The danger zone is letting these questions turn into a strong attraction on your side and not moving forward with them personally, which turns into territory of pining and sometimes even toxic “friendzone” thinking. It’s not the end of the world if you do get into pining territory, it happens to the best of us and can still sometimes result in a relationship, but you really shouldn’t make this your only response.

Yeah, been there before, not fun

My advice is that when you think you have picked up on mutual attraction, either wait for them to keep flirting and do so mutually or just go straight to asking them out. If you do this early and politely, it will not seem weird at all and you can move past it to friendship if the other party is interested.

Well, I can be more direct with this I think, best to ask early I think