"a true gentleman waits until they are 18 and then asks them out" - that's not being a gentleman, that's just waiting so as to avoid a statutory rape charge.

Definitely the creep. And also he'd best be careful as in my workplace, if he's senior to her he can be hoofed out in milliseconds of a call to HR

I had this neighbor*Bob* when I was about 9 and he had a brother named *Sam*. My family became good friends with Bob. We would see Sam here and there. So I turn 18 and we are all still friends. San ask me to dinner. I didn't think much of it. But he let me know he wanted a relationship with me. This guy was my parents age! I told him no and he excepted it pretty good. But it was creepy. I thought I was so grown up! Now at 51...lol.

When I was 17 a female coworker wanted to set me up with her friend. Turns out he was 40. My own father at the time was 37. I was so grossed out by the idea. She insisted he was good looking and had money. I was a college freshman and not a very mature one. I didn't even understand why she thought money factored into it. He was OLD! All I could think was that he wouldn't be into the same bands as I was , or get my sense of humor, etc. Basically, I just thought he'd be like my dad--a man I had nothing in common with. Anyway, one day at work she asks me again because, "He saw you and he's really interested." I asked he when he'd seen me. Turns out he was in the store lurking around so he could scope me out. That just made it so much worse. I was creeped out and found it so gross. Not long after, I met the guy I would marry. He's 4 months older than me. We're in our late 40s now and I still don't get what that 40 yr old man could have seen in 17 yr me. I can only think of one thing.

He would be an actual pedophile if the law allowed. Yeah, he is a creep.

That's definitely super creepy. Ewwww

As a dad to a 17 year old daughter, I find that creepy AF and if it were my daughter he was chasing, I’d have to run him off.

The friend talks like a neckbeard, acting like he's a perfect gentleman by not committing statutory rape. The Facebook stalking thing is creepy no matter what age she is, but she is still 17 so that makes it extra creepy. It's also telling that instead of doing online dating and waiting for whatever young woman wants to date him for some reason, he's hitting up his coworker who can't just block him, but has to see him at work. (It's even worse if this guy happens to be higher up and has any kind of workplace authority over her.) He also technically asked her out when she is still 17 and has a history of this behavior. I wouldn't be friends with him. Not all relationships with an age gap are bad, but this one definitely is.

My daughter is about to turn 18. I want to vomit thinking about one of her co-workers waiting for a few months to ask her out.

Someone should post on her FB, Beware of creepy older men & CO-WORKERS, they are PREDATORS! OP needs a different friend.

Genuinely curious to get everyone's opinion on this. I've heard that it's "not weird" to date someone who is half your age and then add 7 to it (obviously not going under 18). In this case, this guy could date someone as young as 24 and a half years old. Any younger is just weird. Does that seem like a more appropriate age gap? That aside, in this situation it just sounds like this guy is a total creep. "A true gentleman waits until they are 18." Yuck. Ew. Yikes.

I'd like to know if the guy knew she was under 18 when he asked for her number. If he did then yeah that's really creepy. If he assumed she was 18 it makes it *slightly* better. Still on the nose, but not call the cops creepy.

This IS creepy. OP, don't get tangled up in this mess. This could be all talk, anyway. Why can't this guy date someone his own age? And why isn't she doing the same. He has a problem if he only wants to date young girls.. And she is likely looking for a sugar daddy. So the creep waits until she's 18. What happens then? Besides the obvious. So after they're done with that, what would they talk about? What could they even have in common? This will fizzle out on its own. He's just looking for younger dumb girls, give them a line of BS, so he can feel better about himself. And she's probably just stringing him along for the fun of it, just flirting. Talk is cheep! If he doesn't have enough money to take her out every night and buy her expensive things, she'll get bored and drop him.. It wouldn't surprise me if she's just playing him along for the h*'ll of it.

Pervert.

A true gentleman would go to her parents and ask permission to court her after her 18th birthday... and see their response!

Wow. Way to be a predator while remaining just on the fence between legal and illegal. That’s disgusting behavior.

20 years difference isn't so strange to me for a date or a fine dinner, a movie and some cuddles, as long as the person is over 25. I enjoy fully developed adult's company.

Oh, Quagmire!

I am happy to see that no panda is approving OP´s friend.

I think with such a big age difference it's creepy af. If he was let's say 20 or 21 I'd say, yes, why not. Especially when they're both already working. They'd be in comparable life stages, that age gap is quite normal and if they met a little later no one would think twice about it. But even with a 23/25 year old the situation would be much different. At that age the physical development is done. They're not comparable anymore and the older person should already see the younger one as more of a sibling already, and a 35 year old guy should almost have fatherly feelings when he sees such a young girl.

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Nice to see all these concerned folks, that obviously think 18 year old girls are stupid? And then there's the commentor who confirms that she was stupid when the same happened to her. Wow, men really are responsible for all evil, no matter who does what, men are always the ones having to explain something to complete strangers, who's only certainty is that that 18 year old woman must be stupid. And yes, that's exactly what all of you are implying. Like she doesn't have a mind of her own, totally oblivious to the world. Not sure you're all the good guys here...