I’ve (F24) had my eye on a colleague (M28)for quite a while now. You could say I have a little crush on him. At work, flirting is always a bit tricky, so nothing more than friendliness has happened between us so far. By the way, we’ve known each other for about six months now.
When we recently went out to eat and party with some colleagues where quite a bit of alcohol was involved I actually became a bit bolder. By chance, we ended up sitting right next to each other at the table, which of course made it easier for me to strike up more conversation again. As the evening went on and I had already had quite a bit to drink, I unfortunately became a bit "touchy-feely". That means I kept leaning on him when I laughed, stayed very close to him the whole time, touched his arm here and there, and so on. Nothing extreme, but maybe a bit much. I just couldn’t keep my hands off him. He felt super attracted to him. He didn’t pull away from any of it, but he didn’t touch me in the same way either. That’s why I doubt that he finds me attractive as well because, in a way, I had already given him a green light.
However, throughout the evening, we kept having intense eye contact. Since we were sitting next to each other, I often sought eye contact while talking. We were maybe 15 cm apart and kept looking into each other’s eyes long after talking. I did it because I crush on him, so staring into his eyes feels nice and creates intimacy. It’s the kind of eye contact I only have when I’m into someone, and the fact that he didn’t shy away from it, does that mean anything? I did feel like there was some chemistry. But maybe it’s the chemistry I felt.
At the end of the evening, when we were all standing in a circle with our arms around each other (usually around each other’s shoulders), I stood next to him, he didn’t put his arm around my shoulders but around my waist even though he’s only slightly taller than me.
I don’t know if what I did was just embarrassing. Maybe he didn’t even understand the signals I was trying to send. Do you think this is hopeless? Or how is it from a man’s perspective in a situation like this? How do you handle this kind of flirting? Did it do something wrong? Should i stay away from him?