Sunday afternoon, i took my dog to a local state park to walk around the big lake. It was a beautiful day, and I took my shirt off because it was still really hot.

There was a girl by the shore, all by herself, seemingly lost in thought. Tall, slim, pixie hair-cut... even though the sun was behind her I could tell she was stunning. So, like a chump, I walked the dog right on past her without saying a word.

She was getting ready to leave by the time we were coming back.

Fuck it.

"You look like you were thinking some very deep thoughts," I said.

We started talking. She was friendly. She was also very young, relative to me, but clearly legal (tattoos). There was an uncomfortable pause when we got to her car, so I wished her a nice night and started to leave.

Fuck it.

"Hey, one second... would you take a picture of me and my dog?" I called after her. Re-ignition!

By now, I'd seen her clearly... and it dawned on me that this girl was a LOT younger than I'd initially thought. "How old are you?" I asked her directly.

She was smiling. "Guess".

"I'm guessing you're young enough to make me feel very weird about talking to you," I answered with a smile as I inched away from her. She was grinning now.

We said bye to eachother for real this time.

The crazy thing is that she must have realized what the age differential was, she engaged with me anyway, and almost certainly would have given me her number had I asked.

I thought it was funny. And I got a good pic of me and my dog.