I only recognize flirting in hindsight. At the time, it runs right past me. Is it that I’m ace or aro or whatever? Is it that I’m not emotionally tuned into other people? Is it that direct human interaction is a generally stressful event, and that stress blinds me to what’s going on?
Sometimes I catch it later. But how many times do I completely miss it?
What do they think about my non-response?
Do they ever think I’m flirting back? Because I’m not.
There was one time when I picked up on flirting, and that’s only because it was a prolonged, repeated thing. “Hey, I think something’s going on here…” In that case, I started trying to figure out what to say in response, how to say that I wasn’t really interested. But somehow, I ended up going on a date with them and didn’t even notice.
One of these days, I’m going to end up accidentally getting married or something.
Say, where did this ring come from…?