“If I may give you an advice…”, the gentleman in a suit, a well-groomed man in his mid-fifties with graying hair on his temples and a clearly prosperous belly, began an unsolicited conversation with a young girl. She must have been in her mid-twenties, but that was quite young for him. At least young enough to think he could be that fatherly, although his intentions were probably anything but that. He hadn’t even bothered to take the wedding ring off his finger so that the little girl, as he secretly called her, would know where she stood when she started dating him. There was no question that she would get involved with him. After all, he had had success with this scam one time or another. He was still a stud, one who could make girls happy, at least with pharmaceutical support. And one or two small gifts didn’t necessarily hurt either.
The addressee, a delicate person with long blond hair and soft blue eyes, slim but nonetheless well-proportioned, turned and looked him up and down. She realized that the suit he was wearing must be expensive, the Rolex too, so ostentatious and elaborate, and of course the crocodile leather shoes, which made her shudder involuntarily. But that wasn’t all that became clear to her at first glance. This man had already categorized her, with one look, packed into the category, blond silly doll, flattered when a well-to-do gentleman made advances to her. For some it was a dream, at least a small one, to be taken to a fancy restaurant and enjoy other expensive amenities. But Sophie, that was her name, didn’t fit in there at all. Nevertheless, she found it interesting and also liked to play with what she conveyed and how her person was perceived. That was also the reason why she studied sociology. She wanted to understand people better and how they interacted in the social environment. “Well, then I’ll mess up your world view a bit,” thought Sophie.
“If I may give you an advice…” he had said and of course the sentence wasn’t over yet. Sophie was well aware of that, but she still waited for the moment when he took a breath after the word “may” to unabashedly interject: “No, you may not.” He looked at her irritated. “But I still haven’t said what advice I want to give you,” he said, frowning. “It was enough that you said ‘If I may give you an advice’,” explained Sophie, “If you really wanted to ask me if you could give me an advice, then you would have the appropriate question asked, but the way you phrased it, you assumed that I definitely agree that you can give me any advice – whatever it may be. At least you said ‘if’, i.e. I certainly had the opportunity to say no. If so, then the togetherness. Well, if you could give me some advice, then – and then the advice would have come, whatever it may be, but it doesn’t interest me in any case, because only because you’re old, so apparently much older than me and a successful man, if one can infer success from the outward appearance, because it could be that you just married a rich woman and your wife has you financially on edge, so that you have to play the jovial, older gentleman from time to time and so on inexperienced, blond girls have to give advice that will help them get into your bed, directly or indirectly. But if I wanted any advice from you on anything, I would ask you. Then and only then am I interested. I hope you understood me.” The gentleman in the suit didn’t quite understand, but enough that he probably wouldn’t have much chance with this girl. Then he said nothing more, turned and walked away while Sophie went back to her drink.
She briefly considered whether she hadn’t been too harsh on him when she heard the sentence nearby: “If I may give you some advice…”. Apparently, he had already found a new victim. She turned and saw that he had stuck to his prey pattern, at least on the outside. And he seemed to be succeeding this time, for they were already deep in conversation. Still, he was sustainable, she had to give him that. Ultimately, it always takes two people, one who does it and one who puts up with getting advice from old men without being asked.