My Dick Tracy Relationship Semantics Decoder Ring.

My friend Doug, bless him, told me to cut Eddie Bauer guy some slack, which I fully intend to do.

Heck, I did call the guy.

But I don't think I'm the only one of the two of us trying to figure out what something is before it's time has come.

I think Eddie Bauer guy is doing the same thing as I am.

Doug wrote this:

Consider that as a retail manager, he's probably not used to being asked out
by customers. Particularly male customers. Yes, you were ballsy in asking
him out, but for that very reason you have to cut him some slack if he acted
a little addled and awkward.

And don't get worked up over the "semantics" of whether he technically
accepted your date or not. You were telling me not too long ago that you
were worried you didn't have enough friends. So here's someone who wants to
be your friend, take advantage of it. And if y'all end up sleeping together,
count your blessings. You know very well how many times I've tried to sleep
with friends, and how rarely that's worked.

Sometimes you spend so much time running an incident through your Dick Tracy
Relationship Semantics Decoder Ring that you don't even pay attention to the
opportunity sitting right in front of you to make a new friend or to have
fun with someone. Go out and do something with him, not expecting anything.
If you like hanging out with him, great; if it's just too much hassle, don't
do it again. But it's kind of silly to make those judgments before you've
actually spent any substantial amount of time with someone.