While TikToker Salma (@salmayourlawyerbigsis) was at a basketball game, she noticed someone staring at her with a confused expression on his face.
This guy kept looking at her like he recognized her from somewhere, but couldn’t quite figure out where from. However, Salma knew exactly who he was and why seeing him again felt so bizarre.
A few years ago, her friend had gone on several dates with this guy, and she had really, really liked him. Things seemed to be progressing naturally. But on their fifth date, he told her that he wasn’t looking for a serious relationship.
He didn’t want anything to tie him down to where they lived in Indianapolis because he had plans to move to the West Coast. His reasoning initially seemed logical.
She thanked him for being upfront and appreciated what she believed was honesty. They ended things because they wanted different futures.
She was looking for something serious and didn’t want to leave Indianapolis. Still, she was super disappointed that it hadn’t worked out.
About a month later, one of their other friends stumbled across a post on social media about this guy, and the whole story abruptly came to light.
At the time, Salma’s friend hadn’t considered checking social media for information about him because his story had all added up, and he didn’t give off any red flags. But social media revealed a completely different reality.
“Not only does this man have a child in Indianapolis with a woman he never mentioned, but he has two children with two different women in Indianapolis,” said Salma.
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The women who shared children with him were on social media trying to warn other women about his behavior. After doing some internet research, Salma and her friends discovered that he had two kids under the age of five and was basically an absent father with no real relationship to his children.
The women claimed that he routinely failed to disclose the fact that he had kids when dating new women and is not careful about using protection.
Suddenly, his excuse about not wanting to be tied down to Indianapolis took on an entirely different meaning.
It wasn’t that he was a free-spirited man chasing dreams on the West Coast. He was really just a neglectful father and didn’t want potential romantic partners to know about it. Salma’s friend certainly dodged a bullet there.
Overall, the experience demonstrated the importance of doing background research before becoming emotionally invested in a relationship. It is absolutely necessary because the modern dating world is unfortunately filled with red flags.
While social media obviously doesn’t tell you everything about a person, it can sometimes expose information that someone is intentionally keeping secret.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
