Why is a male friend protective of a female friend?

[Anonymous]

A friend and colleague is very protective of me. He finishes my drinks and takes care of me when I have drunk too much. I often have the impression that he is looking at me to check that I'm okay. I often feel his gaze upon me. He defends me when others don't listen to me. If I'm chatting with other guys, he's already had to come and get me so that we can leave by placing himself between these guys and me. I can't figure out if it's just a friend taking care of me or if he might be interested. But he doesn't talk a lot to me when we are alone. For example, he tells me about the weather, and whistles. Why can a guy act like that?

[TommyMountainFigure]

I' guilty of doing that too.
I have female friends that I view as sister figures. It goes back to when I was a kid getting bullied almost every other day and then turning my life right around.. Ya know, first hand experience of how it feels to be bullied and I won't let that happen to my friends, especially girls. I feel like I want to protect them.

[Iron_Man]

Males are very protective of the women in their life

[TrueConfection]

It sounds to me like he has a crush on you. He might be afraid of losing you all together by telling you his feelings.

[Anonymous]

Either he has a thing for you or he is just a really nice guy and you should ask him out

[In_Trance]

that seems lame