An 18-year-old who started a new job in October quickly noticed a coworker taking a strong interest in her.

What began as friendly conversation escalated into daily Starbucks, packed lunches, an unsolicited planned “date,” and eventually hundreds of dollars and expensive gifts, despite her repeatedly stating she only wanted a professional, platonic relationship at work.

Read on for the story.

AITA for telling my coworker to stop buying me gifts?

I (18f) started at a new job in October. My coworker (27m) immediately started talking to me my first day there.

I would talk to him in group settings but he would always try to get me to go with him to his car to breaks, etc.

After about a week of me working there he started bringing me starbucks in the morning and even packing me lunch.

After 3 weeks he had planned an entire date to go get dinner and ice cream, I had told him I did not want to go and I would only like to be friends at work and he said he understood. He kept bringing me lunch and buying me food but I just kept it friendly and professional and never went anywhere with him alone.

Maybe he just really likes food…

Flash forward to December and my battery had died at work. i had asked him to jump it, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing if im being honest, and on my way home it quite literally caught on fire and he gave me 400 DOLLARS THE NEXT DAY.

I never said it was his fault or blamed him but like.. idk i tried to refuse the money and then afterwards told him i really do not want him to be giving me money or buying me things really at all because i feel like it’s something that can be held over my head he said it’s not like that and he does this for all of his friends.

Then on Christmas, he shows up to work with uggs and AirPods both very expensive things.

Clearly he did not understand.

He said that it was because he felt bad about the car and he was trying to make up for the things that I have lost, but I’ve never said that I lost UGGs or AirPods in the car because I’ve never even owned UGGs or AirPods, I don’t know.

Then I explained to him again that I only wanted to be friends and that all of these gifts and everything was just too much for me and I just don’t like it and he said again that he understood and he was worried that I would think that, but he doesn’t want anything with anyone and then he’s been talking to other coworkers about the situation insane.

He doesn’t understand why I brought it up because he knew that I just wanted to be friends and everything and he’s just making things awkward with other people that work and I just don’t know if I’m in the wrong. I still have the gifts, but I don’t know. AITA?·

After multiple attempts to refuse the gifts and clearly communicate boundaries, the coworker continued insisting his behavior was normal and began discussing the situation with other employees, making the workplace uncomfortable.

Now she’s left questioning whether speaking up,  and asking him to stop buying her things entirely. was out of line, or simply necessary.

This person says 100% NTA.

This person says this is just desperate and creepy.

And this person agrees…it’s just plain weird!

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When someone says “just coworkers” and you respond with AirPods and UGGs, the problem isn’t the boundary…it’s the refusal to respect it.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.