Airport non-pickup
I had seen her walking around in the terminal prior to getting into the gate. She looked like a model: tall, thin, long dark hair, rock star sunglasses, jean shorts that went to her knees, and pink high heels. I must say, she was quite striking and pretty close to my definition of “hot.” I’ll also admit that I was a bit intimidated. The whole look was impressive and made her look quite important. I admired from afar as I waited for my chicken caesar salad.
I typically have very crappy luck when it comes to seat neighbors on planes, so typically seeing a cute girl sets off a bell in my head that I must speak to her before the plane takes off because I’ll likely be sat next to an older gentleman with gas or a productive cough. This time, I was feeling particularly tired and just decided to lay back (breaking my own resolution). I went through the security checkpoint and didn’t see her again. Oh well.
When I got to my seat on the plane, I was seated next to a nice newlywed couple who were on their way to Hawaii. I had some nice conversation with the husband (the wife had fallen instantly to sleep) about Hawaii and then we started to talk about what we did for work, normal banter for a plane. Then I saw her again, walking right towards me. Pink heels flashing, she sat in the seat right across the aisle from me. I caught her eye and said, “hi,” to which she politely responded before trying to arrange her long legs into the tiny seating area.
Throughout the flight, I kept waiting for an opportunity to start a conversation. She had kept her sunglasses on the whole time so it was impossible to tell if she was sleeping or not. She also had immediately put her iPod headphones into her ears, making it impossible to just start a conversation without getting her attention. I waited and waited. One hour went by, then two. Finally, I realized I’d have to do something obvious and just stick my neck out there if I were to keep my agreement with myself to at least approach every attractive girl I see.
Immediately I was darting around, looking for a topic to bring up, trying to figure out a clever way to start the conversation. Finally, I took a good look at her iPod and realized it was a bit older. I thought it was perhaps one of the discontinued iPod Minis. That was it.
“Excuse me,” I said, tapping on her tray table. She pulled her earphones out, “just curious, is that an iPod Mini?”
We talked for the next hour, all the way up until the plane landed. I learned all about her. She’s a law school student with one year left though she’s not really excited about the law anymore. She’s in the Bay Area visiting her parents and then going to Las Vegas with some friends to celebrate her birthday before heading back to school. She grew up in Hawaii and only left when she went to school. I explained a little about my work and what I do, as well.
I started to kid her about the sunglasses (which were still on this entire time) and she revealed that she had damaged her eyelids due to sun exposure in Hawaii, so normal light seemed very bright to her. She wears sunglasses by default now, she said, to avoid doing any further damage to them. It also turns out that she finds her pink high heels to be very comfortable and that, along with their matching a pattern on her shirt, was why she was wearing them.
The only thing left was to ask her out. It might seem pointless to do so since she was just visiting the area, but I would have kicked myself for not trying. I asked if she might be interested in coming down to Silicon Valley for a tour. She very quickly said, “no.” I laughed at the look of disgust on her face, “I just really have no desire to go there.”
“No worries,” I said, “I thought I’d extend the invite in the off chance that you might be interested.”
“Thanks,” she said, “but I have so little time here as it is, I really need to see my parents and my friends, and I don’t want to disappoint them.”
“Understood,” I replied, “it was very nice meeting you, have a good trip.”
I walked away feeling slightly disappointed but mostly satisifed at how far I had made it into the pickup progression with this girl. There was a point in time when I could not have spoken to a girl such as her, but now, I did it with little trouble. And even though I didn’t get to go out with her, I really appreciated her bluntness when I attempted it. To be sure, I had no intention of starting a long-distance relationship, but you never know around which corners happiness may lie.
(By the way, you can now follow me on Twitter at @zack_taylor).
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