The art of getting a stranger's phone number will forever be perplexing.
There's no right way to ask someone who knows nothing about you to offer up her most direct line of communication.
Especially because giving out your number is something you can't take back.
Unless you change your number, of course, but nobody's done that since middle school.
I've personally taken a range of approaches to get girls' phone numbers throughout my single years.
I've subscribed to the you-miss-one-hundred-percent-of-the-shots-you-don't-take approach and simply asked for numbers in abundance.
I've tried being more calculated, spending as much time as possible getting to know a person before popping the question.
I even, regrettably, studied the controversial tactics of pick-up artistry to gain the trust of women I was interested in.
There's no denying that throughout the history of men finding inventive ways to get a girl's number, there have been some truly cringe-worthy attempts. Think, “I lost my number, can I have yours?” and “Is your name WiFi, because we definitely have a connection?”
I was with a friend recently — the kind of guy who is not opposed to telling a girl his shirt is made of boyfriend material — and he brought to my attention an admittedly original way to get a girl's number.
What was most interesting was that it didn't require any embarrassing pick-up lines. All you needed, he assured, was simple math. And we all have calculators on our phones.
After he showed me the trick I felt the need to share it.
To the men out there on the prowl for numbers, hats off to you if you can make this approach work. To the women… well, consider this fair warning.
Of course, this approach can be used by anyone, but for the sake of this article, we'll go step-by-step the way it was explained to me: by a shameless dude willing to do whatever it takes to add a girl's number to his phonebook.
Step 1: Approach a girl and tell her you can get her phone number using only a calculator.
This approach should be intriguing enough to get her to bite. Of course, everyone is different, but let's assume she's interested in what you have to say.
Step 2: Tell her to open up the calculator on her phone.
Pretty self-explanatory.
Step 3: Ask her for her area code.
Let her know this is the only piece of information you will be asking her. The rest will be math she does herself. She'll also be typing everything into her own phone's calculator.
Step 4: Have her type the first three digits of her phone number (not including the area code) into the calculator.
Have her type the numbers in so you can't see what she's typing.