Thanks to all you wonderful people here I was able to strengthen my spine, go with my gut instinct and cancel the date I had scheduled this weekend!
To make a long story short, I had met the guy twice and he had my number for business reasons. A month after our last interaction he texted me asking if he could take me out for a meal. I was hesitant, couldn't remember him all that well, but said OK. We planned a lunch this Saturday and I thought all was well. [Cue ominous music]
The guy would not stop texting me all day every day. He asked to call me while I was at work, after work, all the time. I told him I'd prefer to take it slow and get to know each other during the date and I was extremely busy at work. He kept on texting and got more and more inappropriate for a man his age and laid on ridiculous compliments about how attractive I was. It seemed he was trying to figure out how to best get me drunk and in as little clothing as possible as fast as possible.
Last night he was texting me and kind of pushing the envelope. He TOLD me he was going to call in 10 minutes. I said no, I have a migraine. He asked me to send a picture and when I refused got overly complimentary about how there mustn't be any bad picture of me at all and why wouldn't I take one now? His picture revealed him to be MUCH older than I remembered and I got this horrible gut reaction like I had been punched that screamed "NO!" I haven't a clue why as he seemed OK, but all together I couldn't go forward.
I talked to an older male friend for advice on wording and politely, but firmly, cancelled the date. He apologized for offending me and asked me to reconsider. I declined, told him to stop contacting me and set his texts to silent. After a couple messages (nothing abusive or bad) he stopped texting.
It was really hard to do that. My mom was furious I didn't give the guy a chance and then dump him, but I figure that *was* his chance and he blew it. It's tough to be conditioned to be nice and accommodating your whole life and then stand up when something isn't right.