Do men do this any more?

For what ever reason I had a vivid out of any appreciable context memory last night of the last (and indeed only) time anyone tried to flagrantly pick me up. It was a business trip. I was flying from London to Brussels to attend a Euro Talk Fest (on what subject I cannot recall at this distance).

The plane was mostly full of business types. We landed and taxied toward the airport. Silently we unstrapped ourselves, stood awkwardly and began the ritual grapple with other people's luggage in the overhead lockers. Except I'm never that enthused about engaging in a bun fight to be the first person off a flight as that only leads directly to another bun fight at the luggage carousel followed by another bun fight at passport control and yet another at the taxi rank. So I stood, to stretch my legs, and waited.

And I caught this man's eye. I can't remember much about him except that he was suited and clean shaven, dark haired and taller than me. Probably a good 15 years older than me too. Suave, sophisticated and well travelled.

Then he waved his wallet at me. It was subtle enough that probably no one else noticed. With one hand he pulled the left side of his jacket back a bit. Then with finger and thumb of the other hand he delicately lifted his wallet out, waggled it a bit in my direction and gauged my response. After a pause to process this, and recognising that he wasn't going to put it away until I gave him an answer I shook my head ever so slightly.

He put it away, turned and left. I never saw him again.

In the intervening years I've thought about that moment just a few times. After the conference I went back to London and married the fat, hairy bane of my life. I have ruled out being mistaken about what happened, though I've never heard of another instance of a bloke attempting to pick up a women by litterally (rather than figuratively) waving his big fat one at her in lieu of words, flowers, chocolates, champagne, candles and soft music. Come to think of it everything just mentioned - apart from the words, is just another form of 'shag me, I'm loaded (enough)'.

I haven't ever before wondered what might have happened if I hadn't said no. The only thing I can say with any conviction is that I might have been more confident that I had other options and made a better choice. If only more men had waved their wallets at me. I might still be poor, but at least I would have had the luxury of time and sufficient self-assurance to choose someone honourable.