Met TaiChi and his mother down in Chinatown at an authentic chinese restaraunt. The smell of fish and rotting food permeated the air as I walked up and called. "Where are you?" "Sitting inside at a table with my mom and some friends of my family."
Inside, TaiChi was waiting with his mother (I know where he got much of his personality from, now) and two 23 year old girls from Spain. Both very cute, both spoke little English.
After a few failed attempts to get them to drink and some failed attempts at conversation, they agreed that they'd come out with us on Friday when his mother wasn't around.
We left dinner and cabbed up to Tribe. The bartender and waitress stopped me to ask how the renovations were. I didn't notice them, but they're great.
TaiChi's nickname growing up, incidentally, was Sin Verguenza - Without Shame. This name was for his ability to walk up to anyone and start talking to them, an ability that I utterly lack.
When TaiChi and I sat down, I noticed a girl - BandanaGirl - sitting by herself, a glass of wine in front of her, and a bag next to her.
I'd taken TaiChi to Tribe to tell him about my recent exploits, and to debrief him a bit on what went wrong with his attempt to game the two Spanish girls.
After we ordered our drinks, I got up to use the bathroom briefly, and when I came back, he was talking to Bandanagirl. I stood behind him, not wanting to cause him any trouble in his attempted pickup, figuring he'd talk for 20 minutes, get her number, and turn back to our conversation.
Two reasons I thought that: First - it's an effective tactic - it shows he's got a life, and isn't just some horndog. Second - bros before hoes.
After thirty minutes, I was getting pissed off, and I think he sensed that I was about to pay my check and leave, because he introduced me. There was a seat between him and bandanagirl which he suggested I take. So, sitting between them, I got involved in the conversation.
Now remember - TaiChi is one of the greatest naturals I've ever seen - the guy actually loves people, and loves talking to them, and loves women. It's his Latin blood, maybe.
Either way, they were talking, and I was keeping mostly quiet. I knew that TaiChi figured decided that it was on, and I wasn't about to fuck up his game. After all, like I said - bros before hoes.
And then, I'm not sure when, something snapped in my head. I started messing with her the way I mess with all girls I'm flirting with. And I've told TaiChi my thing, and some of the things I've said to girls in the past, and he knew what he was getting into when he brought me in.
Bros before hoes? He spent 30 minutes with his back turned to me and then introduced me only when he remembered I was there. Fuck that.
He was dropping some crap about Joseph Campbell (the guy from the Hero with a thousand faces) and I just looked at him like "are you kidding? Talking Campbell with a drunk grad student in a bar? No no no, I'm not having any of this bullshit."
It was time to pull the rug out from under him and the coins from his eyes.
She said that she was going to give us the ten second version of Joseph Campbell. I cocked an eyebrow at her and mentally started grinning. This was going to be too easy.
I started counting on my fingers from one to ten. When I got to seven, she grabbed both of my hands and squeeled that I should stop counting. I asked her what her name was again.
She talked for a bit longer and then asked how we knew each other.
Now, I've known TaiChi for a long time. Since I was dating TheEvilOne - like, we go back a long long way.
So he knew what was coming next. I looked at him and asked if I should tell her the truth. His eyes went from "of course" to recognition that I was about to drop the hammer on his pickup. I may even have detected a whiff of fear that I was going to fuck things up for him.
"We used to work together." He visibly relaxed. The true story! "As Ass Models." She cracked up. His face fell. I smirked. After that, the conversation lasted a few more minutes, with her engaging in far more touching, him trying to reach across me to touch her, and me smirking and being my usual charming self.
A bachelorette party walked in. Obviously, BandanaGirl was drunk, because she started to chase down the party to see if she could play with them. She was in total stimulus-seeking mode. I wasn't, however, about to give it to her. I was exhausted, and sated, and have an appointment tomorrow morning at 9 AM.
She bounded to the other end of the bar to meet a guy who appeared to be writing poetry. TaiChi was getting pissed. Not only had I fucked up his pickup, but the girl was getting totally away. Not talking to either of us? That's just bad form!
He told me it was "time to leave. Don't even look at her as we go. And if she asks us to stay, don't."
"Dude" I said "that's stupid. Just have fun. If she asks us to stay - and we want to, lets. I'm going to bail soon. She's all yours - I don't want her. I'm tired. If anything, I'll spike her buying temperature and pawn her off on you." He looked at me like I was from Mars. Get a woman all hot and bothered and then pass her off? Who does that? Besides me, I mean. "Look, I'll tell her that I'm voting for Bush or something. That should get her onto you."
As we were leaving, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and said "nice to meet you." She started shaking my hand.
"So, I just moved to the nieghborhood - this is your local bar?"
"Yeah."
"Cool, I just moved in around the corner, I'll be back."
"Honey, I think you're so drunk you won't even remember where you were last night."
"Where do you live?"
"Around a different corner. Like I said, this is my local."
"I'll see you back here soon" she asked, seemingly hopefully.
"Probably." After the whole interchange, inches away from her face, she finally let me go.
I took TaiChi home and debriefed him on what happened. The Ass Model moment. The fact that I knew that he didn't want her that badly, and that it was just fun for him to talk, which is why I got involved. His mishap with the seating arrangements - I told him that I should never have been put between the two of them, instead, he should have had her move over one seat so that he was in the middle. He looked at me like I was a little too cereberal for his tastes, but also, inexplicably, correct.
And then we had a Darth Vader/Obi Wan moment. He looked at me with a new respect - surprised that the young buck was able to do what I'd done. I looked at him and smiled. "TaiChi - where once you were the teacher, I am the master now." I've never seen him laugh so hard. But he agreed.
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