Is it possible?

A bit of context. Last night I was out with a mate. We weren't there specifically to sarge but we were at a bar with live music and were standing toward the stage/dance area.

I notice a HB7 checking me and my mate out but after a bad weekend (car problems, gotta love them) I was more interested at that stage in just relaxing. If something happened it happened but I wasn't going to work for her. I just hold her gaze, smile and leave it at that.

My mate notices her and indicates to me that hes interested so as far as I'm concerned thats enough, shes all his and I'm fine with that.

The trouble is she keeps making eye contact with me and making it blatantly obvious that shes keen. Not wanting to do that to my mate I just ignore it. He goes to the bar to buy the next round and she comes straight over to me, leans up against me and starts talking. As much as this is all a confidence boost for me since I literally did nothing to attract her I'm still not going to do that to my mate so I chat to her so she doesn't leave and when my mate gets back I literally take a half-step back and introduce him. She has a couple of friends - maybe HB6s - dancing so this put me in the wingman situation.

The way I see it though, from a distance all anyone would have seen is this HB7 approach me, my mate come back and steal her attention from me and I move on to the not-as-hot friends. Massive DLV.

We're both naturally dominant guys so both being very much strong alphas then me having to suddenly be so submissive makes me look even worse, like I was competing with him and lost badly.

So back to my question - is it possible to play that situation out again without coming across as my mate's bitch?

I know PUA isn't all about maintaining an alpha persona but no self-respecting woman wants to be with the guy who appears to be picking up his mate's scraps lol.