Yeah you did alright, since it was an old friend from her home town. You can't really do much when it comes to them talking about their past and shit, so trying to take charge of the convo pretty much would've worked against you.
Girls run into old friends all the time, so there's not much you can do in terms of avoiding it.
However, if the guy was making her laugh constantly and shit you shouldn't worry too much. It's the escalating you should be worried about. If he's standing there telling jokes the whole time let him. Don't be a dancing monkey let him be the dancing monkey.
In fact, don't give him any attention, don't turn your body to face him, don't make eye-contact with him (if you have to don't turn your head, just move your eyes across), don't reply to anything he says. Basically, don't acknowledge his presence.
*** A good trick i picked up on was from sixty's method. What you do is just stare at your target, hold seductive eye-contact and smile. Eventually she'll notice and start thinking about why you're not paying attention to the speaker. You're pretty much subcommunicating on a non-verbal level.
Another thing you could do is politely leave the set by saying ''i'll leave you two to catch up.'' This is also a good technique because it seems like you're handing her over to him.
Be the prize, go game other chicks, eventually she'll notice and come running back to you
CHAT