In the past, I used to have sets that could last a very long time. Nowadays, I feel like I get a much more interested response from girls but I am also losing the set all the time around ~10 minutes into the set. Please tell me what the heck I am doing wrong if you can figure it out.

Went to club by myself.

Opened a pretty blonde girl at the bar by herself. Opened with a compliment about her top. Said I like the geometrical patterns. She responded very positively and showed me how the top was actually a dress by pulling down the hem which stretched a good 10 inches.

The flirting was good. Made a point to talk to her 2 friends briefly at the bar. Touched her briefly. I noticed that she was even ignoring her friends a little bit to talk to me.

Friends walked away from the bar after they got their drink. She said “oh, now we’re going here...” I asked to go with and she said sure.

She now had some other friends that arrived. There was some fluff talk between them and I talked to them a bit. Don't want to get cockblocked by the friends.

She asked about where I lived. She didn't know about the various parts of town which surprised me. Some more banter. At one point, she had her arm around my waist for a bit which was quite forward for a girl. This was a very good sign of course. I put my arm on her shoulder and used the claw (by Tyler Durden) for a bit. I also put my arm around her waist at some point. I wasn’t very drunk but I’m have a hard time remembering the specific order of actions.

I had been ignoring one of her friends for a bit so I turned and talked to her a little bit. Maybe only spoke 3-5 sentences. Turned back to the blonde and talked to her a bit but she was giving me the cold shoulder a bit. Some more of her friends had arrived and she started talking to them more. I felt a little excluded and tried talking to them more but it was a little harder to get a word in.

I went and sat down when a table opened up because I had talked earlier about trying to get a table. Since she had so many friends there I thought doing this would be useful. I motioned for her to come sit down but she didn’t.

Talked to a random guy next to me. The Blonde and her friends went off to dance but I didn’t want to follow her since I hadn’t been talking to them for a while.

Later on, I ran into The Blonde again as they were leaving. I asked for her number but she was colder to me than before. I pressed but that just made her cooler towards me. She told me she was from Chicago (out of town) which I believe since she didn't seem to know much about the town we were currently in.

I was thinking that the mistake I made must have been that I talked to her friend for too long. However, this seems like such a small thing it didn’t seem like it would be a problem. I wasn’t sure what the hell had happened.

Later, I went to a friend's house where a get together was going on. I talked to an ex-con friend of mine who is pretty successful with the ladies about what happened. He told me right away that the problem was when I put my arm on her shoulder. It seems like a platonic gesture and that is not good. The implication is that performing even a single platonic gesture is a very bad thing to do. Why is this? Does it kill the romantic direction of the set? Does it evoke the wrong feelings? I didn’t even consider it to be a platonic gesture at all. It never even occurred to me that this was the problem.

What do you guys think? Be dead honest because I can take it. I know it's tough to know what went wrong without having been there to see it but any insights you guys have would be much appreciated it. Thanks.

Well that sucks and I can't figure it out either. I've seen videos with Lovedrop and Mystery where they condone arm around shoulder. And if that's platonic, what about the high 5s always being suggested???

_________________
What would James Bond do?