16 days to live.

It was time to meet Beluga and Antonio again. Ben sat on a bench in Central Park as he waited for them to arrive. It was a beautiful afternoon with lots of people walking, exercising, or sitting on the grass. There were many women alone or in groups.

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Beluga came from the direction opposite to where Ben was sitting so Ben didn’t see him when he came close, showing surprise when he arrived.

Beluga was just as surprised to see Ben, but for a different reason. Ben had become much thinner! Beluga almost didn’t recognize him. Beluga looked down at his big belly and then at Ben’s. However, his reaction was the opposite of the normal person. He felt bad for Ben!

In Beluga’s head, big was beautiful! If Beluga lost that weight, maybe people wouldn’t call him Beluga anymore. Maybe they would call him shrimp. He couldn’t take that risk.

Ben lost his natural advantage, but Beluga wouldn’t rub salt in his wounds. “Sup?” Beluga greeted as he sat down next to Ben.

Ben observed Beluga’s Unique style. He still wore his signature purple pimp hat and sunglasses, but exchanged the robe for a purple jogging suit with white stripes. ‘Is he Barney the dinosaur? Why does he only wear purple?’ Ben wondered.

“Hey. I’ve been meaning to ask you. I’ve noticed your clothes are a bit…unorthodox. What’s with that?” Ben asked.

Beluga turned to Ben. With his mouth hanging open, he slid his fingers along the brim of his hat and tipped it. “This righteous gear?”

‘Don’t feed the troll,’ Ben reminded himself as he stayed silent.

“This is peacocking,” Beluga said.

“Peacocking?”

“Yea, you’ve heard of the bird peacock? With the beautiful feathers? Those birds attract mates with their fancy feathers. The ones with the flashiest feathers get the most females. In pick up, we have a similar concept. Flashy clothes can attract attention from females. Many people will look at you which is good for your image. Females may even open you. At the very least, you’ll have an extra conversation topic when they ask you about the clothes.”

Ben thought about it. ‘That’s interesting. Maybe I should try that.’ Then he saw Antonio approaching from down the street. He was peacocking too.

Antonio wore giant green feather shoulder pads that were bigger than his head. They extended out to his elbows from his blue polka dot jacket. This was peacocking to a whole new literal level.

Ben gulped. ‘I better stick with classic styles. You can’t go wrong with those…’

When Antonio arrived, Beluga looked at his outfit and nodded. People all around the park stared at them as the two showed looks of pride. This was the attention they were after.

It didn’t matter to them that most of those looks were of disgust.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Ben tried to keep a poker face watching all this.

Antonio wasn’t too surprised to see Ben’s improved body because Ben had warned him ahead of time. After some appetizing small talk, it was time to get to the main course.

Beluga spoke to Ben. “All right. Last week was only a warm up. Those lines you used? That was just some crazy nonsense I told you to wipe out your fear of rejection. That’s the first step. You need to be able to open a female in a calm manner without nervousness. Saying crazy things helps with that. Since you’ve already used such offensive lines, you should have an easier time using normal ones right?”

Ben’s eyes widened in understanding. ‘I guess it makes sense that commenting on their tits wouldn’t be the best opening line.’

Ben learned something new every day.

Beluga continued. “The biggest factor in opening isn’t what you say, but how you say it, also known as tone and body language. You have to be calm, confident, and obey certain rules. Once you’re good enough, you can use almost any opener as long as it isn’t offensive. A simple ‘How are you’ can work as well as anything fancy.”

Ben listened in rapt attention.

“We’ll get to the specifics later. For now, let’s start with a simple example. Antonio, go open a 2-set to show your cousin how it’s done,” Beluga stated.

“2-set?” Ben questioned.

“Set refers to a group. The number is how many people there are in it,” Antonio answered. His eyes burned with anticipation. He looked around and spotted two girls sitting on a towel on the grass. Without hesitation, he approached them. Ben watched as Antonio opened these two complete strangers. He used some opener Ben couldn’t hear but it seemed to go very well.

At first, the girls’ faces showed surprise. Then after a few exchanges, they loosened up and even asked Antonio questions. A minute later, he was sitting down on their towel laughing with them.

“You see that?” Beluga asked.

Ben’s jaw hung down. His cousin was always a nerd like him before. He didn’t know his cousin had this in him! That was amazing! He walked up to two girls, total strangers, and now it’s like he’s part of their group! The girls were now patting Antonio’s shoulder feathers, giggling about how soft they were. Things were going great!

“That’s how you do it, watch and learn,” Beluga said with a smile full of confidence in Antonio.

Ben nodded. It seemed he could learn a lot from his cousin.

*Squawk!*

A loud bird call erupted through the park. Ben, along with everyone nearby glanced in the direction of the noise.

Ben saw Antonio flapping his arms like an eagle, laughing. *Squawk!* he cried as he made some kind of joke or impression. The two girls backed away with looks of terror. They picked up their things and ran away as fast as they could.

Ben looked over to Beluga whose confident smile was frozen on his face. Ben couldn’t view his eyes but he imagined they gave off an aura of wanting to die…

After a long silence, Beluga said, “He’s still got a lot to work on after the opening part…”

Antonio sighed but shook it off and went back to Beluga and Ben. When he reached them he showed a proud face to Ben and asked, “You see that?”

Ben stared at him. ‘I don’t know what I saw…’