Oof, it’s the kind of accidental over-the-shoulder read that only happens in close quarters, purely by mistake, and then, boom, is totally OK. Sunny Ray (@sunnystiktok), a Miami-based media student, was taken by surprise while quietly doing some computer work at Starbucks.
Sitting to her far left was a guy who was also working. But when he got up to go to the restroom, fate, poor screen privacy, and a little nerve intervened. Typed on his visible computer screen in, like, 57-point font was a short note: “For the girl seating next to me at Starbucks,” then, in all caps: “WITH ALL DUE RESPECT YOU ARE GORGEOUS.”
Her reaction? “Honestly never shutting up about this,” reads the in-screen caption as a clip from singer Ashley Trinh plays in the background. The song choice? Olivia Newton-John’s “Grease” classic “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
“There’s nowhere to hide, since you pushed my love aside,” laments the singer. While elsewhere in the Starbucks, there’s a dude who’s just taken what many viewers consider the most iconic shot ever.
IRL Is Better
For her own part, Sunny Ray, who’s the one filming the viral TikTok, captions the video, “Like he just wanted to tell me that and then went back to work. Made my day, my week, my year?? Yeah.”
The video has garnered more than 528,000 views.
A Once Upon A Time Moment?
The internet is like a nosy auntie, always wanting to know more and sometimes giving slightly insane advice. And for this video, there’s honestly no disappointment happening.
“Pls tell me u talked to him,” one said.
The top comment is actually from an unverified Starbucks account: “Is this the beginning of a beautiful story?” asked the account.
Sunny Ray replied, “It is if I get a free drink.”
Talking To Strangers Is Hard
One other commenter pointed out that this “abandoned laptop” method of communication is “one of the rarely seen, polite ways to compliment women in public.”
Which begs the question: How do people meet now, and what comes after the dating apps?
The Guardian reports that “the dating app Badoo found that 78% [of users] felt stressed and let down by incompatible matches.”
Another survey on that same site said that “millennials spend an average of 90 minutes a day trying to line up a date.” To add insult to injury, because of the rise of AI, some of those “matches” might not even be with real people.
So some people are turning toward small group dinners, shared sports activities, and Google Docs, reports the paper. Smaller, more intimate dinners offer the possibility of connection, without the pressure of a date. The key, writes Elle Hunt, is inviting your friends and their friends, too. So you get a “less-than-six-degrees-of-separation between guests [which] gives a layer of accountability missing from internet strangers.”
Shared sports as a way to meet new friends and possible love interests is an easy way to build a network (one that maybe you invite over for dinner). “The early days might be awkward, but talking about the sport you’re playing is an easy way to get to know your teammates,” advises Garri Chaverst for the site Every Girl.
But perhaps the most surprising method is that of a simple document. Called a “dating-me doc” in The Guardian article, these are “public-facing documents resembling personal ads – or a kind of dating CV … published on personal websites or via a Google doc link.”
As it turns out, dating isn’t dead. Endless swiping, however, may be.
BroBible reached out to Sunny Ray via email, if she gets back to us, we will update this article.
@sunnystiktok Like he just wanted to tell me that and then went back to work. Made my day, my week, my year?? Yeah.