See thy blood warm when thou feels it cold

"Hello, SportsShack."

"May I speak to Alessandra?"

"Hold please."

"Alessandra."

"Hold please."

When she walks, she's like a samba, that swings so cool and sways so gentle, that when she passes, each one she passes goes, oooh...

"Hello, SportsShack."

"Alessandra?"

"Yes, this is Alessandra."

"Hi, it's Uli."

"Uli?"

"From the train last night."

"Oh, yes, I remember."

"Great, great, I called to see if you're free to go to a movie with me Sunday afternoon."

"Oh, sorry, I work Sunday afternoon."

"Would another time work better?"

"Sure, yeah."

"If you give me your number, they won't have to page you."

"See, I'm going to be busy, I'm work and also there-"

"Alessandra, it's OK."

"What?"

"It's OK, you can just say 'no'."

"Whew.  Then, uh, thank you for the offer.  It was nice."

"You're more than welcome.  You have a good one."

"You too."

Surprisingly, I was happy when I hung up.   I ask her out and she declined.  Maybe it was the age difference, maybe she really was a lesbian.  Maybe she just thought I was boring or noticed the ring.  It's all good.  Yes, it would have been nice to go to the movies with her, but the important thing was, I got shot down at the next level.

There's supposedly a mental illness called "pronoia".  It's the opposite of paranoia: you begin to suspect the Universe is conspiring on your behalf.  I met Melissa from SportsShack a week after I met Ella; then 16 months later, I meet Catherine, who's escorted by Matt, the same loser who escorted Ella, a week later, I meet Alessandra, also from SportsShack.

I don't know what it means in the big picture, but clearly I was supposed to call SportsShack and ask Alessandra, which I have now done.  I was hoping the point was that Alessandra would go out with me but guess not.  Nonetheless, I am sunnily confident that something else will happen.  

Maybe not something good, but something interesting for sure.