Nate and I have been hanging out a lot recently. We spend 2 to 3 nights together going to things, talking, and watching comedy specials etc. We have similar interests and personalities, we both hate the left and feminism etc. so we bonded quickly and now we’re close.

I do not have romantic feelings for Nate. I like him a lot as a friend but I do not want to jeopardize our friendship. Nate’s brought it up a couple times but ultimately we both feel the same way. We both care too much about the friendship to do anything.

This past Wednesday Nate asked me to come with him somewhere. I agreed but then had to let him know I wasn’t feeling well cuz I suffer from a chronic illness that leaves me feeling tired and dizzy.

A couple days later, Nate asked me to hangout with him again at an outdoor event. It was freezing and I was shaking even tho I wore one of my nicer jackets so Nate gave me his jacket. Later that night we were driving back to his place to hang out. it was hard to find parking so he asked me if I’d be okay walking a couple blocks. I said i was fine. And then he said “no I’ll find a spot closer because you’re fragile. And you can’t walk in the cold.”

When we get back to his place he cooks dinner and somehow I find myself telling him about this guy I started talking to who is a lot older than me. Nate explains to me all the ways this guy is taking advantage of me and how I’m in danger. I start to understand what he’s saying and it causes me to feel sad. He hugs me for 60 seconds and then gets up to get his coat to take me home and then comes up behind me snd hugs me again, saying, “don’t be sad. I’m sorry” I figured Nate felt bad for me, because he could tell some guy was taking advantage of me and i was ill from my condition.

The next day Nate picks me up to go to a mutual friend’s party. On the way Nate picks up another friend, Ben. At one point during the drive Nate hits the breaks hard and instinctively puts his hand on my knee to protect me. I know Ben noticed and thought something was going on between us but I couldn’t do anything.

When we get to the party, Nate sees another female friend of his so he goes to sit by her and then makes room for me on the couch too and then decides to have me sit in the middle. At one point I get up to use the bathroom and I see another guy sitting in my spot a d Nate gets him to leave and gestures for me to come back. Throughout the entire night Nate is asking me, “how are you feeling? Are you okay? Feeling dizzy?” This is all out of character. Typically we go to parties and he sits wherever and we have to text each to find each other.

By the time we were about to leave, I kind of sensed an every shift in Nate. He seemed distant towards me. As we were walking to his car, Nate says to me “I’m just gonna take you home because I have some stuff I have to get done.” Which surprised me because we always hang out after, but I was cool and understand and said, “yes no problem.” I was also tired so I wanted to lie down. But I texted Nate a couple hours after he dropped me off and no response. He typically texts me back within 5 minutes. I completely underrated if he’s busy but he didn’t text me back the next morning either.

Why was he suddenly so distant? Was it my fault? And why was he suddenly so sweet before that? It’s almost as if he wanted to create the illusion we were dating at the party. Is that true or just in my head? If so why?