This is Hi-Fi

I'm not sure what YOU'RE thinking of, but I'll explain myself.

I was wandering around Seattle by myself, when I decided that I wanted to see how the downtown nightlife would be. As I wandered around aimlessly on a Tuesday evening, there wasn't much to do or see. That is, until I noticed two incredibly cute members of the fairer sex. They also had that "we don't know exactly where we're going, but we'll know when we get there" look that I did. I approached them and asked if they were interested in some company. They apparently decided that I looked harmless enough and were more or less looking for the same thing (place to hang out and grab some drinks or coffee). So we ended up finding a neat place to sit down and chat.

Keira and Beth were on a road trip. Both were moving from San Diego, back to their roots in NYC. Keira used to work in restaurant management, while Beth was a teacher. More on the teacher bit in a second*. Both were very attractive, but in different ways. Keira was more of the mysterious aloof type. Beth was clearly more of the warm friendly type.

On this sortie, I had to engage my primary target without a wingman while evading her wingman (or wingwoman, if you prefer). About a month ago, I had a conversation with some friends about the appropriate strategy for exactly this situation. One of the promising theories was that you have to engage the friend first, until the target tries to work her way into the conversation. At that point, you switch over, and you're in the clear.

Unfortunately, I didn't really follow this plan. My plan of action made little sense. Not only should I have been able to engage K in conversation, I actually found her previous occupation to be interesting. What do I do instead? I'm beguiled by the lovely B and basically make a fairly weak attempt to engage K in conversation. Granted, K was giving me a rather cool reception and seemed a bit distracted/disinterested, but not engaging her in conversation, clearly wasn't going to help the situation. K seemed to get visibly bored and/or sleepy despite the espresso (by the time I realized it, it was probably too late), and after maybe 30 minutes or so, they decide to part ways. On one hand, I'm proud that I was proactive and achieved some level of success in conversation, but I clearly didn't close the deal on any level. No emails/digits exchanged. Oh well more food for thought for the next 1 on 2 encounter. At least I got some nice conversation and a free drink out of the deal (I was so engrossed in conversation, that I didn't notice the bill until she moved to pay it).

I wonder if there is an optimal way to handle this situation?

* - What is it with teachers and their clothes? Are they standard issue? Beth was wearing the exact same shirt as a teacher that I dated last year. I unsuccessfully tried to find a picture, but it's sort of a black short sleeve shirt where the sleeves are cut along the top, but tied on. I know that's a bad description, but that's the best that I can do. That type of shirt will certainly continue to evoke happy memories for a long time.