Maybe I missed it but the guy's age wasn't stated and the girl's was stated as 18. That's VERY young. Young enough to where those baristas recognized that she maybe wouldn't know how to shake this random older man who thought he was staging a meet cute while she was just trying to study. Like sure, 18 is ~legally~ an adult but that's only 6 months to a year out of high school, usually. That's a kid, dude. And let's be very real: that's probably why she was targeted.
I don't know why they default to to the extreme of "I guess we can't talk to anyone ever!!!" every time, not only is that extremely childish, petulant and purposefully exagerrated but it's also not true. There are appropriate places to meet new people irl. Those places are: social events, work, school, and church/temple/whatever. If someone is studying alone at a Starbucks, and are thus clearly NOT AT A PLACE WHERE THEY PLAN TO SOCIALIZE then they should be left alone out of respect for their personal space. It legit doesn't matter how cute or pretty you think she is. If she is doing something that is explicitly nonsocial, you owe it to her to leave her the fuck alone. Its just respect. Even though I know disrespecting women's personal space is often their goal.
Edit: oop sorry, I didn't know I was responding to something so many pages back lol this thread moves so fast!