The Polanski Predicament

I met a girl through a work situation who I thought was cute, and we started talking. She was from out of town but now works in LA. I thought she was probably around 22/23 (a typical age for someone doing her job), but after a bit of conversation I found out she was still in school, so I figured she must have been only 20 or so. A bit young for me but I was cool with it, so we talked some more, and I found out she was in a 2-year college, which meant she was probably closer to 19? Finally, I came out and asked her how old she was and she said 18.

Well, I know that’s legal and all, but I felt weird about it. She’s so young, and at the end of the night I decided not to ask for her number. When I went to go home I got to my car and realized that I forgot one of my binders inside, so I went back in and bumped in to her. There was a very awkward pause, which led to us exchanging info. The next day, she wrote me an email saying it was nice to meet me and I replied with a similar exchange of pleasantries, and decided to keep it very much on the friend tip. I wasn't trying to go out with an 18 year old - a decision many of my friends disagreed with.

A few weeks later we ran into each other at a party, and after having another good conversation, we decided that we would grab lunch during the week. She then said something weird as we continued our conversation -- she mentioned that she was about to start college. I asked when her birthday was, and she said it was in November. I did the math in my head, and said I was pretty sure that when you go to college you are either 17 going on 18, or you would have recently turned 18. She again said she was 18 about to be 19, but I thought something was fishy.

I didn’t feel good about our potential “date” and was ready to blow it off, when she canceled because she had to work. OK cool, I was relieved and thought it was for the best. I wasn't going to contact her again -- I wanted to find a girl to be in a relationship with, and it just didn't seem to me that an 18 year old would be that girl, so why should I waste my time? 2 days later I got an email that said this: “I’m sorry I canceled our plans for work, but I didn’t have work. I have to come clean about something. I’m really 17 going on 18, not 18 going on 19. For work and professional purposes I had to say I was 18 so nobody would get in trouble.”

WHAT?? Well, I'm glad she wanted to protect her employer by saying she was 18, but for personal reasons, this was exactly how you could get someone in the worst kind of trouble -- Roman Polanski style. She went on to say, “I’m really sorry I lied, and there were so many times I wanted to tell you the truth, but we were always around work people. I want you to know that everything else I said was 100% me.”

Wow – Now, I had no desire to get involved in this any further and my only response was “No worries. Good luck with school.”

SO HOW WAS LAST NIGHT? I’m a law-abiding citizen but fellas...in a few weeks she’ll be legal