A few years ago, MSNBC reported that a study found that up to 30% of people using online dating services are married! What's more, many of them will go as far as to meet someone face-t0-face! Good God that's a lot of philandering! While I can't say I've personally experienced this, I have met my fair share of duplicitous married creeps out there! And what blows me away is how blase the majority of them act when called on the fact that they're already spoken for!
I will never forget when a couple years ago I was out on the town with some girlfriends and I met, what seemed to be, a very nice gentleman. He invited me and my friends to sit down and have dinner with him and when the evening ended, we exchanged numbers. I found myself anticipating his phone call. When he did call, we made arrangements to meet and go out to dinner a few nights later.
I met him at a quaint little boathouse bar for a pre-dinner cocktail. When the conversation started flowing, I began to get an intuitive feeling that something just wasn't quite right. Finally it dawned on me and I grimly asked, "Are you married?" His deer-caught-in-the-headlights look gave way to what I was presupposing. He answered with, "I'm married, but let me explain. It's a bad marriage." Ha! Save it for someone who'll buy it you buffoon!
The more I sat and listened to his tale, the more angry I became. I had arranged for child-care, drove a half hour out of my way, wasted precious time I could have been spending with my children getting ready for this ridiculous dog and pony show and would now be faced with nothing to do! The more I dug my heels in, the more he pleaded with me to just have dinner with him. When I told him I was going to go, he continued with his pleas telling me he had money, I would be spoiled, he could introduce me to some of his "well connected" friends, etc. He then turned the tables and said, "Well, I figured you'd have 9,000 boyfriends and having something casual would be no big deal." That's when I went off and said, "You know how many boyfriends I have? Zero! Because I'm holding out for the right one! And I deserve better than to be treated like someone's part-time prostitute so they can parade me around town when they see fit! I'm sure your marriage is crap because half of the equation is a selfish, lying, cheating SOB!"
Whew! I digress! The fact that I have met many married men out at restaurants and bars posing as available, makes me only imagine how many online married predators there must be out there, as they they hide behind their computer screens making up elaborate stories. And make no mistake about it, I include married women in that category as well as I've heard many stories about chat-room dalliances women tend to get involved in. Well, with modern technology and readily available sex partners, the cyber-affair doesn't seem like a trend that will slow anytime soon. Hrrmphh.
Hrrmphh indeed!
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