How do you deal with having a crush once you get older? I feel like a high schooler again

Alright, so I’m 25F and I’ve been in relationships before, but I’ve realized recently that guys have usually just… come to me. I’ve never really had to sit with liking someone without knowing if they liked me back, or worry about making things awkward or ruining a shared space.

Anyways, I met a guy (31M, let’s call him Guy A) through a local weekly meetup for a shared hobby back in October. At the time, there was another guy from the group (Guy B) who was very obviously into me. I was honestly too nice back then and didn’t shut it down quickly, so I’m pretty sure Guy A assumed I was involved with Guy B or at least entertaining it.

Eventually I told Guy B I wasn’t interested, he got really upset, and then he stopped coming to the meetups altogether. I also avoided meetups for a while because that whole situation made me uncomfortable.

Between November–December, though, Guy A and I still interacted a lot.. mostly through the group chats. Nothing overt, but it felt very intentional. Looking back, he caught my attention before I’d ever really talked to him in person (and yes, maybe I’m a little delusional, but it didn’t feel random).

Fast forward to now: Guy B hasn’t been around anymore, so I finally went back to a meetup today.

At first, Guy A and I didn’t talk. I was nervous and didn’t initiate. But later on, he started a conversation with me about the hobby. Eventually he actually walked over to me on his own and we had a casual, normal conversation, nothing deep, just “I’m from here,” “I do this,” etc.

The part that really stuck with me though was when I was leaving, the group was going one direction and I was going the opposite way. He literally moved around someone else to come up to me and say “bye, it was so nice finally getting to see you!” Idk why but I thought him going out of his way just to tell me bye was cute 😭

There was also a moment where I jokingly sounded disappointed about something related to the activity, and when I looked up, he was looking at me all concerned like “are you okay?” Like I was on his radar enough for him to be worried if i was upset haha

So now I’m sitting here like… okay. It seems like he might be interested? And I’m realizing that I actually am too.

But the problem is I feel like a high schooler again. Thinking about him makes me nervous. The idea of talking to him freaks me out.. even though I want to talk to him. I also don’t want to fall into the pattern of him always being the one to initiate, because I don’t want to accidentally give off disinterest.

So, How do you deal with having a crush as an adult?

How do you stay normal about it, especially when it’s someone in a shared hobby/community and things are slow and ambiguous? What should I do next? OBVIOUSLY I barely know the guy so I’m not trying to be like “omg I like you let’s go on a date” i just want to get to know him better

Any advice is appreciated 🥲