The following story is “true.” That last word is in quotation marks because the tale was related to your humble chronicler as having actually occurred, but I wasn’t there for the crucial bits so cannot vouch for them. Also, a few of the identifying details have been changed. Here’s the sitch:
So there’s these two young people, Dave and Maddie, so named 'cause I’m listening to Al Jarreau. Dave’s in his late 20s, straight, and manages a bank branch; he’s somewhat lacking in self-confidence when it comes to women. Maddie’s a little younger, divorced, and allegedly lesbian. I say “allegedly” not merely because she’s divorced but also because she’s slept with men since coming out. She claims this is because she always regrets having sex with men after the fact, and she always at least buzzed if not outright drunk when she’s in bed with a guy. Maddie’s main job is waitressing, but on the side she does modeling for art classes at a local university. She’s quite casual about skin in general, saying she doesn’t understand why there’s such a taboo about nudity.
Dave and Maddie are friends. It’s rather an unequal friendship, as anyone who seems them together can tell that Dave’s at least 33% in love with her. But since Maddie’s official position is that she’s gay unless intoxicated, and Dave is a mensch, he does not make advances on her. That is part of what Maddie likes about him; she’s told mutual friends that she trusts Dave more than any other man. She’s wept in his arms after a bad breakup without him trying to sleep with her; she’s gotten drunk with him and awakened to find all her clothes on and Dave sleeping on the sofa.
Recently Dave & Maddie were scheduled to work together at a church charity event. Maddie owns a car but asked Dave to drive her there anyway. When hecame to her house at the agreed-upon time, she wasn’t quite ready; she asked him to wait in the living room while she showered. When she finished her shower she emerged from the bathroom wearing only in a towel, went to her bedroom ostensibly to get various hair products, and proceeded to talk with him while conducting her feminine ablutions. She chatted with him the entire time and twice more crossed from bathroom to bedroom clad only in a towel. The conversation was not salacious or even flirtatious; the nearest it approached the latter was when Dave asked if he should ask out a certain mutual acquaintance of theirs, and Maddie replied that if he was really interested he should grasp the bull by the horns–but not with THAT woman, as she was not good enough for him. After saying this she emerged from the bedroom fully dressed and they went to the charity event.
All this has left Dave confuzzled. Part of him thinks he missed an opportunity to make a move on Maddie, that she was giving him signals left and right. Another part thinks that, no, she just trusts him so much (and has him so deep in the freind zone) that she didn’t see anything sexual about walking around in a towel around him. A third part of him thinks that Maddie is just a tease–that she was getting off on what she was doing.
What do you think, and why? As always you can answer either in the thread, in the poll, or both, but only by doing the latter do you get any dessert.