Cna u be friends with someone who u have feelings to?

I had a crush on a guy and we started to be so close to each other until one day he decided to talk to me and both opened up and talked about our feelings, admitted there was something between us. But i said to him i still need more time to get to know him first So he asked if I could see potential for something more, like even marriage, and I said yes. He said yes too.

Then he asked mentioned the religious since he’s Christian and said ideally he wants his future wife to be Christian too. That’s a huge difference, since I’m atheist.

Cuz of this we end up agreeing to take things slow and “just be friends for now ” to see where it goes.

Still, we continue to seeing each other. We went out to study, but he kept doing sweet things like giving me a tight hugs play with my hair, pay to any stuff we pay ( although i end up sending him the money back ) saying cute stuff, cooking for me, holding my hand when i get out of the car.

I did the same—cooked for him once, gave him a little gift card with a sweet note.

Anyway since we agreed to stay just friends i felt guilty to do all of this so i apologise to him and said to thst im still working on making boundaries and control my feelings. about a week after he also apologised too for what he did

Anyway, then one time i talked to him how its very confusing to me and i said to him why are you doing all of this like i feel u make me attached to u....

He said that i made a big deal out of it and he meant nothing and its okey cuz this is what friends do!! Then he said that even our convo ( when we open up to each other ) its cuz that some girls tend to flirt with him and when he ignored them they flirt even more cuz they thought he didnt get it so he wanted to let me know from the beginning that he knows i have a crush on him and that nothing can happen between us!!!!