Sometimes I can think quickly

About 34 years ago, when I first moved to Cape Cod, I was still young (about 27 years old). I was working for the US Geological Survey at the time and we often got summer interns from colleges around the country who were majoring in geology or geophysics and quite often, they were attractive young women. I was always leery of dating them because of the obvious limit in how long we could see each other. Also, with me being shy and not all that attractive, they probably wouldn't go out with me anyway, right? But a number of us unattached folks would often go places and do things as a group. I remember a bunch of us going to the county fair one summer and one of my co-workers pointing to an especially pretty young intern and saying to me, "Amy is pretty isn't she?" I answered, "Yes, she is." He asked, "Have you ever thought about asking her out?" My answer started as, "Well, you know I'm old enough to be..." and I almost ended the sentence with, "... her father." But I started to think about it. She was very pretty and we had talked to each other a few times and she seemed to not be repulsed by me. And she was a graduate student so our age difference wasn't as great as with the other interns. All of this rushed through my mind in a split second as well as thoughts about what it would be like to sit next to her and what she would look like at a nice dress and what kind of food she liked and would she like my corny jokes and I finished the sentence with, "... her older brother."

My friend just grinned at me and said, "Well?" Did I mention that I'm shy and not all that attractive? Amy and I never went out. But I never forgot this one example of my fast thinking reply.

[Update - I'm afraid I don't really remember if that young woman's name was Amy or not. I just thought I'd throw a name into the story. It sounds better if there is a real name in there. And I did have a crush on a woman named Amy at some point during my years in the US Geological Survey.]