Do men mean it when they say that they want to make an honest woman out if you?

Friends with male for 8 years (he was my manager for a year then turned friend, we both left the company). We (33) lived in different countries since, but he used to visit every year or more frequently and at least sent an email every couple of months). We both went through something in our career recently and kinda grew even closer (texting each other everyday).

Over the years, he joked about making an honest woman out of me. Went to his city in Aug, he took me out every day for that weekend. Brought up the same joke again and took me to the best restaurant in town for a really nice, romantic, expensive dinner (he introduced me as a friend visiting town instead of anything else).

I didn’t know if he was serious to be honest and never really thought about us in that way. We texted for a bit and he stopped replying me. I hinted that I’m opened to the idea of an relationship days after the romantic dinner (though no idea how we gonna work the long distance). Now I’m wondering if he was truly serious and if I lost him forever. P/s: the last few texts were me sending him without any reply :(

He has always talked about moving to my country/city but isn’t getting any job interviews or offers.

Do men make jokes about “making an honest woman out of you” at all? Or is he just playing me for a response?