What to do?!?

[tuonda]

Hello everyone!

I need some help in interpreting the following situation.

There's a guy at work that is quite new. For all intents and purposes, let's call him Paul. I haven't talked with him much but I kept getting vibes that he might be gay. The other day, I saw him with another openly gay cashier (who I will call Jerry) and it seemed that the other cashier was trying to pursue him. Jerry would follow him around, try to be really close to him, etc.

Anyway, I didn't really get involved and just observed all of this from a distance. Today, however, the store was quite dead. Paul came up to me and first told me that he saw me at the mall a few days prior (which is unusual I might add considering we don't know each other all too well) and started making small talk. All of a sudden, he asked me. "Hey, do you know Tim, one of the other cashiers? He freaks me out quite a bit." He then continued explaining that Tim had asked him to be his friend on Facebook. and suspected that Tim was gay. Paul then told me that he was gay but was not at all interested in Tim. He also told me that Tim was quoted as saying he was jealous of how Paul and Jerry were around each other all the time. Paul told me that Jerry and him were only friends.

I didn't immediately tell Paul that I was gay but I did say that Tim had also added me on Facebook and now knowing Tim's alleged intentions, it all made sense why he wanted to friend request me. Paul and I laughed a bit after and then Paul picked up a pack of mints to buy. It seemed to me that he was buying these mints just as an excuse to talk longer. He then offered me a few and had to go clock back in from his break.

After a while, he went on break again and came up to my register to talk. Even though I was busy, he still wanted to stay and talk more. It was again just more small talk. He had to go though since his break was up and because I had a line of customers. Before he left, however, he told me he hoped he would be placed a register near me so we could talk some more. He ended up getting placed near me but not enough to really talk to each other. Although, every time he had a problem with the register (due to him being new), he would always come to me even though there were cashiers that were closer to him.

I ended up going on my break and decided to help Paul a little more with training which also gave me the excuse to talk to him a little more. After my break was done, I ended up once again getting placed at a register that was close by but not close enough to say anything to each other. I told Paul where I was going and he said, "Well, we won't be too close to each other but at least we will be able to see each other!" I found this to be a little suspicious. I also looked over at him at one point and he was looking straight at me.

So, all of this considered, what would you interpret the intentions of Paul to be? I'm not sure if he is just being friendly toward me or if he likes me. I'm also worried because I notice that Jerry and Paul seem to be really close although Paul said they were just "friends from work".

I also don't know how to approach getting to know him. I might not be at this job for too much longer and our shifts don't seem to overlap quite a bit. Also, he's on the fritz with management so I'm hoping he doesn't get moved.

I ended up finding him on Facebook through another mutual friend but I'm hesitant to send him a friend request because of the fact that Tim creeped him out by sending him an unwarranted friend request.

What would you do?

Thanks for your help!