Great first date, forget what next steps should be?

Hello! I have not posted in awhile. Me and this guy matched on a dating app back in the spring of this year, things got kinda wonky, and kinda just fell off talking. We started talking again, realized we had a lot in common so agreed to a date. I am a senior in college, and he is a year younger than me. We ended up talking for four hours, completely lost track of time, and it was honestly the least stressful date (like worried about conversation) I have ever had (I am only 22…only have been out on like 10-12 “first dates”…but still this is saying a lot).

With covid restrictions we walked outside, then just ended up sitting in his car talking for another hour, it all felt very natural. He finally asked if he could kiss me goodnight, and I said yes, and the kiss was so eh at first (we both have not done it in awhile), but then turned into a makeout session, got a lot better. Purely just kissing. It was very nice, especially being absolutely covid starved of physical touch and contact. I only had a handful of dates this year, and all of them just failed miserably. Either just looking for sex, I got majorly love bombed then ghosted, one guy just showed up in sweats and all he talked about was how hungover he was, it just was one hit after the other, one dude blew me off three times during a week with excuses it was so lame, so having a nice long easy date with chemistry at the end was OVERDUE. (and this was all covid safe, I wanna make that clear, my dad has stage 4 cancer I am not just messing around).

SO, its been awhile since I played this game ? Last year I was seriously seeing someone for 2 months before covid hit, i met his family, 7 great dates, and then he all of a sudden he got cold feet. Since then, nothing serious, but I know I am looking for something more consistent and serious. I am trying to explain what I want more, I pushed it off for awhile saying how I just want sex, but realized….I do not want that at all and I was minimizing what I stand for (which women tend to do all the time to please! like! no! we know what we are looking for!). In the middle of making out, I did say how I was not looking for just sex (i definitely think i was the aggressor a bit… i was just horny, like i said though we just kissed for a bit no clothes taken off nothing else), so I felt the need to say that. He said how he is looking for a connection, but he can’t verbalize much else as to what that means, but he is not just looking for sex and he said we are on the same page. I appreciated that, but now here I am two days after the date thinking about this!

Obviously, going to see how this pans out, but this could just easily mean FWB!!!! We both go to different colleges, but are from the same county, at home only live 20 minutes away from one another, but still….just like a hometown hangout/hookup thing? My mind is just thinking and preparing for any outcome. BUT he did say how he wants to see me again, and we discussed schedules, and he said lets see each other at least once more before going back to school, and I agreed. He straight up told me how I am “good at first dates” (that made me LOL), and right before i got out of the car, he said how he genuinely had a good time, and he just wanted to reiterate that, which I thought was sweet.

I guess my point is, whats the next step again in this process? Wait for him to ask me what my plans are? He def is busier than me with two jobs, I have more time on my plate at the moment with being still on winter break, so. I have not bombarded him with texts, we have communicated but minimal amount, so I am trying to leave it like I am a lot more busier than I am, with some “mystery” I guess. I am still talking to a few other guys, but ya know after a good first date in AWHILE I can’t help but be excited, how do I not hyperfocus everything I say now????? I acted all cool before since I didn’t know if I liked him and now I am interested and like GAH, IS THS OK TO SAY???