Man's pretends stranger is his GF to help her escape creepy man; his real GF gets mad.

Some interactions happen so fast you don't fully understand them until afterward. This is particularly true for moments with strangers. Exponentially so, if they're a stranger in crisis.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for pretending a stranger was his girlfriend to help get her away from a creepy man. He wrote:

"AITA for pretending another girl was my girlfriend?"

I (25m) was out with my girlfriend (25f) and some other friends. We were drinking and having a good time. I smoke (trying to quit) and went outside alone for a smoke. I was standing in front of the bar kind of a short walk away. I don't like standing right in front of the door because the smoke gets into the bar or establishment.

This frantic-looking woman is walking at a normal pace and there is a guy a couple of feet behind her. She walks to me and says "Hey, baby, I'm glad you're waiting where you said you would." I was confused at first but I quickly understood the situation. This guy was weird and on the way up he was muttering weird things like "just give me your number" "you're so pretty " "I just want to talk to you" etc.

When I told someone else this story I was asked why I didn't react when I saw her walking and heard that. And the answer is it all happened very fast and I had been drinking. Once I put it together I said "hey, honey, been waiting for you." And she put her arm around me and it took longer than I would have liked for the guy to leave. I was being gentle saying "alright, goodbye buddy" and "we've gotta get back home."

Eventually, the guy left but not because she wanted him to leave, because I kept insisting. Nothing bad happened at all. My girlfriend had been watching from the window and must have only caught the end part of it and saw the other girl with her arm around me. My girlfriend is not the type to cause a public scene. She'll wait until a private time to air her grievances.

The girl had no money for an Uber and was planning on walking home but felt too nervous. So I arranged for an Uber to pick her up and waited outside with her until the car came. Jumping ahead to when I was home with my girlfriend. She asked me "what was that all about?" and wanted to know why her arm was around me and why I stayed after the creep left.

She put together that the guy was being weird but she said I shouldn't have let her put her arm around me. Even though after the guy left she removed it. None of my explanations were working so I just turned it to her and said "what would you have wanted me to do?" and "if you were here, what would you have wanted the guy to do?" She just couldn't answer and said to "stop flipping it."

Redditors kept it real in the comments.

Icy_Department_1423 wrote:

NTA. Thanks for helping a stranger. Ask your girlfriend what she would like a stranger to do if she was in that situation. I would thank my boyfriend.

HeadFullOfStardust wrote:

NTA. You are a hero and may have saved that woman from something terrible. Your girlfriend should recognize that and get over it. Women are too frequently put into those situations and I hope that there will be someone like you around if your girlfriend ever needed it. She sounds insecure - good luck.

thisismyburnerac wrote:

NTA. You did what a real man should do. Your girlfriend is being insecure, and if she had her way, that girl could’ve been assaulted or worse. I hope she never finds herself in that situation.

Icequeen339 wrote:

NTA. My husband has done this multiple times when we’ve been out and I thank him for it. I’ve been in that situation when I’ve been out with friends and men have been allies and helped me out. It’s not like you made out with her, that would’ve been crossing a line. It’s stupid that we even have to do stuff like pretend we have a bf to get creeps to leave us alone but it works so we adapt.

Ask your gf if she’s never been in that situation before. Tell her to ask her girlfriends if they’ve ever had to do that to protect themselves. I guarantee you 1 in 5 at MINIMUM have had to do this exact same thing. Thank you for helping that girl out and being respectful.

NGDGUnpunished wrote:

NTA. That poor woman was lucky you were there and caught on quickly. Your gf DOES need to think about what if it had been her. It's called empathy. You did exactly what was needed in the moment and your gf needs to just stop, unless you've given her other reasons to question your loyalty?

OP is most certainly NTA here, it just sounds like his GF is feeling a bit insecure in general.