Relationships require a lot of trust, but when one woman's boyfriend broke up with her over a male best friend, it became very clear that's exactly what her romance was missing.
Liana Dominique, from Queens, New York, had a 'great' time when she first went on a date with the guy she'd been speaking to online for three weeks.
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They'd already got to know each other a bit through their online chat, but during the date the guy mentioned that he 'doesn't do guy best friends'.
Unfortunately for him, that's exactly what Liana had.
She was honest with her date, saying: "I was able to tell him that I have a guy best friend and I was like, 'I'd love for you to meet him, but I understand your concern'."
However, things took a turn in the new romance when Lianna went to a Burna Boy concert with her best friend, Darius, just one day after her date.
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Liana and Darius have been best friends for six years, after first meeting in high school and growing closer while studying the same course at university.
On the night of the gig, Liana said it was 'so hot' that Darius decided to hold a fan for her in a moment that she felt should be shared with the world.
She took a video of Darius holding the fan and posted it on Instagram, writing: "love him so bad."
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She thought nothing more of it, until she received a text from the guy she'd been on a date with the next day.
"He was like, 'who is this? Who was in your story?'," Lianna recalled.
"I said, 'that's the best friend I was telling you about'. He said, 'I don't do [guy] best friends. It's kind of unacceptable - I don't really know how this is going to go so I don't want to talk to you anymore."
Lianna asked the guy if they could chat about his problem, but he responded: "Absolutely not."
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Baffled, Lianna - who is a dating and lifestyle content creator - took to TikTok for advice on where she went 'wrong' while dating the new man.
"I wasn't really asking if anyone was wrong, I was just asking why he couldn't have a conversation about it with me rather than cutting things off straight away," she said. "That's why I was so confused."
Lianna was left feeling 'caught off guard' by his reaction, adding: "My point of view was that there was no reason to end it so quickly.
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"I was honestly so shocked because a lot of the guys that I'd spoken to before, they'd never had an issue with it."
After Lianna shared her video, she received mixed responses from viewers, with some criticising her choice of caption on the clip featuring Darius, while others argued it was normal to tell friends you loved them.
Though Lianna was initially hurt by the man's abrupt ending of their relationship, she eventually came to realise the guy's issue with male best friends must have been due to 'something in his past'.
Darius agreed, saying: "He clearly has some experience that shaped why he believes that."
Darius added that he's 'not looking to date Lianna', while she said they've 'never even looked at each other in a romantic way'.
Lianna added: "I did a follow up video to my viral one and I said there's seven billion people in the world - I don't have to have sex with my best friend just because he's there."
Topics: Sex and Relationships, TikTok
Emily Brown