Sorry that this is a long post. I just like providing context. 

So I'm (24M) and I'm getting real serious feelings for this girl (20F) at work. We work at our school's dining hall and we work together sometimes. I really started to noticed her last fall, and at the beginning of this year I started to talk to her. It's been a slow process because I'm very introverted, shy and socially anxious. Plus just general anxiety. But now after a few months, and me continually and actively trying to talk to her and know her, I'd say we're definitely more friendly and we talk regularly during work now. She's really nice and kind, she has a warm presence to her and, I like her. I like her a lot. I kinda didn't want to admit that because I'm self-conscious towards myself a lot of the time, and I didn't want to develop strong feelings for someone and have to deal with interacting with them. I could make things easily awkward or uncomfortable. 

But getting to know her has been really nice. However, our interactions are all still within a work context and most of our conversations are regarding school or work, relatively surface level stuff. Although recently, we've gotten to reveal a bit more personal information, so I think that's a good sign. And the more I learn about her, the more I like her. I'm also more invested in the stuff she's got going on outside of work and I hope that she's not stressing too much over the things that are bothering her. I'm afraid though that I'm getting too caught up with my feelings. I think about her a lot know, she's popped up randomly in a few dreams where the only thing that happens is that we're hanging out and talking. When I see her at work now I can't help but smile. So I've developed these feelings and they've progressed more than I thought they would, and now I actually am very much considering asking her out.

There are a few things that make me apprehensive and are currently preventing me from making the next leap. The first and most obvious is that I'm afraid that she doesn't like me like that. I know she likes me as a person to work with and sometimes talk to, but romantically I don't know. I haven't really tried to do things to figure out if she likes me, mainly cause we're at work, and also cause I can't flirt. I've always had a hard time figuring out if someone likes me. I blame my poor social skills and lack of dating experience. And if she doesn't like me like that, then that's okay. I can't really change how a person feels. That actually goes to my second point which is that I do like her as a person, as a possible friend, so I don't want that to go away. And lastly, my anxiety is making this all so difficult. This is really an issue with easy solutions (do it or don't do it) but my anxiety is making it seem like a daunting task, and it's making me overthink. 

In general it takes a lot for me to like someone romantically, and in the context of work I never even entertain the idea of asking someone out because I never want to create a situation where I make someone uncomfortable and it just seems risky. So I really did consider not doing anything for a while. But I really need to resolve my own feelings and asking her out and finding out if she does or doesn't like me will obviously help with that. Part of me really does want to see where this goes. It's just that my anxiety is really stopping me from doing anything right now, I just freeze up. Any tips or advice on what I should do, or just what my next steps should be?