He asked me for something but was facing my friend?

He does this sometimes. He is more of an acquaintance than friend,
but he flirts a bit with me by teasing me about things i really enjoy his company.

This sounds like a random situation,
but a number of times when he has asked for something, like a book or whatever random item, he comes up to me and I am sitting next to a friend (it was a different friend each time) he will hold his hand out for whatever he wants (like you do) but he will sort of face away from me, towards the other person sitting next to me, so much so the friend i was next to last time commented on it
“Why are you facing me when you’re asking her for something?”
and he was a little surprised and was like
“No look im facing her, see”
and kind of shifted his body towards me and held his hand out in my direction deliberately, but he sort of looked uncomfortable doing it, and it was a big difference to the way he was standing before.

When we do talk we get on, but is there anything to this weird little thing he does? Why wont he face me directly? It was really odd because if you are talking to someone or asking someone for something, you face them, not someone else, it is just confusing otherwise.

I am just interested why, im too biased to give an objective view.