[quote name='Gothic_Walrus']All worthwhile advice to keep in mind. I should hit you and Shrike up the next time I need any help - you older CAGs seem to have most of this stuff down by now.
Thinking about it, I've only had one or two situations since high school where I've been interested in a girl who
wasn't in a relationship at the time. It's been due to bad timing and bad luck on my part almost exclusively, but so far, I'm not sure if any of my failures are actually my fault.
I have no idea why the hell I'm thinking about this so much tonight. Can I blame you and be done with it?

[/quote]
Sure, I'll take the blame.
As I said, I wouldn't say I'm a ladies man by any means, but I can hold my own. Most of what I know comes from all the mistakes I made and some then-good opportunities that I managed to

up in spectactular ways.
Example: I once had a girl who came crawling back to me after she dumped me for, get this, my ex showing up at a club we were at - something I had no control over and knew nothing about beforehand. I liked her a lot, but my pride and ego were hurt, so we had coffee and, long story short (which is a shame, because the conversation leading up to it was pretty good - I've always wanted to use it for dialog in a story) when she asked me if I regretted the breakup, I said yes. I knew where she was going, and when her eyes lit up, I added:
"Furthermore, I regret ever having dated you, had I known how it'd end."
That was the figurative punch to her stomach, with enough of a weasel-out line that I left myself an opening if I wanted to claim she misunderstood what I had REALLY meant.
Although, sometimes - being a dick works.