DEAR MISS MANNERS: I work with a girl who thinks we are the closest of friends, but we aren't. In fact, I find her irritating at best. We've worked together about two years now, and four months into her starting work with me, she was proclaiming I was her best friend.
I've never considered her much more than a work acquaintance. We've hung out socially once or twice, mostly because I feel bad because she doesn't have that many friends outside of work, but now it's gotten to the point where if I don't sit with her at a meeting or eat lunch with her, she gets mad at me. She wants to be around me all the time.
I've also just recently become engaged, and now she very presumptuously says she wants to be included in the wedding planning. I don't really even want to invite her to the wedding, but I know she is going to expect an invitation, as our other colleagues (who actually ARE my friends and have been for over a decade) will be invited to the event. I don't want it to be awkward at work if I don't invite her, but I don't want to see her on the big day. What do I do?
GENTLE READER: Give her a job -- an appointment of honor that will keep her busy and far away from you throughout the wedding and reception. Minding the guest book or looking after wayward children are good examples. Miss Manners realizes that this may not solve the more long-term problem of disengaging with her as friends, but with any luck she will complain to others that she was being used -- and want to discontinue the friendship herself.