I came out of a 5 year relationship recently and I've been reading this sub on and off for two weeks to learn/refine my confidence and approach towards women. Yesterday I was able to apply what I've learned and it was a success...sort of.

The night started of with a couple buddies and me going to a brewery. They had an open mic that night and there was about 30 people in the audience. I said fuck it and and signed up. I did a 4 minute story on my first Christmas that involved a Christmas tree on fire. Walking on to the stage I was scared shitless, but I felt alive. People laughed and clapped once I finished and I realized that it wasn't that bad. Things only went up from there.

After my friends and I, we went to a bar arcade. My friend was playing on a pinball machine so I stood next to him to watch. All of a sudden a HB7 starts playing pinball next to us. I felt like this was a sign for me to execute what I've been learning. Even though I was feeling a strong sense of AA I fought through it and went for it. She kept missing the pinball with the flippers so without even thinking I told her:

"no offense, but you suck" as playfully as I could.

she laughed "it's not me, it's the game I swear!" as another another pinball fell threw.

I smirked and said "suuure, whatever makes you feel better about yourself." Then I said after she had lost the game "I bet I could beat that score of yours."

"Go ahead I'd like to see you try." She offered to pay for my game but I told her "save it for the next game."

As it turns out the pinball machine actually sucks and I barely beat her score. She gave me a look of "I told you so" but I replied with "I wasn't really trying anyways."

We start talking about where we're from and if this was your first time. She says "have you been to the other side of the arcade?"

I say "no" even though I have. I tell her "you should give me a tour of the other side."

I guess she was caught off guard because she gave me a look of a deer caught in the headlights, but she said "yeah sure."

(I was thinking of grabbing her hand and leading her to the other side, but I didn't. What's your opinion?)

On our walk towards the other side she bumps into her friend. This is were things got a little weird. The girl who I was playing with didn't introduce me. Should I have introduced myself? How would I open? So I was standing there silent for about 3 minutes. She left and we both started playing Space Invaders. I did some slight banter and was trying to make her die by pressing her buttons and messing her up. She laughed and fought back. The game finished, I won, and I feel our conversation is starting to drag so I said I'm going to go back and meet up with my friends. But before I left I asked her "can I get your number?" She gave me a cute face and said "oh, sorry no." And I left. Looking back I should have said "normally I don't offer people rematches, but I think you're cool. Let me get your number to reschedule another loss...I mean game."

Throughout this whole interaction I was living in my head. I would say things in my head first before actually saying them. I wasn't really living in the moment I was too worried on what witty thing I should say next. I guess that goes away with practice, right?

What do you guys think? Not to bad for a first timer?