I'm pretty sure he doesn't see me as dating, relationship or even friend material, but I just can't get him out of my head.
We have some friends in common, and both belong to a group of ca. 10 people that meets once a month. We have met for coffee just us, initiated by me, and make small talk. He is always lovely, always says nice to see you/nice to hear from you etc., says he wants to hear about things if I mention something I'm working on. But he is kind of distant.
I really like him, and occasionally send him a message (email) if I can find the tiniest pretext (not very often!), to which he always responds promptly. But I find it really difficult to be myself - I get so nervous, and when I feel like that I try not to say the wrong thing, so only talk a little bit in short sentences, with probably not a lot of genuine facial expressions because I have a tendency to grin too much when I'm excited about talking to someone. So I feel like I'm either a grinning loony or a stoney faced bore.
Is there any way of moving things to the next level with this guy? In our most recent message exchange he said he wanted to learn more about something I was working on, but possibly just to be polite. I said I was available for a lesson in this subject anytime, and he said he was looking forward to hearing more. But nothing specific was arranged. Then I bumped into him the next day and he asked about the subject, but everything suddenly disappeared from my memory and I couldn't tell him anything and probably sounded a bit disorganised. There was another friend there, otherwise I would have suggested meeting some other time.
Is there any point in trying to pursue this? Should probably mention that I still haven't managed to take my wedding ring off, despite having been separated for over a year, which he knows. I know a decent guy probably wouldn't go after someone who still looks attached (emotionally or actually). He is also about 6 years older than me, no children, not married.