A girl on each arm

Location: Pub quiz in North Beach, San Francisco
Objective: Reconnect with an old coworker and meet some of his new friends
Outcome: Made 2 new HB friends, walked up the street with one on each arm

Went to a pub quiz after work to hang out with an ex-coworker, his new GF and her friends. He was the only one I knew in the set at first. It grew to an 8 set as the night wore on.

The place was packed, there wasn't a seat to be had. I was gonna stand at the bar and order a drink first, but decided to track down my mate first. I approached his table confidently and reached around the other side of his neck with the crook of my umbrella, and the HBs on the other side of the table noticed this. He looked up and stood up and welcomed me. I had to go and hunt for a chair first before I could sit down, although I recommended (playfully) that everyone tighten up a little and let me squeeze in. Got a good laugh.

So I went back to the bar for drinks, brought them back, and negotiated a chair from another table. Came back triumphantly with the chair and the girls clapped and cheered me. (Social proof in effect.) Got introduced to them all, threw a few funny sayings into the conversation and helped to answer some questions, took on the role of scribe and ended up acting as a 'chairman' getting the team to focus on the questions, make the best deductions we could for the ones we had to guess, getting a consenses on questions where we were divided, telling other tables to be quiet so we could hear the questions, etc. Basically, I appointed myself captain of this quiz team.

HB8 lands on the scene, I neg her about her inability to pronounce my name properly (I don't make it easy for her, she has to make about six attempts). Later she goes to the bar with HB6 and I join them. I get the round (people had been buying rounds, so I didn't mind payng for drinks at this point) and have a second shot of whiskey (I had been drinking soda water at all other times, a DHV in that I'm a disciplined drinker).

I give HB8 some pre-prepared clothing-based negs with CF in full swing. They're sitting facing the bar and I gradually turn myself to the standing up leaning back over the bar position, continue talking various fluff but in a CF way.

Their convo goes off into inside stories and I kinda lose interest anyway, I just listen to the results of the quiz and let them chat away. I take part in the clapping just to emphasise that I'm not trying to get into their convo.

The rest of the set comes walking out and we say our goodbyes, but I stick around with HB8 and HB6. They fish for information about my friend and his GF and their sex life, but I refuse, offering instead to talk about my own, which they agree to. So I go into some stories using a really circuitous route and all manner of detailed detours to tell a funny story from my dating history (3 years previous). It turns out that HB8 has a BF, and the two of them don't speak very highly of him. Later I get a DLV in about my involvment in competitive cycling and that seems to impress them, but I brush it aside as no big deal. Conversation covers such topics as HB8's BF's issues, oral sex, how much hair a girl is supposed to have down below, etc. I give them my views and answer all their questions on that sort of stuff.

We're among the last to leave the place, and we go on to an Italian wine bar for wine & some cheesy/meaty snacks while we sit outside. I get the mother of all negs in here. While I'm in the middle of another story, HB8 lights up a cigarette, the wind blows it straight into my face, I stop in my tracks and say:

"Mind if I sit upwind of you?"

HB8 goes speechless and just looks at me in disbelief, HB6 does the same before bursting out in laughter.

I get up and insist on switching seats,

HB6: "OMG that was sooooo unsubtle!"

(I didn't intend it as a neg, it's my natural reaction to cigarette smoke.)

So I justify it with a little anti-smoker put-down (I don't give a shit what smokers think, quite frankly) and I just sit down in the new position and resume the story. Convo carries on. I get plenty of IOI from HB6 who's really enjoying the evening, but HB8 is wasted and starting to go quiet and sleepy. HB8 pays for all the wine and snacks.

We leave and walk up the street, I manouvre myself to get one of them on each arm, thinking "shit! I've always wanted to do this!." We walk one block before they decide to get a cab, I stick my (manly looking) umbrella out to stop a cab, one stops right away, I hug and kiss both girls on the cheek and they remark on how much they enjoyed themselves and insist that we hang out again. I agree to that but don't bother with a # close since I can connect through my friend easily enough. I walked home.

These two will be good contacts, female friends are a good thing to have.

Good & bad points: Instinctive and situational game in use for all of the night even though I hadn't gone out to specifically 'sarge' as such. Gaming methods such as avoiding shit tests, using negs, getting DHVs in etc. were all employed when the need arose. Had a total of three drinks throughout the course of the evening, didn't adversely affect my game this time, prolly because there was less AA because I already had a contact in the set, and I was more relaxed about this now. Plus I am getting more confident when 'in set.' The smoking neg might have been a bit harsh, but hey, fuck it.

Comments welcome.

Ha!

Update: I was driving across Van Ness on Sutter today on my way somewhere when a text lands in my phone saying "Hey clown, I just saw you crossing Van Ness on Sutter!" It was my buddy from the quiz.

So I called him up and got the scoop on a few things, including the outcome of the night at the pub.

Well apparently HB6 had been talking to him and thought that I could have fucked HB8 if I'd played my cards right. (I didn't push for it since she said she was in an LTR, no matter how bad it was.) The smoking neg turned out to be a turning point where she got all bent out of shape. Now that I think of it, she may have been wasted but that was definitely the point where things took on a different complexion.

Hindsight: Should have stopped pushing and done a gentle pull at that point, maybe comforted her with a little rub on the arm and said "Oh you poor thing, you'll be OK" or something like that. What do you think?

Anyway, the upshot of all that is that HB8 is my friend's GF's boss, so he doesn't want to get into the middle of anything potentially messy by trying to hook me up with her. And that's fair enough, business and pleasure seldom mix so you have to respect that, especially when these people work for one of the big accounting firms. So the next time there's some sort of event on, he'll let me know.