Figured I'd drop this little story in here from the weekend:

Context

A bunch of us (mixed group of guys/girls) are at a cottage on the lake for the weekend and there's a HB7 I have my eyes on so I begin playfully chatting her up with the usual "How do you know so-and-so? What are you doing here? etc." Just small fluff talk, doesn't seem to be having much impact other than getting a few smiles and laughs.

The Idea

About an hour into socializing and a few drinks I notice there are a few of two-man canoes by the cottage and suggest a bunch of us take them out for a spin. Grab the HB7 and say, "you're with me", she agrees and six of us head off to man the canoes.

Teasing

It took about 2 minutes to realize she had no idea what she's doing, I've got a little experience, enough to know she's struggling. I let it happen for a bit while lobbing a few soft jabs like "Are your hands broken?" She starts to paddle faster but now we're so out of sync so we're going nowhere fast.

Now I start to really lay into her and say "I can't paddle with or without you". Since I need her kind of to get things moving, I then start singing U2: With or Without You swapping out the word "live" for "paddle". She gets a laugh but has no idea what I'm singing? I tease her a bit more, she still has no idea, I think she might be fucking with me so I dig a bit and it turns out she grew up in Russia in the 90's so probably wasn't kidding at all. I tell her I'll play it for her when we get back to land, she's happy at that idea.

Man up

So after a little more flirting, I start showing her how to paddle properly and stay in sync with me and we start moving, we go for a little spin and I can tell I've really got her attention, not only because we're isolated in the middle of a lake but she's jiving and we have a little splashing water fight (jokingly) before the others find us and we all decide to head back to land and get some food.

After we eat I actually blow her off for a little bit and go socialize with some other friends, catching the odd glance from her here and there, there was another guy there that I think was hitting on her but she didn't seem too interested in talking with him much, possibly to not fuck up her chances with me, I'm really not sure.

Sinking the hook

Night has come and the bonfire is roaring, we've all got chairs or a picnic table around the fire and are chilling out, drinking. Again, I'm keeping her at an arms length and not giving her a ton of attention.

She gets up to get a drink and asks (only me) if I'd like one, I probably should have gone with her, I stupidly didn't but while she was off getting one I came up with a brilliant idea. I move seats to the picnic table where no one else is and get my headphones and phone out of my backpack. She returns and finds me at the table and hands me my drink while giving me a bright-eyed look, I grab her sleeve and say "come here, sit down." I'm sitting sideways with my legs open and pull her between them and pull out the headset and say "I never did play that song for you, here" and give her one earpiece and I take the other and queue up this song.

She gets a good laugh at first, then kind of goes silent. About halfway in she leans into my chest and we cuddle up for a awhile by the fire. Lots of leg rubbing and feeling up going on under the table, great sex a few hours later. Added to the plate roster for when we get back to the city.

Lessons Learned

  • Small talk accomplished nothing, but I feel is a necessary formality.
  • She didn't really start responding to me positively until I started teasing her.
  • Showing her how to row demonstrated value (as silly as it may seem)
  • I'm pretty sure she was probably DTF (at least interested) after the canoe but the push/pull definitely sealed it tighter than a frogs ass.
  • Women respond to being sweet and (kind of) romantic, just don't do it like a total beta.