Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Dealing With The Competition

Jessica writes:

I was at a club the other night and I met this really, really hot guy. Great, right? The problem: I was there with a group of girls from work and one of them basically tried to interfere with whatever we had going on, even to the point where she gave him her phone number right after I gave him mine. When she did, he kind of looked at the both of us with this really weird look on his face, like he was thinking, “What’s up with this?” I really feel like she was way out of bounds here by moving in on so blatantly on my territory like that. When I confronted her about it the next day at work, she got in my face and was like, “Hey, if you can’t handle the competition, then maybe you shouldn’t be going out to clubs in the first place.” I think she’s the one with the attitude problem. Am I right?

Dear Jessica:

Yes and no. Yes in the sense that a more considerate (and perhaps less desperate?) coworker would have left you and club guy alone, regardless of how “really, really” hot he was. Then again, this is the real world we all live in, for better or worse, and sometimes people don’t always act as we would wish them to. In the case of your coworker, she saw an opportunity to get this guy’s attention as well, and she went for it. I think the lesson here, Jessica, is that should a similar situation once again present itself in the near future, where maybe you guys from work are out together as a group at a club post-work: a.) be prepared for the competition and b.) see if you can’t return the favor by having your phone number ready to hand out to some hot guy your coworker is putting the moves on—let’s see how she likes it when the shoe is on the other foot.

How do you handle the "competition" when you're out at a club and someone trys to steal away from you that hot girl or guy you've just met? Please let me know at my message board.