Does my crush like me back?

Dear Advice Girl,

I think my crush likes me back, but I’m not sure.

He was trying to get me to do karaoke, and he said: "What if I blackmail you by saying that I like you?" I said, "That’s not blackmail!" And he said, "Haha, yeah, that’s true."

Does he like me, or am I reading too much into his words?

Signed,
   Joanna

Dear Joanna,

This guy totally likes you.

It's scary to tell a girl you like her, so some guys make a joke out of it instead (even if they totally mangle the word "blackmail" in the process). That way, if they get rejected, they can just pretend they were kidding all along.

When you didn’t say, "OMG I like you back!!", he thought you weren’t into him, so he shut up about the whole liking you business. (Too bad you do like him back.)

Quit all the mixed messages and ask him out. Jokes are fun, but not when they get in the way of some serious romance-makin’.