"What Was I Thinking? Never Again!"

This took place about eight years ago.

I had been single for a very long time, my kids kept telling me to get back into the swing of things but I just kept making excuses.

My Nephew told me about this dating site, he said that there was no harm in talking to people so I did it.

I put everything out there so there were no surprises when or if they met me, I thought that if they still contacted me after reading all I had described myself and we matched then maybe I would have coffee with them.

Well I matched with a few and the conversation went well, I met with one gentleman who was way too regimental for my crazy life and kindly declined any more involvement with him. Another guy seemed too pushy and acted like I should be honored to be in his presence but then there came "we will call him Richard."

Now please keep in mind I had very low self-esteem at the time. That being said Richard seemed great, we carried on conversations for hours, he lived an hour and a half away so all we could really do was talk to each other.

We talked about our kids, dreams, goals, my daughter even friended one of his sons on Facebook. I was a secretary for some self-help meetings in my town and he was going to school to be a counselor, perfect right??

We talked for at least four months but after a while, I noticed that he kept having small problems come up, arguments with his mom with whom he was living, no money for gas, his truck broke down, his oldest boy was mad at him, just little things you know?

Not anything that would set me off but it was his poor me to heck with it attitude.

I tried to let that go and really be a positive influence in his life, his mother and boys loved me and told me that they had never seen him so happy.

Time went on and we were still talking every day.

I had an opportunity to come to see him and of course, my daughter went with me so she could meet his son in person as well. I took him and his son out to eat at the only little coffee shop in that town, he knew I was on a fixed income but I paid anyway because he was going to school and didn't have an income as of yet.

We had a good time, we met at his son's house on a hilltop town, we were having such a good time that we didn't notice that the snow was coming down hard and the roads were icing up so my daughter and I stayed the night in one of the rooms.

It seemed like the closer we got to his family the more distant they became to him, it was odd.

The next day the roads were clear so we said our goodbyes and went home but before we left I received one extra hug from his son's mother in law- she whispered in my ear "don't fall for him."

I thought that maybe there was something she didn't like about me, that came out of the left field.

The next few days we didn't talk, I thought that was odd - did I do something wrong?

Someone from the self-help meeting told me that there was a man looking for me, she said he looked disheveled and smelled like alcohol, this wasn't a surprise to me because I had helped quite a few people get back on their feet and maybe this one fell off the wagon and just needed to talk.

As I was driving down my street I saw a truck in my driveway I didn't recognize at first.

It was him!

He found out where I lived and was sitting in front of my house, at first I was happy until I looked in his truck and saw him slumped over reeking of booze. At that point, my fix mode set in and I asked him in for some strong coffee.

He told me that he had a blowout with his mother and she kicked him out and his boys won't talk to him, I got him some clean clothes and told him to take a shower.

I figured we could sort it out the next day, in the meantime I was taking him to a meeting, he sobered up and agreed to go but he whole time at the meeting my friends were acting like I had lost my mind, did they see something I was blind of?

We went back to my house and he seemed okay, almost too okay like nothing at all had happened.

My son pulled me aside and told me he didn't like him much but I thought that maybe he was just being overprotective.

I should have paid more attention.

We went to the store because I wasn't prepared for the extra mouth and I bought four two liters of soda a gallon of milk and two Monsters for both him and my son, some chips and other things for dinner.

After we ate we all watched some TV and headed off to bed. I let him sleep on the spare bed in my room but in the middle of the night, he tried to get frisky, at that point no! My grown kids were in the other room and something just didn't sit well with me, like he wasn't the same man he was before.

The next morning, my daughter came running out of the bathroom angry, she said in a loud voice "SOMEONE PISSED ALL OVER THE TOILET!" He didn't say a word.

Later we were all eating breakfast and he started to let food drop out of his mouth onto the table and floor and was spitting food while he was talking, he took three two liters and drank them back to back letting some run down his chin. What the hell?

Then "yes there is more" he took the remote and started to setting future recordings for his favorite shows and deleting a few of my grandchildren's. He set recordings for weeks in advance.

"Wait wait wait what are you doing my friend this is not cool," I told him but he acted like I said nothing, then he went to the refrigerator and told me that I had to go to the store and buy more soda and stuff because it was all gone. Like it was gone! He even drank my son's Monster and the whole gallon of milk! (One day mind you, only one.)

At this point, my daughter was also livid so she contacted his son and he proceeded to tell her that Richard's mother kicked him out because he wouldn't get a job and was stealing money and eating her out of house and home.

His other son won't talk to him because he keeps asking for money and won't pay it back, he himself was mad at him for lying to ME by telling me that he was going to school when he wasn't and using me as his next big meal ticket.

Well, that was it! I got all his stuff together and took it to his truck and asked him to leave!

It doesn't end there, he had loosened some bolts on his transmission making it impossible to move.

He begged and pleaded me for me to let him stay, he was at the point snot was coming out of his nose. Good god! He said that he just wanted to be close to me and if that meant sleeping in his truck he would do that and he couldn't live without me.

Well hell to the no! I called his oldest son and told them that if they didn't come with a tow truck and get their dad his fate was not going to be nice, they arrived two hours later apologizing for their father's actions.

We found out through his son that for many years he had gone through quite a few unhealthy relationships and took advantage of a lot of women that fell for his lies.

He still tries to friend me on Facebook to this day...