Work romance?

Hi everyone!
I hope you’re all well.

I will try and keep this short and sweet. Let me say that I already know that a work romance is a bad idea, but thought I’d ask for some advice regardless.

I’m a teacher and the guy I have a crush on starting working at my school 2 weeks ago. He is the only male teacher at my tiny school, attractive, too. So, upon meeting him, I was almost instantly attracted. We were rather awkward on the first day, but on day 2 we quickly broke the ice and exchanged contact details. He expressed wanting to start a friendship with me and I agreed. Later that night, we texted and he mentioned that if we ever end work at the same time, we should walk out together. He has since walked me home a handful of times, even today, checking in on me and personally asking if I’m ready to go. We often talk about all kinds of things on our walks, but refrain from physical contact as we are both skeptical I’m sure of things going romantic and then going wrong. One day I suggested meeting outside of work, and he agreed. He told me that he wanted to ask, but doesn’t want me to feel uncomfortable with the idea. I said I wasn’t and we agreed to meet up a few days ago.

We are the same age, but he doesn’t own his own car as yet. On the meeting day, he managed to get a car and picked me up from my place. I’m new to his city, so he drove me around for a bit and showed me some places. Then eventually took me to a nice restaurant. He knows I do not eat pork, so he told me he had researched restaurants without them and really wants to get to know more about my mind, my culture and religion. Anyway, we went to the restaurant and hit it off in conversation. Chatted away for about 2 and a half hours, until he suggested moving to a coffee shop. After dinner, I felt instantly closer to him as we shared many bonding, intimate details about ourselves. However, we still tiptoe around what is going on between us. There was no handholding, in fact, I feel like we have an invisible wall between us that we are both wary of crossing. When we arrived at the coffee shop, we spoke even more… Deep talks about things I’ve never really spoken about with others. Things like childhood, philosophies, deeper things, etc. He even suggested we meet up next time and read together at a coffee shop since we both enjoy reading. Eventually we were discussing about something on his phone and I had to lean in and we both just had our faces leaning into each other, but one of us would always pull back. As a whole, the evening made me feel good. Of course. I feel as though he has put a lot of effort and thought into this. Eventually, after spending 4 hours together, we decided that we should head back as we had work the next day. He dropped me back home and there was no kiss or any kind of physical touch. Although I sometimes feel like it’s lingering in the air.

I’m just wondering about what his actions could mean. Probably needing some validation, too. I understand that it would be best to ask him myself, but as I said, I feel like we are both afraid to approach the topic.

He was the one that suggested meeting again, actually suggested two activites. He seems sincere. I’m just confused about whether or not this is just a work friendship or if there is more. Let me know what you guys think!

Thank you.