Somehow I suspect that if CE's admirer valued her own friendship with CE's partner, she might not have tried to break up that relationship in the first place (unless everyone here is a declared polyamorist, which is however not the assumption I tend to operate on). Even in the admirer's best case scenario (CE…

What makes you think that one couldn't know a lot about both? Some people just know more than others, I guess. Hobbies tend to come with their own jargon. I admit I'm somewhat surprised that anyone could be surprised by such a simple observation.

Where did I say it's easy?

Ha, yeah, that user-name is unfortunate for these kind of discussions.

In appropriate contexts… problem?

Trust me, I was always perfectly aware that my feelings on the matter were not of particular relevance for the guy on grenade duty. Which is kinda the rub here, from my perspective. We all have to suffer our indignities, was my point. Very character building, supposedly. Good luck!

Yeah, I don't want to remember what I was like at 19 either… What I hated most then were the perfunctory attentions of the one guy tasked with entertaining me while his mates tried their luck with my prettier friends (PUAs have a cute word for it: "throwing yourself on the grenade", they are rarely masters of…

Oh, there's baggage for sure (not just with the girls, it would seem to me). Yet the human race persists. Nothing is ever within anyone's objective control entirely; "not continuing when you've obviously lost" is really all that's asked for, after all. I'm kinda curious though what you find deceitful about placation;…

It's a balancing act - it's vital to keep paying attention to the other person's reaction as to not overlook signals of discomfort, but as with most things that actually matter one must not be paralyzed by a lack of perfect certainty. I guess the trick is to stay alert and course correct fast enough, when there are…

There's one set of rules: Watch for my signals. Whether you get the okay signal - well yes, that will be based on me actually being attracted to you; you will hardly argue that attraction shouldn't matter at all. But there's still only one set of rules.

Reread please. The creepiness is in ignoring signals of disinterest (which do not always have to be verbal, by the way; not reciprocating eye contact should be enough, really.) If you approach to say hi, when I've already pointedly refused to even meet your gaze, that's intrusive, yes. If I'm attracted to you,…

Or you could look for contextual clues… sure, there's always some residual ambiguity, but usually you can make an educated guess. Establish eye contact first, avoid situations where they can't afford to simply ignore you/might feel obliged to engage. Doesn't completely remove the risk of being called creepy (some…

_If_ there's mutual attraction. The creepy thing is the failure to get a bit of a reading on that before bringing out the big guns. Of course people sometimes miscalculate, and prettier people always have a wider margin of error (not because they're better at reading the signs, but because they have a higher chance of…

It makes for great porn, if you know where to look.

Those books got so boring after she married. I used to read quite a bit of that kind of literature as a girl (also Emmy von Rhoden and Else Ury; Backfischromane is the German name for the genre), and the heroines start out as so much fun, until they aren't.. My general take away was that as a woman you get to have a…

I love a well executed romantic subplot, but that just makes me more prissy when it's done badly. I think a lot of creators don't fully appreciate how difficult it can be to pull off a proper romance. There's actually quite a bit more to it than meet-cute and slap-slap-kiss.

The meaning of words is based on conventions, established by the relevant communities. Who would have thought.

So I guess, I'll have to be the resident Taylor Swift fan. She's come a long way since her Romeo and Juliet fantasies; I think Blank Space is rather clever, and she seems to me extremly calculating, which I can't help but love at least a little bit.

Another vote for trusting your guts. If you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it. Caveat: I'm pretty much living and dying by that principle myself, and in my case it has essentially led to spinsterhood, but then again: that's actually not the worst thing in the world. To me, stringing someone along, in some kind…

Yes, absolutely, I could see Dany being the new catalyst for conflict between Jon and Tyrion - it doesn't necessarily have to be romantic rivalry through. Whether the triumvirate will actually end up ruling … it seems almost a bit too neat. I would guess at least one of them will die - there has to be something bitter…