Search Results: my best friends step brother

Long story short, I just started working at a law firm, and the hours are pretty long. I transitioned from a 3-4 month break after law school, from constantly hanging out with my friends to all of a sudden being expected to pull 70-80 hour workweeks.

Yesterday was one of my friend's birthday parties, so they called me out on a Friday night to a bar to go drink up. I wanted to say no and just go home and sleep, plus I wasn't dressed down since I just got off from work. But I thought, hey, you haven't been out of the office or house in months, so just go.

When I got there, everyone was taken back. They haven't seen me for almost 4 months now. Half of the party, everyone was just asking me about work and we were just talking about my hours, and how I live with my brother, and he leaves me sticky notes on my computer to tell me stuff, because we don't see each other any more. When I leave for work, he's still sleeping, and when I come back home, he's asleep. Most of my day is spent in commute or at work.

Anyway, this girl who was a friend-of-a-friend was there. She wasn't particularly attractive, but we definitely hit it off. Sparks were flying on both ends and I could tell she was trying to contain herself. She did come off as slightly fake and reserved, but I let that go as normal defensive and guarded behavior.

After we got out of the bar, I went up to her and told her:

"I really liked meeting you, (pause) and the first chance I get when I have a day to myself, I want to take you out and pick up where we left off"

At first she was happy and gave me her number. But then she took a step back emotionally and said:

"When you have a day to yourself? That's sort of ambiguous. I don't like ambiguous. Is that something you're saying to come off cool? Are you trying to show me you're a busy guy? (sarcasm in her voice) Give me a time. When do you think you'll have time? A month from now? A year from now? Huh?"

At first I thought to myself "ugh, I really can't stand this girl-crap and bs-testing, I came up and told you strait up and directly woman, what else do you want from my life?", but then at that same split second I thought to myself, "she's probably been hurt by other guys before and wants to make sure she's not getting played. fine, I'll respect that, but she's treading a very thin line."

So I did my best not to get insulted by her assumption that I was that kind of guy, and not take it personally. On the way home, I couldn't help wondering if I should even bother calling her now.

I mean, for someone studying psychology (her), she was rather quick to form that kind of judgment on the basis that I was a guy who asked her directly to take her out one night. We conversationally clicked, she was interesting and I wanted to really get to know her. What else did she expect me to do? The whole party everyone was talking about how much they missed seeing be because I work so much. Is she too damaged from her past to ever trust an other guy again?