Throw Me a Phone, Here

Story Sent in by Danial:

I found Linda on a dating site and we sent so many emails to each other that I asked her for her number, thinking that it would be easier to talk that way. She said that she never gave out her number online. I could understand that, so we set up a date and met in person.

She was really shy and quiet. When I finally asked her for her number, she said, "I'll write it down for you." She handed me a piece of paper with the number seven on it. Nothing else.

I asked, "Do I need another six digits?"

She said, "You get another digit next date."

Ugh. So seven dates until I had her full number? Not to mention an area code, which may have been local, but what if it was a non-local cell number? That would be 10 dates total, and by that point, without her number, I very likely would've lost interest in this timid young woman.

I decided to give her another chance. After all, she had been pretty responsive to my emails in the past. But over the forthcoming days, she became a bit less responsive. Less than a week later, we were out on another date. As promised, she gave me a second number, a three. I asked her, "Does the three come before or after the seven?"

She replied, "You work it out."

I said, "So if you give me every digit, you're not going to tell me what the right order is?"

She said, "That's right. You'll just have to try every combination."

That plus how reserved she was led me to believe that that would be our last date. However, she wrote me an email not long after asking me if I wanted to go to a museum with her that weekend. I wrote back that I'd possibly be interested, and she wrote back, "Give me a call and we'll work it out."

I wrote back, "But I don't know if your number is three-seven or seven-three."

No response to that, ever.