The Cougar and the Cowboy

He checked his watch. “Yeah, that’d be okay. I want to check that phone and make sure there are no others anywhere else in the house.”

Camille hadn’t thought about that. Of course there would be others. Land lines were seldom in just one room. She made a pot of coffee while he checked the entire house.

“There were two more. I unplugged all of them. I sincerely hope this Will guy doesn’t try to contact you, Camille. I’m worried about you, all alone in this big ole house.”

She waved her hand to dismiss that thought. “Thank you for your concern but I assure you I will be okay. Will is harmless…really. He knows I could probably get him a prison sentence although I’d be taking the chance I’d be serving time with him, as an accomplice. I think that’s the charge when you know something and don’t tell.”

They drained their cups and she walked him to the door.

He turned to her and seemed to be about to kiss her but changed his mind at the last minute.

“Good night, Camille. I enjoyed the evening.”

CHAPTER 21

CAMILLE HAD HER first submission ready for Allie and the staff to transcribe into a printable article. They had agreed she would list her experiences, send them and they could put them in the order they thought best plus correct grammatical or punctuation errors. There could possibly be many of those since she was writing in a semblance of shorthand.

She read over them one final time, alternately smiling and frowning, depending on the interaction she had with each man. She not only wanted women to see some of the honest, sincere men but also a few of the looney ones they might meet. She wanted to impress upon them the need to be smart and safe.

She began with a bit of explanation.

For anyone who has never been to a dating site: Most sites have an area where the members can privately chat with each other…one on one if they want to.

If someone is interested in your profile they can send you a ‘wink’ or a ‘hello.’ Then it’s up to you if you choose to answer or not.

Don’t give anyone your email address unless you want to be contacted that way. I find email is safer than a phone number.

Don’t give your house address, even if he sounds like the nicest guy in the world.

Definitely don’t believe everything they put in their profile information.

If they say they are from some far part of the country, stay away from them.

When they give you a real name, check to see if they are on any social media sites. I only found one who was.

If there is no profile picture, use your discretion when deciding to answer their ‘hellos.’

As she took one last look at the list of her experiences before hitting the “send” button, she quietly chuckled to herself at some of them:

Denny: age 68 had no profile picture, listed his marital status as legally separated

I talked with him in the chat room of the dating site. He explained his wife had been in an accident and was incapacitated. She was in a nursing home and had been for quite some time. He wanted me to know he took care of all her needs and always would. I commended him for that but questioned his faithfulness if he was on the dating site. He said he was just looking for a ‘friend’ because he was lonely. I chatted several more times with him; he finally got around to talking about meeting at a motel. It took about two weeks to go from needing a ‘friend’ to saying we could be ‘friends and lovers.’ He described his prowess in the bedroom and I told him goodbye as I certainly wasn’t going to help him cheat on his wife, regardless of her condition.

Edgar: age 45 no profile picture, single, never been married we talked several times and made arrangements to meet for lunch at a busy fast food restaurant (safer) At the last minute he sent me a text saying he was shy and could tell I was much too outgoing for him and he just couldn’t bring himself to meet me.

Sam: age 48 profile picture showed nice looking man. He also wanted to meet for

coffee but insisted it be in a different town. He said his community was small and everyone knew each other. He didn’t want anyone to know he had his name on a dating site.

Roger: 43 no picture professed to be in the military in Afghanistan. He called me every evening at the same time, which he said was early morning there. I checked the time difference between my time and the time in Afghanistan and he was correct so either he had his facts all lined up or he was telling the truth. We had some deep philosophical discussions. I liked him and enjoyed talking to him. One day he simply disappeared. I never heard from him again. Either I was duped or he was telling the truth and perhaps he was killed in action. I was surprised how sad it made me and how I could be that emotional about someone I had never met in person.

Thomas: 56 no profile picture and marital status was legally separated. This one was a professor of engineering at a college. After a few weeks of chatting, he e-mailed pictures of himself accepting an award. I checked that college website and his name was listed. His story was that his first wife died and he remarried too quickly. He was extremely unhappy with his new spouse. I had no intention of meeting a married man but we had some interesting talks.

Daniel: 56 profile picture average looking fellow He was not married. We talked a few times and he asked for my e-mail. I gave it to him but what he wanted to send me was a list of 46 questions. I started to answer them but by the fifth one, I decided this guy was way too paranoid for me. He had obviously been hurt at some time and was searching for a guaranteed relationship. Every question was asking if I had ever cheated in a former relationship or if I had ever lied or if I considered lying to be a normal trait. I never talked to him again.

Frank: 53 profile picture average, Frank would email me and then I wouldn’t hear from him for 3-4 days. He wanted to take it s-l-o-w because (his words) ‘the broad he dated for eight years suddenly left him’ Maybe she thought he was too slow

Elliott: 56 no picture He lived close to me, he was a self-made man in his words and he described his work and his days, ad nauseam. He wanted to meet but never could find the time. He was very self-absorbed. He never asked anything about my day or work or family…only his. I finally told him I wasn’t interested.