I'm 25, he's 37... I like him, what does he think??

Anonymous
I work with this guy, & after we had worked together about 2 months, he all of a sudden changed the way he acted towards me, and started really staring deep into my eyes when we talked, for way longer than normal, with little sparks of mischief in his eyes. Then he started hitting me on the elbow when he walked past me & I was writing something, which turned into him standing next to me & pushing my elbow for like 10 seconds, when I was having to talk to other people, & I would have to press my arm back so that my arm wouldn't shoot forward, it was all playful, and I started to get the idea that he was trying to get my attention. I started hitting his elbow in return, and as soon as I did he blushed and said "thank you for picking up my iniquity." He also started telling me all the time how pretty my hair was, when I did it up especially elaborately, he would get all moony eyed and his jaw dropped. Now, this guy is very alpha male, so I thought maybe it was just how he acted with women, but as I have observed more, I realized it is just me. A girl at work also said "You and he seem to have more going on than just work, I wondered if you guys hung out outside of work. I definitely thought you were at the very least very intrigued with one another." There was an escalation from the elbow pushing to him resting his hand on my shoulder, & then he left for 2 wks. When he got back, he hugged me,& for 2 days the flirting was even more direct, he even reached out (jokingly) to push my hand away from grabbing something on a table, but then his hand rested on mine and we both froze. Then, the flirting STOPPED. He was nice, just very professional. That lasted for a week, then he walked past me, hit my elbow again, & said, "I haven't been doing that lately, but I'm going to start again, just not as much." I tried not to look too pleased, but it was difficult. It re-escalated pretty quickly,then, it stopped AGAIN, for 3 weeks. Then I wore my hair up to work, fancier than ever,& I when I briefly saw him, his eyes were lit up, mouth was open,& he was grinning like a schoolboy. He said,"Now, THAT you spent time on. That is awesome." His shift ended an hour after I got there,& he went home. 3 days later, we worked together again and he said,"I didn't get to tell you on Saturday, but your hair was incredible. It was like you had superpowers." I thanked him,& he said"No really, I thought you were some kind of superhero."

This is all the overtly flirty stuff, but we get along really well, &he will always ask me about stuff I have mentioned in passing, so I know he listens to me& I know he really respects me as a colleague... but he is so on off with the flirting. He has also taken to telling me how "When you get old like me, such and such will happen." (Knees will hurt, can't sleep late, etc.) I like him, why does he keep saying that?Why is he so on off?
I'm 25, he's 37... I like him, what does he think??
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