Ignoring The Rules

I’ve previously mentioned the rules to dating are meant to bebent. When you meet a person you form a real connection with, often the rules aren’t bent, but broken regardless of the consequences. It’s never a one sided situation, either both people are breaking and bending the rules, or everything is following in their structured manner. I introduced Rule Breaker when I discussed the benefits of being persistent, but that’s not how she earned that nickname, our first date sealed the deal.

“Breaking the rules” means so many different things. First it’s the stereotypical male/female roles that we’re supposed to play while dating. While, in this situation, most of these were rules were maintained, she did break some of them. For instance, she was the one who asked for my number, how many women do this? The second type of rules that were broken are the things you’re supposed to do while dating someone, things to say, not to say, topics that should be addressed on the first date, etc. It was her upfront, honest personality that made me comfortable, as I’m an honest, upfront person. This set of rule breaks I had learned from talking to her on the phone.

Like everything with her, the date did start awkwardly. I arrived early at the negotiated date location, Madame X. I’ve always wanted to use this bar as a date location, just to see how it would work. She was also in the area, so the opportunity had finally arrived. I came to the date with a limited amount of knowledge about her physical appearance. She only had head shots in her profile, and I was in a poorly lit area. It was going to be hard to figure out who’s who. I stood near the entrance and waited, until someone who seemed like it was her was going to walk into the bar or was waiting for someone. A woman did slow down and began to look around. I called my dates name out to that woman, figuring it was her.

I was wrong. “No, I’m her!” A voice I had recognized from my phone conversations said behind me. Obviously it was my date, and the beginning of another awkward, but humorous line of events to follow. Throughout the date, I could not stop laughing and smiling, so much that my checks hurt. It wasn’t any one thing in particular, just the way we talked and meshed seemed to work very well with one another. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard on a date. Ever.

Rule Breaker is an attractive woman, who laid it all out there. I didn’t feel as if I was navigating thru that mental minefield women often put guys thru. She has very varied tastes, like myself, fun, eccentric, speaks off the cuff, and most importantly honest. What surprised me was how attracted I were to those qualities she had. I found her type of honesty sexy, the fact she spoke her mind and didn’t hind behind an excuse. If we disagreed she would give me shit for it, but playfully, and it made me laugh. Another attractive trait she had was her ability to relate to what I was saying, without understanding exactly what I meant. I’m a geek, and made a few geek jokes – one was calculating the differences in ages between me and my siblings. It took me a moment to remember the age differences because at any given time there’s an additional year difference. I joked it was like computer code, and made a code joke (“if before the month of April but not after the month of June relative to the suns positions based on the hypotenuse of y then minus….”) She’s not a coder at all, but understood he joke, and participated! She later said, “I don’t get it, but I get it!” The same thing occurred with a sports references I made. While I’m very attracted to women who love sports, she’s not a sports fan, but makes sincere and honest attempts to get the reference. That blew me away.
As I got to know her better throughout the evening, I realized that Rule Breaker was the type of woman I’ve sought for, but have passed up in the past. Not because I wasn’t attracted to them, but because I felt so comfortable with them they would become dear friends of mine. She reminded me of a few friends, all whom I wanted to hook up with, and I realized I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with her that I have with other women. I wanted to see her naked at some point, and had to be sure I made that fact known. As that thought went through my head, I was reminded of something Thomas and Laurie taught me, introducing some sexual tension.

To introduce some form of sexual tension with a woman, you must do it with touch. This should be subtle, say by touching her leg or arm. Not a poke, but more like laying your hand on her leg while making a point. I did this repetitively throughout the evening, all naturally and not frequent enough that it got annoying. She responded a few times with her own touches on my leg or hands, which made it feel as if I was on the right track. It was clear that the signals were sent, we both like each other!

After a great date, two drinks, it was time to go home. I walked with her to a train where we separated and went our separate ways. She went uptown, I went downtown. We hugged and parted, and tentatively set up a date for the next week. Moments later I was kicking myself a bit, I wanted to kiss her. I was going to have to make sure that happened on the second date, which meant calling her soon.