So this guy followed me on instagram a few months back. He just reached out to me recently at the beginning of December, replying to my story, sending me memes, causal flirting type stuff. We called on the phone every night for a while, then it became facetime and movie dates where he sends me DoorDash and we watch something together online. We even did Christmas and he bought me a book I’ve been wanting for ages as well as a copy for himself so we can read it together. He’s one of my closest friends despite the fact that we haven’t known each other long, and I am definitely interested in him romantically. He hasn’t ever shown any weird behavior, except for yesterday, when he told me he loves me, which is a little scary. He told me he dates to marry early on, so I knew he was serious about meeting me and being with me, but I didn’t expect this so soon. He doesn’t mind that I don’t want to say it back, and in fact doesn’t really want me to say it back right now. He just wants to express what he feels for me more than anything. Is this a major red flag? Should I run? We were going to meet up in a few months but everything I’m seeing online is telling me this is a manipulation technique. Although I don’t feel like I’m being manipulated; I feel like he’s moving fast, and that he probably just really really likes me, but I guess that’s what people who are being manipulated would think? I’m so confused. I was going to upload images but this community won’t allow it so I’ll transcribe the convo in case yall want to know exactly what happened.
[I sent a photo of me and my cat]
Him: I love you both
Me: you don’t Loooove us
Him: I love Luna (cat) and I love you
Me: Luna I get
Him: I know you more than Luna
Me: Yeah but cats don’t have flaws
Him: I love your flaws
Me: (gives deeply personal and genuine list of everything wrong with me that I will exclude here)
Him: all of that makes you who you are
Me: I guess
Him: you don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love their flaws. And if any of that causes problems in the future, we’ll figure it out
Me: Does it upset you if I can’t say it back? It’s just a really heavy set of words. Daunting
Him: No, I am definitely not upset that you don’t want to say it back. I just think it’s important you know how I feel. Of course I hope in the future you would say it at some point, but I don’t want it to be forced. I want you to be comfortable. It makes me feel better that you don’t want to say it yet
Anyway, I just want to know what others think of this