Too Mosh Information

I have tickets to a rock concert next week. I'm interested in a woman who works at my regular morning coffee shop. How do I ask her to dinner and the concert as a first date without it seeming like a consolation prize (like she was my last choice at this late date)?

--Hopeful

The issue isn't the late date, but inviting a woman you barely know on a romance-soaked date-athalon, which is what it becomes when you add dinner to the equation. (Think hostage situation with linguini and roving violinists.) The concert invite alone is a bit much, with the ticket price, two or three hours at the event and a couple hours getting in and out of the parking lot, but it allows for plausible deniability on the romantic nature of your intentions. If she's not into you, she can play it like you just had an extra seat, and you can tell yourself she just wasn't into Bowels of Satan or whomever and go back to your normal coffee provider/providee relationship. Ideally, though, you'd just invite her out for a drink, which would tell her what your intentions are, but without going straight from "Double latte, no foam" to "I'd like you to be my breed sow."