Trying to date a casual friend

I (M29) have been wanting to date this “casual” friend (F29) since I met her about 5 years ago. I say casual because she’s really friends with my friend but we often hang out together when we’re at a gathering together – bbq for example.

Now when I first met her… I wasn’t very experienced in the dating world and I wasn’t certain if she was just being nice to me at the time or maybe she might’ve been interested but because I didn’t want to be a creep or ruin a friendship soooo I sort of just let things be. (Stupidly)

Now just before Covid hit we had a New Year’s party where she was cuddling up with me and we actually had a pretty good time together but there was no sex just cuddling. Which seems like a pretty big sign to me she was interested but when I tried to pursue it later it didn’t really go anywhere – I think she just wasn’t ready for something – but a lot of people thought we were an item because of the cuddling at the party ….interesting isn’t it?

Now fast forward to today and we’re having a barbeque at the mutual friends house finally since Covid has allowed us more in person gatherings and she once again is very interested in me asking me very personal questions, wanting to be near, mentioning how single she is… and I’m thinking OK maybe I will ask her out… this is a good opportunity and I’ve learned lots from previous relationships.

So I did just that— I asked her to hang out and she agreed now the thing is I don’t know if I should have said explicitly the word date but she did agree to hang out one on one – and she is looking forward to it so at this point is it a date or does she just think we’re friends because normally we don’t hang out unless we’re with the mutual friend as well. Is it worth while sort of going back and confirming or just seeing how the hang out works and feeling it out from there?

What do you think?

Edit: someone was being a bully so I had to clarify about COVID