Boy Meets Girl (Again)

Remember the opening scene in Swingers?
The explanation that a girl only wants you once you've put her out of your mind and don't care?
Yeah.
It's funny because it's true.

It's not often you get the opportunity to flip the script and have another shot at getting a girl interested.
You can't force it.
It requires a deft touch and a willingness to play it subtle.
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We'd met before.
I got her number.
We had a conversation to nowhere.
I invited her out to an interesting type of date that's been successful for me in the past.
She responded with a maybe which of course turned into a no.
We chatted via text a bit longer after that but it was the kinda "hope to see you again" type slag you don't know if it means anything when a girl says it and it probably means nothing so I don't invite her out again because I don't bang my head against the wall.

So I let it die.
I'm not about hounding a girl.
If she wants to do something she'll accept my entreaty or she'll counter offer.
If she doesn't, she can go back out and put up with all the other bullshit morass style guys out there not about shit.

Fast forward several weeks and she asks me if she'll see me at the same venue where we met.
I don't respond until a few hours before.
I respond more briefly than her girl chatter staccato jumble of sentences by saying I will.
When I arrive I don't look for her.
I go about my business and say hello to the people I know.
I sit where in a position so that she won't know if I've ignored her or simply not seen her.
Just like last time, some dude is already hawking around her but I lay back and go about my business.
She can come to me or not but I will not cross the Rubicon.
Your terms or none is how it has to be.

She eventually comes up to me as I'm texting and she posts up coquettishly.
She's a natural flirt. You can tell it's always come effortlessly to her.
I briefly wonder what her ex must've been like to lock this ingénue down.

I almost break frame because she is fucking pretty and exactly what I like.
But the old me steps into my shoes and plays it laconically.
I'm polite....almost cold but not quite.
I erase the more positive and playful vibe I had the first time we met and I reply with a sort of bemused indifference that is the hallmark of game needed with a girl who angles for attention and flirts more overtly off the tip.
I don't make the effort to continue the conversation as I've already emotionally and intellectually placed her outside the box. She's the type to want what's slightly out of reach, something she's not quite certain she can have.
She may or may not know it but I definitely know it.
We dance for a bit and I maintain my frame.
She verbally flirts but I don't take the bait, a move that's worked well for me historically. Again, the bemused indifference is key. Almost like a big brother dismissing his kid sister.

The event ends and there's the awkward pause before goodbye and she asks me out.
I tell her I'll call her, turn and leave.