To be honest, I don't like the terms "alpha" and "beta", but in this context they are quite appropriate.There was a girl I used to like (actually, it seems I still do to some extent). She didn't answer my messages until hours later, so our communication was rather one-sided. Even worse, all I did was try to convince her I was good enough for her. As you might guess, that didn't work, she said a mild no twice to my "why don't we have a cup of coffee". Her second excuse still seems strange to me: she said that we should probably meet among our mutual friends so as to avoid rumors. Then I just moved on and stopped writing her. That was 4-5 months ago.

A week or two ago, we started chatting again. This time I was much more confident and playful (thanks to boxing, focus on career etc.) and just sincerely helped with her graduate thesis.For some reason, she started answering within several minutes, asking questions, flirting. On top of that, she wrote that she hated the way I end conversations whenever I want to do so and how little I tell her compared to her telling me everything.

It's probably my bad but I decided that there's nothing to lose (this is true) and I should ask her out again. Not because I'm in love with her (this is not true), but just because she is very attractive and I have some free time.

Her answer, however, was a little bit unexpected, "Yes, we can meet and invite [our friends]."

After that, I totally lost my cool and answered, "Oh, sorry, I have completely forgotten we shouldn't hang out one on one".

Then she asked me whether I was going to keep chatting with her "after that". End of story.

I can conclude that even though my behaviour changed, her perception of me did not really. Therefore, no success.

In addition, I'm extremely bad at handling negative responses, at which I still need to work, as well as at my confidence as a whole.

So, I'm just moving on again :)