The strongest crush I've ever had on someone. Advice?

Hey everyone. This might get a bit long. Sorry in advance about that, but I'm kind of typing this out for myself, too, in the hopes that if I go back and read it over a few times, it may benefit me in some way. Any advice would be truly appreciated because this crush of mine has been going on for almost two years now and I'm trying to work up the confidence to free myself of these feelings, but I'm not sure I will be able to bring myself to say the words to him when the time comes (which, hopefully will be this coming Friday).

Almost two years ago, my supervisor came to me and asked me to train a new hire. The guy was standing next to my supervisor, and I'll freely admit this, I was instantly attracted to him. In my eyes, he was knock-out handsome. I spent that day at work explaining things to him and showing him stuff, and as we got to talking, I realized how well our personalities seemed to line up and I began to like more than just his physical appearance. By the end of the day, I felt both a physical and an emotional attraction towards him. We hit it off and I became the first friend he made there.

In the months that followed, we would both look forward to working together when our shifts overlapped, with him using such phrases as "awesome!" upon learning that we would be working together on a given day. I thoroughly enjoyed being around him, making him smile and laugh and just working with him in general. He's someone that's able to make a bad day good and a good day even better. We both would and still do praise each other around others, so there's a degree of respect there and he's said to me that "it's a pleasure to work with you". I've tried to be emotionally supportive of him when he's been feeling inadequate in the sport that he plays, to which he responded, "thanks. That means a lot to me", so I'm pretty sure we each value each other's opinion.

We enjoy each other's company at work, but I've made it a point to avoid asking him to hang out outside of work. One night, I kind of joked after a sort of fun yet stressful night at work that we should go for drinks afterward, to which he responded with a smile, "you're buying, right?" and then later, after we got off work and were walking outside, I said that I'd see him tomorrow, he stopped and looked disappointed/confused, and only later did it dawn on me that he might have taken my earlier joke seriously and was expecting to go out after work. It's not that I didn't want to spend more time with him, but I knew I was already really attached to him and I was afraid if I spent more time with him, I'd become even more attached. I'm sure we could have had a lot of good times outside of work, especially after his mother told me once how he "really likes you", but when a crush begins to turn into, for lack of a better word, an obsession, it's time to greatly back off - and so I have, and it's only made things hard and painful for me because I see it in his face that he misses what we had at work. He looks my way a lot and although I might be wrong about this, I can't help but wonder if he's wondering why I've distanced myself from him. He still tries to smile at me and be friendly, but I keep our encounters as brief as possible.

Some of you might be wondering why I would back off when it would seem the possibility (however small) existed that he might have been into me like I was into him. It's because I later learned (not from him) that he had a girlfriend. I was really stunned because he never mentioned her to me (in all the conversations we had it never came up). I then concluded I needed to distance myself from him so that my feelings for him would fade. Eventually, I learned (again, not from him) that he had broken it off with his girlfriend. I wish that I had never learned that because ever since, a voice in the back of my mind continues to tell me that since he's single, I should let him know how I feel. Even with the distance I've tried to keep, we still see each other and interact, and he just has this way of getting into my heart even though I've done the best I know how to shield it from him. He's just too nice of a guy. That, coupled with the fact that I just can't shake the feeling that he's the one. I don't know where that feeling is coming from or why I have it, but out of all the guys I've ever liked, this is the guy that some mysterious feeling inside of me believes to be "the one".

I know that I care for him deeply. About a month back, when he had missed several days of work because he was sick and came back (still sick), I dropped the whole "keep your distance" self-imposed rule and stuck by his side because I felt terrible that he felt terrible. I asked him if there was anything that I could get him, like water for his cough, and I bought him a bottled water, and then told him whatever else I could get him, I would, if it would help him feel better. He told me that he'd pay me back but I wouldn't allow it, only telling him, "you're worth it". He was grateful and thanked me two or three times. I know what I feel isn't just lust. I believe that I've really fallen in love with him. His well-being and happiness is important to me and whenever I've seen him sick or down, I've done what I've could to ease his discomfort.

I could go on, and on and on... but I'm going to say that I know it's not healthy to just keep this up. I think about him a lot, and that's detrimental to my life because I can't enjoy my time away from work as much since my thoughts are on him. If I didn't keep my distance from him when at work, I'd be thinking about him even more than I already do now (to the point where I sometimes lose sleep at night). I hate doing that to him though. Simply continuing to do now what I've been doing isn't working. I can't go back to being real friendly with him because that will only cause my feelings for him to intensify. What I need, I believe, is some sort of resolution, and this is what I'm thinking:

Come Friday night, we both get off work at the same time. I'm going to ask him ahead of time if that if he wants to get a bite to eat with me at a nearby restaurant, he's more than welcomed to. After we've eaten, I'm just going to apologize for being distant and explain to him why I felt it was necessary for me to ease up on the time we spend together while at work. I'm not going to say the word "love" and I'm going to try and keep it brief. I want to get it out so that I can hear how he feels. I think that he's mature enough for us to have an open and honest conversation. Odds are, he won't feel the same way, but I just feel that's something I have to hear from him. I can't pass up the slim chance that he feels the same way. It's something I would regret for all my life. If this feeling I have inside of me is wrong, well, hopefully then, I'll at least reclaim a sense of freedom and I can emotionally move on. Will it make things a little awkward at work? Probably... for a bit, but I think it's something we'll both overcome with a little time. I feel I need to do this... but as I have no one to talk to about this, I feel it couldn't hurt to get the thoughts and feelings of others.

Lastly, he knows I'm gay, so at least that's not something I have to cover come Friday night. A part of me thinks he's waiting/expecting something like this because twice I almost asked him if he'd ever be open to dating a guy, but I'd always chicken out and he would then keep asking me to finish what I was going to ask him. I can't let that happen Friday night.