I'm a 21-year-old female, and I'm feeling anxious about asking my 20-year-old male coworker if he'd like to spend time together outside of work.

I'm quite introverted and often struggle with social anxiety, which makes taking the initiative to make new friends feel really intimidating. Currently, I have only a handful of adult friendships, and I'm eager to put in the effort to meet people who truly enhance my happiness. I met my coworker, E, last year when I began my job, and he's incredibly nice. We have friendly exchanges at work, and I’ve attended a group event at his place once. He’s also thoughtful enough to check in on me when we haven’t worked together in a while. I've realized that we have many shared interests and similar personality traits, and he’s mentioned before that he tends to be quite solitary and has few friends, just like me. I have a strong feeling that we would get along well, and I’d like to invite him to hang out outside of work. Do you have any tips on how to approach this? I'm worried about coming off as awkward, but I don’t want my social anxiety to hold me back.