Eggs on toast

It's been a long day. It takes about and hour to get to the cafe where Kim works, so the round trip takes a decent chunk of time out of my day. I'm not complaining. Nothing worth having comes without effort. I just had a lot of other stuff on today.

Most men think that women will like them if they, the men, demonstrate how great they are. So the men talk and talk at the target of their lust, or, occasionally, their affection. But let's be honest, it is always lust at the beginning. Anyway, this approach is wrong, wrong, wrong. Women like men who they believe are interested in them.. This means men who listen and, crucially,  demonstrate that they have listened. Gazing at her vacantly in bored silence is not listening. In fact, it's not even being present. You need to be able to tell her what she told you. And sometimes you do exactly that, to show you have understood.

My key objective this morning was, therefore, to get Kim to talk a bit. Given that she is only working there until Friday, I had to take a bit of risk to get the flow going. Before I go on, you have to understand that John has given away lots of information that seemed innocent to him but which will be invaluable to me. So this morning, instead of turning up with a newspaper to read, I had a well-thumbed copy of "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing. I don't recommend that you read it. It is just awful. But John told me that Lessing is Kim's favourite author. The risk I ran was that the book made it smell of a set-up. By the way, in case you are wondering, you can buy second-hand books from Amazon. Deception for the lazy.

Kim came to take my order. Nice smile. I was reading the book when she arrived but was careful not to show what is was. But when she came back with my eggs on toast, I put down the book face up.

"Oh, Doris Lessing!" said Kim, in surprise.

"Do you disaprove," I asked unemotionally.

"No, no, she's my favourite."

"You're kidding," I said feigning excitement, "I was given this by a friend yesterday and haven't been able to put  it down. I didn't even bother to buy a newspaper."

And then she sat down momentarily on the edge of the chair opposite me. She sat down, whilst she should have been working, and quietly told me why it is such a great book and why Doris Lessing is sooooooo brilliant. And even though I had read the first three chapters of the wretched thing and had spent half a day researching Doris Lessing, all I had to do was listen and agree with what she said. You might think that this was so transparent as to be idiotically doomed. But men, if you think that, you have a great deal to learn about women.

And that was pretty much that. Another generous tip. Back tomorrow for more of the same.

Before I forget, I should mention that I had a quick chat to John on-line this evening. If Kim has mentioned the amazing  Doris Lessing coincidence or, indeed, the tall, handsome new stranger then he is not letting on.