Thursday was set to be a big day. An important meeting for work in the morning, and then a date with D, a girl who I'd been talking to online for a month. She was super busy, but she kept it going until finding the time. We planned to meet right after work at a bar near her place.

I got there 15 minutes early per my usual m.o., and snagged us stools at the bar. The conversation seemed great, but she was non-receptive to kino, and I gave up escalating. After our first round of drinks, I suggested getting another round and asked whether she preferred the same place or somewhere new. She said she was too tired for a second round, and that she'd promised to meet her roommate to hang out in half an hour or so; she apologized for having to go. I walked her back to her apartment. The goodbye was about the awkwardest ever: When we got to her door, she kept talking for a bit, and then suddenly was done and said, "Goodbye," with fairly clear don't-touch-me body language. I'd say there's a 70% chance she just wasn't attracted, and a 30% chance that she's just a little weird. I texted her a few hours ago. No return yet, but we'll see.

Since the date ended so early, I decided to go to my usual bar/club, but after the failed date my approach anxiety was worse than ever. One very friendly girl approached me, worked hard to make conversation, and touched me a lot, but she wasn't my type. I broke away saying that I had to rejoin my friends. But I found myself unable to approach, so eventually I left to try my game at another bar.

In front of me in the line to get into the second bar was a girl by herself, so I opened her immediately. She was skeptical at first but warmed up quickly, and brightened considerably when I mentioned that I was considering bailing to smoke a bowl. (It seems like a cheap tactic, but I'm pretty happy when I can end an evening smoking with new friends.) I found her only mildly attractive--ironically, she had too much of a stoner look for me--but she was cool, so when we neared the front of the line I asked her to text me her number. Once in the bar, we split up as she went off to find her friends.

About 10 minutes later, she texted me with her location in the bar, but I didn't notice until another 10 minutes had passed, and by then she wasn't there anymore. I texted back that I was there, but didn't hear back, so after a couple minutes I began circulating again, hoping maybe I'd run into her. About half an hour later, I did run into her, and she was talking to a guy. I wasn't sure if he was one of the friends she was meeting or just a guy trying to pick her up, so I walked up, smiled at both of them, introduced myself and shook his hand. They both looked horrified. So I said something like "I'll see you around" and headed away around 15 feet, but started thinking: What's the alpha thing to do here? So I went back and put my arms around them. More looks of horror, so I was out of there for good. Considering that bridge burned, I texted her half an hour later with an abject apology, and then deleted her number from my phone. (What would you have done?)

Closing time was approaching, so I headed outside to try some post-closing-time-sidewalk game, which has gone well for me in the past. I walked to my car as an excuse to scope out the scene, and on the way I passed two girls who were smoking and standing a bit away from everyone else. The taller one, J (as I would learn), looked quite attractive from a distance; the shorter one, Y, was squatting to get something out of her bag, so I couldn't really see. On the way back, there was a guy, F, trying to talk with them. I recognized this guy: Earlier, I'd tried to squeeze past him in a crowded part of the bar and he asked if I wanted to fight; I high-fived him instead. One of the girls was from Bristol, England, and when I arrived he was trying to bs about it, which I called him on. He again challenged me to fight. I pointed out that I was about 7 inches taller, he pointed out that he was stronger, and I pointed out that it would be three against one. The girls loved it.

The guy and Y, the less attractive girl (in my opinion) somehow got into a heated political argument, so I moved around to stand next to J and get us a bit further from the other two. We talked about her thesis project about the Illuminati (seriously) and made fun of F and Y while F and Y shouted at each other for at least 10 minutes. J is 6 ft tall, a basketball player, has a sexy accent (to this American's ears), and is generally really hot. Mutual kino escalation ensued.

Eventually F and Y argued themselves out, and F left. I had learned that they both went to school a good distance away in the suburbs, so I offered them a ride back. Once suitably convinced that I wouldn't kill them ("Sure, I'll give you a ride, but one of you will have to hold my banjo" may have done the trick), we piled into the car and headed out. We agreed that upon arrival we'd smoke a bowl (like I said before, I'm usually pretty happy with an weed-close).

When we got to their school, J and I headed to her room (a single), and Y headed to hers, saying she'd join us in a minute. After half an hour of waiting for and calling Y, we decided to smoke without her. (Did she disappear in order to avoid cockblocking us? Very considerate if so.) Before smoking, I mentioned that I don't smoke and drive, and wanted to make sure it was cool if I stuck around for a couple hours to sober up. At this, J was very surprised, and went to great efforts to tell me that she didn't want to hook up, without actually saying so. She talked about a general discomfort with physical contact, saying she even hates hugs. Okay, whatever. We passed the bowl, but I didn't inhale, since I didn't want to be stuck there awkwardly for hours, and I took her at face value. I asked J for her number, and texted her my name. After that we hung out for a bit, looked at her thesis drawings, and went outside to listen to the frogs and birds (beautiful campus). After about an hour there, I said I thought I should head out. She walked me to my car, and insisted (despite her earlier declaration) on hugging me. I told her she'd be hearing from me, and she said she'd look forward to it.

When I got home, I had this text from J:

Heyy ok cool we kinda left quick last night but tonight let's seeeee

Was that intended for me? I'm not sure. She was quite drunk. I wrote back in the morning:

You were hoping I'd stay longer? :-p What do you have in minddddd?

I haven't heard back yet.

tl;dr: Online date went poorly; met hot English girl outside a bar, drove her home, and chilled in her dorm room