Your pretty, pretty face

"You are so beautiful. I could never hurt someone as beautiful as you."
Flattering, and very pleasing- those words. And coming from an old friend, or a very close friend, they would just melt my heart like butter.
But most often that phrase comes from a semi-stranger, someone I've just met, someone swaggering and bullying and loudmouthed, someone who wants to make a quick impression and sees me as a pretty, mealy-mouthed little fool who he'd like to lay.
I am such a contradiction. If it makes me so uncomfortable and suspicious, why do I dress up so carefully to inspire those comments? And why do I then drown in devastation if those comments don't come? Like a puppy who wags it's tail and jumps at your heels until you reach over to pet it, then turns into a deer that shies away and runs to the safe shadows of the woods.
Maybe women aren't really made to make sense. Just know what's coming next; don't try to make sense of it. Science doesn't apply here. I'm a woman, after all.