I would say stand your ground. You have tried. You have gone after her to try and make things happen. Now it is her turn. If she really does want something to happen with you, no matter what it is, i say let her make the next move.
If you keep pressing and pressing she will see that you are getting desperate and that is never good. What you did with the IM was great. You didnt show desperation, you didnt show interest. You let things happen. Which is what you have to do.
I think she is feeling a bit pressured by you constantly trying to spend time with her and talk with her and all that. Give her a bit of space. Let her make the advancement next and let her suggest the next time you guys get together. If she does. If rougly a week goes by, by next weekend for sure, if she doesnt suggest getting together you say something.
Red flags are not always a bad thing. If they were i would have never meet or started to date the woman who is now my wife. You just have to evaluate the risk versus reward.
I was bothered by what happened to me. But i got over it. It may have taken a bit of time. But i moved on. Just as you will. You think that you cant get hurt but it will happen till you find that one that you truly love.
I know it sounds really sappy but the truth is if you really do love someone you will feel it with every bone in your body. You will go to great lengths to see and be with them.
Love is pain. Even to this day there are things that go on even with my wife that still hurt cause of some action or words. But you talk about it and get over it. When it comes to love there is no set standard or way to do things. There are some thigns like advice you can get from others like you are. But the truth is you have to do what is best for you. We can give advice from a 3rd person point of view. But in all honesty without it happening to any of us we cant give you the advice you should follow.
Only you know what you feel. You can try to express them in words but there isnt enough words out there to express everything that you feel. Not to mention being in a open, public forum on the internet is not the best place to say these things.
So really you have to sit back and really think about what you want out of this and how you feel. Do you want to honestly continue this? Are you doing this cause you cant stand the thought of being alone? Is this a rebound relationship? Do you want to chance it that you end up falling in love with her only to end up like i did? Is it worth it to you to try and see?
Now not all this has to be answered in the open. I am more than willing to chat with you via MSN about this stuff if you dont want it out in the open if you wish. I have no issue with that. But again i can only give you advice on what i have gone thru and experienced and how i dealt with it. I cant give you good advice on something that I, myself am not going thru.