u/Cheeeemiiiiii — reddlx

I’m 27(F) and there is a regular customer that comes to the cafe I work (he’s 40) and whenever I’m he comes in and I’m alone in the barista, he will chat up with me and ask some questions here and there. He asked for my name once and I told him but I know he didn’t remember the next day cuz my name is hard lol.

But if there are other coworkers around, he doesn’t say much. This only started happening now for 3 weeks. For context he’s a manager at a restaurant 2 building down. He gives off a very nonchalant, cold vibe but when we talk he’s very much chill. Usually when he comes, I always make his coffee a large (he orders Small) and 3 times now he has come to drop off food for me without me even asking and leaving it with my coworkers.

So he got my number from a mutual who I’m not close to at all and asked me out for lunch to repay me being nice to him whenever he comes to the cafe and even though at first I said he doesn’t have to, he replied with he should still take me out for a simple meal and that it was no pressure. So when we went out to eat, it was really nice for me and I asked for his age and that’s when I found out we had 13 year age difference so throughout the meal, I would tease him a little about his age and he confessed his previous ex was 30 (so randomly) and that was it. But after the meal, we went home separately and hugged briefly but after that he kind of went radio silent. I sent him a reel on iMessage and he didn’t react to that and on Monday, he didn’t come for his usual coffee but then on Tuesday, he came up behind me and surprised me before standing on his side waiting for his coffee and sat in the seat for a little while.

Yesterday I went to his restaurant to eat and I thought he hadn’t noticed me but I did observe he kept hovering around in the vicinity instead of being in the office and randomly he brought over 3 drinks for me and my friend and then walked away (like whatt stop playing with me). And on our way out I thanked him when my friends were cleaning up the plates and he said “aren’t you supposed to be off today?” And we had a brief convo before my friends came and interrupted.

What does this even mean? Should I be the one to make the next move or am I just mistaking his kindness for being delulu. Someone help mee.