Gut instinct says it's just validation seeking, but I'm pretty clueless on this shit. Thoughts? Advice for future interactions in general?

Two possibilities: she's flattered by your attentions and even though she doesn't want to fuck you, she wants more validation.

Or...... she's thought about it more, saw you as a possibility after you made previous advances, and now wants the dick.

Escalate to find out which.

Hmm, guess I went too hard in the sauce the first time round. Reading back on it, yeah, I fucking did.

Look, mature women are a weird bunch. They date like regular women when they're being overt with their desires, like if you match with them on OLD or approach them in a bar, but in these situations, ones like financehardo420's hard bodied PT who wants to eat him alive and this, where you have a married cougar who is showing interest in you but 'declined' you because she was married, you gotta tread carefully.

If you have no interest in being someone's affair, don't venture further. She said she was married, she is interested in you because she likes the fantasy and the attention of a younger man.

Is she going to go through with it? Maybe. If you push past the glorified shit test that is her marriage and escalate, you may succeed, but you also may fail.

Realistically I count that as a win/win, not my problem if another man failed to hold onto his wife because he decided to stop caring and become a house cat, I'll fuck her if he won't, and if she shuts you down, you now don't have a cougar bothering you in the gym, clouding your judgement and focus.

I can elaborate if you want, but the downvotes tell me that indulging my imagination in an unrequited way is not the right answer, so, like the way you deal with cougars who are playing 'will they/won't they', I'm going to extend my offer and it's up to you to accept or decline.

I have fairly loose morals but married women is where I draw a hard line in the sand.

I’ll fuck someone else’s girlfriend but I won’t fuck their wife. I would try to scope out whether or not she’s wearing a wedding ring - for all you know she might have recently gotten divorced in which case it’s open hunting season.

I’m gonna take the unpopular opinion however and say this: pretty much 100% of the time any of the older milfy chicks I’ve ever had (keep in mind I’m only at 3 so far so exp is rather limited and anecdotal) it started with them talking to me similar in the way that chick waited for you in the parking lot. Them taking the time out of their day to publicly speak to you (a younger stranger prob half their age) = IOI not validation imo.

Could still be validation too but idk