@ossobuco,
Nuance is possible.
The fellow who 'went after' me, surprised me. He sat across from me in chem lab, and we talked back and forth. As it happened, he was was super smart, and I flailed to work up to a D or C (a summer quantitative analysis class).
One day he and I serendipitously.. were walking to the student union and he asked me if I would like to go see Coltrane. My left contact lens catapulted to the nose side of my eye. I had to gouge it out, lick it, and put it back, while saying, that sound's good, or something similar, like yes.
It was all good from there. He wrote me poems in chem class. Carved a mountain image and added a poem to it. I still have that, though the words have faded. We didn't work out (religion etc), but the woman after me and he did, long time now.
I am not pushing for lifelong romance hung on to the veil of virginity.
Still, romance is possible. Or good sex without any clue of romance. And so are ucky times.
So, just talk, see how it goes.