Out of Practice

This is a total Generation-Y problem, I realize that at the outset, but it appears that I have forgotten how to be just-friends with a guy, or (more importantly) be able to differentiate between a guy that wants to be just-friends and a guy that wants to hook up with me.

In high school and college, I was an expert at being platonic friends with guys. Granted, I was a bit of an ugly duckling in high school, and dated the same guy for literally 90% of my time in college (I just did the math because YOLO), so the safety net was always in place... but I have always considered myself at least a little bit "one of the guys," you know, generally preferring their company, having lots of friends that maybe yeah I occasionally wondered "what if we HAD dated?" but mostly being happy as a clam that we are platonic. But since moving to the Big Apple and having to start my list of friends almost from scratch, I have not had any male friends that I would consider actual FRIENDS (as opposed to acquaintances) without a fundamental distrust of their motivations.

Maybe I'm just jaded, or slightly slutty, or (at worst) conceited, but lately I've felt like I'm taking crazy pills and even my guy-friends with girlfriends are testing the waters with me. I know that my past history with my group of friends would probably prove that true if I looked closely enough, but the issue is that I DON'T WANT THAT. I don't want to hook up with someone else's boyfriend! I want my own relationship, and now that I've successfully sent out my smoke signals to the universe, it seems to be working. I went out on a really, really amazing date last weekend (before the weather gods started thinking they lived on Hoth and not Earth), and maybe the guy is not exactly what I want for A Serious Long-Term Relationship but it was great to feel those positive feelings again - that's what I want. I want to be able to say things like "ugh, this weather is terrible, my lips are SO chapped!" without having to worry that he's now focusing on my lips which he can't because he has a girlfriend but I can't tell if this is a date or not.

Is 26 the age when I have to say goodbye to having happily-platonic friendships?