What you've just described is a game. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there aren't reasons to do it. But it is a game. I do this kind of thing too, but mostly because I'll read a message and not be sure if I even want to respond so I let it simmer for a while. Then I get horny and message back anyway. Probably.
Maybe it's because I'm originally from Quebec, but a kiss on a cheek was almost a standard greeting to someone of the opposite sex that you already knew, and a standard farewell to someone you just met. I realized when I moved to Texas that it wasn't standard protocol down here, but for a date? Been on countless dates and have given countless cheek kisses and have never gotten a bad reaction. Go for it bros.
That's fucked. You have to be pretty close to a bro to hug here in the west coast, but back in the midwest everybody hugs. It's a customary greeting and goodbye. Ain't nothin' creepy 'bout it.
Cultural differences. For example in French countries it's customary to give TWO cheek kisses (one is the norm in Quebec), but hugs are considered weird. I think it's similar in Germany and some other European countries as well. Biden hugging the president of France made front page news there for example.. Hugs is an American thing I believe.
Something like that I'm told lol. I don't even perceive it. Makes the girls giggle so it's all good. If I really want to confuse them I throw in the word garburator at some point. Once I went out on a date with some chick that was so utterly clueless about Canada (she asked if we had "steak back home") that when she asked me what Canadians did for fun, I told her we all look forward to the January baby seal culling festival, where thousands of baby seals descend from the hills on their quest for food, clogging city streets and causing untold mayhem. It's every Canadian's civic duty to club your fair share of baby seals and pile their bodies on the street corner for the snow-ploughs to pickup. She didn't even bat an eyelash to that story, and probably believes it to this day.
And nanook went trudging across the tundra. Trudgin. All the way to Saint Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast. Where I stole the margarine!
Those people must have a pretty warped view of relationships (or be extraordinarily difficult to deal with) to get to that age and never had one go greater than 1 year.
