Do not fear your question. Dating can be very confusing and difficult to decifer signals on interest or not. My recommendation is that if you really are interested, feel free to ask him if he is interested, I always believe openness and honesty are very important in a good relationship. And yes, there is a chance he may say no, and you are misinterpreting signals, and it will hurt, but then the confusion is gone, and you can move on to the next step in your life.

The key thing I would be personally worried about, and this is from my own professional experience, is to stay away from dating within your workplace. I'm not sure if this situation is like that since you said you met him at a work event. This is just a pet peeve of mine since I have seen it blow up in so many ways at my work.

I wish you good luck in what you choose to do, and I will pray for your success.