@GaiusTiberius First, congrats on that and don't be devastated if this one doesn't pan out because dating is a numbers game.

My MO is to meet at a smoothie place with a big fountain/benches and nice trees. I'm willing to pay the price of a drink upfront but won't fight her if she insists to pay her own which seldom happens. In the time it takes to finish a smoothie, we've usually traded some IOIs and push pull, some touching, sometimes even a kiss. (My upstream dating funnel is refined such that most who get to the meet stage end up in bed)

After the first 15 minutes IF it's going well, there are options we usually abscond to nearby. It's nice enough in the initial place to hang around for a full hour or more if that's what it takes to build comfort and rapport. Next is a nearby duck park, scenic and idyllic, public enough not to make her worry but private enough for a couple to touch and flirt.

Usually at this point at least one of us has to part, usually she is interested in setting up the next meetup. If we're both free, by 1-2 hours at the park we've made out pretty heavily a time or two then we'll either go to one of our places, or more likely for a meal and toddy or two, then probably to someone's home.

Read up on IOIs and push-pull. She makes a clear IOI, that's her pushing out an offer for you to escalate then pulling back to await your response. You push forward by (say) putting your hand on her leg near her knee, then pulling back and awaiting her response. This is the part guys tend to fail by missing.

If she's interested, she'll do things like smile, lean closer, and probably touch you back. If she's not, she'll respond by leaning away and making a face like you sneezed and wiped your hand on her skirt. The important thing is, smooth and successful escalation in mating plays out like a ping-pong game, with each of you taking turns with the "ball" so to speak.

A lot of guys get stuck on push-push-push and never catch ANY of the woman's positive signals or IOIs (much less refine his ability to read them in person and spot them in the crowd too) because she never gets a chance to offer any. These are the guys always getting their hands physically taken off the woman's body, and unable to break through what are called ASD and LMR, which I think are usually excuses for uncalibrated escalation and insufficient (mostly behavioral) attractiveness of the male.

When you're doing push-pull and escalation right, dates ride the line of exciting without crossing into pushy, and you're regularly having women pulling your hands ON to places like boobs instead of off.

@GaiusTiberius Only in a case where participants are attempting, in good faith, to arrive at the truth and illuminate it. For guys who are just flexing their "internet muscles", typically because life isn't meeting their expectations in other areas, then you basically have three choices:

Engage them from a higher level, which is like having a discourse about the necessity for rationality and restraint with a rabid badger; not only is your opponent unqualified from the start, he's only out to injure you.

Snap back at them from their level, which is like competing in the Special Olympics; even if you win you're still retarded.

Or disregard. I've got nothing to prove, so I just can't be bothered. Someone wants to congratulate himself because he imagines he's dunked on me? Fine, let him. I've got my life and he's got his.

"Living well, while not popular as an opera plot, really is the best revenge."

-From, The Sayings of Chairman Zaitzev