“That’s not salacious?”
I call my buddy ‘mate’ a lot. He knows that I have no sexual desire for him.
“I call my buddy ‘mate’ a lot. He knows that I have no sexual desire for him.”
I can only assume you’re just being facetious now, since your original comment specifically used the phrase “desirable as a mate”, which removes any ambiguity as to how you were using the word.