Picking up a Girl, Part 3: What Happens Next?

This story begins here: Picking up a Girl, Part 1: Good Beginnings.

The next day is another beautiful day. I drive over to the park and call Cameron en-route. Goes to voicemail. I dutifully leave a message, but receive a call back within 10 seconds. We confirm The Plan.

We meet for a walk around the park, and then to have lunch. Ominously, this is exactly the first date I had with Dina. But I am not superstitious, being completely protected by several charms and having thrown the I-Ching earlier.

So I pull my car into the park. She pulls in, driving a sensible import car. We hug awkwardly.

Cut to the chase. The date is fine. As sweet as a Hallmark card. It comes up again in conversation that she's never been to the east coast. So I invite her to New York City.

So I go from never having invited a strange woman on a date, to inviting her across the country to spend an overnight with me.

Now I observe how it works. I'm either a total mark for this gal, or some girls just make it easy. See, Cameron drops hints that are easy for me to spot. For whatever reason I usually don't pick up such hints. In fact, in my earlier years, girlfriends used to criticize me, claiming that I was quite a sensitive and attentive man except when it came to their dropping hints about asking them out. There is where they wanted to give me a good swat in the head with a baseball bat.

The previous evening I was thinking about what my prior experiences have taught me. Clearly strippers have it worse than providers. In my limited experience, they are far more screwed up. Or it's possible that providers are able to wall of their personal life much better. It's true that I have met providers with substance abuse problems. But because they actually provide, whereas dancers only promise, there is an additional emotional honesty in a provider. This may require either or both a higher wall and a stronger emotional center.

But I am a starry-eyed romantic through and through. I liked Cameron, and she seemed without guile and very straightforward, two atributes I prize. She hasn't danced very long. So we had our date, and an invitation to New York in July.

Due to travel, that scourge on relationships, I will not be able to see Cameron before the trip to NYC. She has no email. It's only cell phones and voicemail. We'll see if she actually goes through with the trip. After all, I'm still a stranger. And it's a strange big town where she will have to trust me.

This chapter isn't over yet.