For some context, I met this cute girl at the gym recently by doing my first cold approach and went on a date with her.

The first date (coffee) went well but she was more shy than I expected, it took her around half the date to get comfortable enough to maintain somewhat consistent eye contact, initially she would often look away while talking. I’m relatively inexperienced when it comes to going on dates so I had no idea how to physically escalate during the date, especially with a girl as shy as her, other than by hugging her when we first met. Despite this, I made sure to keep the conversation playful, tease her, and be witty while also getting to know her and allowing her to get to know me. After the date she texted saying she had a great time and we set up a second date for this Thursday.

I chose a board game cafe as the venue because I figured an having an activity would be better since she’s more reserved and this would take away pressure from having to talk the entire time. I know most people on here would suggest going to a bar but neither of us are big on drinking so it wouldn’t make sense.

I’m hoping that the more experienced people on this sub could give me some advice on how to escalate during the date, both physically and verbally, to avoid the attraction fizzling out. While I don’t necessarily have boring and logical conversations, I’m terrible at polarising women and noticed that during the first date I ended up having most of the conversations with minimal flirting.