So I (23F) known a guy (27) for a couple of months now and we’ve become friends quickly. From the very beginning he has been very sweet and would hug me all the time but he is generally quite a touchy and flirty guy. I am also flirty but not overly touchy. There has been a flirtatious banter going on for a while, once he even gave me a kiss on the head because i wasn’t feeling well.
Now we have also had the type of banter where we kind of insult each other or pick on each other which was okay until he said something that didn’t sit well with me, so I expressed that. Ever since then he switched his behaviour to being much nicer and much more touchy. For example he would rub my shoulders of i am walking in front of him, or wrap his arm around me if i came up to him, he’s also showed me photos of his whole family, called me beautiful (but maybe that was a joke) etc. To me these are things you only really do with your girlfriend/ boyfriend and especially in front of other people but he hasn’t asked me out yet.
Could this sort of interaction just be purely platonic and he does it because he likes physical touch and it’s comfortable? I reciprocate it because for me it is comfortable and i do like physical touch. I do also like him but I wouldn’t say i necessarily want anything from him. For context we go to university together and all of these interactions happen there.
TL;DR: my guy friend acts overly affectionate towards me and has not asked me out which is making me quite confused