Search Results: wanting someone thats off limits

I saw someone I casually know, and would like to get to know better, recently in the campus cafeteria. I greeted him and asked how he was doing. Someone else I knew was sitting nearby, so I posititioned myself at a separate table across from and between the two. I asked the guy another question before I thought that I might be interrupting his meal... and so I talked a bit with the other, but mostly stayed quiet since I was waiting for something.

Would it have been alright for me to engage him more? I don't want to come off as annoying or overbearing. And if I had sat at his table, would that have been a bad move? He's very kind and friendly to people, but not so extroverted that I wouldn't be caused to think how my interaction might bother him. I also worry that I may have, by my efforts to not disturb, been unintentionally rude since I didn't say much... or maybe by not sitting with him, he saw that as rude, too. I don't know.

I want to get to know him better, there just never seems to be a good opportunity. I always say too much or too little in the situations where we're around each other, leaving me feeling very downcast afterword. Coming up with what to say is really difficult for me, so I tend to "replay" the day in my head and wish I had done differently.

I'm awkward and I don't want to therefore seem prying or ruin his otherwise quiet, enjoyable environment. It's easier to talk when I pass him outside, but at the same time, that is always very limited by time as we both have places to be.

So... thoughts? How should I handle this? How would you feel? Is there a way I could invite him out somewhere, as friends? Thank you.