Dinner Date? No way!

Today I once again went to a farmers' market and set up an informational table regarding cancer screenings.  During the course of the morning, a man stopped to speak with me.  He was initially somewhat hostile.  He informed me he had an "attitude" toward "you people"....meaning my agency.  Except, he had no idea what we do, and it turned out he was actually mad at the Federal Government regarding a Medicare and Social Security issue, which has absolutely nothing to do with me or my agency.


He ended up dumping quite a bit of his history on me, including the fact that he had recently served jail time for DWI and that his wife of 30-some years had viewed this as the final straw and left him..  He felt badly about the impact his actions had had on her life.  I asked him if he had quit drinking.   He allowed that I had hit the nail on the head with that question.  We got into an in depth discussion which resulted in him saying he felt as though he had been to an AA meeting right there out on the street.  As he left, he said, "You are a really nice lady, Ruth."


I wondered about this interchange.  I was pretty sure it would not have any lasting impact on him.  He told me he wasn't ready to change.


A bit later he returned, and oh my, he asked me what my plans were for dinner this evening.  I had not anticipated such a turn of events.  I thought we had had a strictly professional conversation.  I told him that I was married and that my husband was returning from a trip out of town, and I had a "date" with him this evening.  He said, "Well, maybe you will be back here sometime....you never know."  I assured him that I had been happily married for 43 years and my husband was a wonderful man, and that I wasn't going out to dinner with anyone else.  He said, "Sometimes things change."    He eventually left, but not until he had asked for my business card.  I had my business cards with me, but I gave him one from the agency hoping it would be a deterrent, since I was pretty sure his interest was not professional.


As I was packing up to leave, he returned again!  He was talking to the folks in the adjacent booth, and I was ignoring the conversation.  Except that I heard the phrase, "Actually, I'm interested in the lady next to you, who is packing up."


I got in my car to drive away, and there he was knocking on my window.  He apparently felt it necessary to remind me once more that "sometimes things change," and he hoped to see me again.


This man has NO CLUE how fussy I was about whom I would consider dating when I was a young woman.  Should I ever be without my husband, which I hope with all my heart that I never am, I would be even more fussy as an old woman!  If I ever have the misfortune to run into that man again, and he tries to cross the professional-personal line, I will be explaining in unmistakable language that he is not in the minority of the male population that I would consider as a dinner date.  


I am anxiously awaiting my husband's return home.