cute guy at gym...

...and I'm finding him distracting. I avoid staring or making eye contact and basically do my best to give the impression that he hasn't attracted my notice. For one thing, the simple odds are that he's not into guys; for another, my guess is he's rather too young for a guy like me. (I'd say he's maybe mid 20s or so.) Yet I admire him for his looks (nice face) and his body (has evidently been working out for some years, to good effect), and I'd be delighted if he were to strike up a conversation.

Of course, if I were friendly and securely straight, nothing would be more natural than to get acquainted. I myself have been on the receiving end of such attention--and once by a guy who became my workout partner.

Yet I've long conditioned myself: if I find him attractive physically but don't have any other reason to interact with him, I must ignore him as thoroughly as I ignore most of the other people there.

OK, so that's me venting a bit. I believe I'm sensible and know that the ball's in my court on this one. If he continues to be a distraction, my choices are to suck it up and ignore it, or else to simply get over my attitude and take a stab at making a friendly acquaintance. With any luck, that would be enough to move him to "buddy" status and perhaps cause the physical distraction to recede in significance.

So here's a question that occurred to me that perhaps others can shed light on. Do people give off vibes of some sort when they find someone physically attractive--even if they're trying not to let on? I mean, *I* can't tell when someone's interested in me; but then, I also can't tell if someone's gay, so I figure my own experience probably isn't going to help me answer that one.