Hey so I’ve been pondering this for the last week and I really need some advice on if I should say anything or just leave it.

Some context:

We are both autistic and I’ve known this guy friend for the last two years of my high school when I moved schools. We’d hang out in his group of friends on and off at school (this was before we’d graduated) and he’d sometimes invite over to hang out at his house just him and I a few times and we’d just sit and play video games and go for walks together with his dog which was always nice. He’d usually be pretty quiet when talking to me so I’d be the one starting the conversations most of the time but that was always fine with me as I really enjoyed his company as one of my only friends at the time (although I noticed he was generally a lot more talkative with his group of friends which truth be told he’d known for a lot longer than he’d known me). Then I had a small crush but I didn’t see any reason to say anything as he wasn’t giving me any reason to think he liked me more than a friend.

Now let’s fast forward until a week ago, just a few months after graduating last year, having no contact until he messages me out of the blue to see how I’m going and asking how my new year is. Over the last week we’ve started reconnecting over text, with me leading the conversation a lot of the time after that, though it seemed he was a little more talkative now (not much but a little bit). We haven’t spoken in person but since he’s texted he’s often been ending our chats with the red heart emoji or the blushing smile emoji, and returning the compliment to me after I tell him how much I enjoy our chats.

This has slightly confused me as well I’m not sure if this is a sign he likes me or he’s just being extra friendly (he never used to use those before).

The thing is he’s asked to spend time with me in person soon and suggested he’d take me to a club to hang out after I said that I still hadn’t been to one yet (we are both of legal age).

Now I’m completely oblivious to a lot of social cues/hints so I have no idea if he is implying that this will be a date or not as he hasn’t specified and I’m not nervous to ask. My previous crush on him has started to turn into proper feelings and I really want to know if he feels the same or not so I don’t get my hopes up…

The only problem is that he’s moving to uni a few hours away in the next month and I’m staying in our home city for mine. I know we will keep in contact but we will both be busy a lot and quite out of reach from each other.

I really want to ask as we are hanging out soon but I don’t want to risk our good friendship but if he likes me there’s a really good chance we could make it work.

I just need to know if this is a good idea to ask as least if he only sees me as a friend it won’t be the end of the world and I can focus on uni.

Thank you for your time and have a good day/night where ever you are.