This one might be my favorite first meeting of a guy in a long time. For my birthday a few of my friends and I put on roller skates and coveralls and skated down The Embarcadero. When a gate blocked off our path around a building we took a break for a photo shoot with the sunset, Bay Bridge, and city skyline. At this point a gentleman asked what we were doing and then invited us to skate inside The Exploratorium after we told him it was my birthday. The rules were that he would let us in as long as we didn't tell on him and that we avoid the fancy party that was happening in one wing. He also let us know that there was a staff happy hour happening and basically told us to use our best judgment there. Since we were a bit of a spectacle on skates in our multi-colored coveralls as we skated by the staff happy hour, one guy waved us in to join while a few others just smiled and nodded their heads in amusement.
Seventy-one is the one who waved us in and didn't question who we were or what we were doing before offering us drinks. Then he told us he had roller skates at his office and went to get them. He quickly came back and offered to show us around on our skates, and at one point he took my phone to take pictures of us. When he returned the phone he said the pictures were going to be great. I seized the day and said, "You know what would make this better? If you put your number in the phone, too." He was super adorable and unassuming as he asked, "Really? Are you hitting on me?" I told him, "Yeah, I am. You have skates and don't care why we're here." To which he replied, "Well, I do know what's important in a relationship."
The next day I sent him a picture that he'd taken of my friends and me and texted, "Thanks for making my birthday extra special." He replied that we had all been the talk of The Exploratorium the next day. A couple of days went by and I decided that I was just going to pull the trigger and ask him out because it shouldn't be a huge shock after all since I did ask for his number, so I texted him, "Are you free Thursday or Friday after work to go on a date with me?" He responded, "Penelope! You pretty much made my day. That being said, I'm not sure that I can" No punctuation mark, and of course to his response wasn't a solid no, so I obviously replied, "Yay for making your day! To be clear: you're not sure that you can go on a date next week or ever? (I'm hoping you just mean next week)" To which he never responded. Ever.
Option A: I completely scared him (wouldn't be the first time).
Option B: He dropped his phone in the Bay before finishing his original text which explains the lack of punctuation.
Option C: Alien abduction.
