I step onto the train after a long day’s work.

I purposefully did not wear my headphones today because it tends to be anti-social and there’s no way I’ll speak to someone while wearing headphones.

I may not speak to anyone anyway.

But I plan to. I want to talk to people. Particularly this girl sitting next to me on the train.

I have no approach anxiety. The fear seems to be gone.

Yet I still don’t speak to her. Why?

It seems inappropriate. Logically I don’t care what other people think.

But I’m just not in the mood to be embarrassed, I tell myself.

Why don’t I want to be embarrassed? Read the rest of this entry »

It starts off small and weak.

Everything in your brain tells you not to listen to that urge.

The things it says seem stupid and silly.

Alarms go off in your brain, telling you that listening to the urge will get you into trouble.

You know that if you should decide to let those words out of you, they’ll stumble out like a drunk man leaving a bar on a saturday night, falling with every step, landing you into the middle of the road.

Don’t worry about saying the wrong thing–you will say the wrong thing.

I guarantee it.

There will be every excuse in the book: Read the rest of this entry »

The last few weeks I’ve been moving in a direction with one of the girls I’m dating. I’ve decided to get more serious with her.

I haven’t been in an exclusive relationship with anyone since I began this journey two and a half years ago.

I’m actually falling for this girl.

And everything seems different now.

I’m trusting her on a deeper level than I trusted any of the other girls.

We were on the phone the other day, talking about what we did the night before.

She says she didn’t get a lot of sleep.

She mentions that she went out after work with one of her guy “friends” and hung out with him till five in the morning.

What do you think? Read the rest of this entry »

“Mark the first page of the book with red marker. For, in the beginning, the wound is invisible” - Reb Alce’

Her voice is on the line.

She answers the phone with a familiar tone.

“Hey!”

I can hear it in her voice. She’s happy to hear from me.

She doesn’t exactly know what’s been happening between me and her lately.

It’s a familiar sound. A few weeks ago, when she’d gone away to college, I’d felt the same way.

I sent a few unreturned texts, left a message that took a lot longer than normal before she got back to me.

Was she seeing someone else? Was she losing interest in me? Read the rest of this entry »

A Question from a Reader:

Eric,

I rent a room from one of my buddies who owns a house. He and his girlfriend are both out of town for the week on vacation.

His girlfriend asked one of her friends to stay at the house and sit for their cat. Her friend is an 18-year-old college student that goes to a nearby university.

She’s also rather cute.

I got back home yesterday evening. When I arrived I introduced myself to her, made some small talk, and watched some TV before she had to go to sleep.

She seems rather friendly. At this point, I think you can tell where this is going.

This is pretty much the opportunity of a lifetime for any dude in their 20s–young 18 year-old girl-next-door type staying at your house, sleeping there over night, for the week.

Before I end up getting insta-friended, I figured I’d send you a mayday in hopes of you getting this soon and being able to help me out.

How do I increase the tension here? Read the rest of this entry »