On last weekend’s episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before The 90 Days, even Ben knew that something was “off” with Mahogany.
Fans don’t necessarily blame her for taking him to an obviously fake apartment.
A man over twice her age flies to her country despite her objections and wants to meet?
After Ben tells Mahogany that he feels hurt that he’s her “friend,” she starts asking some tough questions about his past.
“Let’s talk about now,” Ben Rathbun tells Mahogany Roca during a serious conversation in this sneak peek for Season 5, Episode 12.
“What changed from when we were texting and getting so close?” he asks.
“Because when I found out that we were just friends, and we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend,” Ben says, “it really hurt.”
“I’m really sorry,” Mahogany tells Ben.
“But I didn’t know that you think …” she begins, before switching to Spanish to most clearly express herself.
“Because,” Mahogany explains, “you never said ‘let’s be a couple.'”
“So how did you skip that step?” Mahogany asks.
She comments: “It doesn’t make sense.”
Generally speaking, when one guy goes above and beyond to meet up with a woman he calls his “girlfriend” and she isn’t, that’s a huge red flag.
“So,” Ben says, “I was saying that we were gonna have a family, and that I was in love with you.”
He continues: “And that the next step is, maybe we get engaged.”
“And so I just assumed …” Ben admits. “I see that means something different for you.”
“Yeah!” Mahogany says.
“For me, that was practically just texting,” she says of their previous conversations.
She then speaks to the camera about how strange it is that Ben took this as a relationship status.
“For me,” Mahogany tells the camera, “it’s normal before you start a relationship to talk about things like marriage or family.”
This, she explains, is “to know if we’re on the same page.”
“But,” Mahogany notes, “Ben assumed we were already in a relationship.”
Mahogany then steers the subject to another concern on her mind.
“Answer me something, have you ever dated a twenty-something in your life?” she asks.
That is a fair question, both to see if he makes a habit of this and to try to understand why he struggles with communication.
“After my divorce, I dated someone who was 27 years old for three years,” Ben admits.
“And we were going to get married,” he detailed.
“But when it came down to it,” Ben said, “she did not accept my children.”
“It’s really strange because first, you told me that your first wife didn’t work because it was the religion’s fault,” Mahogany recalls.
“Now you tell me that you went out with a 27-year-old girl but she did not accept your children,” she says.
Pointing out the implication, Mahogany asks: “So Benjamin is perfect and does absolutely nothing?”
“I feel I don’t have to defend my past because it’s behind me now,” Ben simply tells her.
Um, that sounds pretty defensive, especially for a guy who is throwing up just as many red flags as she is, if not more.
Season 5, Episode 12 could see the tables once again turned on Ben. Fans probably have just as many questions for him as Mahogany does.