May I Kiss You?

At the end of your date, how do you know whether you should try for a kiss or not? This can be such an awkward moment, especially if you read the signals wrong... and then you lean towards her... and she leans away... (lol). I'm good at body language, very good in fact. Some of it is natural talent, other is from schooling (Communication and Psychology). But even with all of that, one can still be wrong. And I hate to be wrong. So, I ask.

That's what I did Saturday night. I had a great date with a woman I met on a Single Parent's dating site. There are not a lot of people on those site's but the ones there are in very similar situations as myself. Thus, great choices for dates. This particular lady, Q and I have been email'ing, IM'ing and the occasional phone call for a couple of months. She lives in Long Island, NY and I'm in South Windsor, CT. Talk about distance. So why did I contact her? Well, there was a mistake on her profile (probably fat-fingered zip-code) that showed her as being 20-30 min east of me. So we started talking and getting to know each other. When it was time to suggest a meeting, that's when we discovered the big difference - 125 miles west of me.

But we continued to talk and try to plan a first meeting. With the holidays coming and her extremely busy schedule (single mom, full custody, owns her own PR firm), we finally found time this past Sat night, and boy was it poorly planned - lol. We decided to meet in Danbury, a town neither of us knows very well but a good midway point. We further decide to meet at Ruby Tuesday's (the apparent place of many of my first dates) at the Danbury Mall (yes was my poor suggestion cause I knew the mall had one). We would meet there and then decided what to do, where to go. So I get there and am driving around and guess what, I can't find the restaurant. At every other mall, it is in the front and you can clearly see the entrance. But not this mall. Turns out it was in back where the parking garage is, therefore hard to see. We talk on the phone, discover we are in the same parking area, and we run through the freezing cold weather to meet inside. I go in upstairs, she goes in downstairs. We talk again on the phone and I proceed down stairs to meet her in Pizzeria Uno. Wow, what a knock-out - even more beautiful than her pictures. Uno has a long wait and it's noisy so we decide to walk around a little and talk while trying to figure out what to do. I mention seeing a Barnes and Nobles near by but not sure how to get there. We walk some more wind up at the food court.

The food court! I can't believe I am bringing a woman, on the first date, to a food court at a mall. And this woman in particular who travels in circles a little higher than mine (ok, a lot higher - fashion industry in NY). So I mention again, maybe we should try the Barnes and Nobles - somewhere quieter where we can have coffee and talk. She agrees, we head for the door, I run out and get the car for her (freezing cold and she actually had to drive 137 miles to meet me after dropping off her kids at her parents - least I could do is get the car). We arrive and guess what? This Barnes and Nobles does not have a coffee shop. Argghhhhh!!!!. So we head to Olive Garden. Unfortunately, there is an hour wait and the bar is packed. Out of frustration and serious lack of patience on my part, we head back to the mall, find Ruby Tuesday's, and hang out at that bar instead. Finally, a place to sit, hot coffee and good conversation. Phew....

So even though the date started off poorly planned, a little ruff, and a couple of obstacles and a lot of embarrassment on my part, it turned out just fine. Better than fine actually, Q is pretty awesome. When it was time to go, I drove her to her car and suggested she start it and hang out in my car while it warms up. She agrees. We chat a little more and I ask if I may kiss her. She says yes, then says no one has ever asked her that before. It was a great kiss.

So back to my original question, have you ever asked a date if you could kiss them? Or have you ever been asked?