From the original article on January 6, 2009. Author: Chateau Heartiste.
The previous two times I presented a hypothetical pickup scenario and challenged you to respond with your best game, most of you revealed your beta soul with weak suggestions, but a few commenters showed a spark of alpha. Let’s see how you fare this time.
You’re at a dive bar and a friend’s crappy band is playing. You notice a cute hippie-ish chick across the room. She looks back at you ever so briefly, but a half second is all you need. As you’re mentally analyzing the logistics for optimal approach angle, she and her depressed-looking girlfriend wind their way through the small crowd and position themselves closer to you, talking to each other. Proximity IOI! You know what this means. You go in... smooth, confident, maybe one eyebrow arched, you cocky sonofabitch?
Entry is perfect. You engage her effortlessly and she responds well, smiling right away. Opening with an exceedingly trenchant observation about the band, you quickly segue into teasing her about something you notice she’s wearing. You manage to squeeze in a little kino, lightly touching her arm and the small of her back, and even a funny braid in her hair (which you gently mock, naturally). Five minutes later, attraction is established. (It shouldn’t take long if you know what you’re doing.)
She tells you that her friend wants to meet someone at another bar, so she’s going to go. She says this with an expectant look in her eyes. You notice her friend is standing with poor posture and glumly gazing around the room. A quick review of the situation tells you that following your girl like a puppy dog would look beta (after all, you’re there for your friend’s band, and they are still playing), so you say you’d like to chat again and hand her your phone. She takes it and proceeds to not only type in her number, but her name. She leaves with her sad friend.
Five minute interaction. Not enough time to move her into deeper rapport when you can impart a more indelible impression on her. You realize that mere attraction is not enough to secure a solid phone number, but you have to take your chances. A shaky number close is better than no number at all. A few minutes later, she sends you a text saying you are “adorable” and she’d like drinks soon. You text back, scolding her humorously for calling you adorable, and saying you will call. She texts once more with a funny throwaway line to which you don’t respond. (You know better than to incriminate yourself by sending the last text.)
A couple days later you call. Voicemail. No surprise there. You leave a brief message. “Hey, it’s [Massive Alpha]. Give me a call when you get this. Bye.” Four hours later she calls back. Still not surprised. After a flirty and fun ten minute conversation, you set up a date with her in two days. The day before the date you get the following text from her:
“Hey – a friend of mine is going through a break up and needs to talk tomorrow night. The rest of my week is crazy. I’ll give you a call later on and we’ll make...” [her text gets cut off here]
What do you do?
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Tomorrow I will post a selection of answers from the readers and judge them accordingly. Then I will tell you what I did.
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