AskMeCha. I'm confused. Again. Please help me with my dating dilemmas once more, bunny friends!→[More:]

OK, so once upon a time there was a boy named punch, although he didn't know his name was punch then. And he went out with this girl who we will call Angela who had some close friends which we will call Bob, Charles, Diana, and Erica. Punch enjoyed hanging out with these folks but sadly that was all to come to an end when Angela uncaringly broke the heart of our hero, and the messy breakup that ensued left the situation a bit awkward and scary for poor punch who went to seek friends elsewhere.

Due to reasons of geography and organization, punch still runs into all of these people frequently, sometimes even multiple times a day. Over the months, punch started becoming friends with all of these people once more, even Angela. I suppose time heals all wounds. But along the way punch noticed what an attractive young woman Diana was and he started to wonder if there might be something potential between the two of them. But the whole friends-of-the-ex thing made it a bit awkward. And god only knows what Angela had said about him too scare off potential interlopers and prove that she was in the moral right. punch realized it would probably be best off just to consider her off limits. Also Diana never seemed to have that much to say.

But once punch got ahold of Diana's online identity and began chatting with her online, she had a lot more to say. Eventually the subject of relationships came up. Diana said she was surprised to hear the the breakup described as messy because she had no idea (which is not too surprising because Angela can be known to really keep her own counsel), and said that Angela never ever had anything bad to say. Yet another reason why not to consider this off the table. Then the subject of flirting came up.

punch: i'm always too nervous to flirt with people i really like before we start going out
Diana: well i dont do it v often
Diana: i know what you mean though
Diana: there's this guy who's like ridiculously good looking that my friend insisted i should go out with (he was her friend). but im so nervous i cant ever think of things to say when im around him!

ZOMG! Could this be OUR punch Diana is talking about? Is that why she doesn't say much in person? And is prone to suddenly run off perhaps nervously at any hint of an awkward silence? And if not, why so suddenly circumspect about not naming names? Very unusual. Certainly something that should be followed up on. So punch e-mails Diana and asks her if she wants to have coffee sometime. She replies positively with her phone number. When he calls she acts like a total spaz, talking so quickly that she can't even be understood half the time. Kind of cute I guess, especially for punch who in the past has always been the one to spaz out. Nice to be on the other side for once. Brings up the coffee thing herself, asks when and where we are meeting. Punch suggests that he should pick her up at 8 two days later. She says "sounds good ok bye" and hangs up. Weird.

Then on the day punch runs into her and she asks if it's okay if he just meets her at the Starbucks (ugh, how unromantic) instead, she wants to do some studying for exams there first. Um, okay. I know a coffee date is ambiguous, but if someone is interested they surely wouldn't go out of their way to make it seem less special? On the plus side punch and Diana have a lot of nice conversations. But he's left thinking that there's really nothing more to this, or she doesn't want anything else. Also at one point she's talking about how silly some men can be (her male friends seem to be emotional troglodytes or gay, of which I am neither), relating that one of her friends asked out some girl who was going away for the summer, and was surprised when she didn't want to go out. (And indeed Diana is going away for the summer.) A hidden message?

Well I was ready to give up after all of that but we seem to be spending more and more time together alone and the tension is only increasing. There's more flirting and Charles (her ex of two years ago, so she wouldn't talk with him about this directly I know) is starting to give me knowing looks. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I don't understand what's going on!

OK add to all this the complications that she will be going away for the summer in about a month. And I think she only has really serious relationships and I'm not really sure whether I want that yet. I don't want her to get hurt.

What do I do? All advice and anecdotes appreciated. You're the best, MetaChat.