HELP I WANT ADVICE!! PLEASE!
I’ve been working part time at a library for almost five months on Wednesdays and Fridays. Every evening before I go to work I get a sandwich at the same shop. I was kinda crushing after one of the employees there (who looked maybe 25, admittedly old for me) and was pretty sure the crush was at least a little mutual, but I never acted on it. Recently, this employee gave me his number and we’ve talked a couple times over text. HERE’s the thing, I’m eighteen (like I just graduated highschool six months ago) and I recently learned this guy isn’t 25, he’s 35 (that’s 17 years folks). When we realized this he seemed weirdly comfortable about it and said it was fine with him which kind of took away a lot of my initial panic for some reason. When I expressed my concerns of “Hey, that’s kind of weird.” He said he was perfectly fine with being slow about it or we could just not. That was like three days ago. I said I’d consider it because to be honest I had no clue how old he was when I first met him and it was the same on his end, also I’m stupid.
But he’s very quickly gotten affectionate, despite him saying he was just happy going slow (and me saying I wanted to, plus I haven’t technically agreed to anything yet), and has told me very personal things about himself (including difficult mental health struggles) that have made me feel guilty which I didn’t ask to hear (again, we’ve been talking for three days). He’s also stated he really likes me (he might’ve said he loved me actually, but it was over phone call and I couldn’t hear him well and couldve easily misheard it) and imagines it’s me when he’s cuddling a pillow and calling me all sorts of pet names. Which seems like way too much for someone who knows maybe two of my hobbies, what I do for work and literally knows nothing else about me.
I’m not sure how put together someone in their mid thirties should be but I think they would probably be more mature then this? Or at least not have this kind of behavior in this situation. I know it’s weird. I know it’s high key sketchy and maybe predator-esque. I’m nervous though because I know I overreact to things, I’m reading a lot of books (Stephen King) which makes me more paranoid than usual and he’s in a difficult time in his life right now and I don’t want to upset him further. I’m so paranoid he’ll see this that I barely want to post it. I’m getting a little paranoid and creeped out but I don’t know what to do.
