A young woman has shared a story about her disastrous dating experience during a solo birthday trip to New York, describing how what started as a lighthearted movie encounter turned into one of the most uncomfortable interactions of her life. She explained that during her weeklong stay in Manhattan, she decided to spend an evening watching Sinners, a film featuring Michael B. Jordan. As she approached the theater, a man standing outside with a friend noticed she was alone and struck up a conversation with her. When she told him she was seeing Sinners and had a seat in C4, he smiled and said, “I’m coming there with you,” which she thought was charming at the time.
Inside the theater, the man showed up and sat beside her. They exchanged laughs and light touches during tense moments in the film, and after the movie, he asked what she was doing next. She said she was heading back to her hotel, and he gave her his number, suggesting they meet again. He claimed to be 23 years old, while she was 27.
The next day, the man visited her hotel, accompanied at first by a friend. They chatted, watched a show called Beauty and Black, and shared jokes about her British accent, with him teasingly comparing her to Harry Potter. Everything seemed fine until he left for Long Island and texted her the following morning, which was her birthday, asking if she wanted to see him again.
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When the woman agreed to meet up with him again, his next words left her stunned. He told her that if she wanted to see him, she would have to pay for his ticket. Confused, she asked what he meant, and he insisted she send him money through Apple Pay or Cash App. Since she had neither, they agreed she would reimburse him when he arrived. She withdrew $40 in cash, expecting to give him $20, but when he noticed the extra bill on her counter, he smiled and pressured her into handing that over as well.
During his visit, he revealed that he was actually younger than he had first claimed. When she pressed him for his real age, he hesitated and eventually said he was 21. She was left baffled and uneasy, realizing he had lied about his age to get her attention. But that was not all. As the day went on, he began bragging about committing fraud, saying he used other people’s credit cards to buy items like food online. He even ordered their meal that way.
The only pleasant part of the encounter, she recalled, was when he insisted they get cheesecake for her birthday. When the shop they visited was closing, he passionately pleaded with the staff, saying, “She’s from England, it’s her birthday!” The gesture made her smile, though she still ended up paying for the dessert herself. By the end of her story, she said she had learned an important lesson about trusting strangers and added that her brief experience with a “New York man from hell” was one she would not forget.
In the comments section, netizens mainly empathized with her. One person wrote, “So sorry this happened to you 💕.” Someone else asked, “How are you doing?” while another remarked, “Oh baby. Let this be a lesson learned 😩😩.”
A few also cautioned her to be careful about dating, with one saying that “the bar is getting lower.” A different viewer advised, “Oh girl, next time say you are meeting friends.” A third commented, “Girl don’t ever pay for a man to come and see you again.”