So, you have a husband?

Sitting at the counter. To my right, a friend. We talk. To my left, a very hot blond woman, who is also quite polite and friendly. I'm not in a flirting mood, but sometimes you have to stretch anyway. But I talk to my friend, thinking I might strike up a conversation with Blond-to-left later.
A guy sits to her left, and he goes in with no hesitation. I can hear him losing points quickly, he talks way to much about himself, realizes he has done so, then asks her a couple questions, then goes back to trying to make a good impression. Keeping score, I'm seeing him go down in flames after about five minutes, but lingering in the wreckage long, long after.

Still, I'm only half listening when I realize it's probably been over half an hour and he's still talking. Then he finally gets the info he should probably have dug up in the first pass:
"Oh, your husband? What does he do?" he says. In his voice, I can clearly hear the pain of trying to be happy to hear this news.

Over-compensation is a terrible thing to watch. Nobody wants to be the guy who stops talking to the pretty girl when you suddenly find out she's not available. Nobody wants to admit you were really fascinated with everything she said, mostly because she looks so nice. So you go to very long lengths to prove that you could just talk to her for days on end, even though she has a husband. When I left, after maybe another half an hour, he was still talking. Still SO happy to have met her.

posted by dan @ 11:00 AM |