You like them. You will not be saying that out loud.
You have feelings. Rich, specific, detailed feelings that you are absolutely not telling them about. You maintain the illusion of being casual while quietly running a background process of constant emotional analysis. You pull back right when things are getting good — not because you don't care, but because caring is the scariest thing you do. Someone got through once and you're still recalibrating. The people who make it past the wall discover something worth everything. The problem is the wall keeps out people who weren't built to wait.
Get your read — free on iPhoneyou guard yourself because you once gave someone easy access and they didn't treat it like the privilege it was. you remember exactly how that felt.