Andi, I think it's possible to trust our instincts about people in this way. I can think of the odd time somebody would want to warm up to me, and I couldn't figure out why. Bearing in mind, I have been told I don't give myself enough credit, I didn't see why they wanted to give me the time of day...I can think of a few individuals that probably gravitated toward me out of a kindred spirit over alcohol. A few times I wound up with alcohol adventurists if not addicts. (My first big love was an AA person.) I can also think of a couple of times that, paranoid or not, it seemed like somebody was hinting at me to be careful even though I rarely drank in front of others. One of those people was a bit of a mentor in a way, and I would rarely see that person with alcohol (could have been some moderation management at work or maybe it was non-alc beer; who knows). It's not a science, but intuition is a nice gift to possess.