New to dating, first relationship in years

[ironwhaleman2004]

First let me say I'm new to the dating scene and this will be long, but any constructive advice will greatly be appreciated. I was burned bad in high school and kind of shut that side of me down. Now that I'm trying to date, I've had trouble meeting women. I don't like bars/clubs, so I don't meet many women. So the first women I've been attracted to in a long time ended up being someone I work with(please I don't want to hear about how I shouldn't date a coworker).

 

She's been with our company for 6 months and at first I wasn't interested in dating her. We were friendly but didn't talk too much. Then 3 months ago, we started hanging out outside of work. Very quickly we started getting dinner 3-4 nights a week. Hanging out for hours talking. After 2 weeks or so, at the end of the night I asked her if she'd like to go on a real date. I was afraid of becoming just friends. She blushed and I caught her off guard. She said she had to think about it because we were coworkers.

 

Giving her space to think, I didn't reach out to her. She called 2 days later though to get dinner. Which I took as a good sign. And we went back to dinner 3-4 nights a week. This went on for about another month. During this time, we did a few thing I don't think you would do with a normal friend. We would chat on the phone till after midnight on work nights(let me say we have to be a work between 6 and 7), we went to a dessert place to specifically get a dessert meant to be shared, I would put my arm around her when we walked outside in the cold, we went hot tubing, she opened up about an abusive past relationship, and she would feed me tastes of her meals at dinner.

 

A month after I asked her out, we got a free dessert because the waiter said we were a cute couple. That night I asked her out again. Still the only thing she said was we were coworkers and she would think about it. She called later that night and we chatted for 2 hours.

 

And so we went on hanging out 3-4 nights a week. After 3 week I decided I needed to have a serious conversation because I was/am confused. This time she told me how she broke up with her boyfriend of 4 years 6 months ago. It sounded like it was a bad relationship and they were coworkers. That is why she is unsure about dating another coworker. She said she finally had a job she liked for the first time in years and wanted to focus on that and wasn't ready for a relationship right now. She said she wants to be friends for now but maybe in some time we might date. She said she came to my company for a reason and maybe it was to meet me.

 

Right now we're not spending as much time together. Kind of taking a break.

 

I guess some of my questions are:

Even though she said she didn't want to date, her actions kept making me think she did. Is she interested in dating but maybe hesitant?

I don't want to be pushy and keep asking her. How can I tell if she is ready?

Should I have been a little more assertive with my flirting? I am extremely new to this.

 

I know some people will say move on. But I like her, I think she likes me, and I don't like many women.

 

So any help here or tips to help me in the future will be appreciated.