A Washington state woman says she spent hundreds of dollars to fly to Denver for a date, only to end up blocked on social media and left without answers after arriving in Colorado.
TikTok creator Maren Fowler, who posts under the handle MarenFowlerrr (@marenfowlerrr), shared the story in a series of viral videos, explaining what happened in text overlay. The second had screenshots of her conversation with the man, explaining he had to suddenly call off plans to visit his dying grandmother in Virginia.
Fowler works as a server at Twin Peaks Restaurants, a national sports bar chain known for its lodge-themed atmosphere and servers, called “Twin Peaks Girls.”
The text messages also noted her “boundaries” during the visit, and she wasn’t traveling there just for intimacy. When she questioned the “dying grandmother” story, he called her “disgusting and heartless,” told her never to text him again, and blocked her.
People “making crazy assumptions”
In her third post, Fowler explained she had been talking to “almost on a daily basis” since November, presumably last year. According to Fowler, the pair had already met once before and previously spent time together without incident. “People are making kind of crazy assumptions,” Fowler said in the TikTok video.
Fowler said she paid for the airfare herself and estimated that she lost around $600 after the trip fell apart. She pushed back against criticism from commenters who questioned why she booked the flights. “The first time that I flew out to see him, like we called and been talking for a while, so I trusted him,” Fowler said. “I bought the ticket, and he paid for everything else, like dinners, we went to a concert, and I had a really good time.”
She added that she did not expect the man to disappear after encouraging her to visit again. “I knew that he wasn’t the best guy, but I honestly did not think he would go this far,” Fowler said.
She said the man supported her online career and encouraged her to make videos and Instagram Reels. “It was the person that got me to start doing reels and they started doing really well,” she said. “He was always just super supportive of me and I really cared about him.”
“I was honestly so surprised that this happened because I was like, did he do this so that I would make content about it so that it would give him more exposure?” she said.
In the video, Fowler said she gave the man multiple chances to explain himself before she spoke publicly about the ordeal. She said she even told him she would move past the situation if he reimbursed her for the flights he encouraged her to book.
The threatened legal action
Fowler then alleged that the man later threatened legal action over her TikTok posts. She said she offered to remove the videos if he repaid the travel costs first. “He said I had to take the videos down first, which I said no, you have to pay me first because he’s proven to lie to me,” Fowler said. Despite the backlash and online criticism, Fowler said she does not regret speaking publicly about the experience. “I’m not ashamed that this happened to me,” she said. “I honestly did the best that I could in this situation.”
Published: May 27, 2026 02:55 pm