The Digits

"Wait... are you serious?" She looked serious, she certainly sounded serious, but I thought I better ask just to make sure.

"Yeah," she said, "I think it'd be kind of hot." She said it. She just said it, just like that, like she was just stating a fact and not releasing a secret. Or issuing a challenge, more like.

"I don't know," I said, eyeing the room. "Wouldn't that be weird?" I was apprehensive and I had every right to be. I looked at the bar, full of young women. This is something most guys dream of, but surely this was a trap.

"I think it would be hot." She didn't lean in. For some reason I wanted her to lean in, to insinuate a bit more, to play around a little. But she just flat out said it, she said it the way she might say "I think this coffee would be hot." Maybe I was putting too much importance on it, maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. It obviously wasn't to her.

So I looked around a little more seriously. Which one of these girls could I talk to? I had to pick one where I had a decent shot of getting her number, I didn't want to go out there and fail and then retreat with my head down. I wanted her to know that I was game, I was sexy, I was strong and confident and all those things she thought I was. This was the proof: Yup, stick around awhile, this guy's got something.

It's not that there weren't enough girls there, because there were. And it's not that they weren't attractive, because good lord. The establishment was filled with the girls I'd always thought I'd wanted but never really went for. That feeling never really goes away. And it's not that I didn't think I'd get a number. I know myself now, I know my strengths, and I would have scored those digits. I was worried I'd like it too much. That she would see how much I'd like it. That I'd find a girl, we'd hit it off, I'd get the number, and then I'd want to call it. That I wouldn't want to walk back across the floor. I was worried she'd start something I couldn't stop. So I said no, changed the subject, bought more drinks. She didn't look disappointed. She didn't really look like anything. And I couldn't stop looking around the room.