I’ve seen it!

—“I have come an awfully long way since you said hello to me.”
I’d say that to *****, my pretty (say it!) lifeguard friend at Canandaigua’s YMCA swimming-pool.
“I could celebrate the fact one of the prettiest girls I ever met seems to wanna talk to me.”
I could bore you all to death, but HO-HUM! Of course she wants to talk to me.
Give that pretty girl the opportunity to talk to a male, without having to defend herself, and OFF-WE-GO!
“All you’re doing is striking up a conversation,” said ***** the other day. “No evil intent.”
“Yep,” I’d say. “I ain’t hittin’ on ‘er!” Pretty girls carry the albatross: some loathsome lothario (there are many) puts ‘em on the defensive.
“And women seem to wanna talk,” I’d add. “Let ‘em, and make ‘em laugh or smile.”
Back-and-forth, the simple exchange of emotions; I trigger you, and you trigger me.
I’ve had it happen. “We could talk forever, but I gotta buy groceries!”
Yrs Trly carries a sordid childhood: “NO PRETTY LADY WILL EVER TALK TO YOU!”
Right now I’m attracting an extremely pretty girl — so pretty I felt like she was unapproachable.
Of course I am; I ain’t hittin’ on her, and I make her laugh.
***** really hit the mark when she said “all you’re doing is striking up a conversation.”
To which I add: “strike up a conversation with some pretty lady and you’re telling her she attracts you.”
They like that; I’ve seen it!

• Three years ago, as my aquatic balance training began in that swimming pool,***** said hello to me by name, and I got up enough nerve to say hello back later. So began recovery from my childhood fear of pretty girls. My dog helped. (“Oh what a pretty dog!”)