Dinner ran three hours. She laughed at everything. You walked her to her car thinking this one's locked in.
Then: nothing. Two texts. No reply. What happened?
You did what most men do on a great date. You filled every silence, answered every question, and left her with nothing to wonder about. No mystery. Nothing to sit with when she got home.
Rule 3 of the "22 Rules" changes the ending: tell her a little, hold back the rest, and let her imagination do the chasing. The ghosting stops too.
She calls you when her car breaks down. When she needs help moving. When some guy she's actually dating treats her badly.
You're the listener. The reliable one. The guy who would treat her so much better, if she'd just open her eyes.
She won't. You trained her to see you as the low-effort option — the friend who requires zero risk and zero investment. Every favor dug the hole deeper.
The "22 Rules" break the pattern. You'll stop auditioning for a role she already cast and become the man she chases instead. It starts with Rule 1.
there are a lot of lies that are unacceptable. in fact, id argue that very few lies are acceptable. one of the areas that i accept that people are going to lie about, especially women, is their sexual past.Danger said:Joekerr,
I agree about bringing up the past and I also agree about snooping. I see your point about a "pact", with the exception that if that COULD be, wtf would she write it in a diary?
I've been burned enough by girls that lied that it just leaves a very sour taste for me.
She calls you when her car breaks down. When she needs help moving. When some guy she's actually dating treats her badly.
You're the listener. The reliable one. The guy who would treat her so much better, if she'd just open her eyes.
She won't. You trained her to see you as the low-effort option — the friend who requires zero risk and zero investment. Every favor dug the hole deeper.
The "22 Rules" break the pattern. You'll stop auditioning for a role she already cast and become the man she chases instead. It starts with Rule 1.
STR8UP said:Everyone lies.
EVERYONE.
There's a difference between lying to keep your ass out of hot water when you've done something wrong and lying to protect someone's feelings.
Lexie said:If you read my entire post, you can see that I said this might be a good thing to say IF he ended up having to talk to her, and IF she was going to find out, it would be better for him to come forward with the info instead of having her pull it on him. I wasn't stating that he should run up to her and apologize.
You can skip the expensive cars, the fancy clothes, and the endless gym selfies. Completely unnecessary.
I used to freeze the second a beautiful woman looked my way. Frustrated. Awkward. Watching other guys walk away with the girl while I stood there tongue-tied.
Then I discovered 22 simple rules that rewired my entire dating life. The anxiety vanished. Conversations flowed effortlessly. Women started chasing me for a change.
These rules trigger a woman's subconscious attraction switches. And you can start using them tonight.
-Lexie said:Thanks sugarplum.![]()
And no, it's not all women who post here, it's all women everywhere.
ketostix said:So he should deny reading the diary just like she denied having sex with that guy. Why don't they just call it even lol? This is actually a good defense for reading her diary.
But seriously i'm not so sure I would deny reading the diary if pressed, but I definitely would first reframe it into a positive thing, I would never apologize first and do what Lexie said. You would be making it into a big deal.
You seem to be more cynic leaning than realist... but that's besides the point. As a general principle jophil is right about the 'anything goes' mentality.STR8UP said:As a proud realist, I will take that as a compliment. But since you weren't complimenting me- :moon:
Str8up I gotta disagree with you here. What he said to her was reeking of insecurity, but if someone asks a question like that they deserve a straight answer.STR8UP said:A little while back a chick tried that sh!t with me. We were talking about another girl I know, and she blurts out "You haven't slept with her, have you?"
Well, if someone's gonna ask me such a stupid, immature, INSECURE question like that, they deserve to be LIED TO. And that's exactly what she got. And I didn't feel a damn bit guilty about it. SHE DESERVED IT. She put me on the spot and asked a question that was none of her business.
Too bad cause the OP put the nail in the coffin by getting into her sh!t.
Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
And deal with the ramifications of the truth? No thanks. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.Colossus said:But to say someone 'deserves' to be lied to is a slippery slope. By lying to her you actually told her what she wants to hear, that no, you didnt sleep with her. If you told her the truth and made no bones about it, then you just slapped her with that cold trout of truth. Let her deal. She would probably either leave (which would be a gift) or not ask you that question again. Everyone wins.
joekerr31 said:haha. you know, personally i think this guy is f*cked no matter how you slice it.
i think she's going to figure out he read her diary whether he does anything from here on in or not. its not that hard to figure to be honest.
second, when he gets caught, whether he confesses or not, he's going to look like an AFC. if she keeps him around he's going to have to put his balls away in the drawer for a long time.
i just had a thought.... you know what he should do... he should start his own diary. then he should hide it in a place where she will find it. i guarantee you she will read it also.
he should fill it up with all kind of bullsh*t about her. how he loves her and shes the best woman ever and he loves it when she can't get enough sex, etc.
man, now that i think about this i should do that.
if i ever get married im going to keep a fake diary 'hidden' from my wife. and ill fill it up with sh*t about how much i love her and how some girl at work hit on me but i turned her away because i love my wife so much blah blah blah...
when my wife finds my fake diary and reads it she'll be making me 7 course dinners every night of the week because she'll think im the best guy in the whole world.
then one day when we are 85 and dying i'll reveal to her that my diary was a fake.
once we die they will make a movie out of it called "The Fake Diary - A tale of true love and deception"
ohhh and theoretically she can't get upset with me for the fake diary, since she shoudln't be reading my diary in the first place!!!!!
man you gotta love the paradoxes diaries create.
This gets my vote.aliasguy said:Is it "even"? Does he owe it to her to let her know what he knows? I dunno, but if I were him, I'd keep my mouth shut, and keep my eyes wide open.
Fair enough. I could see why you might do that in some situations, to bypass any crap afterwards.STR8UP said:And deal with the ramifications of the truth? No thanks. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Incidentally I had no commitment with this woman whatsoever.
She was a hypocrite. She wanted to have her cake and eat it too. Yes, she did deserve to be lied to because she had no right asking a question that she had no business asking and that if answered "incorrectly" she would have held it against me UNFAIRLY for awhile. I don't ask ANY woman about her sexual past. And I don't expect to be interrogated about mine either.
That sentence contains at least five follow-up questions she WANTS you to ask. Where in Florida? What brought you here? How long have you been in the area? What do you miss? How does it compare to here?
She handed them to you on a silver platter. And you said, "Oh cool. I come here every week. I love this band. Ummm... pretty crowded tonight."
She smiled politely. Nodded. And never texted you back.
I was that guy for years. Talking too much. Listening too little. Panicking about my next sentence while she was literally feeding me the answers.
Then I found 22 rules that fixed the whole thing. Rule number one: shut up and listen. She'll tell you exactly what to say.