I recently joined a group to learn spanish, as the main goal and try and work at my game, as a second goal.

Please note that this is taking place in a European capital of a former Communist republic. I am a 24 year old guy who never had a romantic relationship with a girl. Have several girl friends with whom I enjoy passing time or talking about random stuff, but have never been engaged in a romantic relationship. I think you can assume the rest. So, here goes.

There are 4 girls in the class but unfortunately I didn’t manage to hit it off with any of them. Two of them are in a serious relationship and I didn’t manage to isolate the other 2 so far. One of them is particularly interesting as she is almost everything I’m not. Rebellious, straight-forward, loves tattoes and piercings, loves clubbing, claims she only has guy friends because she can’t get on the same page with girls. Anyway, she’s not the focus of this FR. Maybe in #2 or #3.

Today was the second class and a new girl showed up. Tallish, cute face, seems a bit shy. During the break, when everyone went outside to grab a smoke I seized the opportunity to engage her in conversation. I introduced myself, without any fancy opening since I didn’t think it would be necessary as the so-called ice was already broken. Asked her about her master’s studies, something she mentioned in the introduction earlier in the session. Things seemed to be rather awkward since we were the only ones left in the room so I invited her outside to join the others. She agreed and we met the others outside and started chatting as a group, bouncing ideas and opinions. I didn’t engage her directly but when she told us a funny story about her cat’s habits, I replied with one of my own (since I also own a cat and like them very much). Did this to try and form a connection based on shared feelings and memories. Don’t know if I should’ve done anything else but I’ll see in the future if I need to change small talk like this. After the course we got out and when we separated it turned out she chose to walk with me through a shortcut. Everyone else went to get a taxi or a bus. I’d like to read this as an IOI, since the way I read it was that she made a choice to come with me instead of walking to the bus stop. The counter-argument would be that she chose to come with me because at that hour (22:00/10 pm) busses come seldom and she felt secure enough to walk with me on some side streets, instead of waiting countless minutes for the bus.

Anyway, I used this chance to find out more about herself. Mostly what she’s doing with her life. What she’s studying (in greater detail). How is she earning a living? I tried to relate emotionally to what she was saying but I feel that I fell short of that goal. Mostly I went about my usual business, agreeing with her current choices of employment (teaching kids foreign languages in private lessons, doing handmade objects and trying to sell them). She did ask me back. Don’t know if it was actual interest or a matter of education. After I answered (tried keeping the answers as short as possible to force her into asking more questions if she really was interested) we moved to another subject, so I think I can assume she wasn’t genuinely interested, but only investing a little to keep the conversation going. Continued talking about university professors and how some of the more dedicated few start losing interest over the course of several years, due to increasingly less interested students. She could totally relate to that, or at least so it seemed. I touched her once on the small of her back to guide her through 2 parked cars, but I didn’t see any other openings to legitimate further touching. This whole walk lasted about 10 minutes and when we parted we shaked hands and wished one another good night. So I don’t think there’s anything on the – close scale. Handshake-close?!?

TL;DR Met a seemingly shy, but cute, girl in my newly begun Spanish class. Walked together for 10 minutes. Talked a bit about what she’s doing with her life. Handshake-close.

What’s your opinion, sedditers? Did I read her the wrong way? What do you think should be my next moves or how more should I push tomorrow and the day after that?