Patrick, a 30 year-old actor in Los Angeles, had a really weird dating experience. He asked out an attractive waitress that worked at one of his favorite restaurants. Their date was going really well when a strange guy came over to the table and gave her a hug and a kiss — not the platonic kind. She introduced him to Patrick as her boyfriend, and the guy proceeded to join them. Patrick was stunned, "It was such a trip. I, of course, am sitting there totally confused thinking, is this really happening?" But the story gets even weirder. They asked Patrick to go back home with them for a couple of drinks and to see where things would go. Politely, he said "No thank you," ran home and told all his friends about the insanity of his evening.

But Patrick's friend Paul, another 30 year-old actor, had an even worse experience. During college, Paul took a writing workshop with a girl named Stacey, "a fiery redhead who made it plainly clear that she was interested in more than just my analysis of her short story." After going out a couple of times, Stacey invited Paul up to her apartment. They talked, drank some wine and things started to get more intimate, "It became evident that tonight was the night that we would consummate our Milan Kundera-inspired fantasy." But as kissing progressed to other things, "the oddest thing happened ... tears!" Stacey began sobbing as soon as things started heating up. Shocked, Paul recoiled and asked her what was wrong. She stopped crying and assured him that everything was just fine and to continue. A bit reluctantly, Paul resumed. And again, "she cried me a river." Now Paul wanted an explanation. "I was not feeling like the virile 20 year-old sex machine I thought I was. In fact, there is no quicker way to destroy a man's sexual confidence than to weep uncontrollably" — twice. Paul later learned that she had recently broken up with a serious boyfriend who had been her first lover — "and the shock of being with another man was something that she was not emotionally prepared for." When Paul returned to class the next week, Stacey had transferred out of the workshop.