A woman who thought she was having a girl date with a friend was left open-mouthed and frozen in shock when a long-distance online friend she’d never met showed up to surprise her.
Maribeth Johns, 27, from Batesville, Mississippi, had been speaking to Cody Stack for several months after the pair connected when he joined a live TikTok Maribeth was having.
After a fun evening chatting, Maribeth and Cody continued their connection online, and a few months later he reached out to one of Maribeth’s friends, Becca, to say he would like to make the six-hour trip from his home in Georgia to meet Maribeth for the first time.
Becca helped set up the surprise, and while Maribeth thought she was just having a girls’ night with Becca – about 10 minutes into her meal, she was encouraged to turn around.
As soon as she saw Cody, she immediately dropped her tortilla chip into her salsa from shock.
She then jumped up to give him a long-awaited hug before later sharing a video of the moment online, which immediately went viral, receiving a wave of positive feedback.
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Maribeth said: “In that moment I was super surprised – I had no idea at all.
“We got to hang out for a few days with friends and family and just got to talk and get to know each other.
“A message I would say is: be careful on social media but know you can make some amazing friends like I have also on social media.”