I continued in vain to find "the one" and continued on meeting people, some of who were nice, some of who were players, some of whom were more niave than me!  It was then I started talking to a guy called Mark.  He chatted openly about his break up from his wife and I spoke openly about my break up too.  We seemed to have a fair bit in common and after a few days of emails, I decided to meet him at my local.

It was one of those situations whereby you arrive at the car park and see him for the first time and your brain tells you to get back in the car and drive away - but you know how awful that would feel if someone did that to you, so you tell yourself that you will have one drink, make your excuses and leave.  He was dressed in grubby jeans, trainers and a Chelsea football shirt.  I, on the other hand was dressed in a long black skirt, shirt and high heels.  Without this sounding like I'm blowing my own trumpet, his face when he saw me was one of amazement, joy, embarrassment all rolled into one.  He of course apologised for the way he was dressed and told me he had come straight from work.  I didn't believe him.  He bought me a drink and I was so self conscious that I thought everybody was looking wondering what the glamorous woman was doing with the local drop out.  We sat down and I had every intention of drinking very quickly and getting the hell out of there.  Trouble is that's easier said than done when you've got to tell someone "thanks, but no thanks".  We talked about everyday stuff and I asked about his family.  He told me how his wife had had an affair and had broken his heart, but he was now ready to move on.  I had finished my drink and was secretly wondering what to say to him to enable me to leave, when he asked me if I wanted another drink.  Before I knew it, I had agreed to another drink and he left for the bar.  I could have kicked myself.  What is wrong with me.  Why did I find it so hard to say "thanks but no thanks".  I decided, I would suffer in silence and then send the usual text afterwards explaining "what a nice guy he was ............".  At the end of a very long couple of hours, I told him I needed to get back home and he asked me whether he was going to see me again.  I found myself saying "lets just see what happens - I would prefer to text him tomorrow once I have had time to think about our evening together".  It was at that point that he got quite emotional and somewhat agitated and demanded to know now!  He said he couldnt be left dangling not knowing one way or the other and he wanted me to tell him now.  He then produced his mobile phone and showed me that he had already put a picture of me on his front screen.  Scary stuff.  I had to tell him the truth.  Of course, I did it in a very polite way of "its not you, its me" and with that he put his head in his hands and started to cry.  OMG - what the +*&%.  He told me he had never had any luck with women and he thought I was different and almost begged me to give him one last chance.  It took me another hour of pussy footing around to get through to him that I wasn't going to change my mind and eventually my tone turned to a harsh, abrupt manner and I told him "Im sorry for you, but this is where it ends - get over it.  Goodbye".  I walked out of the pub and suddenly had this feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach - what if he follows me home.  I heard him shout out "Bitch" as I got in my car and sped off.  I decided to do a bit of a detour home, just in case and when I was sure he wasn't following me, I returned home, slightly shaken but none the worse for wear - unlike him!  What a nutter.

It was at this point that the texts started.  They started off as abusive one liners referring to me as "bitch", "slag", "whore" and such like, but they quickly turned into begging texts of "please give me another chance", "I can make you happy" and then came the big one, "I love you".  What????  I'd chatted to this guy for a couple of days online, I'd met him for two drinks and he had decided he LOVED me.  He was more insane than I first thought.

Another lesson I learnt from that experience was don't get into dialogue with them.  I responded to some of his texts trying to justify my decision, my apparent evilness and before I knew it I was back into conversing with this guy.  The texts went back and forth for around 8 days.  I now know that if he appears to be NUTS, he probably is - so don't feed it, because all you do is make a bad situation worse.  In the end I stopped responding and finally the texts stopped.  PHEW!