Do friends go on vacation and have sex together?

Okay, ridiculous title, I know. But I need some help figuring this guy out because I have never been so unclear on someone’s intentions!

I met this loud-mouthed, stubborn, typical alpha male in September while out with someone friends. I was so turned off by him at first but he kept chasing me and I ended up agreeing to go out on a date with him. I am alpha female of the friend group…not a choice, just what role I guess I fit into. I am pretty strong willed and I guess I have that strong personality and either get along with anyone and everyone without much effort, or just completely clash with someone every now and then. But generally I am fun and like to be fiercely protective of my friends and loved ones. This has served me well in life. We texted a few times a week and sent a lots of Snapchats back and forth. I dislike talking on the phone so I did not press that issue. When we decided to go out on a date, we had a lot of fun together and spent the night together. I assumed he would be that typical guy and get up in the morning and leave right away and we would go about out day. But, he didn’t. He stayed until around 4:00pm and we just had lunch together and watched movies and it was a lot of fun. We continued talking and I felt like we were pretty casual and just having a good time. We spent some more time together. A couple of weeks ago he asked me if I would like to go up state with him and spend New Year’s with him and his family/friends who live up there. I wanted an adventure. I wanted to get out of town and it seemed like the right thing to do, so I told him that I would love to go. We made the plans and he asked if he could spend the night the night before we left.

Okay fast forward to the vacation. I had literally no expectations of how this was going to go. I did not anticipate him paying for anything except for the hotel. I had told him we could take my car since he bought the hotel for all four nights. He gets to my house the night before we were going to leave. We slept together and stayed up talking for hours. He definitely has a confident, alpha-male air about him. He is not afraid to talk about anything and he talks a LOT! He remembers things that I tell him too…he did ask a lot of questions that night about things we had talked about a few times. So when we left for the vacation, we had 8 hours together in the car. I was thinking we would definitely know whether or not we could get along in that time. We had so much fun, even just in the car. But I started feeling like he was talking to me like a friend. He calls me “dude” or “man” or things like that, but also will call me babe or sweetie. That was pretty confusing for me, honestly. Once we got up there, we went right to his friends’ house. He introduced me to everyone and we all had a very fun time. He was attentive and kept asking me if I was okay, if I was having fun, etc. He was definitely hanging with the guys as the night went on and I was having a good time with the women who were there. We all seemed to get along very well. Late into the night, things were winding down, some people left, and I fell asleep on the couch. A little while later I woke up and could hear the guys asking him about me. He kept saying “She is cool. She is so much fun and seriously so cool.” They were all saying that not all girls could come and meet people and just automatically click with them and fit in. The one friend was like, “Dude she is amazing, you need to marry her.” (Whoa, but lol.) He just kept saying how much fun we have and that I am cool and things like that. Is that sounding like he is saying I am cool as a friend? That was unclear to me. We continued the trip and he would go from calling me dude and messing around with me, to calling me babe and kissing me on the head and holding my hand. We kissed at midnight. He gave me his gloves. He took care of me, I felt. But all weekend he would be super sweet, and then kind of joking around and not as sweet. It was back and forth and I could not grasp onto how he really felt about me. The other thing was pictures on Facebook. I posted a couple of us together and tagged him. He did not post any of the two of us, just of scenery and things we were doing. He left the pics that I posted on his wall. I am more someone to post everything that I am doing and who I am with, maybe he is just different? But I did wonder if he was trying to avoid being seen with me on a vacation. He told his friends that we wanted to spend one whole day alone, so we went on a winter hike and then got dressed up a little and went out to a nice dinner. He paid. I paid for a few meals and he paid for a few. I do like to be fair as I make my own money. I jokingly mentioned to him that I felt like he was not very affectionate and he got a little defensive and said, “I have cuddled you for four nights straight, I took you out to a nice dinner last night, I brought you on vacation…how am I not affectionate?” I guess affection to me is physical touch. He does not do that as much as I would. After we were up state for four days we decided to head home and take our time stopping and looking at things, and then to visit another group of friends who live a few hours from us. When we got to that friends’ house, everyone seemed oddly excited to see me. They hugged me hello and asked, “Are you the new girlfriend?” He did not correct them. They were referring to me as his girl. One of the friends pulled me aside and said, “I know he is hard to deal with sometimes but you seem really cool and I already really like you better than his ex.” So that was nice to hear, kind of validation that he is not just hard for me to take sometimes. We had a ton of fun there. He was having me sit on his lap and hugging me and kissing me. But then again! Calling me dude sometimes and jabbing at me a little bit like he would to a friend! I just kept feeling very confused. He told me the password on his phone so that I could get in and change the music and I did the same for him. I did not seem him on his phone hardly at all. He said to me at one point, “This girl who dated my buddy keeps texting me and I don’t want anything to do with her, but she keeps texting.” A couple of times that I picked up my phone, he was like, “Oh are you checking your Tinder?” I told him that I don’t have Tinder. I wondered if that was his way of being like, “We are not exclusive, you can talk to other dudes.” Maybe I am wrong though? Once we left there, we got home really early in the morning. He didn’t go home, but stayed and slept over. That night he held onto me the entire night long. I have never been able to cuddle all night with someone but I could with him. It felt really comfortable and it made me start to wonder what his intentions are. We did not have a ton of sex. That is weird for me because I would have sex three times a day with someone I am really into. The next morning we woke up and had breakfast, and instead of leaving right away he stayed and watched movies and football. We cuddled on the couch and even held hands. Then he left. he gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye and told me how much fun he had. He texted me after that too and we talked a little.

So this is my big thing…I have never dated another alpha and I would appreciated some help figuring out what all of this stuff means. I do not want to overthink and ruin it but if he only wanted to be friends I really need to know that.