Chapter 2: Maybe it's the armpit hair

Maybe it was the joys of armpit hair: For some reason, I was curiously drawn to hippie chicks. And so it was that I found myself at the bar of the ferny Gratitude Cafe, ordering the red curry tofu, and checking my prospects. I'd been in San Francisco for more than a week, and the renowned promiscuity of the Bay Area had yet to smile on me, personally. (It had, to be honest, been a while.) I'm Patrick Ripoll. Call me a dabbling Web guy. I'm based in Chicago, and I was on a one-month business visit to San Francisco. Little did I know that night in the Mission District's Gratitude Cafe, that I was about to meet the ultimate nature girl.