TL;DR wanted to innocently surprise a girl I was seeing, instead accidentally probably creeped her out and came on too strong, likely ruining a chance for a good relationship.

Ye ye, obligatory, didn't exactly happen today, but in the last 24 hours.

So me and this girl have been meeting and talking for last 2 weeks (we met on what was essentially a date), having met 3 times last week. I saw (or at least thought so) some signs that she was a bit kore than just friendly with me (including her inviting me to go to a show together that she had a pass for along with her sister she introduced me to there). While personally it was going a bit too fast for my taste, I did like her enough not to worry too much and just had the mental note to not to try anything more than just friendly meets and talk untill at least 1 month after meeting her.

Fast forward to yesterday I kinda felt spotanious (there was also a terrorist scare too, but eh), so I decide to meet her after work near her workplace just a small walk and stuff. I do do this with a lot of my friends if I'm in the area, even some female friends, so I thought no big deal. The idea was I would meet her after work as if I was in the area and just decided to visit her out of the blue once she had finished her shift.

Here's where TIFU comes from. And this is a MULTILAYERED TIFU, and I could have fixed the situation so many f-ing times. A voice in the back of my head was definitely talking the entire time how of a bad idea it was

Strike one. As I wanted to surprise her, I didn't tell her that I was coming to her job. The idea was I should not had been see, surprise and all. She saw me outside. In the street.

Strike two. She messages me if I'm outside. I play coy that "what makes you think that, no I'm not :D", trying to salvage the surprise while also trying to not to hide it too much, making it seem like an obvious playful lie (or atleast I though so).

Strike three. Well we did meet but she was still busy so I kinda thought maybe she'll be out on half an hour went into a store, got myself something and came back but was thinling of leaving, she calls me and asks if was waiting for her, I said perhaps, ans she told me she was busy and would be going with her female friend who had a car. I said alright, politely aplogised were there any problems and left.

Later that evening I messaged her and apologised again if my actions put her in an uncomfortable position. She told me that her co workers asked about who I was and she told them I was just a friend and nothing more, and then told me that if I was thinking from another angle that she didn't want to give me hope and it was better to take it slow and she was talking to me as a friend. I answered that of course we were friends and we could continue our friendship if she was ok with it. She answered "ok" and nothing else really. But I'm pretty sure any possibility of relationship beyond friendship is dead.

So yeah. Just posting this for others to learn from the dumbass mistake I did.