tl;dr: not sure if my female co worker likes me back or is just being friendly
I (23 M) have developed feelings for my coworker (24 F). We are both working as police officers, and we have a lot of freedom in choosing who we want to spend our shifts with. Most of the time, if our field manager asks who we want to be with, she chooses me almost every time. I feel like she might have shown some feelings, but I’m not sure; maybe she’s just being friendly.
Some of the things I’ve noted:
- Feeling comfortable: She feels comfortable with me. If we’re sitting in the car and a good song comes on the radio, she sings along. I haven’t said anything about that to her, but I absolutely love it. I’ve asked her if she sleeps during night shifts. She said that if she feels comfortable and trusts the driver, she usually takes some naps. Most nights when we’re cruising around, she sleeps in the passenger seat.
- Taking pictures: She often takes pictures of us together in the car and sends them on Snapchat or Instagram, or just saves them to her camera roll.
- Sharing drinks: When either of us has a drink, we always offer each other a sip (she started doing this). Neither of us wipes the top of the bottle after taking a sip.
- Sharing personal stuff: She talks about her recent relationship, her gym and training sessions, and shares her music preferences, etc.
- Asking personal stuff: When we started a new shift after five days, we were all sitting in the patrol room (where we do computer work or fill out paperwork). She turned to me and asked, “How have you been? We haven’t seen each other for so long.” The thing is, she asked only me, even though there were eight people in the room. She has also asked me about my preferences in women (body type, hair type, etc.), if I would ever have kids, and how many kids I would like. That question literally blew my mind because I wasn’t ready for it.
- Personal contact: We were trying to fix a radar gun, and as I held it, she tried different settings. While fixing it, her elbow rested on my arm and our forearms were together for a few minutes. Neither of us moved our hand until we were done.
Is she genuinely interested in dating me, or is she just being friendly and asking questions? I also know that people usually dont recommend dating a co worker, but I just feel perfect match with her. There is nothing in our rules about dating co workers.