When can I ask her out?

I met a wonderful young woman at a university society recently, and grew to like her. We had a really positive interaction last Friday during a meeting.
Unfortunately, this Monday I was stressed out about many things at once and had a massive panic attack in the evening after I had a call with my mother and misunderstood what she was saying. It was so terrifying to lose control of myself like that.
This was followed by her approaching me as soon as she saw me the next day, starting a conversation with me twice and saying she liked my name during a conversation.
I was anxious about Thursday, too.
On Thursday, I approached her, but when I did she immediately started another very friendly discussion with me, asking me about everything and being extremely friendly. I tried to 'stand back' and let her 'lead' the discussion, which she did.
Then, I tried to keep my distance over the evening because I didn't want to pressure her, but she was also starting discussions with me and at one point pointed to seats next to her when I couldn't find one.
Later on, we were just talking and just being friendly between everyone.
As I was about to leave, I told her 'See you on Tuesday'. She responded with 'Or tomorrow?', referring to a meeting I indicated I might skip.
She seems like a lovely person. But I'm confused about her relationship status- I think she was seeing someone over a year ago, and I thought she had a photo of her with someone as her screensaver (someone different and a lot older), and I'm nervous and find this difficult to reconcile with her interactions with me, which was a level of interest I never experienced from a girl before.
I still wanted to ask her out, because I really don't know who that was/if they're still together, as well as her friendliness towards me.
For reference, my own screensaver is still me with someone who said no over 2 years ago.
Is everything OK? When can I ask her out?

Reply 1

Surnia

You can ask her out as soon as you have a suggestion for a time, place and activity, eg "Would you like to go for a coffee/lunch with me on Saturday? I know a nice little cafe..."

You snooze, you lose.

Reply 2

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

You sound like you’ve already established more than enough goodwill to ask them out for a coffee. From there, perfectly normal to ask about the relationship status of someone you’ve met and are getting to know.