on either person’s part really) they’re still in your life. but there’s no benefit to the relationship for you. they keep calling you up and acting like everything’s everything when you’re around but you’re so relieved when they hang up or leave. and nothing really bad has happened that you could point to and “break up” with them. so you plod onward making excuses and dreading the next time they call. happens most often with borderline sociopaths who are unable to pick up on the stream of cues you give them that they’re unwelcome. also requires you to be too empathic to simply tell them to f-ck off. mutual history also plays a part in this. may be more common in middle age.
i’m not even answering that. just more friends without benefits probably.