Help me analyse this

I’m trying to understand a confusing situation with someone I used to be somewhat close, and I’d appreciate outside perspectives.

We work in the same environment, sort of (we coincide shortly in the morning and more in the afternoon) and have known each other for a short while. There is a seven-year age difference between us (I’m older). Both of us are autistic, and I also have OCD, which sometimes makes me overanalyze social situations, so I’m trying to get a more objective read on this.

For some time we had a connection that was somewhere between friendship and something more ambiguous. She clearly saw me as a close friend and there were even feelings between each other, but the age difference stopped her from going further so we settled for friends for the time being, which was fine by me. Anyway, at one point she told me I was basically the only real friend she had at that moment. I cared about her too, but I struggled to call it friendship because I often felt a lack of emotional presence and stability in the dynamic. I tried to explain that my way of experiencing friendship requires feeling emotionally accompanied and understood, and that I didn’t quite feel that yet.

That conversation went badly. She took it very personally and became defensive, and at one point she was quite rude and even sort of aggressive. After that there was a very brief WhatsApp exchange where she kept being rude and in response I told her she was insufferable and blocked her. I can confirm she has deleted her number now, from WhatsApp.

The following day she approached me and tried to return a gift I had given her previously. I didn’t take it and walked away, ignoring her. She then placed the gift on top of a trash bin in front of me, which felt dissapointing, and was the last direct interaction we had, at least from my part.

Since then we still see each other in the same place. What confuses me is her behavior after the conflict: on some days she tries to initiate small talk or subtle contact with me even though she started sitting far away from me (and now I do the same because why would I want to be near her?). I’ve overheard her asking other people where I’m going or what I’m doing. Sometimes she seems cheerful and normal, almost as if nothing happened.

From my side, I’ve stayed distant and cold, because the way things ended made me lose trust and when I'm near her I feel on alert mode. At the same time, I don’t feel completely closed off — if she ever approached me directly, acknowledged what happened, and wanted to talk honestly, I think I would be open to that. The thing is: so far she doesn't do that, which proves my point on why I didn't see her as a friend. Her overall behavior proves my point, I think.