What it
means is: "I really like you as a person,
obviously enough to have dated you all this time. However much I feel
we might not suit as a couple, I would hate to
lose you from my life".
What it translates like in some male brains, for some bizzare reason, is "I am a sadistic bitch who takes pleasure in cruelly fucking with your head."
I'm friends with virtually all my exes. But that's just because I never developed a taste for self pitying adolescent dickheads. Hey, call me strange.