So last night I am out at the Mercury. I am chatting with a girl. We are flirting. Life is good.
She says she needs to go as she has to get up in the morning to go to work. Then "maybe you should ask me for my phone number." Whoosh. Airball.
Phil jabbers on. Girl walks off to say good bye to someone else. Girl walks back. Phil & girl jabber again. Then "you know, you still haven't asked me for my phone number."
ding ding ding ding
I knew that she was flirting and all that. It just never occurred to me to ask for her number. Just not my normal modus operandi to ask for a number the first time I meet someone. I usually run into people a few times and hang out with them, then get their number when I ask them out. I don't think I've ever asked for a number first, then called to ask her out.
Normally, I ask out people who frequent the same places that I do. For instance, someone in my mountain climbing class. Or who I see out a few weekends in a row and who I've had a chance to talk to. Or someone is a friend of a friend and I'll tell the friend, "You should talk Taniqua/Jennifer/Britney into coming out this weekend." Or I'll invite them to a party I'm throwing and give them my address and phone number (and sometimes I'll decide to throw a party on the spot just so I can invite them).
And then, I've seen them a few times and I'll just ask them out in person.
Part of this is because it's only been within the last few years that I've actually been in a place where I have a real chance of meeting a person only once. I spent 11 years in Moscow, Idaho. It just is not that big of a place. If I saw someone once and they lived close enough to actually date, I was going to run into them again. Pretty much guaranteed.