We were just discussing that in a class last night. Everybody wears a mask, right? And to function well, you need more than one mask -- behave this way here, that way there.

Man, but what a pain in the ass.

Speaking of that class -- our instructor let us out a bit early, so I spent the remainder of what would have been class time in the parking lot smoking and having a talk with a cute girl from class. A cute, engaged girl with a 2-month old at home.

Am I just naive or something? Confused? Well, I guess there's little doubt about that one.

My point is, on the first night of this class, at the very first break, the very first person to make a rather obvious effort to get to know me a bit better was -- that's right, ten points for you if you said a married woman. On the second class, last week, I flirted a bit with the girl from last night -- of course she's taken, too.

The bizarre thing is, in the nearly two years since I've been back in school -- I mean granted, the average age at my school is about 30, so it's not like there's a crapload of 18 year olds -- but still, in all this time, I'm just been a plain old mack as far as the married, newly married, or soon to be married go. Honestly. Add a kid or two in there, and this effect seems to be tripled.

So what's the deal? Chatting with A. last night, I really rather got the feeling she was doing it just for the fun of it -- you know, she's been with her guy a while, and I'm cute, and there's no harm in flirting a bit, just to be sure you still have the old charm, right?

Now, I've never been married or anything, but that makes sense to me. The only problem with it? Exactly how much do you get to flirt before you risk being caught up in the moment?

I mean, sex, romance, passion, all those things -- part of what makes them so much fun is the unpredictability of it all, right? You're not just flirting with a person -- you're flirting with possibilities. It's fun because you can't really know exactly what will happen next, but you can guess it'll probably be pretty pleasurable.

So ... I'd like to ask any women who could put themselves in such a situation (okay, theoretically that would be all of you. I guess I meant people somewhat similarly attached, but of course everyone's opinion is welcome) ... right, so put yourself in this situation:

You're quite decidely taken, have no intention of changing that, yet are flirting with a cute, charming kinda guy you know at school. Let not consider the modern PC spectre of sexual harassment and that for a moment -- let's assume we live in a world where people actually communicate and respond to one another reasonably, and in terms of what you and your cute guy have been saying to one another, there is clear and very open attraction between you ... yet he knows you are married or whatever.

So, if you're in this situation -- does it actually enter your mind that the guy might, say, kiss you or something? Or is the idea that he might part of the fun? I suppose what I'm most curious about, do you know that you definitely have a plan of response should he do such a thing?

Because obviously, if you were just really wanting to kiss him/thinking of kissing him when he did it, it's going to take several moments for your mind to switch gears back and say this is just playing, you've got a great guy at home...

So, we can see easily here how easily just flirting becomes something else.