For context I'm 25, almost 26, and a virgin if it matters, who's only been on 6 dates. I almost never get likes or matches online, but I'm not ugly.

A few days ago I made a post where I talked about going into this restaurant/bar for lunch take-out. I passed by a girl (and had mutual eye contact) after I put in my order, and sat at the window with bar seats, maintaining an open body position while browsing my phone. She sat a seat away from me when there were plenty of open seats to choose from. I waited about 10 minutes for my food, she was also looking at her phone, but I was too anxious to do anything.

Well today I just got a haircut, and on a whim decided to walk back to this place for a late lunch. This time I order food, sit down in the same spot, and another hot girl comes in and orders. She was a petite brunette, about 5'3" wearing jean shorts, a grey crewneck sweater, and Birkenstocks. She also sat at the window and gets on her phone, but this time she was 2 seats away. When she walked in I knew I'd say something, but when she sat near me, I was overcome by the fight or flight sensations.

Ironically enough my next idea was to go on Reddit and look up AA and how to handle it, as I'm dealing with it. I'm staring into space, looking around, bouncing my legs, heart racing. It's embarrasing.

But after about 6-7 minutes, I guess I had a "fuck it" go through my head. Her sweatshirt had the name of a local college on it, so I asked if she goes there. She said she just graduated. I told her I asked because I knew someone on a sports team there, and then I threw the guy's name out. Funny enough this guy graduated like 4 years ago, but I needed an excuse to say something.

I happened to be wearing a T-shirt related to the school I graduated from, I told her I graduated 3 years ago. All the while, I'm trying my hardest to maintain eye contact. And she was maintaining eye contact as well. I just let the conversation end for the most part there, as it's not like I was getting any recirprocation or anything.

But with the perceieved awkwardness of starting this conversation and just ending it like that, I felt as though I needed to keep up the momentum. So after a couple minutes, I asked if she commuted to the school or lived on campus. She answered, but I was trying to figure out if she's from the area. Either she dodged the question or didn't hear/understrand me. I told her that I just moved to a nearby neighborhood. Again, for the next minute or two it was just kind of banal conversation, semi lopsided. And I was very nervous and distressed, as much as I tried to be present in the moment. I didn't sense any extreme attraction, and I knew I had already done way more than I thought I could do, so after my name was called to grab food, I just got it, said "have a nice day" and left. But after this I felt a sense of relief, because I knew how mad I would've been if I was too scared to even start a conversation.

For almost 5 years now I've been reading countless stories like this on the sub, and have never had any of my own because I've always been anxious and I subconsciously believe that no matter what I do, I'm an ugly virgin. But maybe now that I've decided to put my feet on the gas, I can change all of this.