Simple. She’ll think you’re a guy. So relax. Women don’t want you to be perfect (at least before you’re married). They need to feel that they have a contribution to make toward your salvation. But that doesn’t mean they want a complete slob. If they’re going to bother to save you, you need to be salvageable.

STEP 1. CLEAN
Okay, without going into great detail here: you need to clean the place. Do the laundry, dust, vacuum. Do the dishes. (A few dirty dishes in the wake of an expertly prepared gourmet meal is one thing. But if that’s you, you’re probably not reading this.).

The idea here is not to make you into a Felix Unger. That’s extreme. This is about respect.

STEP 2. COVER
At the risk of stereotyping, we’re going to assume that interior decoration is not your strong suit. Fine. Here’s a tip. Throw some attractive covers around. Drape a nice tablecloth or bedspread over the back of the couch, for example. Stick that funky afghan your grandmother knitted to cover up the coffee stains on the chair. Even a cool beach towel, displayed with a little panache over that old trunk, can add a certain something to the decor. Toss it over diagonally for a nice touch. If you think your furniture is in anyway dull, tasteless, or tattered, cover it up.

STEP 3. BUY SOME FLOWERS
When most guys think flowers, they think cut flowers. A bouquet. Cut flowers are great, and there are times when nothing else will do. But they require a bit of fuss. You need a vase, you have to do stuff when you get them home to prepare them for the vase, etc.

If you think you’re man enough, here’s what you do. But you might want to put that testosterone on hold for a minute, there’s more. Consider potted plants.

Potted plants are easier than cut flowers. Think about it. You’ve seen them in the grocery store. They’re plants already growing in little plastic pots. They’re available all over the place, from supermarkets, mass-market retailers, garden centers, flower and vegetable stands, and, of course, florists.

Also, think whether a few fragrant plants might not be a good idea. Sweet smelling hyacinths, or a few sprays of eucalyptus leaves strategically placed about the place might help dispel the perfume of stale pizza box.

You take them home, give them a drink of water and voila: flowers.

What you choose depends on the time of year. From the December holidays through Mother’s Day, you’ll find potted spring flowers such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, amaryllis and paperwhites. In summer, there are potted lilies, gerberas, kalenchoes, begonias and lots of other things too. (Click here to learn about the attributes, such as color and fragrance, of different flowers.)

Note: having this growing thing in your house is impressive. It makes you look sensitive. The more rugged you are, the more sensitive and deep this little potted flower will make you look. Note: this is also true of a tasteful vase of cut flowers.

If you want to clinch the look, slide the plant, plastic pot and all, right inside another, slightly larger and more decorative container. (That’s right, cover the boring plastic pot with something attractive!) You can go for a fun look, like a beer holder with a sports logo, or something more sophisticated like some pottery or a basket (Click here for ideas).

Just to keep you educated, there’s an actual name for a decorative outer pot used to disguise a smaller, simpler pot. It’s called cachepot. That’s French for “hiding pot” and it can be pronounced cash-pot or cash-poe (like in Edgar Allen), always with the accent on the first syllable.

Now the cachepot thing will be useful for some guys, way too much information for others.

The important thing is that this flower stuff works. Girls like flowers. Girls like guys who get this fact. (Okay, not all girls like flowers. Not all girls like having guys open doors for them. Some girls will zap a guy with pepper spray for offering them a seat on a bus. Let’s not get pedantic. If the girl you have in mind isn’t the flower type, you’d be surfing the new stuff on youtube by now.)

Cut flowers up the ante. Potted flowers, being growing flowers, could pass for houseplants. Maybe you always have a pot of flowers around. But cut flowers are different. These have been purchased recently. You’ve done it especially for her.

This might be exactly what you want to convey. Just go into it with your eyes open. And be prepared.

The key thing with cut flowers is that
you have to have something to put them in. We’re going to go out on a limb here and assume you don’t have a vase. Not to worry. It doesn’t need to be an official vase. It just needs to hold water and be tall enough to support the flowers.

You might take a quick inventory of what sorts of watertight vessels you posses before deciding which cut flowers to buy. Flowers come in wide variety. There are short ones and tall ones. If the best you can muster is a washed out soup can, then keep that in mind. You’ll be wanting short flowers like hyacinths, or crocuses.

But don’t forget to think creatively. Creativity scores almost as many points as flowers! She loves tulips but you don’t have anything tall enough? How about that 2-liter bottle of soda that’s just about gone flat. Wash it out, cut off the top and weight it down with some washed stones or pebbles, or that marble collection you’re still hanging onto and voila, a flower vase.

You could also simply buy a vase. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and there are lots of inexpensive ones out there, available wherever house wares are sold. Vases come in handy.

And, vase or not, don’t forget that cachepot stuff. It works for cut flowers too. If you’ve got something large and attractive, but maybe it won’t hold water, or you don’t want to put water into it, how about slipping that soup can or soda bottle vase inside and hide it?

One other thought. If she’s coming over and you’re cooking, why not cook Italian? There are lots of easy Italian recipes, most everyone likes it, and some of those Italian canned tomatoes have cans that make very attractive vases. Check out the Italian recipes on about.com.

To learn about buying and preparing cut flowers, go here.