SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

"We call Susie the smart bomb, the smart missile," Bryan Cunningham says. "All a guy has to do is point and say, 'That one, go get her!' and Susie hones right in on the target."

The targets are available women, and Susie Morgan is the perfect prototype for the Hitch Angel, Cunningham's gender-reversed answer to the wingman concept. "Even in my own life, I'd found that I did much better with girls at bars and clubs when I was introduced to them by my women friends," Cunningham says of his dating service's strategy.

The Hitch Angels Web site, Hitchangels.net, even takes this strategy to a scientific level, including details of the "Social Proof" theory, which goes something like this: A hot girl at a man's side can make him more attractive and interesting than he really is.

"No sexual favors. It's more love connection. We're like Charlie's Angels only we don't rough anybody up -- not that I couldn't," Morgan says, kicking a leg out.

Tonight, Morgan's mission is to act as 22-year-old David Rodriguez's wingwoman. For an hourly fee of $50, she will stay by his side and live by the company's motto: "Let an angel guide you in the dating game."

Right now, the mismatched pair is standing in front of Gryphon and Pangaea nightclubs in the Seminole Paradise entertainment district at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. But they went over the game plan earlier at Hooters, discussing Rodriguez's hobbies, background and the attributes he looks for in a woman. He recently moved to South Florida from Woodbury, Pa. Now living in Miami and working in data entry, he sees this as one more act to meet new people, and at Hooters he and Morgan established exactly what kind of new people he's looking for.

"Really pale white girls," he says.

Morgan frowns and fans herself from the heat as if AC is second only to oxygen in keeping her alive and ravishing.

"Maybe it's a Pennsylvania thing," Rodriguez shrugs.

"Well, the princess is melting," Morgan says. "Let's get inside."

Cunningham had mentioned how having a Hitch Angel at one's side "gives a guy the aura of having a little bit more of a life." And Morgan definitely gives Rodriguez an aura. As a team, though, they seem stagnant, immediately parking themselves at the end of the bar at Gryphon with little room to mingle.

But this is only a brief drink stop that provides a perch from which Morgan can scope out the crowd. It's all part of her strategy. "You have to treat this like a big house party. Turn it into a hyped-up meet-and-greet," she says, explaining a Hitch Angel's role. "Just start up a conversation and then say, 'Oh, here's my friend David.' Then, he can take it from there."

Rodriguez seems emboldened by Morgan's presence, but he's also tentative, as if he may need some advice along the way if he's going to make this work. "I'm not going to be whispering in his ear all night -- unless I have a secret to tell," Morgan says, laughing. "No, I'm not a director, and he's not an actor. He's just an amazing guy, and everybody here tonight is going to know it."

The two disappear into the crowd, and Cunningham steps outside to find three potential angels who were scheduled to meet him at the club. "I always interview new angels at social places like this so I can get a real feel for them," Cunningham says. "I had one starving-model type from Miami who wanted to be an angel. She was stunning but had no personality. You can't find the right people by just having them e-mail a photo."

This evening's drop-by applicants include Sara Cabrera, a natural-foods marketer from Miramar who saw an ad for Hitch Angels -- "Attractive outgoing females needed for dating consultant firm" -- on Craigslist.com while searching for an apartment. "It sounded like a good idea, better than a regular dating service or Match.com or something," she says. "Besides, I'm at these clubs -- Pangaea, Spirits, Passion -- every weekend anyway, so I thought it would be fun."

Aside from the fun, it provides a use for her biggest talent. "Let's just say I am not uncomfortable with being aggressive," she brags.

Cabrera is exactly what Cunningham is looking for. "Attractive and no hesitation in talking to people," he says.

Hitch Angels doesn't offer training to its employees; they don't need to read a manual or attend a seminar. "They just have to have it," Cunningham explains.

Unlike Morgan, Cabrera is not averse to giving guys advice if she becomes an angel. "They need to know you can't come up to a girl like an asshole," she says. "And no touching. I can't stand the touching thing."

Morgan currently has Rodriguez sandwiched between two blondes near the club's VIP lounge. But the blondes appear too tan, and Rodriguez is expressing only mild interest in them.

"I told him he's in South Florida now. He's not in Woodbury anymore," Morgan says. "There just aren't a lot of pale redheads down here."

The noise level at a dance club like Gryphon could easily be a deterrent to communicating with the opposite sex. But Rodriguez scoffs, "No, no, it's so loud it gives you an excuse to move in close." Rodriguez relates this experience to when he and his boys back in Pennsylvania do what they refer to as "grenading."

"We do rock, paper, scissors to see which one of us gets thrown into the middle of a pack of girls," Rodriguez says. "Then, that guy has to meet the girls and introduce the rest of us."

Nobody tosses Princess Morgan into a crowd. She moves regally with precision and finesse, definitely much more like a missile than a grenade. If there were a Hitch Angels dojo, she would be the sensei. All potential angels would be willing to trek thousands of miles to seek her out. She would sit atop a mountain and gladly share her wisdom -- so long as the mountain was air-conditioned.

Susanne Green, a former Camel cigarette promoter, nursery school teacher and go-go dancer who also spotted this job opportunity on Craigslist, has traveled only from Fort Lauderdale. "I'm always open to stuff like this. I'm open but grounded," she says.

Green is from Germany and has been living in Fort Lauderdale for only about eight months. "I think it's a bright idea. People say it's not good to meet guys in clubs, but in my past, I've met some decent guys in clubs," she says.

This "bright idea" is actually a take on the New York-based Internet business called Wingwomen.com that Shane Forbes started in December 2004. "I initially called the guy about wanting to start a franchise down here," Cunningham recalls. "But he wasn't interested, so I started doing this informally about a year ago."

"I don't really concern myself with all the people ripping off my idea anymore," says Forbes, who was in town earlier this month to begin setting up Wingwomen operations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

In 2007, Forbes plans to add a special "club package" to the company's services in South Florida. "We'll provide several Wingwomen, a VIP table at a hot club and a few bottles," he says.

Of course, Cunningham is already on to that trend. "It's all about the entourage now," he says. "We can help people create their own entourage."

Cunningham, who runs Hitch Angels from his apartment in Coral Springs, says the business is the opposite of an escort service. He even enforces a strict Hitch Angels code of conduct. For instance, the Angels will not go to private places with a client, not even his car -- especially not his car. With such rules to protect the Angels' safety, the business is able to attract women who would ordinarily just be marketing natural foods, go-go dancing or teaching nursery school.

These women do seem to have some compassion or perhaps just simple pity for how lamely guys can act on the social scene. Even Morgan feels for these men. "Approaching a pretty girl can be really intimidating. Just walking up cold and saying, 'My name is David,' is really hard," she says. I know when I'm out by myself and a guy comes near me I'm like, 'Leave me alone. Back off!' "

Green has been watching the crowd and pondering what her own style and attitude will be if and when she decides to enter this Hitch Angel world. "I'll bring the client the girl, and then, it's up to him what to do with her. That's it," she says.

Mia Ruiz of Weston is standing alone by the bar and seems the perfect candidate to judge impartially from afar the state of Rodriguez's social proof. "You mean that little dude with the tall, black girl? I guess him being with her makes him a little more interesting. But only this much," she says spreading her fingers apart just enough so perhaps a comb or a piece of junk mail could slip through.

Actually, from the sidelines of the playing field, it does appear that Rodriguez is getting into a rhythm, so much so that the smoke rising from the dance floor and circling around his shoulders could almost be mistaken for the aura of a guy with a little bit more of a life. "He started loosening up just as I was getting tired of baby-sitting him," Morgan says. "He's a positive person, but he has to let girls know about it."

"It's definitely easier for a girl to meet girls and then just being able to go along for the ride," Rodriguez says. He certainly misses the rock, paper, scissor element of the mating ritual, but who wouldn't? "This is definitely worth trying just to see what happens. I'm into it," he says.

It's hard to tell if this is part of the audition process or not, but some of the potential Hitch Angels are now dancing with one another in the VIP lounge.

"The German girl tried to hook me up," Cunningham says. "And she knows I have a girlfriend. She's persistent."

She's in.

Persistence also pays off for Morgan and Rodriguez. "He got some numbers," Morgan says.

Two, to be exact. A couple of days from now, neither woman will have returned his calls, but the fact that he even got the numbers shows loads of promise as far as Rodriguez is concerned.

"They were both really pale," he says. "Could have been from Pennsylvania."