As a newly divorced guy, my self-esteem and confidence were pretty low. An advertisement I had placed in a "just friends" internet site had resulted in a few responses. I was lonely and depressed.
Signing on one afternoon, about a month since I had placed my listing , I had an email from a, "married and just looking for friends", female about 200 miles from where I lived. After sharing 4-5e-mail notes back and forth we decided to "meet" in a chat room to have a one on one discussion. It was remarkable, Deb and I just seemed to mesh from the start and a friendship developed over the next two months that was completely platonic, but close, personal, and open.
She typed:
"I will be in Cincinnati on business next Thursday and Friday for a training seminar for my business. Do you think we should finally meet in person and maybe have a drink or dinner?" WOW! I was surprised and delighted. I immediately agreed and wrote down the hotel name where she would be staying and arranged for a meeting at 7 pm. the next Thursday evening.
The next few days my emotions went through many phases, involving lust, nervousness, fear of rejection, and even the chance of the loss of a new found friend. I am middle aged and not a "hunk" from a physical standpoint. Through our online chats, I knew that Deb was 28, 12 years younger then I. Although we had honestly described ourselves physically we had never shared a picture. She sounded "attractive" 5', 4" tall, short brown hair and green eyes. She had said she was 118 lb. and had a nice figure with a 34B bust.
I arrived at her hotel about 15 minutes early and sat in the lobby. Finally I got up the nerve to call her room. I went to the desk and they directed me to a house phone for the connection. A soft voice answered tentatively "hello". "Hi, Mike here. " I said feeling the nervousness creep into my voice. " I hope you still want to do this, I am sure we can keep it purely platonic" was my next statement. " Remember, I am married and the issue of anything but platonic should not even be considered." was the next thing I heard from the phone speaker. "If that is still ok, I will be right down." She said. "Sure, I am sorry I even said anything." I replied.
She walked off the elevator wearing a light blue skirt that fell about halfway between her ass and her knees and a white "v" necked sweater with small pink flowers knitted in. I smiled and walked over to the elevator. I opened my arms and she returned my smile and gave me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. (My mind immediately said. Shit she does not like what she sees.") Even though I was not expecting anything except dinner and a chance to meet this person whom I had become "friends" with, my male ego and libido had hoped for more. Oh well, reality strikes home hard!
During dinner in the hotel restaurant our conversation recapped a lot of what we had talked about online. We had a few drinks and shared a bottle of Chardonnay as we chatted. By 8:30 we had finished eating and I was again struggling in my mind for ideas that would keep us together for a while longer.