Signal Reading Class: Fail.

I have a not so deep and dark confession to make (that I kind of made before).

I am an absolute failure at reading signs from men. I cannot, for the life of me, pick up on cues that let me know whether they are interested or not. In some ways, I am like the stereotype of a guy-I can't understand hints. Just come forward and say something. I know it's not fair to expect others to put themselves out there when I don't either (keep reading) but if I don't know what you're selling me, I can't buy it. And vice versa.

On Sunday I was at work and I was watching a coworker interacting with a customer, and I stepped in to help/just be a part of the fun. The customer was seemed pretty easygoing and fun, and he was cute, so it wasn't long before he and I were talking. We discussed what he was interested in purchasing, and we continued to talk and I found out all this information from him through the flow of the conversation, and him randomly kind of inserting tidbits. I don't want to go into too too much detail. The new show on ABC "The Deep End" came up, and he mentioned how he hadn't watched it, but wanted to because the main character was from "that Amanda Bynes college movie" to which I immediately replied, "Sydney White!! I love that movie. You've seen it?" he laughed and told me how awesome he thought the Vortex was. We also talked about Saturday Night Live and how his sister thought it had gotten better, but he wasn't so sure. I mentioned the digital shorts, he mentioned D*ck in a Box, I mentioned another video and he whipped out his phone and found it on youtube and we watched it together. In the middle of the store.

After he left, one of my coworkers asked if I knew him. I told her no, and immediately she asked if I had given him my number. At first I was like, uhh no, obviously not I don't want to embarrass myself, he probably has a girlfriend. But then I started thinking about it. How do I know? He never mentioned anything about a girlfriend (my general feeling is that when guys have girlfriends, in the conversation which we had, I think a "oh yeah, my girlfriend blah blah blah..." gets dropped) and he seemed to be interested in talking to me. He dropped a lot of information about himself. And I did nothing with it. Even if he had a girlfriend, it's not like I would have ever seen him again. I would have given it to him, he wouldn't have called, end of story.

I just couldn't pick up on anything at the time that led me to think "If I do this, it won't end in disappointment." When he pulled his phone out to find the video, I admit, it crossed my mind to give him my number, but I didn't, because to me, he was just a chatty, nice guy. Looking back on it, I had so many opportunities to let him know that I was interested in him (like INTRODUCE MYSELF when he shared his name [though he didn't do it in a conventional way] or say something like, 'oh did you girlfriend make you watch Sydney White?') but I don't know. I flaked.

This is one guy out of however many I will meet in my lifetime, a drop in hte bucket of my life. a 20 minute conversation that I might forget about until one day I am watching Sydney White and it's just a fond thought that passes through my brain. But at the same time, I don't know. I need to be more aware. I need to pay attention and be open. And maybe be a bit braver myself.

(PS if you want the whole story I'll totally share and you can give me an opinion. Leave a comment and we'll chat)