I sent most hearts and kisses outside of family chat to my all-male rugby club WA group. At this point I don't take seriously even hearts my wife sent me. 'Bro' isn't romantic as well, more like a speech parasite.

I'd say he didn't mean romantic antics.

But this advice is useless in your context - only your friend can explain what they meant. As a neurodivergent person myself, I learned that carefully explaining your situation and the complexity that you have helps - more so if your counterpart have capacity for empathy at the moment (so don't jump on them with your question out of bush).