I've also seen it work the other way....I had a male friend who would never admit that he had a crush on a female friend of ours even when she asked him outright but his actions made it so obvious. So at times, the actions can be more positive and at times the words can but I tend to trust the actions more.
Well, in your example his actions did give a better indication as to his feeling than his words. It can be for the positive or negative but as I said I feel they are more telling than words.
At James 2:26 the bible says "Faith without works is dead". Basically that means that you can SAY anything you want and it doesn't (necessarily) mean anything, but it's your works, or actions, that show your true motives and feelings.
I told my mom about this poll and the results (because I was surprised it was so lopsided) and she wasn't surprised...of course, she said this is one of Dr. Phil's major things (that actions speak louder than words) and she and my dad are both obsessed with Dr. Phil.....She was trying to get me to do a poll like this every day on deep subjects (even offered to come up with some ideas) but I'm not going to do it since Laureen already does a poll every day.