Okay so I (27NB) and aroace, met this guy (34M) through a dungeons and dragons group and we've known each other for almost a year now. I'm pretty much friends with everyone in the group and we meet up every friday. We all chat on discord and typically we all just talk in our group chat we set up but lately he's been messaging me in private dms. Nothing weird just shooting the shit and asking about what kind of stuff I like.
Just to preface this he's autistic so this could just be a social queues thing.
He brought up watching a movie together and I said "sure we could all watch it on discord together some time!" then he was quiet for a few minutes then changed the subject?
Now if it was just that I wouldn't suspect anything. But the last three weeks it seems like he wants to hang out in person outside of group. None of us in group have done that before. His roommate is part of the dnd group too and she would also be there but it feels like he's always the one pushing for it. And somehow these public hangouts always somehow lead to us being alone together for awhile while his roommate does something else nearby? I don't know it just feels weird to me.
He also called me adorable one time and this is probably just a trauma response but it almost gave me a panic attack. I told him I was uncomfortable with it and not to do it again and he seemed to understand but over discord messages it's hard to tell how he reacted.
Oh and I have that I'm aroace in my discord bio and I've expressed aversion to romance in dnd group before so he SHOULD be aware. But I just have so many alarm bells going off telling me he's interested despite all of that.
Should I just keep stonewalling him and ignoring him until he gets the hint and stops? Because as things are right now I do NOT want to see him or talk to him because I feel grossed out and betrayed. (Unfair reaction I'm aware so don't come at me.)