I need some guidance on my co-worker

[Starlin]

I am 20 years old and work part time at a retail store and have become attracted to a fellow co-worker.

 

We work in different departments inside the store, so my time interacting with her is usually very brief. She works in customer service, so, many times when we are conversing she is dealing with a customer which really hurts my ability to gauge her interest.

 

But, every time I approach her, she smiles at me instantly when she sees me. It's to the point where she can't look at me without smiling. It makes it really awkward for me, because I smile when I see her now instinctively. I have teased her about not being able to look at me without smiling. I will turn to her and ask "Why are you smiling?" and her only answer is repeating it back to me.

 

I've also noticed she will try to avoid making eye contact with me sometimes.

 

A few weeks ago, I was helping a very old man carry something up to a cash register. I was in her line and as we approached we were both just kind of smiling at each other. The older man who was very outgoing noticed and said "there is definitely something going on here!". She immediately laughed and said "there is definitely not anything going on here!"He then looked at my name-tag and addressed me by my first name and told me to be careful w/ this one.

 

Later on that day, she was avoiding eye contact with me when I approached her desk again, she then finally turned and started smiling at me and said "And I was doing so good too!"

 

She is Spanish & I am white, so, she will teasingly call me Gringo; knowing I hate it she keeps saying it. She will also call me an ******* to get a reaction from me, etc.

 

I am pretty convinced she likes me, but she does get cold towards me sometimes as well where she is just weird and it confuses me.

 

I have been looking for a good opportunity to get phone number, but she is often around customers and I only interact with her for a few minutes like once or twice a week. The people at this job do not really hang out outside of work, so we will never bump into each other. Also, I don't want to get rejected and have to deal with the entire workplace knowing, etc. But, I do like this girl.

 

Do you think she is interested? And any advice on the best way to get her number / ask her out in this environment?

[Kamille]

It's hard to gage from what you posted wether or not she's interested. If you're not sure, how could we be?

 

But, I wonder why you feel the whole place would find out if you asked her out and she rejected you? Is she a gossip - or is your work environment that gossipy? Or is the explanation that you're looking for excuses because you're understandably afraid of rejection?

 

You say no one at your work hangs out outside of work. Why not? Anyway you could suggest an outside of work activity? You could invite a group and make sure she's a part of it. Or, otherwise, you could save yourself time and just ask her out.