What does it mean when a guy like this likes you?

I met this guy a few weeks ago from a friend of mine, and we have been texting and hanging out a lot for the past few weeks, and I just started to develope a crush on him. My friend who I met the guy from says that he likes me too, but he just doesn't want to tell me yet. My friend also told me that everytime that he asks him if he likes me, it takes him a few minutes to answer him, and from his perspective, he does. He knows when he is lying about pretending to not like me, but he has noticed that we do flirt and play around with eachother when we hang out. And, I was wondering, do you know what this means when you both act like this around eachother?