How do you think my date felt after our first meeting?

I haven’t done tons of dating, despite being in my mid-20s, so I’m just looking to get an opinion on my date’s actions and what they mean—especially from a male’s perspective.

So I went on a first date with this guy. He’s a contractor who does some custom design work and I’m an interior designer, so we got that going for us, haha. Anyway, in my opinion, the date went really well. We rode a trolley, walked through the city, stopped and listened to some live jazz improv, went to a restaurant (he paid; I almost didn’t notice because we were so into conversation!), explored some more of the city…and ended the night in a park just talking for a bit—about our hobbies and interests, goals, careers, philosophies on life, even religion (neither of us are religious).

He asked a lot of questions the whole night, though it never felt like an interrogation, just that he was really interested in me. He did a lot of listening; seemed to prefer that, actually. Though, of course, he was equally open to questions and answering mine. At one point he admitted, “I feel like I need to study you.” When I asked why, he said it was because he didn’t “spend time with just anyone.”

Another thing: during dinner in the middle of the date, he asked how I felt about two people living together before marriage—which I thought was a little forward for a first date, tbh! But I didn’t really mind. Just wasn’t expecting that question, I guess. Didn’t want to come across as “too serious.”

Anyway, back to the park… In the middle of me explaining something to him, he just scooted closer all of the sudden then leaned in and kissed me. At first it just involved lips then turned into French kissing, very lightly, but this lasted a looooong time, it seemed. Like at least 20 minutes. He also kissed my neck and earlobe a few times and was rubbing his nose against mine. It didn’t feel like desperate or “horny” kissing, just really soft, slow and sweet. Then he just kinda sat there holding me in his arms with a hug.

I wanted to die inside, haha.

One thing that really grabbed my attention during all of this was when he just said, “I was beginning to lose hope that there were any girls out there who weren’t superficial and just into partying and pop culture or whatever.” Or something to that effect.

~

So I guess I’m just not used to a guy being anything like this with me on a first meeting, despite feeling a really strong connection and chemistry with him, so I’m interested to see how others might be interpreting his actions. Also, I should mention there was no, what I’d consider, “inappropriate” touching like groping or grabbing for my inner thighs or a boob or anything like that. He just held my face and hand, really, then walked me back to my car, offered to open the door for me and kissed me for a couple of minutes again, lol.

We’re set up to go on a second date this weekend and he texts and calls me pretty much every day, when he gets a moment. Not every 10 minutes or anything, just a little throughout the day. Though, we did have a 4½ hour long conversation the other night…

Sorry for the length! Thanks ahead of time. :)