Mae West did it. Demi Moore and even Katie Couric are doing it. But when Trevor, sixteen years my younger, asked me out, I was flattered but not interested. My hesitation did not sit well with my girlfriends who prodded me with encouraging words like “Men do it all the time,” “You go girl,” “You’ve still got it,” and “It’s no big deal, just have fun.” The latter being the phrase I clung to; I agreed to keep an open mind and have fun.

On Friday night, Trevor called and invited me to go hiking at Great Falls Park the following day. It was short notice, but I consider myself to be a spontaneous person, as long as I know about it in advance. For years I’d enjoyed hiking at Great Falls so this date was right up my alley. My routine would be to get up early, and put on my jeans and a long-sleeved shirt to cover up due to my susceptibility to poison ivy. Of course with it being summertime, I’d always be at the park around 7:00 AM for an early hike in the crisp morning air. That way I’d be home before the summer heat started.

Trevor picked me up at 1:00 PM. He said he didn’t wake up until noon. That was the same time my daughter would rise. We got into his blue two-door hatchback Ford Pinto and headed off. When I mentioned that he had neglected to put on his seat belt, he responded, “I don’t believe in them.” What did that mean? It wasn’t like we were talking about Big Foot. Not wanting to sound like his mother, I let it go, although I was concerned as to who was going to keep the car on the windy road after he had been thrown through the windshield as I was left screaming, “This never would have happened with an older, mature man.”

Upon arriving at the park, I inquired about the bottled water he had volunteered to bring the night before. He’d forgotten. Soon Trevor found a path he wanted to hike. I pointed out that it wasn’t on the map but he assured me he knew his way. Not wanting to come off as the old fuddy-duddy, I followed. After a long while he admitted we were lost. Thick with branches and hard to maneuver, we tried in vein to find our way to a path. The temperature was around 95 degrees, his face was beet red with a heat rash and I pretended to be enthralled with a quartz rock on the ground in an effort to lower my head to keep from blacking out. To cool himself, Trevor removed his t-shirt, displaying his sculpted rock-hard body. I would have traded him for an overweight man with a comb-over if he would lead me to a path and some water. Just as I was ready to say, “Save yourself, just leave me, I can’t go any further” he exclaimed, “Thank God. A path. I was ready to pass out from this heat!” As we headed back to the car, Trevor offered, “Let’s get something to drink, my treat.” I visualized sitting in a nicely air conditioned restaurant, sipping our drinks and relaxing while the soothing sound of Frank Sinatra was being played in the background.

Sitting on the curb outside the quick-stop, drinking my large cherry flavored Slurpee from a florescent green straw, there was nothing roaring within me. I didn’t feel young and empowered. I wasn’t even a cougar at a drinking hole.

“Hey, I got a great idea!” he enthusiastically announced. “Tomorrow I’ll teach you how to roller-blade.”

Meow.